dual
firing. The Spanish troops, not so well drilled in firing as ours,
used volley firing, which is very effective against large bodies
of troops massed and moving over a plain, but utterly inefficient
when used against skirmishers moving over a rough country. In that
battle, which lasted two hours, less than ten rounds of ammunition
per man was fired by my men, and the losses, notwithstanding my men
were exposed, their whole bodies, while the enemy were in trenches,
where only their heads could be seen, were about equal.

"I saw the commander of that force a few days later in Santiago, and
in talking about it he said to me: 'Your men behaved very strange. We
were much surprised. They were whipped, but they didn't seem to know
it; they continued to advance (laughter and applause), and we had to
go away.' He was quite right about it. They did have to go away.

"On the 29th we had reached the immediate vicinity of the peaks in
front of Santiago, about a mile and a half from the city. On the 30th
I carefully reconnoitered the ground as much as one could in the dense
undergrowth, and determined where I would make my attack, which was
simply directed in front, and to make a direct assault. There was
no attempt at strategy, and no attempt at turning their flanks. It
was simply going straight for them. In that I did not misjudge my
men, and that is where I succeeded so well. (Applause.) If we had
attempted to flank them out or dig them out by regular parallels and
get close to them my men would have been sick before it could have
been accomplished, and the losses would have been many times greater
than they were.

"The only misfortune, as I judged it, of the first day's fight,but
which I have since learned was for the best, was that immediately on
our right, and what would be in our rear when we attacked the town,
was a little village called El Caney, four miles and a half from
Santiago, and whence the best road in the country connected with
Santiago. I did not know the exact force there, but it was estimated
to be 1,000, and perhaps a little more, and it would, of course,
have been very hazardous to have left that force so near in our rear.

"Instead of finishing the affair by 9 o'clock, as we expected, it took
until 4:30 o'clock in the afternoon before the last shot was fired,
and then after a loss of nearly a hundred killed and 250 wounded on
our side and the almost total annihilation of the force opposed to
us. They