Lieutenant Parker,
made aware by the heavy fire from the hill that a conflict
was going on in his front, opened fire with his Gatlings
most effectively on the intrenchments, while from far down
on my left I heard cheering and shouts, and saw coming up
the slope towards us a multitude of skirmishers. As they
drew nearer we distinguished the tall figure of General
Hawkins, with his aide, Lieutenant Ord, Sixth Infantry,
charging at the head of the skirmishers and waving their
hats. When the charge came up nearly abreast of where the
Sixth stood in the road I ordered the companies out through
the gaps in the wire fence to join it, and they complied
with the same alacrity and enthusiasm that they had
displayed in entering this bloody field. The Gatlings
redoubled their fierce grinding of bullets on the Spanish,
despite which there still came a savage fire from the
blockhouse and trenches. Here the gallant Captain Wetherell,
Sixth Infantry, fell, shot through the forehead, at the head
of his company, and I received a Mauser bullet through the
left lung, which disabled me. But the blood of the troops
was now up, and no loss of officers or men could stop them.
They charged up the incline until, coming to a steep ridge
near the top, they were brought to a stand by the hail of
bullets from the Gatlings against the summit.
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