which they imagined must have swung to the
right, and having lost its bearings and hearing them advancing through
the underbrush, had mistaken them for the enemy. They accordingly ceased
firing and began shouting in order to warn Capron that he was shooting at
his friends. This is the foundation for the statement that the Rough
Riders had fired on each other, which they did not do then or at any
other time. Later we examined the relative position of the trail which
Capron held, and the position of G Troop, and they were at right angles
to one another.

Capron could not possibly have fired into us at any time, unless he had
turned directly around in his tracks and aimed up the very trail he had
just descended. Advancing, he could no more have hit us than he could
have seen us out of the back of his head. When we found many hundred
spent cartridges of the Spaniards a hundred yards in front of G Troop's
position, the question as to who had fired on us was answered.

It was an exceedingly hot corner. The whole troop was gathered in the
little open place blocked by the network of grape-vines and tangled
bushes before it. They could not see twenty feet on three sides of them,
but on the right hand lay the valley, and across it came the sound of
Young's brigade, who were apparently heavily engaged. The enemy's fire
was so close that the men could not hear the word of command, and Captain
Llewellyn and Lieutenant Greenway, unable to get their attention, ran
among them, batting them with their sombreros to make them cease firing.
Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt ran up just then, bringing with him
Lieutenant Woodbury Kane and ten troopers from K Troop. Roosevelt lay
down in the grass beside Llewellyn and consulted with him eagerly. Kane
was smiling with the charming content of a perfectly happy man. When
Captain Llewellyn told him his men were not needed, and to rejoin his
troop, he led his detail over the edge of the hill on which we lay. As
he disappeared below the crest he did not stoop to avoid the bullets, but
walked erect, still smiling. Roosevelt pointed out that it was
impossible to advance farther on account of the network of wild
grape-vines that masked the Spaniards from us, and that we must cross the
trail and make to the left. The shouts the men had raised to warn Capron
had established our position to the enemy, and the firing was now
fearfully accurate. Sergeant Russell, who in his day had been a colone