until September 26, when
ordered to its original station, Fort Douglas, Utah, rejoining October
1, 1898.

FIELD AND STAFF OFFICERS.

Colonel.--Henry B. Freeman, under orders to join.

Lieutenant-Colonel.--Emerson H. Liscum, Brig.-Gen. Vols. On sick leave
from wounds received in action at Fort San Juan, Cuba, July 1, 1898.

Majors.--J. Milton Thompson, commanding regiment and post of Fort
Douglas, Utah. Alfred C. Markley, with regiment, commanding post of
Fort D.A. Russell, Wyoming.

Chaplain.--Allen Allenworth, Post Treasurer and in charge of schools.

Adjutant.--Joseph D. Leitch, recruiting officer at post.

Quartermaster.--Albert Laws.

On July 1, 1898, our regiment was not a part of the firing line, and
was not ordered on that line until the fire got so hot that the
white troops positively refused to go forward. When our commander,
Lieutenant-Colonel E.H. Liscum, was ordered to go in he gave the
command "forward, march," and we moved forward singing "Hold the Fort,
for we are coming," and on the eastern bank of the San Juan river
we walked over the Seventy-first New York Volunteer Infantry. After
wading the river we marched through the ranks of the Thirteenth
(regular) Infantry and formed about fifty yards in their front. We
were then about six hundred yards from and in plain view of the
block-house and Spanish trenches. As soon as the Spaniards saw this
they concentrated all of their fire on us, and, while changing from
column to line of battle (which took about eight minutes).

Illustration: A large size photo of above picture can be had on
application to P.H. Bauer, Photographer, Leavenworth, Kansas. we lost
one hundred and two men, and that place on the river to-day is called
"bloody bend." We had only one advantage of the enemy-that was our
superior marksmanship. I was right of the battalion that led the
charge and I directed my line against the center of the trench, which
was on a precipice about two hundred feet high.

Illustration: A large size photo of above picture can be had on
application to P.H. Bauer, Photographer, Leavenworth, Kansas.

I was born December 4, 1852, in Wythe county, Virginia, and joined the
army in Cincinnati, Ohio, November 22,1869, and have been in the army
continuously since. I served my first ten years in the Tenth Cavalry,
where I experienced many hard fights with the Indians. I was assigned
to the Twenty-fourth Infantry by request in 1880.

E.D. GIBSON,

_Ser