The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

THE ROUGH RIDERS in
had arrived and made a careful examination of the Spanisii
position, he placed his battery in concealment about a thou-
sand yards from the Spanish line, deployed the white regulars
with the colored regulars in support, and after he had given
time for Colonel Wood to arrive, opened the battle. The
jungle was extremely dense, and as the Spaniards used smoke-
less powder, it was almost impossible to locate them, but the
advance was pushed forward rapidly, and in the face of heavy
firing the American troops climbed the ridges and drove the
Spaniards from their intrenchments. In the meantime,
Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Riders had commenced
their advance. The way lay up a very steep hill, and numbers
of the men, exhausted from their march of the day before,
had either dropped their bundles or fallen out of line, so that
less than 500 men went into action.
MADE NO OUTCRY WHEN HIT
"We could hear the Hotchkiss guns and the reply of two
Spanish guns, and the Mauser bullets were singing through
the trees over our heads, making a noise like the humming of
telephone wires, but exactly where they came from we could
not tell," said the Colonel of the Rough Riders in describing
the fight. "The Spaniards were firing high and for the most
part by volleys, and their shooting was not very good.
Gradually, however, they began to get the range, and occa-
sionally one of our men would crumple up. In no case did
the men make an outcry when hit, seeming to take it as a
matter of course; at the outside making only such a remark
as, 'Well, I got it that time.' "
Capron's troop took the lead, closely followed by Wood
and Roosevelt at the head of the other three troops of the
Third Squadron, and then came Brodie at the head of his