Battle of Las Guasimas The Battle of Las Guasimas of June 24 , 1898 , part of the Spanish - American War , unfolded from Major General " Fighting Joe " Wheeler ' s attempt to storm a Spanish position in the jungles surrounding Santiago . Commanding a division that included the 1st U . S . Volunteer Cavalry and the 10th Regular Cavalry , Wheeler engaged a rearguard under Major General Antero Rubín . In the ensuing skirmish the Spanish infantry held its ground , skewering the advancing American regiments with rifle volleys ; however , after an exchange of fire lasting two hours , Rubín , rather than press his advantage , pulled his men from the trenches and resumed his ongoing retreat in the direction of Santiago . The yellow press seized upon this to describe the battle as a rout ; in reality , Wheeler had been much closer to defeat . Background . On June 23 , the Spanish garrisons of Sigua , Siboney and Daiquirí , retiring before American landings in their vicinity , clashed with a Cuban advance guard column of 250 men under Colonel Carlos González Clavel near Sevilla , east of Santiago de Cuba . Having lost three dead and 10 wounded in the skirmish and inflicted roughly the same casualties , the Spaniards retired to a lightly entrenched position at Las Guasimas de Sevilla , on the road to Santiago ( 4 miles northwest of Siboney beach ) . Brigadier - General Lawton , commander of the 2nd Infantry Division of the U . S . Volunteers V Corps , had been appointed chief of the landing operation by Major General William Rufus Shafter , Commander - in - Chief of American forces in Cuba . American reports suggested the Spaniards were digging in with a field gun ; however , Cuban scouts contradicted these , revealing the Spaniards were preparing to abandon their position . On the morning of the 24th , Major General Joseph Wheeler , under orders to stand his ground until the completion of the disembarkation , defied orders and spurred his dismounted cavalry division into action . General Wheeler asked Cuban Colonel González Clavel for the cooperation of his forces in the improvised assault , but the disciplined Cuban officer , lacking orders from Lawton , refused Wheeler ' s request . Nevertheless , with the information offered by the Cubans about the Spanish dispositions , Wheeler rushed his men forward with 2 guns to the front , General Young ' s brigade leading the advance against Spanish positions . Knowing neither the ground nor the Spanish deployment , the American forces could have been ambushed and decimated , but Cuban scouts moved before American columns , leading them to the enemy ' s deployment without incident . Battle . Brigadier General Antero Rubín commanded nearly 1 , 500 men and 2 guns , distributed as follows : These forces were deployed in three echelons : 3 companies of " Puerto Rico " and 1 company of " movilizados " covering the crossroads of the Siboney trails , with 2 other companies ( " San Fernando " ) guarding the surrounding heights ; 3 companies ( " San Fernando " ) , the engineers , and the artillery holding the Asiento de Sevilla ; and 5 companies of " Talavera " and 1 company of " movilizados " at La Redonda under Colonel Bory , covering the trails to Justicí and El Pozo . The American side included the 1st U . S . Volunteer Cavalry , or " Rough Riders " , under Leonard Wood , the 1st U . S . Regular Cavalry , and the 10th U . S . Regular Cavalry ( this consisted of Afro - American soldiers , then called Buffalo soldiers ) . Supported by artillery , the American forces numbered in all more than 1 , 200 men . The first sign the Americans had of the enemy ' s proximity was a Cuban independence soldier laid down dead by the road . The engagement began with shots by U . S . artillery . Spanish infantry returned fire , nailing the advancing American units to the ground with rifle volleys . The Spaniards were armed with superior 7mm 1893 model Mauser repetition rifles that fired round after round of smokeless or " dry " gunpowder , making them exceedingly difficult to target in return . 