Two other regiments came into view of the
rough riders. But the bullets were flying like driving hail; the enemy
were in trees and ambushes with smokeless powder, and the rough riders
were biting the dust and were threatened with annihilation.
A rough rider described the feelings of his brigade when they saw the
other regiments appear and retreat. Finally this rough rider, a
Southerner, heard a well-known yell. And out of the distance moved a
regiment as if on dress parade, faces set like steel, keeping step
like a machine, their comrades falling here, there, everywhere, moving
into the storm of invisible death without one faltering step, passing
the rough riders, conquering up the hill, and never stopping until
with the rough riders El-Caney was won. This was the Twenty-fifth
Regiment (colored), United States Infantry, now quartered at Fort
Logan, Denver. We have asked the chaplain, T.G. Steward, to recite the
events at El-Caney. His modesty confines him to the barest recital of
"semi-official" records. But the charge of the Twenty-fifth is
deserving of comparison with that of "the Light Brigade" in the
Crimean War, or of Custer at the massacre of the Big Horn.
(Editorial in religious paper.)
[17] See Note C at the end of this chapter.
CHAPTER VI.
THE BATTLE OF EL CANEY.
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