CHAPTER XL

RESULTS OF THE BATTLE

THE fighting done by the Americans at Caney and San Juan Hill on July 1 won them great praise for bravery. On short rations, fighting in heavy uniforms, in intense heat, opposing a foe well intrenched, they won signal victories, though at terrible loss. The total losses in the fighting at Santiago, the great majority of which were on the first day's fighting, were twenty-two officers and two hundred and eight privates killed; eighty-one officers and one thousand two hundred and three privates wounded; seventy-nine privates missing, most of whom were located later.

Among the officers who were killed in this battle was Colonel Charles A. Wikoff, of the Officers Twenty-second United States InfanKilled try, for whom Camp Wikoff, at Montauk, L. I., was named shortly afterward. Lieutenant-Colonel John M. Hamilton, of the Ninth United States Cavalry; Major Forse, of the First Cavalry; Captain W. P. Morrison,

of the Sixteenth United States Infantry; Captain William O'Neill, of the First Volunteer Cavalry, the "Rough Riders," and Lieutenants Michie, Ord, Smith, Augustin, and Shipp.

In the list of the wounded were included the following officers,-Brigadier-General Hawkins, Lieutenant-Colonel Worth, of the Thirteenth United States Infantry; Lieutenant-Colonel Liscum, Twenty-fourth United States Infantry: Lieutenant-Colonel Carroll, commanding First Brigade, Cavalry Division; Major Ellis, Thirteenth United States Infantry; Major Henry W. Wessells, Third United States Cavalry; Captain Blocksome, Captain Kerr, and Lieutenant Short, of the Sixth United States Cavalry; Captain Hunter, Captain Dodd, Lieutenant Meyer, and Lieutenant Hayes, Third United States Cavalry; Captain Taylor and Lieutenant Wood, Ninth United States Cavalry; Lieutenant McCoy, Tenth United States Cavalry; Lieutenant Mills, First United States Cavalry; and Captain Rodman, First United States Infantry.

In this fight members of several of the volunteer infantry regiments distinguished themVolunteers' selves. The Thirty-third and the Bravery Thirty-fourth Michigan regiments

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and the Seventy-first New York were in the thick of the fight. The Seventy-first formed the centre of an attacking column in which were the Sixth and Sixteenth Regulars. They were subjected to a galling artillery fire from both right and left. After the attacking column had driven the enemy from point to point, they suddenly found themselves caught in a triangle. Hemmed in by the enemy, they had to face a terrific infantry fire. They were mowed down by the hundreds, the Spanish by the use of smokeless powder being able to continue their destructive work most effectively.

At one time matters took a desperate turn for the Americans. They had long withstood the fire of the hidden infantry and pluckily retained their self-possession while their comrades were falling on every side. Inspired by their leaders, they hammered away at the underbrush in which the enemy seemed to be lurking until late in the afternoon. Just as the fighting was becoming critical, they were reinforced by the troops under General Lawton and General Chaffee. All the Americans then threw themselves forward, charging the enemy with such fury that they swept all before them. The Spaniards fled from their defences, and

San Juan Hill was soon in the possession of the Americans.

The infantry regiments that suffered the heaviest losses in this day's fighting were the Thirteenth and Twenty-fourth Regulars. It was a detachment of seventy-five men from the latter regiment, under Captain Ducat and Lieutenant Lyon, that captured the blockhouse on San Juan Hill in the final charge. Of the seventy-five men who started up the hill in the face of a destructive Spanish fire, fifty-three were killed, and of the survivors several were severely wounded.

The blockhouse stood at the top of a hill facing the pathway leading up to it and into the town. It was placed there purposely Charges to guard the approach to the city,

Heroic

and to advance meant that the American soldiers must pass it, garrisoned as it was with sixty well-armed soldiers. Captain Ducat's company, firing as they ran, rushed up the hill in a storm of bullets. Neither Captain Ducat nor Lieutenant Lyon reached the blockhouse, both falling wounded on the slope; but their fall did not stop the onward rush of their men by a moment. The Spanish, dismayed by the daring of the Americans, retreated from the

blockhouse, leaving it to Captain Ducat's men, and thus opening up the way for the carrying of the position by assault.

Similar bravery was displayed by nineteen members of the Ninth Infantry in taking a blockhouse at El Caney on the same afternoon. Ordered to the roof of the blockhouse, which because of its heavy timbers their bullets had been unable to penetrate, four of the men dropped down inside the blockhouse, where were thirty-five desperate Spaniards. The four paid for their daring with the instant loss of their lives, and, infuriated at the sight, the fifteen survivors plunged all at once among the Spaniards and engaged in a furious fight for twenty minutes, which resulted in those Spaniards who could hastily retreating.

Shafter disheartened

The night of July I found the Americans holding both San Juan and Caney and well advanced toward the trenches of Santiago at other points. During that night and all the next day the Spaniards made sorties in attempts to recapture the positions they had lost, but about July 3 the fighting was suspended. This practically ended the battle of Santiago, for, though there was some skirmishing later,