When Captain
Llewellyn Told Him His Men Were Not Needed, And To Rejoin His Troop,
He Led His Detail Over The Edge Of The Hill On Which We Lay.
As he
disappeared below the crest he did not stoop to avoid the bullets,
but walked erect, still smiling.
Roosevelt pointed out that it was
impossible to advance farther on account of the network of wild
grape-vines that masked the Spaniards from us, and that we must cross
the trail and make to the left. The shouts the men had raised to
warn Capron had established our position to the enemy, and the firing
was now fearfully accurate. Sergeant Russell, who in his day had
been a colonel on a governor's staff, was killed, and the other
sergeant was shot through the wrist. In the space of three minutes
nine men were lying on their backs helpless. Before we got away,
every third man was killed, or wounded. We drew off slowly to the
left, dragging the wounded with us. Owing to the low aim of the
enemy, we were forced to move on our knees and crawl. Even then men
were hit. One man near me was shot through the head. Returning
later to locate the body and identify him, I found that the buzzards
had torn off his lips and his eyes. This mutilation by these hideous
birds was, without doubt, what Admiral Sampson mistook for the work
of the Spaniards, when the bodies of the marines at Guantanamo were
found disfigured.
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