can soldiers captured the same rifle-pits at El Caney and San Juan,
with a loss of two thousand men, they watched these men diligently
preparing for their coming, and wondered why there was no order to
embarrass or to end these preparations.

On the afternoon of June 30, Captain Mills rode up to the tent of Colonel
Wood, and told him that on account of illness, General Wheeler and
General Young had relinquished their commands, and that General Sumner
would take charge of the Cavalry Division; that he, Colonel Wood, would
take command of General Young's brigade, and Colonel Carroll, of General
Sumner's brigade.

"You will break camp and move forward at four o'clock," he said. It was
then three o'clock, and apparently the order to move forward at four had
been given to each regiment at nearly the same time, for they all struck
their tents and stepped down into the trail together. It was as though
fifteen regiments were encamped along the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue and
were all ordered at the same moment to move into it and march downtown.
If Fifth Avenue were ten feet wide, one can imagine the confusion.

General Chaffee was at General Lawton's head-quarters, and they stood
apart whispering together about the march they were to take to El Caney.
Just over their heads the balloon was ascending for the first time and
its great glistening bulk hung just above the tree tops, and the men in
different regiments, picking their way along the trail, gazed up at it
open-mouthed. The head-quarters camp was crowded. After a week of
inaction the army, at a moment's notice, was moving forward, and every
one had ridden in haste to learn why.

There were _attaches_, in strange uniforms, self-important Cuban
generals, officers from the flagship _New York_, and an army of
photographers. At the side of the camp, double lines of soldiers passed
slowly along the two paths of the muddy road, while, between them, aides
dashed up and down, splashing them with dirty water, and shouting, "You
will come up at once, sir." "You will not attempt to enter the trail
yet, sir." "General Sumner's compliments, and why are you not in your
place?"

Twelve thousand men, with their eyes fixed on a balloon, and treading on
each other's heels in three inches of mud, move slowly, and after three
hours, it seemed as though every man in the United States was under arms
and stumbling and slipping down that trail. The lines passed until the
moon rose. Th