and the regular, deeper-toned volley-firing
of the Spaniards.

Over there the American losses were the greatest. Colonel Wood's men, with
an advance-guard well out in front, and two Cuban guides before them, but
apparently with no flankers, went squarely into the trap set for them by
the Spaniards, and only the unfaltering courage of the men in the face of
a fire that would even make a veteran quail, prevented what might easily
have been a disaster. As it was, Troop L, the advance-guard under the
unfortunate Captain Capron, was almost surrounded, and but for the
reinforcement hurriedly sent forward every man would probably have been
killed or wounded.

When the reserves came up there was no hesitation. Colonel Wood, with the
right wing, charged straight at a blockhouse eight hundred yards away, and
Colonel Roosevelt, on the left, charged at the same time. Up the men went,
yelling like fiends, and never stopping to return the fire of the
Spaniards, but keeping on with a grim determination to capture that
blockhouse.

That charge was the end. When within five hundred yards of the coveted
point, the Spaniards broke and ran, and for the first time the boys of '98
had the pleasure which the Spaniards had been experiencing all through the
engagement, of shooting with the enemy in sight.

The losses among the Rough Riders were reported as thirteen killed and
forty wounded; while the First Cavalry lost sixteen wounded. Edward
Marshall, a newspaper correspondent, was seriously wounded.

While the land-forces were fighting four miles northwest of Juragua,
Rear-Admiral Sampson learned that the Spaniards were endeavouring to
destroy the railroad leading from Juragua to Santiago de Cuba.

This road runs west along the seashore, under cover of the guns of the
American fleet, until within three miles of El Morro, and then cuts
through the mountains along the river into Santiago.

When the attempt of the Spaniards was discovered, the _New York_,
_Scorpion_, and _Wasp_ closed in and cleared the hill and brush of
Spaniards.

_June 26._ The American lines were advanced to within four miles of
Santiago, and the boys could look into the doomed city. It was possible to
make accurate note of the defences, and most likely officers as well as
men were astonished by the preparations which had been made.

There were blockhouses on every hill; from the harbour batteries, sweeping
in a semicircle to the eastward of the city, were rifl