The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-07-23


! tenth Infantry, but left them again;
they passed on. up the hill-not directly
at the blockhouse. but in a f1anking direc-
ton. which gave them an easier ascent,
and then turned at right angles to face
the blockhouse. All the way up Capt.
Kennon led and encouraged his men!; but
not one of them anywhere showed any dis
position to waver.
When the turn was made, Capt. Ken
non found his men alone on the hill; ne
had supposed that the whole regiment
was coming up. He hesitated a moment
wondering if he must retrace his steps
For one company, already reduced to
more than one-half by the scattering in
the woods and the falling of men before
the Spanish fire, II take the fertilization
alone would be impossible. The captain
sent his junior officer down the hill with
this message: The hill is ours if you'll
come up; for Gods sake comet" Mena-
while he saw other men ascending and
pressed on. At the same time the Cat
ling battery, under Capt. Parker of the
Thirteenth Infantry, poured a CALLING fire
from below straight across the edge Of
the Spanish trenches into the defenders
faces. Kennon saw the Spanish leaving
their blockhouse and getting into the
trenches. which was sign of panic. On
he went with his men. And now ne saw
the Spanish, who by this time were men
aced with the advance of other companies
up the hill, abandoning the trenches ard
flying down the back side of the hill
toward Santiago. In another moment he
and his men. now reduced to about twenty
were leaping over the trenches. which
they found full of dead and wounded.
Very soon other troops came up, all IN
confusion, in the same way that Kennon's
men mad come. Capt. Byrne of the Sixth
was the first to arrive after Kennon;
and he also had a mixed lot of brave men.
Capt. Byrne's experience had been in its
detail unlike Kennon's, and yet in its
main features like it. Capt. Byrne did
some desperate fighting, and his com
pany suffered severely at the barbed-wire
fences in the meadow. There had been
a fearful halt there, In which the COM
pany's men had been moved down. Byrne
saw a big Cuban with a gun and a ma
chete fighting fercely a little way off,
and called to him in Spanish to cut the
wires with his machete. The man obeyed,
slashing the wires apart, and the men
rushed through and onward. They went
up the very steepest part of the hill; it
was so step that Capt. lByrne had to drag
himself up at places by catching at roots
and bushes. But in this steepest part of
the climb neither he or Kennon lost any
men. for the Spanish had placed their
entertainments too far up on the hin. so
bo+ elao he ar;
cans heads.
At the top of the hill Byrne and Ken
non shook hands, and Byrne, as the rank
ing captain, took command. They found
that they had not been the first officers of
their regiment on the hill. Lieut.. Jules
G.. Ord, who had been doing staff duty,
but who, like many another staff officer
here, had sought duty at the firing line,
had already led up squad Of men whom
he had picked up somewhere-some of
the Sixth, some of the Sixteenth. others
of the Twenty-fourth. and still others OF
other regiments. He had taken them up
heroically, but had not reached the block
house, because he had fallen dead, with
a Spanish revolver ball through his head,
fired by a wounded man.
Nearly all the way up Capt. Byrne had
been accompanied by an officer who was
unknown to him. The officer hab been Of
great assistance to him, and fought like
a hero. At the top of the hill he disap-
peared, and Capt Byrne had no idea of
where he came from or what become of
him. Doubtless ne belonged to some other
regiment, from which he had been sep
arat and he took this chance to do a
brilliant service, without the nope of
attaining distinction.
Very soon after Capt. Kennon and Capt
Byrne took the blockhouse Gen. Hawkins
arrived. and with him cam tn othr troops,
including fighing baalion OF h Seventy
First New York. The fighting. including
the skirmishing in the woods. had gone on
from nine or ten in the morning until the
middle of the afternoon. The Spanish re-
sistance was determined, but scarcely so
brave as that at Caney the same day. II
the hill had been more skilfully fortified
Il, for instance. the entertainments had
been placed on the military rather than
the typographical crest of the hill and
on the meadow and the hill. and the Span
ish had had the support of a Calling bat
tery-the story of the day must have been
QlItTeNN- As II NdS. the losses OF the
Americans were deplorable.
The American troops are now encsmped
or bestrewn. since the word "encamped'
conveys an impression OF their situation
which is altogether TOO faJering for the
cirCumstances-over the side Of thehill
which they took with such valor. The hill
itself IS too steep, except in a few places,
for the pitching Of even the little shelter
tents which are all that either OF the off,
GERS or men Of the regiments have with
them. and the meadow a. the foot OF
It IS exposed 70 the dropping FIRE OF shot
and shell of the Spanish artillery. Some
OF the rgiements have dug for them
selves little terraces or shelves IN the
side Of the hill. which sometimes look
very much Ike bitches and other times
Ike graves. The heavy rain, which falls
every afternoon. turns these bitches into
sheets Of sticky. cIayey mud, and as there
Is not sun enough. after the rain. 70 dry
the ground Is is II this mud tina. many OF
the men and officers must lie ali night
This morning saw officers crawling out
of them who had slept there over night
on rubber blankets
OfScers and men are dauoed with mud
which there is TO chance 10 wash OF.
Bathing OF washing OF clothes II the
stream about half a mile away IS forbid
den. because L must be kept u1contaun-
mated. i possible. 20 supply the thousands
% men her with water 20 drink. TIE
clothes Of officers and men are torn by
,horns and their SHOES worn our b. march
ing over rocky roads AL wear campaign
hats CT the same pattern. and these hats
are often SHABBY and battered almost in;o
sfreds- Many officers have. no blouSes