ry. The houses in the town are built of stone, and have thick
walls. The town was protected by a stone fort on a hill, and also by
log forts, trenches, and covered places, where the Spaniards could
stay under shelter while they fired. The stone fort on the hill was
first attacked by our men, and if they had had more heavy cannon the
work might have been easy. As it was, more than half the day passed,
and, in spite of the hard work of our men, the fort still stood. Our
men had no smokeless powder, and their firing made a big black cloud
around them all the time, so that they could not see clearly. At last
the stone walls of the fort began to weaken, and then our men were
ordered to "storm." They ran along the valley, broke through fences of
barbed wire, and went up the hill with such a rush that the Spaniards
could not meet them, but fled down into the town. The other forts kept
up firing for a while, but our men, now having the fort on the hill,
forced the Spaniards farther and farther, and, by four o'clock, our
men held the town. The whole place was strewn with dead Spaniards, and
our own loss was heavy. Both sides had fought bravely, and the
struggle had lasted nearly nine hours.

[Illustration: General Henry W. Lawton.]

At El Caney the Spaniards made the strongest resistance that the
American army met in Cuba. One of the foremost figures in this
battle was Brigadier-General Henry W. Lawton. I must tell you
something about him. Lawton was but seventeen years old when the Civil
War in this country broke out. He enlisted at once and was made a
sergeant in an Indiana regiment. When his term of service expired he
re-enlisted and fought gallantly throughout the remainder of the war.
After the war was over Lawton enlisted in the regular army and was
sent to the frontier, where he developed into one of the best Indian
fighters in the army. When our country went to war with Spain, Lawton
was holding an important position in the War Department at Washington.
His splendid services were remembered and he was promoted to be a
brigadier-general of volunteers and sent to Cuba. After the war with
Spain was over, Lawton was again promoted, and in 1899 was sent to the
Philippines to assist in putting down the Filipino insurrection.

[Illustration: Battle of El Caney.]

Meanwhile, our other regiments had been ordered to attack San Juan, a
village on steep heights, less than a mile east of Santiago. Our men
went to the place by two