of the road and lay down in the bushes. For a short time no orders
came, and feeling a misapprehension of the issue, I hastened forward
to consult with the first lieutenant of the company. We found that
through a misinterpreted order the captain of the troop and eight
men had gone forward. Hastening back to my post I consulted with the
captain in the rear of Troop G, and the quartermaster appeared upon
the scene asking the whereabouts of the Tenth Cavalry. They made known
their presence, and the quartermaster told them to go on, showing the
path, the quartermaster led them forward until the bend in the
San Juan River was reached. Here the first bloodshed in the Tenth
occurred, a young-volunteer named Baldwin fell, pierced by a Spanish
ball."

An aide hastened up and gave the colonel of the regiment orders to
move forward. The summit of the hill was crowned by two block-houses,
and from these came an unceasing fire. Lieutenant Roberts said he had
been lying on the ground but rose to his knees to repeat an order,
"Move forward," when a mauser ball struck him in the abdomen and
passed entirely through his body. Being wounded, he was carried off of
the field, but after all was over, Lieutenant Roberts says it was said
(on the quiet, of course) that "the heroic charge of the Tenth Cavalry
saved the 'Rough Riders' from destruction." Lieutenant Roberts says
he left Cuba on the 12th of July for Fort Monroe, and that a wounded
Rough Rider told him while coming over that "had it not been for the
Tenth Cavalry the Rough Riders would never passed through the seething
cauldron of Spanish missiles." Such is the statement of one of
Springfield's best citizens, a member of the Tenth Cavalry, United
States regulars.

[Illustration: FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE CUBAN REPUBLIC.]