wn number intrenched behind rifle-pits and bushes in a
mountain pass. In spite of the smokeless powder used by the Spaniards,
which hid their position, the Rough Riders routed them out of it, and
drove them back from three different barricades until they made their
last stand in the ruined distillery, whence they finally drove them by
assault. The eager spirit in which this was accomplished is best
described in the Spanish soldier's answer to the inquiring civilian,
"They tried to catch us with their hands." The Rough Riders should adopt
it as their motto.

II--THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN HILL

After the Guasimas fight on June 24, the army was advanced along the
single trail which leads from Siboney on the coast to Santiago. Two
streams of excellent water run parallel with this trail for short
distances, and some eight miles from the coast crossed it in two places.
Our outposts were stationed at the first of these fords, the Cuban
outposts a mile and a half farther on at the ford nearer Santiago, where
the stream made a sharp turn at a place called El Poso. Another mile and
a half of trail extended from El Poso to the trenches of San Juan. The
reader should remember El Poso, as it marked an important starting-point
against San Juan on the eventful first of July.

For six days the army was encamped on either side of the trail for three
miles back from the outposts. The regimental camps touched each other,
and all day long the pack-trains carrying the day's rations passed up and
down between them. The trail was a sunken wagon road, where it was
possible, in a few places, for two wagons to pass at one time, but the
greater distances were so narrow that there was but just room for a
wagon, or a loaded mule-train, to make its way. The banks of the trail
were three or four feet high, and when it rained it was converted into a
huge gutter, with sides of mud, and with a liquid mud a foot deep between
them. The camps were pitched along the trail as near the parallel stream
as possible, and in the occasional places where there was rich, high
grass. At night the men slept in dog tents, open at the front and back,
and during the day spent their time under the shade of trees along the
trail, or on the banks of the stream. Sentries were placed at every few
feet along these streams to guard them from any possible pollution. For
six days the army rested in this way, for as an army moves and acts only
on its belly, and a