The next day Colonel
Pearson, who commanded the Second Brigade of Kent's division, took
the Second Infantry and reconnoitred along the railroad toward the
Morro, going a distance of about six miles and returning in the
evening, having found no enemy in that vicinity, although evidences
were found that a force had recently retreated from a blockhouse
situated on the railroad about two miles from Aguadores.
On the day following, June 27th, the entire division moved out on the
road toward Santiago and encamped on the same ground that Lawton had
occupied the night previous. The Second Brigade took its place near
Savilla, while the Third Brigade, which included the Twenty-fourth
Infantry, went into camp at Las Guasimas, where the affair of the 24th
had occurred. The order of march had now partially fallen back to the
original plan: Lawton in advance, with whom was the Twenty-Fifth
Infantry; Wheeler next, with whom was the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, and
Kent in the rear, who had, as we have just related, the Twenty-fourth
Infantry in his Third Brigade. In this order the army moved, so far as
it moved at all, until the morning of the 30th, when dispositions for
the general attack began.
The story of the great battle, or as it turned out, of the two great
battles, begins on this day, and the careers of the four colored
regiments are to be followed through the divisions of Lawton, Kent and
Wheeler.
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