Inasmuch as we are now to trace the career of the Twenty-fifth
Infantry through an unfortunate dispute, on both sides of which are
officers of high rank and unimpeachable honor, it is important to
note, first, to what extent the several statements, both unofficial
and official, can be harmonized and made to corroborate one another.
Major Baker says: "Those of Bates' brigade and the Twenty-fifth
Infantry, after having carried the stone fort," which he explains was
some 75 feet higher than the town, then fired _down_ into the village.
The soldier who acted as left-guide of Company G, Twenty-fifth
Infantry, says, after getting up on the hill, "we fired _down_ into
the city until near dusk." The experience of the soldier agrees
exactly with the report of the officer. The fact that the Twenty-fifth
went up the hill cannot be questioned, and that up to their last halt,
they went under fire, no one will deny. Bonsal, in speaking of
Chaffee's brigade, which was "more immediately charged with the
reduction of Caney" (Ludlow's report), says: "And it was nearly five
o'clock when his most advanced regiment, the gallant Twelfth Infantry,
deployed into the valley and charged up the steep hillside, which was
lined with Spanish trenches, rising in irregular tiers and crowned
with a great stone fort.
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