the regulars, using more ammunition, and manifesting
a very high degree of courage and enthusiasm as well as deliberation;
but the regulars reached their objective at the proper time to turn
the battle's tide. Each advancing column was worthy to be companion to
the other.

General Wheeler said the fire was very hot for about an hour, and "at
8.30 sent a courier to General Lawton informing him that he was
engaged with a larger force of the enemy than was anticipated, and
asked that his force be sent forward on the Sevilla road as quickly as
possible." ("In Cuba With Shafter," p. 83.) General Lawton, however,
with the true instinct of a soldier had already sent orders to General
Chaffee to move forward with the First Brigade. The Second Brigade was
also in readiness to move and the men of the Twenty-fifth were
expecting to go forward to take a position on the right and if
possible a little to the rear of the Spanish entrenchments in order to
cut off their retreat. The rapid movements of the cavalry division,
however, rendered this unnecessary, and the routing of the foe gave to
the Americans an open country and cleared the field for the advance on
Santiago. The first battle had been fought, and the Americans had been
victorious, but not without cost. Sixteen men had been killed and
fifty-two wounded. In Colonel Wood's regiment eight had been killed
and thirty-four wounded; in the First Cavalry, seven killed and eight
wounded; in the Tenth Cavalry, one killed and ten wounded. The
percentage of losses to the whole strength of the several
organizations engaged was as follows: Rough Riders, over 8 per cent.;
First Cavalry, over 6 per cent.; Tenth Cavalry, 5 per cent. But if we
take those on the firing line as the base the rate per cent. of losses
among the regulars would be doubled, while that of the volunteers
would remain the same.

The strength of the enemy in this battle is given in the Spanish
official reports, according to Lieutenant Miley, at about five
hundred, and their losses are put at nine killed and twenty-seven
wounded. At the time of the fight it was supposed to be much larger.
General Young's report places the estimates at 2,000, and adds "that
it has since been learned from Spanish sources to have been 2,500. The
Cuban military authorities claim the Spanish strength was 4,000."
These figures are doubtless too high. The force overtaken at Las
Guasimas was the same force that evacuated Siboney at the approach