ed on the bare ground. Time was too precious, and there were too
many men needing attention for a soldier to monopolise a stretcher until
the surgeon could reach him.

"There was no shelter. The men lay on the bare ground with the sun
streaming down on them, many of them suffering the greatest agony, and yet
very few giving utterance to a groan. Where I watched operations for a
time there was only one surgeon, who took every man in his turn, and
necessarily had to make many of them wait a long time.

"And yet these men were much more fortunate than many others, some of whom
lay on the battle-field for twenty-four hours before they were found.
There was no chloroform; very little of anything to numb pain. Painful
gunshot wounds were dressed hastily, almost roughly, until ambulances
could be sent out to take the men to the divisional hospitals in the rear.

"It is claimed that the hospital arrangements were inadequate, and that
many regiments went into action without a surgeon. From what I saw I think
the criticism to be justified. Naturally the wounded were taken care of
first,--the last duties to the dead could be performed later.

"It was ghastly as one moved over the battle-field to come across an
upturned face lying in a pool of blood, to see what was once a man, bent,
and twisted, and doubled. And still more horrible was it as the moonlight
fell over the field, and at unexpected places one ran against this fruit
of war and saw faces in the pallor of death made even more ghostlike by
the light, while the inevitable sea of crimson stood out in more startling
vividness by the contrast.

"We had won the battle, but our position was a somewhat precarious one.

"Our line was long and thin, and there was a danger of the Spaniards
breaking through and attacking us in the rear or left flank. To guard
against this possibility, Lawton's division at El Caney was ordered to
move on to El Pozo, and Kent's division was under orders to draw in its
left. The men who had fought at El Caney were hoping to be allowed to
sleep on the battle-field and obtain the rest which they so badly needed,
but after supper they were placed under arms and the march commenced.

"The Seventh U. S. Infantry led. It was a weird march. Immediately after
leaving El Caney we crossed an open field, a skirmish line was thrown out,
and the men were commanded to maintain absolute silence. We were in the
heart of the enemy's country, and caution was necessa