consisting of the Twenty-second, Eighth
and Second Massachusetts, the line was continued by Miles' brigade of
the Fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry; then passing over a considerable
space, we strike Chaffee's brigade, posted as has just been described.
General Bates' brigade probably arrived upon the field about noon.
This brigade consisted of the Third and Twentieth Infantry, and is
known as "Bates' Independent Brigade." The brigade is reported as
going into action about 1 o'clock and continuing in action until 4
o'clock. It took a position on the right, partially filling up the gap
between Miles and Chaffee. The first battalion of the Twentieth
Infantry went into action on the left of the Twenty-fifth Infantry's
firing line, and one company, A, took part in the latter part of the
charge by which the stone house was taken. Between 11.30, when
Capron's firing stopped, and when Miles' brigade was moved forward to
join the right of Ludlow's, and 12.20, when the battery recommenced,
the troops, including Bates' brigade, were either in the positions
described above or were moving to them. Noon had arrived and El Caney
is not taken; the garrison has not attempted to escape, but is sending
out upon its assailants a continuous and deadly fire. "Throughout the
heaviest din of our fire," says Colonel Carpenter, "could be heard the
peculiar high-keyed ring of the defiant enemy's shots."

Twelve o'clock on July 1st, 1898, was a most anxious hour for our army
in Cuba. The battle at El Caney was at a standstill and the divisions
of Kent and Sumner were in a most perilous situation. Bonsal's
description of the state of the battle at that time is pathetic.
Speaking of the artillery at El Caney--Capron's battery--he says it
was now apparent that this artillery, firing from its position of
twenty-four hundred yards, could do very little damage to the great
stone fort and earthworks north of the village. The shots were too few
and the metal used too light to be effectual. Three hours of the
morning had worn away and the advance of our men had been slowly made
and at great cost; all the approaches were commanded by Spanish
entrenchments and the fighting was very unequal. A soldier of the
Twenty-fifth says that when he came in sight of the battle at El
Caney, "the Americans were gaining no ground, and the flashes of the
Spanish mausers told us that the forces engaged were unequally
matched, the difference of position favoring the Spaniards