been organized at once upon starting, and this guard moved along the
road about two hundred and fifty yards in advance of the detachment,
scouting every path vigilantly to the right and left, and keeping a
constant, careful lookout to the front. Their orders were, in case of
encountering the enemy, to scatter in the underbrush, open fire with
magazines, so as to produce the impression upon the enemy that there
was a large force, and then slowly fall back upon the battery. The
plan was, upon the first alarm, to bring the two leading guns into
battery upon the road, with the fourth gun ready to be opened to
either flank, while the gun crew of the third gun, which formed the
advance guard, were to act as infantry support to the battery. It was
hoped that the enemy would follow the advance guard as it retreated,
and it was believed that the Gatling gun battery could take care of
two or three regiments of Spaniards without help if necessary.

This form for the march had been adopted as the result of mature
reflection. The general had offered a cavalry escort of two troops,
and Gen. Sumner had rather urged the use of an escort, but it was
desired to demonstrate that a battery of machine guns, properly manned
and equipped, is capable of independent action, and does not need the
assistance of either arm of the service. In fact, the Gatling gun men
would have been rather pleased than not to have had a brush with the
enemy without the assistance of either infantry or cavalry. But it was
not to be.

The march was continued until darkness fell over the landscape, and
the battery arrived at a beautiful camping-place about one mile east
of Siboney, where a break in the water-pipe near the railroad track
gave an ample supply of excellent water, and a ruined plantation, now
overgrown with luxuriant sugar-cane, provided ample forage for the