ad precipitated an unexpected rapidity of movement at San Juan. Capron's Battery had opened at El Caney about half past seven o'clock, with badly aimed and ill-directed fire, which did very little dam

t house. The Spanish forts obstinately held out, and the handful of Spanish sold

khouse, and to shell the enemy's trenches. The enemy forthwith utilized the hole made in the wall by the shell as a loop-hole, and continued to fire through it until the fort was taken by the infantry assault at about half-past four o'clock. No wors

t toward the east. It was coming toward night before the artillery was finally turned loose. One corner and the roof of this block-house were knocked off, but even then the artillery was so po

and the city of Santiago, the "San Juan ridge," driving the enemy on this portion of the field into their last trenches. But the right flank of this wing was entirely unsupported, and the road by the way of Fort Canosa to San Juan, passing by the portion of the line subsequently occupied by the dynamite gun, marked the extreme position of the right of this wing of the army. The enemy was already well toward

xecute the part of the battle assigned to it. Thus the officers on the San Juan ridge, who knew anything about the plan of the battle, were constantly directing

mmander at El Caney had been killed about noon, his men had suffered heavily, and the new commanding officer discovered that his retreat by the El Caney road was threatened. The only other line of retreat was by way of the San Miguel and Cuabitas roads. The Spanish forces at El Caney w

attering over the ridge and dropped in among the troops. A messenger was sent back to Gen. Shafter to inform him that further advance in this direction was not practicable, as the enemy had been encountered in force. The position this division was destined, in the beginning, to occupy was within less than 300 yards of where it halted. There was no large body of Spanish troops in that portion of the field. The whole valley between that ridge and Santiago had been swept by machine gun fire during the afternoon. It is possible that t

ion: Nativ

mportant to hold the position gained by the left wing. The appearance of a heavy force of the enemy in front of the masonry bridge could signify only one thing, and that was that the left wing, with its right flank in the air, was liable to be doubled up at any moment by a heavy force of the enemy striking it upon that flank. Furth

ver probable for an instant; but that was the status of affairs at

ward on the El Poso road to San Juan on the 2d of July. His men were marched almost all night, almost all day the next day, and were well-nigh utterly exhausted when they reach

hed the vicinity of El Poso, and from there one or two of the regiments had participated in the fight, late on July 1st; but nobody on the firing line knew anything about Bates' independent division at this time, and it was too much exhausted to be useful as a reserve.

to either support the firing-line against a charge, or protect its flank against a turning movement. But it was not considered necessary or desirable to run the pieces up on the firing-line in the open, and participate in the trench-firing, which was the only fighting done on July 2d and 3d. It was considered that the battery was too valuable as a reserve to sacrifice any of its m

: Charge on S

crew consisting of Corp. Stevens and six men, and that he had 4,000 rounds of 7-millimeter ammunition. Four thousand was not a very large supply for two guns which could fire at the rate of 500 shots each per minute. Fortunately, the Gatling Gun Detachment had found time, on the 1st of July, to collect about 10,000 rounds of Mauser ammunition in the

ardly tell. The firing was too heavy to mount the tripods in the trenches during the daytime, so placing the guns was deferred until night. For some reason it was not practi

explore the road, but there was no indication of any attack in force. At any rate, Roosevelt and Ayers determined to stop the firing of our line, and suddenly, above the din of battle, these two officers could be heard, tramping up and down the trench in front of their men, haranguing, commanding, ridiculing their men for shooting in the dark. Ayers told his men that they were no better than the Cubans, upon which the burly black troopers burst into a loud guffaw, and then stopped firing altogether. Roosevelt told his men that he was ashamed of them. He was ashamed to see them firing valuable ammunition into the darkness of the nigh

urrendered. The firing was resumed and continued until about half past twelve on the 4th of July, at which time another flag of truce went up, and there was no more firing until the 10th of July

re taken off and laid on the ground in the rear of the pieces; sand-bag revetments were built up in front of the guns, and each crew divided into two reliefs. One relief was required to be constantly at the gun and always ready for instant action. The fourth gun, the one that had been temporarily disabled, was repaired on the 4th, thoroughly cleaned, and placed in re

gs at Baiquiri Just B

on

, No. 1. The charge explodes, on striking, by means of a percussion fuse, and steadiness of flight is secured by means of a vane. The propelling force is a charge of seven ounces of smokeless powder. The gun is poi

n a long trench near Fort Canosa, clearing out the trench. The Spanish survivors were cut down almost to a man by the machine gun fire, and the Spanish troops were unable to occupy this trench until the following morning, when the operation was repeated, practically destroying the usefulness of this trench during the whole fight. Capt. Duncan, of the 21st Infantry, states that t

hat was visible to the American troops. Perhaps 6,000 or 7,000 shots were thus dropped into the heart of the city, making the streets unsafe, communication difficult, and striking terror to the hea

hells all told. The first eight or ten failed to explode for the reason that the fuses had not been punched. Finally, Capt. Ennis discovered that his shells were not exploding, and, on inquiry, found that there was no fuse-punch in the battery. He succeeded in finding a brad-awl, which, luckily, some member of the battery had in his pocket, and showed a sergeant how

count is necessary. The field-pieces were even less useful during this t

rrender this piece was posted there every night. The members, therefore, of this detachment did practically double duty. This was the gun in charge of Sergts. Weischaar

rk, than artillery. Nor is this all to be considered. It should be remembered that a field-piece throws a shell which breaks into 273 fragments. The machine gun throws 1000 shots, and each of these shots is aimed with absolute precision. Therefore, at any effective range, the machine gun is far superior to a field-piece against anything except material obstacles. Of cour

subject on the 1st of January. The use of the machine gun for advance and rear guar