La Junta tribune. (La Junta, Bent County, Colo.) 1881-1939, 1898-08-13

L and B being further back and In the
rear of l.. Capt. Capron was shot
early in the fight, and the firing had
not gone on long before Hamilton Fish
fell mortally wounded. He had been in
the front rank pressing on and firing
as fast as he could load. Every one
who witnessed his behavior under
CALLING fire speaks OF it with enthu-
siasm. Fish died the death Of brave
soldier.
1t can be said of the Rough Riders
that almost to a man they faced with
the coolness OF veterans the ordeal OF
fire, which was the more trying be-
cause the foe. attacking from cover,
could not be seen. Five times during
the engagement the order was given to
stop firing, and it was obeyed instantly.
There could be no better evidence thAt
the men kept their heads, and army
officers speak of the circumstance as an
unusual one. One man, however. seems
to have lost his head. He rode back to
Siboney when the fighting was fiercest
with story that the Rough Riders
were being cut to pieces and were
falling back Nothing could have been
further from the truth. Ten men killed
and perhaps three times that number
wounded was not heavy loss in a
command OF 500 men. and, far from be-
ing driven back. the Rough Riders I'm
ished their part in the battle with a
charge up the hill on the left with a
rush that filed the Spantards with
panic.
Troops D. r and Z were concerned In
this final movement, and Lieut.-Co
Roosevelt led them in person. Maj.
Brodie having been wounded and taken
to the rear. On the top of the slope
was block house from which the
Spaniards were firing with apparently
little risk to themselves. The boys
yelled like Comanches as they pressed
up the hill on the run, and COL Roose-
welt, forgetting in his ardor that he
was in command, snatched up krag-
Jorgensen and pumped shot after shot
into the block house.
me Spanish fire was steady enough
but in its sweep the charge OF the three
troops was cyclonic. and the Spaniards
burst from the block house and took
to their heels in the brush. Seventeen
bodies We're counted in and around the
house. Meanwhile the other troops.
the Tenth cavalry and the First, the
last OF which was not heavily engaged
finished the rout of the Spaniards on
the right and in front. The battle
seems to have been deliberately plan
ed, for they took their wounded away
in wagons. and there was long line
of them. The Spanish loss in killed
was then known to be at least fifty
Some fruit pickers who came out from
Santiago the following day reported
that the Spaniards returned with the
story that they had been fighting the
whole American army, and they COM
planned that the more they fired on
Americans the faster they came on.
The Spaniards were plainly heart
broken and dismayed by the result OF
the battle. So sure were they of vic
tory that they brought some of their
women with them to witness the de-
feat of the Americans. The fact Is
the unfaltering advance of our men
after volleys had been poured into
them from the front and fanks was IN
unpleasant surprise for the Spaniards
who had always seen the Cubans ..e-
treat after one raking volley. BY Span
ish rules of war the Americans were
whipped early in the fight, and so bad
ly whipped that their invincible volley-
ing and rushing were like the resur-
rection of dead man.
About 1900 Americans were engaged;
the Spanish force was not less than
$500, and some estimates have made
1t 4,0G9. It's position should have been
impregnable, even If it had been out
numbered