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Page 66
The Rough Riders and the negro troopers who charged with them had no
bayonets, and did but little firing until more than half-way up the
hill they had undertaken to capture. With carbines held across their
breasts, they simply moved steadily forward without a halt or a
backward glance. Behind them the slope was dotted with their dead and.
wounded, but the survivors took no heed of their depleted ranks.
Roosevelt, with the silken cavalry banner fluttering beside him, led
the way, and there was no man who would not follow him to the death.
Half-way up the hill-side Ridge Norris pitched headlong to the ground,
and some one said: "Poor fellow! News of his promotion came just in
time." As the young Lieutenant fell, another officer, cheering on his
men immediately behind him, also dropped, pierced with bullets. The
sword that he had been waving was flung far in advance, and as Ridge,
who had only stumbled over an unnoticed mound of earth, regained his
feet unharmed, he saw it lying in front of him and picked it up. He
was entitled to carry a sword now, and here was one to his hand.
The Spaniards could not believe that these few men, frantically
climbing that bullet-swept hill-side, would ever gain the crest. So
they doggedly held their position, firing with the regularity of
machines, and expecting with each moment to see the American ranks melt
away or break in precipitate night. They did melt away in part, but
not wholly, and their only flight was a very slow one that bore them
steadily upward.
Just under the brow of the hill they paused for a long breath, and then
leaped forward in a fierce final rush. Over the rifle-pits they
poured, tearing down the barbed-wire barricades with their bare hands,
and making a dash for the block-house. Already the dismayed Spaniards
were streaming down the farther side of the hill. A last withering
volley crashed from the loop-holed building, and then its defenders
also took to panic-stricken flight. In another minute the flaunting
banner of Spain had been torn down, and the stars and stripes of
freedom waved proudly in its place. At the same moment, from earthwork
and rifle-pit fluttered the yellow silk flags of the cavalry and the
troop guidons; while to distant ears the news of victory was borne by
the cheer of exhausted but intensely happy men.
Many of them were for the moment incapable of further effort, but as
many more, inspired with fresh strength by success, dashed down the
opposite side of the hill in pursuit of the flying Spaniards. Among
these was Ridge Norris, waving his newly acquired sword, and yelling
that there were other hills yet to be captured. A few minutes later
these found themselves madly charging, for a second time, up a steep,
bullet-swept slope in company with other cavalrymen and long lines of
infantry. Now they were assaulting San Juan Heights, defended by the
strongest line of works outside of Santiago. The Spaniards had deemed
the position impregnable, and so it would have been to any troops on
earth save Americans or British; but the men now swarming up its
slippery front not only believed it could be taken, but that they could
take it. And they did take it, as the first hill had been taken, by
sheer pluck and dauntless determination. In vain did the Spaniards
hurl forth their deadliest fire of machine-gun and rifle. The grim
American advance was as unchecked as that of an ocean tide. Finally it
surged with a roar like that of a storm-driven breaker over the crest,
and dashed with resistless fury against the crowning fortifications.
In another minute the Spaniards were in full flight, and from the
hard-won heights of San Juan thousands of panting, cheering, jubilant
Yankee soldiers were gazing for the first time upon the city of
Santiago, which, only three miles away, lay at their feet, and
apparently at their mercy.
While the troops who had thus stormed and carried San Juan were
exulting over their almost incredible victory, word came that Lawton's
men had performed a similar feat at Caney, and after hours of
ineffective firing had finally won the forts by direct and unsupported
assault.
Thus the entire line of Santiago's outer defences, many miles in
length, had fallen to the Americans; but could they hold them until the
arrival of their artillery? This was the question anxiously discussed
at headquarters, where several of the Generals declared immediate
retreat to be the only present salvation of the American army. The
existing fortifications of San Juan Heights were unavailable for use
against the Spaniards, and it did not seem possible that the tired
troops could dig new ones in time. The enemy had as yet suffered but
slight losses, and still occupied his inner line of forts,
block-houses, and rifle-pits, nearly, if not quite, as strong as those
just won from him. Beyond lay Santiago, with barricaded streets,
loop-holed walls, and everywhere bewildering mazes of barbed wire.
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