Turn of the Century - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

have been. They walked to greet death at every step, many of them as they advanced, sinkingsuddenly or pitching forward and disappearing in the high grass, but the others waded on,stubbornly, forming a thin blue line that kept creeping higher and higher up the hill. It was asinevitable as the rising tide. It was a miracle of self-sacrifice, a triumph of building courage,which one watched with breathless wonder. The fire of the Spanish riflemen, who still stuckbravely to their posts, doubled and trebled in fierceness, the crests of the hills crackled andburst in amazed roars, and rippled with waves of tiny flames. But the blue line crept steadilyup and on, and then, near the top, the broken fragments gathered together with a sudden burstof speed, the Spaniards appeared for a moment outlined against the sky and poised for instantflight, fired a last volley and fled before the swift-moving wave that leaped and sprang up afterthem. The men of the Ninth and the Rough Riders rushed to the block-house together, the menof the Infantry, fell on their faces along the crest of the hills beyond, and opened upon thevanishing enemy. They drove the yellow silk flags of the cavalry and the Stars and Stripes oftheir country into the soft earth of the trenches, and then sank down and looked back at theroad they had climbed and swung their hats into the air. 38A correspondent described the road to Siboney after the attack: “Dead men lying along theroad, ghastly in their unstudied positions, men dying, men wounded, passing back to the divisionhospital, some being carried, some limping, some sitting by the roadside, all strangely silent,bandaged and bloody. …Beyond the second crossing, the road was strewn with parts of clothes,blanket rolls, pieces of bacon, empty cans, cartridges; at the forkes the marks of bullets everywhere—thetrees shot through and through.” 39Charles Johnson Post, San Juan Hill, Cuba, Spanish-American War. From the U.S. Army ArtCollection, U.S. Army Center of Military History.90 HUACHUCA ILLUSTRATED