1st & 10th Cavalry attack Las Guasimas on the right road . Wheeler ' s forces moved to encircle the Spaniards ' first echelon , assaulting its front and right flank . Brigade commander , SMB Young , personally supervised the positioning of a battery of one pounder Hotchkiss field guns 900 yards from the Spanish main position on a dominant ridge pointing Southwest . Wanting to be absolutely sure that the troops on the hill were not Spanish , he fired several rounds at the hill . Immediately , two 75mm Spanish Krupp - designed mountain gun s returned fire . Satisfied that he was up against the Spanish . Writing in his serialized set of articles ( and later book ) , " The Rough Riders , " Theodore Roosevelt described the opening phase of the battle that started on the right road and involved the 1st and 10th Regular Cavalry in Chapter III " General Young ' s Fight . " as follows : The denseness of the jungle and the fact that they used absolutely smokeless powder , made it exceedingly difficult to place exactly where they were , and almost immediately Young , who always liked to get as close as possible to his enemy , began to push his troops forward . They were deployed on both sides of the road in such thick jungle that it was only here and there that they could possibly see ahead , and some confusion , of course , ensued , the support gradually getting mixed with the advance . Captain Beck took A Troop of the Tenth in on the left , next to Captain Galbraith ' s ( K ) troop of the First ; two other troops of the Tenth were on the extreme right . Through the jungle ran wire fences here and there , and as the troops got to the ridge they encountered precipitous heights . They were led most gallantly , as American regular officers always lead their men ; and the men followed their leaders with the splendid courage always shown by the American regular soldier . There was not a single straggler among them , and in not one instance was an attempt made by any trooper to fall out in order to assist the wounded or carry back the dead , while so cool were they and so perfect their fire discipline , that in the entire engagement the expenditure of ammunition was not over ten rounds per man . Major Bell , who commanded the squadron , had his leg broken by a shot as he was leading his men . Captain Wainwright succeeded to the command of the squadron . Captain Knox was shot in the abdomen . He continued for some time giving orders to his troops , and refused to allow a man in the firing - line to assist him to the rear . His First Lieutenant , Byram , was himself shot , but continued to lead his men until the wound and the heat overcame him and he fell in a faint . The advance was pushed forward under General Young ' s eye with the utmost energy , until the enemy ' s voices could be heard in the entrenchments . The Spaniards kept up a very heavy firing , but the regulars would not be denied , and as they climbed the ridges ( on the right side of the Camino Real road going into the village of Las Guasimas from the southeast ) the Spaniards broke and fled . " Spanish claims that they had twice repulsed the American attack were not born by any battlefield reports of Troop commanders that day . 1st Volunteer " Rough Riders " attack Las Guasimas on the left trail . On the left trail , at approximately 7 : 20am , the four man point patrol 250 yds ahead of L Troop commanded by Captain Alyn Capron came across the dead Spanish soldier killed by a Cuban attack the previous day and which the Cubans had told Wheeler would indicate the proximity of Spanish lines running left and right across the road . When informed of this by Capron , Leonard Wood , who was about 500 yards back on the bridle path and commanding the Rough Riders ordered " Silence in the Ranks " and immediately deployed several troops to the left under Major Brodie and several troops to the right under LtCol Roosevelt . It was while this deployment was occurring that the point main shot a Spaniard and triggered and immediate return fire by volleys on the part of the Spaniards . Rough Riders on both left and right sides of the trail moved forward and eventually forced the Spaniards back to their second line of trenches . Continuing to advance , the Rough Riders eventually forced the Spanish to withdraw completely from their final positions . Rough Riders from A Troop on the far right linked up with their regular counterparts and helped them seize the Spanish positions on the long finger - like hill to the right of the right road , with both Rough Riders and Regulars meeting at the base of the finger - like hill . By this time it was approximately 9 : 30 . Reinforcements from the regular 9th Cavalry arrived , but it was already 30 minutes after the fight . After halting the American advance , the Spanish inexplicably resumed their ongoing withdrawal towards Santiago ' s outer defenses instead of profiting from the sharp reverse inflicted on the Americans , allowing " American observers [ to ] unanimously but incorrectly assume their attack had forced the enemy to retreat . " Casualties were as follows : U . S . forces lost 17 dead and 52 wounded ; Spanish forces suffered 7 dead and 7 wounded , as