THE BATTLE OF LAS GUASIMAS.
A Number of our officers thought it would be best not to go forward
till some roads had been made, so that the army wagons could be sent
on; but General Shafter thought it would be best to march on at once.
He feared that after a week or ten days in that climate many of our
men might have fever and be unfit for service. So, even before all the
men had landed, General Shafter ordered the first ones to go forward
and drive the Spaniards from a place near Siboney. Thus, some of our
troops began their march just after landing from the boats. About two
hundred Cuban soldiers went with them, to lead the way and watch for
the hiding places of the Spaniards.
The troops reached the place in the evening, but found that the
Spaniards had left it and gone about three miles further westward to a
stronger fort. Our men rested all night, and before daylight the next
morning--Friday, June 24th--they marched on to hunt the enemy.
Now I must tell you something about these soldiers who were going to
fight their first battle in Cuba. There were nearly a thousand men;
some were "Regulars," others were "Volunteers." They belonged to the
Cavalry division of the Army--the soldiers who go on horses. But for
this first work in Cuba they had to go on foot, without their horses.
The "Volunteers" numbered about five hundred. They belonged to a
regiment called the "Rough Riders," and a strange regiment it was.
Most of these men were from the prairies and cattle-ranches in the
West; some were "cowboys," some were Indians. The others in the
regiment were young men from the East--business men, college men, sons
of rich men; all were brave, hardy fellows, fond of out-door life,
fond of excitement, not afraid of work. These young men had been
trained for the war by a man who was now one of their officers,
Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt. He had given up a high position in order
to serve his country in this way. People in the United States laughed
when this company of "Rough Riders" was formed, and said that the
"cowboys" and Indians would not obey orders, and that the others would
not stand the hardships of war. But the people in the United States
did not laugh after the battle of Las Guasimas.
That June morning it was thought best to separate and march by two
roads, meeting near the Spanish fort. The way of the "Rough Riders"
led them up steep hills. Thick bushes grew all around, so that the men
could hardly see how to go; the sun rose, and the heat was so awful
that some of the men dropped down, faint and sick. Suddenly, from
among the trees and bushes came bullets, and the men began to fall,
wounded and dead. The Spaniards could not be seen at all, and they
were using smokeless powder that left no trace in the air. But our men
heard the whizz of the bullets, and felt their sting. The "Rough
Riders," as they pressed on quickly toward the fort, fired again and
again into the bushes. At last they met their comrades, who had come
by the other road and who had also had a hard fight, and all now
toiled up the hill, firing as they went. The Spaniards had to retreat,
and could now be seen by our men. The top of the hill was reached at
last, the fort was taken, and the Spaniards fled toward Santiago.
This hard fight, which lasted less than two hours, is called the
Battle of Las Guasimas, from the name of the poisonous kind of trees
in the thicket where the "Rough Riders" were shot down.
[Illustration: Last Stand of the Spaniards at Las Guasimas.]
It would require volumes to tell the bravery and heroism of the men
who fought the Spaniards at Las Guasimas. Every one entered into it
with enthusiasm. All stood their ground while the Spanish bullets were
singing around them, and then, when they were allowed to do so, poured
volley after volley into the brush in the direction from which the
shots came. Colonel Wood walked along his lines as coolly as though on
parade. Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt led his men through the brush
when the air seemed full of bullets. Captain Capron, the fifth from
father to son in the United States army, fell early in the fight, but
before he was hit by a Spanish bullet he used his revolver whenever he
saw a Spanish head.
[Illustration: Captain Allyn K. Capron.]
Everybody had confidence in their officers and in themselves. If they
were hit they fought on if the hurt was not mortal. If they could not
stand, they propped themselves against trees, and kept on firing as
the line went forward. Men fought with their arms in slings and with
bandaged heads.
Lieutenant Thomas, of Captain Capron's troop, and who was wounded
himself during that sweltering June day, tells some interesting
stories of the battle. He comes of a fighting family. His father
fought in the Civil War, his grandfather was killed in the Mexican
War, and three ancestors fell in the war of the Revolution.
