the highest, for this victory is bestowed upon General Wilson and his
four thousand soldiers. Even the writer of this, when he cabled an
account of the event to his paper, gave, with every one else, the entire
credit to General Wilson. And ever since his conscience has upbraided
him. His only claim for tolerance as a war correspondent has been that
he always has stuck to the facts, and now he feels that in the sacred
cause of history his friendship and admiration for General Wilson, that
veteran of the Civil, Philippine, and Chinese Wars, must no longer stand
in the way of his duty as an accurate reporter. He no longer can tell a
lie. He must at last own up that he himself captured Coamo.

[Picture: Officers watching the artillery play on Coamo. Drawn by F. C.
Yohn from a photograph by the Author]

On the morning of the 9th of August, 1898, the Sixteenth Pennsylvania
Volunteers arrived on the outskirts of that town. In order to get there
they had spent the night in crawling over mountain trails and scrambling
through streams and ravines. It was General Wilson's plan that by this
flanking night march the Sixteenth Pennsylvania would reach the road
leading from Coamo to San Juan in time to cut off the retreat of the
Spanish garrison, when General Wilson, with the main body, attacked it
from the opposite side.

At seven o'clock in the morning General Wilson began the frontal attack
by turning loose the artillery on a block-house, which threatened his
approach, and by advancing the Wisconsin Volunteers. The cavalry he sent
to the right to capture Los Banos. At eight o'clock, from where the main
body rested, two miles from Coamo, we could hear the Sixteenth
Pennsylvania open its attack and instantly become hotly engaged. The
enemy returned the fire fiercely, and the firing from both sides at once
became so severe that it was evident the Pennsylvania Volunteers either
would take the town without the main body, or that they would greatly
need its assistance. The artillery was accordingly advanced one thousand
yards and the infantry was hurried forward. The Second Wisconsin
approached Coamo along the main road from Ponce, the Third Wisconsin
through fields of grass to the right of the road, until the two regiments
met at the ford by which the Banos road crosses the Coamo River. But
before they met, from a position near the artillery, I had watched
through my glasses the Second Wisconsin with