After three hours' troubled sleep in this tumult the Rough Riders
left camp at five in the morning. With the exception of half a dozen
officers they were dismounted, and carried their blanket rolls,
haversacks, ammunition, and carbines. General Young had already
started toward Guasimas the First and Tenth dismounted Cavalry, and
according to the agreement of the night before had taken the eastern
trail to our right, while the Rough Riders climbed the steep ridge
above Siboney and started toward the rendezvous along the trail to
the west, which was on high ground and a half mile to a mile distant
from the trail along which General Young and his regulars were
marching. There was a valley between us, and the bushes were so
thick on both sides of our trail that it was not possible at any
time, until we met at Guasimas, to distinguish the other column.

As soon as the Rough Riders had reached the top of the ridge, not
twenty minutes after they had left camp, which was the first
opportunity that presented itself, Colonel Wood ordered Captain
Capron to proceed with his troop in front of the column as an advance
guard, and to choose a "point" of five men skilled as scouts and
trailers. Still in advance of these he placed two Cuban scouts. The
column then continued along the trail in single file. The Cubans
were at a distance of two hundred and fifty yards; the "point" of
five picked men under Sergeant Byrne and duty-Sergeant Fish followed
them at a distance of a hundred yards, and then came Capron's troop
of sixty men strung out in single file. No flankers were placed for
the reason that the dense undergrowth and the tangle of vines that
stretched from the branches of the trees to the bushes below made it
a physical impossibility for man or beast to move forward except
along the single trail.