enemy's position, and were all working in that direction. It was
extremely difficult for Wood and Roosevelt to communicate with the
captains, and after the first general orders had been given them they
relied upon the latter's intelligence to pull them through. I do not
suppose Wood, out of the five hundred engaged, saw more than thirty
of his men at any one time. When he had passed one troop, except for
the noise of its volley firing, it was immediately lost to him in the
brush, and it was so with the next. Still, so excellent was the
intelligence of the officers, and so ready the spirit of the men,
that they kept an almost perfect alignment, as was shown when the
final order came to charge in the open fields. The advance upon the
ruined building was made in stubborn, short rushes, sometimes in
silence, and sometimes firing as we ran. The order to fire at will
was seldom given, the men waiting patiently for the officers' signal,
and then answering in volleys. Some of the men who were twice Day's
age begged him to let them take the enemy's impromptu fort on the
run, but he answered them tolerantly like spoiled children, and held
them down until there was a lull in the enemy's fire, when he would
lead them forward, always taking the advance himself. By the way
they made these rushes, it was easy to tell which men were used to
hunting big game in the West and which were not. The Eastern men
broke at the word, and ran for the cover they were directed to take
like men trying to get out of the rain, and fell panting on their
faces, while the Western trappers and hunters slipped and wriggled
through the grass like Indians; dodging from tree trunk to tree
trunk, and from one bush to another. They fell into line at the same
time with the others, but while doing so they had not once exposed
themselves. Some of the escapes were little short of miraculous.
The man on my right, Champneys Marshall, of Washington, had one
bullet pass through his sleeve, and another pass through his shirt,