"I am sorry that I did not have a chance to see more of the fighting,
but what I saw was of the warmest kind. On the 24th of June I was
with Troop L, under Captain Capron. We formed the advance guard, and
went out on a narrow trail toward Siboney. On the way we met some of
the men of the Twenty-second Infantry, who told us we were close to
the enemy, as they had heard them at work during the night. Captain
Capron, with six men, had gone on ahead of us and had come across the
body of a dead Cuban. Ten or fifteen minutes later Private Isbell saw
a Spaniard in the brush ahead of him and fired. This was the first
shot from our troop, and the Spaniard fell dead. Isbell himself was
shot seven times that day, but managed to walk back to our field
hospital, which was fully four miles in the rear.
"It has been said that we were ambushed, but this is not so. Poor
Captain Capron received his death wound early in the fight, and while
he was lying on the ground dying, he said: 'Let me see it out; I want
to see it all.' He lived an hour and fifteen minutes after the bullet
struck him, and up to the moment he fell had acted fearlessly, and had
exposed himself all the time to the enemy's fire.
"I was then next in command of the troop, and I noticed that some of
our men lay too closely together as they were deploying. I went down
the line ordering them to their proper distances, and as I passed
along, poor Hamilton Fish was lying, mortally wounded, a few feet from
me. When he heard my voice, Fish raised himself on his elbow and said:
'I am wounded; I am wounded.' That was the last I saw of him in life.
He was very brave and was very popular among the men of the troops.
"Sergeant Joe Kline, of Troop L, was wounded early that day, and was
ordered to the rear with several other wounded men. On his way to the
rear, Kline discovered a Spanish sharpshooter in a tree and shot at
him. The Spaniard fell dead, and Kline picked up a silver-mounted
revolver, which fell from the man's clothes, as a souvenir, which he
highly prizes. Several of the Spanish sharpshooters had picked up
cast-off clothing of the American soldiers, and wore them while they
were at their deadly work.
"Sergeant Bell, of our troop, was badly injured from an exploding
shell while on the firing line. He was ordered to the rear, but
quickly came back again. He was ordered away a second time, but a few
minutes later he was at the front again, firing away. For a third time
he was sent back, and once more he insisted on going to the front, and
when the other men saw him they greeted him with rousing cheers, and
he fought till the end of the day, although painfully wounded in the
back.
[Illustration: Col. Theodore Roosevelt.]
"While lying in the hospital, I heard a young man named Hall, who
belonged to the Twenty-second Infantry, tell a story which will
illustrate better than anything else the accuracy of the American
shooters. He and five other men had crossed a bend in a road to get
some water in their canteens. As they got into the open they were
attacked by thirty-two Spanish cavalrymen, who cut them up badly with
their sabres. Hall was the only one who was not killed. He was badly
trampled by the horses, and had some sabre wounds on his body. Later
on, Hall was picked up by some comrades to whom he told his story.
These men located the Spaniards who had done the work and opened fire
on them. When they had ceased firing there were thirty live horses,
two dead ones, and thirty-two dead Spaniards. This was pretty good
shooting, wasn't it?"
Many heroic deeds were done in the Battle of Las Guasimas, by the
"Regulars" as well as by the "Hough Eiders." Suffering was bravely
borne. Sixteen of our men were killed, and more than fifty wounded.
Yet all our troops took heart from the victory of that day, and began
to think it would be easy to go on driving the Spaniards back to
Santiago, and then to take that city. But it did not prove to be easy.
There is a little railroad which runs from some mines near Santiago to
the pier at Daiquiri. Before the landing was made, the Spaniards were
driven from the coast by the shells of the American fleet. Before they
hurried away they attempted to disable a locomotive which had steam
up. They took off the connecting rods, throttle gear and other
important parts of the machinery and hid them behind fences and other
places where they thought they would not be found. Then they blocked
the piston guides and ran off. But there were plenty of engineers and
mechanics among the American soldiers, and when they saw the condition
the locomotive was in they started to search for the missing parts.
Most of these were found and the machinery was cleverly patched up.
Then they knocked the blocks of wood out of the slides and threw fresh
coal into the firebox, and in a very short time the locomotive was
pulling a train of ore cars loaded with soldiers.
[Illustration: (Soldiers at rest)]