." This view
was had about noon, or soon after. At that time "a succession of aides
and staff officers came galloping from headquarters with messages
which plainly showed that confusion, if not disaster, had befallen the
two divisions which, by the heavy firing, we had learned to our great
surprise, had become warmly engaged in the centre. The orders to
General Lawton from headquarters were at first peremptory in
character--he was to pull out of his fight and to move his division to
the support of the centre" (Bonsal). This call for Lawton arose from
the fact that about noon General Shafter received several dispatches
from Sumner, of the Cavalry Division, requiring assistance. General
Sumner felt the need of the assistance of every available man in the
centre of the line where he was carrying on his fight with the
Spaniards on Blue House Hill. This situation so impressed the General,
Shafter, that he finally wrote to Lawton, "You must proceed with the
remainder of your force and join on immediately upon Sumner's right.
If you do not the battle is lost." Shafter's idea then was to fall
back to his original plan of just leaving enough troops at El Caney to
prevent the garrison from going to the assistance of any other part of
the line. Shafter himself says: "As the fight progressed I was
impressed with the fact that we were meeting with a very stubborn
resistance at El Caney and I began to fear that I had made a mistake
in making two fights in one day, and sent Major Noble with orders to
Lawton to hasten with his troops along the Caney road, placing himself
on the right of Wheeler" (Sumner). Lawton now made a general advance,
and it is important to see just what troops did advance. The Seventh
Infantry did not move, for Lieutenant-Colonel Carpenter says that
after withdrawing "to the partial cover furnished by the road, the
regiment occupied this position from 8 o'clock a.m. until about 4.30
p.m." The Seventeenth did not move, for Captain O'Brien, commanding,
says the regiment took a position joining "its left with the right of
the Seventh Infantry" and that the regiment "remained in this position
until the battle was over." The Twelfth Infantry remained in its
shelter within 350 yards of the stone fort until about 4 p.m. Then we
have Chaffee's brigade on the north of the fort remaining stationary
and by their own reports doing but little firing. The Seventeenth
fired "for about fifty minutes" about noon, with remarkable p