nded Rough Riders coming over the hill at Siboney. Head of
column of Second Infantry going to support the Rough Riders, June 24th]

Nothing so well illustrated how desperately each man was needed, and how
little was his desire to withdraw, as the fact that the wounded lay where
they fell until the hospital stewards found them. Their comrades did not
use them as an excuse to go to leave the firing-line. I have watched
other fights, where the men engaged were quite willing to unselfishly
bear the wounded from the zone of danger.

The fight had now lasted an hour, and the line had reached a more open
country, with a slight incline upward toward a wood, on the edge of which
was a ruined house. This house was a former distillery for
_aguardiente_, and was now occupied in force by the enemy.
Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt on the far left was moving up his men with
the intention of taking this house on the flank; Wood, who was all over
the line, had the same objective point in his mind. The troop commanders
had a general idea that the distillery was the key to the enemy's
position, and were all working in that direction. It was extremely
difficult for Wood and Roosevelt to communicate with the captains, and
after the first general orders had been given them they relied upon the
latter's intelligence to pull them through. I do not suppose Wood, out
of the five hundred engaged, saw more than thirty of his men at any one
time. When he had passed one troop, except for the noise of its volley
firing, it was immediately lost to him in the brush, and it was so with
the next. Still, so excellent was the intelligence of the officers, and
so ready the spirit of the men, that they kept an almost perfect
alignment, as was shown when the final order came to charge in the open
fields. The advance upon the ruined building was made in stubborn, short
rushes, sometimes in silence, and sometimes firing as we ran. The order
to fire at will was seldom given, the men waiting patiently for the
officers' signal, and then answering in volleys. Some of the men who
were twice Day's age begged him to let them take the enemy's impromptu
fort on the run, but he answered them tolerantly like spoiled children,
and held them down until there was a lull in the enemy's fire, when he
would lead them forward, always taking the advance himself. By the way
they made these rushes, it was easy to tell which men were used to
hunting big game in the West a