The Order To Fire At Will
Was Seldom Given, The Men Waiting Patiently For The Officers' Signal,
And Then Answering In Volleys.
Some of the men who were twice Day's
age begged him to let them take the enemy's impromptu fort
On the
run, but he answered them tolerantly like spoiled children, and held
them down until there was a lull in the enemy's fire, when he would
lead them forward, always taking the advance himself. By the way
they made these rushes, it was easy to tell which men were used to
hunting big game in the West and which were not. The Eastern men
broke at the word, and ran for the cover they were directed to take
like men trying to get out of the rain, and fell panting on their
faces, while the Western trappers and hunters slipped and wriggled
through the grass like Indians; dodging from tree trunk to tree
trunk, and from one bush to another. They fell into line at the same
time with the others, but while doing so they had not once exposed
themselves. Some of the escapes were little short of miraculous.
The man on my right, Champneys Marshall, of Washington, had one
bullet pass through his sleeve, and another pass through his shirt,
where it was pulled close to his spine. The holes where the ball
entered and went out again were clearly cut. Another man's skin was
slightly burned by three bullets in three distinct lines, as though
it had been touched for an instant by the lighted end of a cigar.
Greenway was shot through this shirt across the breast, and Roosevelt
was so close to one bullet, when it struck a tree, that it filled his
eyes and ears with tiny splinters.
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