reported by general Rubin , although these figures are sometimes revised upward . ( The discrepancy occurs because the Spaniards at Las Guásimas escorted a convoy carrying wounded troopers , as can be read in the order of retreat sent to General Rubin by Lt . General Arsenio Linares on the afternoon of the 24th . ) Aftermath . Both sides emerged satisfied with their perceived " little victory . " Rubín had conducted a successful rearguard operation while guaranteeing the safety of his forces , moving away from the menacing , large - caliber guns of the U . S . Navy along the coast and connecting with the Spanish defenders of Santiago . After satisfactorily drawing " first blood " at Las Guasimas , though much of it from his own men , Wheeler concentrated the U . S . Volunteer V Corp with General Calixto García ' s 5 , 000 Cubans and invested Santiago ' s first lines of defense . American morale and confidence soared . The position at Sevilla , briefly occupied by American forces , turned out to be of little value for the aimed advance towards Santiago . General Shafter considered installing his headquarters at La Redonda once the landing was completed , moving it afterwards to El Pozo . The Spanish retreat did unbar the way to the strong points that covered Santiago on the east side , mainly Fort Aguadores , San Juan Hill , Canosa , El Caney , and Fort El Viso , where a set of bloody battles would be waged on July 1 . Many of the Spanish officers and soldiers that fought at Las Guasimas de Sevilla were to be in the fight again at the bloody encounter of San Juan Hill . Although Colonel Gonzalez Clavel was criticized by some U . S . officers for not taking part in the attack , he had in fact acted in accordance with military protocol and his directives from General Lawton , the supreme authority during the landing , the Headquarters ' orders being not to advance until the landing was completed . Gonzalez Clavel ' s actions were warmly approved by General Lawton and General Calixto Garcia . Moreover , historical scrutiny of the operation has suggested the Americans erred badly in pursuing a frontal attack against a Spanish position which might have been turned or enveloped with much less difficulty ; had the Spaniards elected to hold their ground , Wheeler may have sustained a very severe defeat . An officer with the Rough Riders reflected : " It is a good thing we are not at war with England or Germany or France , for we should not last a week . " The Spanish deployment around Santiago has likewise been sternly criticized . Observers faulted Linares for failing to challenge the American disembarkation at Siboney altogether and Rubín for yielding the ridges at Las Guasimas — despite orders to this effect — to an American column that had failed to eject him . One historian suggested the Spaniards could not oppose the American advance without exposing themselves to a potentially devastating bombardment from long - range naval guns . The inefficacy of American naval gunfire against shore - based positions throughout the war may cast doubt on this assertion . In fiction . This engagement was featured in the movie " Rough Riders " starring Tom Berenger as Theodore Roosevelt . The film depicts it as an American success , albeit a costly one . Inaccuracies . There are several inaccuracies in the movie . The Colt Rapid Firing guns seen in the movie ' s depiction of the battle were never used in the actual fight as the mules that hauled the disassembled weapons , bolted with the first Spanish fire dumping the guns on the ground and temporarily jamming their firing mechanisms beyond easy field repair . Lieutenant Pershing was not in command of the regular cavalry troops . In the final assault , the commander of the two regular and volunteer regimemts were no where near each other . The Rough Riders were on the left flank and the regulars were on the right - exactly the opposite to the movie . Roosevelt was not at the far right end of the Rough Riders line , near the regulars . Instead , he was on the far left end of the Rough Riders , having been ordered to take over the wounded Major Alexander Brodie ' s squadron of troops D , E and F . Trooper Harry Hefner was not found dying at the old dystellery house . He was left , wounded , propted up and continuing to fire . He was found dead after the battle . The man shot along with Hamilton Fish was Trooper Ed Culver . He was not the porter to the officers . Accuracies . The Spanish Mauser rifles were authentic . The map seen at the final assault is an enlargement of a map drawn by Harpers Monthly War correspondent , Caspar Whitney .