The record-union., 1898-12-11

~ MZAI@N N Hby veteran Gen
V ES&T x.3Seral and field Off
IIfWls5GxsS IA 1cers, the Ninth,
| | H&1Y' l'HGZXZr 81 Thirteenth and
l&-yW N/<V&A Twenty fourth
pushed their way
along the trail blocked with halting
volunteers. First an aid, running at
full speed and swinging his hat, sig
nailed the column to hurry forward; /;
next a staff officer galloped up with
kents second message to Wikoff to
rush his command to the field. Eager
TO do something, even at the risk of
disobeying orders, part of one battalion
of the volunteers, and Rafferty,, with r
company Of another battalion, fell into
line, anywhere, anywhere, touching ell
bows with blacks and whites, SO long
as they could be 'in the SWIM" Indi-
vidual volunteers also broke loose from
the stationary ranks and elbowed to
the front among regulars One of these
independents was Austin Pardee, a boy
of II, son of a former officer of the
Thirteenth, who had cried to take his
fathers place and fight for the flag un-
til his widowed mother yielded.
Fording the creek and giving their
burning heads a cooling dip as they
passed, the men of the brigade lined up
on the bank, leaving Wikoff dead and
Worth lying in his blood, the last and
most shining sacrifices to- the Moloch of
''Hen's Crossing" In the broad field
on the left of Hawkins two regiments
Wikoff's column struck zone of pitt
less fire, and there the third commander
Of the brigade, gray haired Liscom of
fha Txxra, ,fxyf \ &C
officer Tayman of, the Twenty fourth
told me that his eyes were riveted on
the noble leader, whose form could be
seen cutting its way through the tall
grass with giant strides. Like a flash of
lightning he was seen; then disap-
peared.
In the van Of the column the Thir-
teenth Regiment, led by Colonel Worth
as far as 'sHell's Crossing" climbed up
the bank and went through the wire
fence, where gaps had already been
made Major Ellis was at its head, but
was soon shot down. There was an open
field stretching away up to the block
house. The regiment had lost heavily
at the crossing, particularly by Spanish
shrapnel, but moved resistlessly on un-
til calling volley fire compelled it to
seek shelter under a bank some hun
dred yards from the fort
The Ninth Regiment, on the left of
the Thirteenth, passed the ordeal at
the crossing with but little loss. In
climbing the bank it was struck by
heavy Mauser fire from the San Juan
nights and from the trees left, right and
in front. Pressing on in line with the
Thirteenth, the regiment halted at the
bank and delivered it's fire upon the
Spaniards in the trenches at the block
house.
When the Twenty fourth Regiment of
blacks appeared in view above the crest
of the river bank, the Spaniards ap-
parently turned all their fire upon them.
hoping, as they said afterward to de-
moralize them and precipitate panic
The blacks didn't scare, however.
Just how long these men halted at
the bank is uncertain, for there was no
cessation of fighting, and lapse of time
was not noted. 1t was Krag-Jorgen-
sen against Mauser in the attempt to
subdue the Spanish fire for a charge.
This stage of the infantry fight was
about coincidental with the capture Of
Kettle" Hill by the cavalry which has
probably between 1870 and 1 o'clock.
Meanwhile Grimes battery, no longer
hampered by the balloon, was vigor-
ously shelling the blockhouse and
trenches, as was also Parkhurst's bat
terry, Second Artillery, which had taken
position to the left and front of Crimes,
near Ell Poso. The success of the cav
airy in clearing Kettle Hill. really
an advanced position of the Spanish
line, had allowed the Hotchkiss guns
and Pafker's Gatlings to cross San Juan
River at the ford of the main road and
get at the ground on the southern slope
OF the hill. Parkers advent upon the
scene marked a crisis in the attack. He
had three guns with him and opened
them all upon the blockhouse which
Captain Boughton of the Third Cavalry
pointed out to him. Grimes and Park
hurst, be it remembered, were pouring
in their shells, but the Spanish fire did
not abate.
Starting with a low rate of speed
Parker gradually turned his guns UP to
their highest capacity, and in the space
of ten minutes, the muzzles of: the guns
sweeping gradually along the Spanish
trenches, sifted 10000 bullets into the
crowded works. Before the enemy real
lied what the horrid hail meant the
ominous sound of the machine guns had
already terrified them, and they began
to leave their pits, preferring possible
death outside to certain slaughter With
in. Then silence fell upon the block
house. upon its loophoed chambers,
upon its batteries, upon its trenches fill
ed with men.
But all this time neither the cavalry
nor the infantry had stood idle waiting
for the artillery to do their work. The
cavalrymen, who had not been ordered
by Sumner to remain on Kettle Hill,
formed lines of troops and battalions
and plunged down the slope, across the
valley and UP the farthest slope toward
the Spanish second position. When this
movement began San Juan blockhouse
was still belching fire. and part of the
Third Cavalry. together with the Sixth,
under Major Lebo, struck out in d dj-
agonal line for the stubborn fortress.
Hawkins men, nearest the cavalry at
that time and separated from Wikoff's
regiments by shrubbery and trees and
the elevations of ground between, start
ed forward, the Sixteenth apparently
leading and DETECTING somewhat to the
left. At the very head of the Sixteenth
Regiment ran that stalwart. negro.
whose pwerful machete had cut through
the half dozen strands of barbed wire