after a sharp contest and
severe loss on both sides. Here as everywhere there were blockhouses
and trenches to be carried in the face of a hot fire from Mauser
rifles, and the rifles were well served. The jungle must disturb the
aim seriously, for our men did not suffer severely while under its
cover, but in crossing clearings the rapid fire of the repeating
rifles told with deadly effect. The object of the attack on El Caney
was to crush the Spanish lines at a point near the city and allow us
to gain a high hill from which the place could be bombarded if
necessary. In all of this we were entirely successful. The engagement
began at 6.40 A.M., and by 4 o'clock the Spaniards were forced to
abandon the place and retreat toward their lines nearer the city. The
fight was opened by Capron's battery, at a range of 2,400 yards, and
the troops engaged were Chaffee's brigade, the Seventh, Twelfth, and
Seventeenth Infantry, who moved on Caney from the east; Colonel
Miles' brigade of the First, Fourth, and Twenty-fifth Infantry,
operating from the south; while Ludlow's brigade, containing the
Eighth and Twenty-second Infantry and Second Massachusetts, made a
detour to attack from the southwest. The Spanish force is thought to
have been 1,500 to 2,000 strong. It certainly fought our men for nine
hours, but of course had the advantage of a fort and strong
intrenchments.

"The operations of our centre were calculated to cut the
communications of Santiago with El Morro and permit our forces to
advance to the bay, and the principal effort of General Linares, the
Spanish commander in the field, seems to have been to defeat this
movement. He had fortified San Juan strongly, throwing up on it
intrenchments that in the hands of a more determined force would have
been impregnable.

"The battle of San Juan was opened by Grimes' battery, to which the
enemy replied with shrapnell. The cavalry, dismounted, supported by
Hawkins' brigade, advanced up the valley from the hill of El Pozo,
forded several streams, where they lost heavily, and deployed at the
foot of the series of hills known as San Juan under a sharp fire from
all sides, which was exceedingly annoying because the enemy could not
be discerned, owing to the long range and smokeless powder. They were
under fire for two hours before the charge could be made and a
position rea