Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1898-12-14

| heights as originally intended. Some such order was sent. The story goes on to say that Lawton told the aid he must fetch it in writing; that he went to army headquarters, got it in writing and returned with it to Lawton- At that hour Chaffee's men were charging forward, and Lawton pointed to them, | saying to the aid, Its too late" !" The aid insisted. saying. But I must de- liver it." "All right" said LAwton. You will have to deliver it on the firing line" As that was impossible, the charge went through.
 General Chaffee, when pressed for his views about Lawton in the Fl Caney business, simply said, "Lawton is a | lion."
 Lawton started from Fl Caney for the position on the Fl Clancy road heights about dark on the evening of July 1. At that hour the divisions O; Wheeler and Kent were busily digging trenches on the captured crest of San Juan ridge. The story of Lawton's fur ther adventures in getting into the posi- ton assigned him will be taken up after a description of the battle of Wheeler and Kent on the American left. The whole illustrates the adage, universally applicable in war, about the best laid plans going "aft sgley." In point of fact, Fl Clancy fell about a day behind time, and that threw the battle of the San Juan ridge day ahead of time as planned.
 As the oa Alry division was the next in order after LawtOn, from right to left, when the army faced Santiago, and was the first to score a success on the San Juan heights, its story should next be told.
 In the march down from Fl Poso to the crossing of the San Juan, the brigade of General Sumner, then commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Carroll of the Sixth cavalry, had the lead At that time Sumner was in temporary command of the division. The strength of Carroll's brigade that day in the fighting line was about 900. The Ninth cavalry, colored, under Lieutenant Colo ! nel J. M. Hamilton, on the right of the brigade, had but one squadron in the | fight. It was commanded by Major A. D. Dimmick. The Third cavalry was led by Major H. W. Vessels, son of Major General Vessels, distinguished in the civil war. The First squadron was commanded by Major Henry Jack son and the Second by Charles Morton. The Sixth cavalry, Summers own regi- ment, was jed by Major T. c. Lebo. With the exception of Vessels, all squadron and regimental officers, like the division and brigade leaders, were war tried veterans. Hamilton had served in the Thirty-third New York, Dimmick in the Fifth New York cav airy, Jackson in the regular cavalry and Morton in the Twenty fifth Missouri as a boy, afterward polishing of at West Point. Lebo served through the war in | the First Pennsylvania cavalry. All these officers are born soldiers, not car pet knights.
 The brigade lost many men while lying along the road before the advance began, Grimes battery having opened on the Spanish works about 7:50 in the morning, drawing fire of she'll and shrspnel, some of which fell short of the target on Fl Poso hill and dropped among the troops lining the road to the front. At the very beginning there was delay at the crossings of the creeks and river. The cavalry was on the right of the road, and the men say that they crossed the Aguadores several times, and that, including the San Juan, they wad- ed streams six times before they were lined up in the charge. In some places the San Juan was up to the waist and at other points the water was so deep and the current SO strong that some of the men had to be assisted to save | drowning.
 The Third cavalry, which was on the right of Rents infantry, lost heavily in what is sometimes called "The Bloody Angle" between the Guama and the San Juan, north of the junction of these streams This place will also go down in the memory of Santiago survivors as "Hell's Crossing. The first man I met at Camp Montauk in the Third cavalry, Captain c. A. Dodd of Troop F, made famous by the Cos sack drill, carries a long scar down his forehead, which was given him at the angle by piece of shrapnel A Spanish shot fired at Grimes battery knocked over three men of Troop I of this regi- ment. When the brigade came to cross ing the stream, it was halted, and the regiments took position according to the lay of the ground. The men unship- ped their packs and left them in the bed of the river The bank in front of- fered a cover from the Spanish fire, and beyond that was a dense undergrowth-