proceed directly along
the Santiago road toward San Juan. Within a mile from El Pozo, the
point where they had bivouacked for the night of the 30th, the troops
arrived at the Aguadores River, which crosses the road here within
less than a mile from San Juan Heights. Wheeler's division headed the
column, although that general was not commanding. He had been relieved
on the afternoon of the 30th and did not resume command until about 4
o'clock on July 1,[19] long after the heights had been carried,
although he was on the field shortly after 1 o'clock of that day.

The Dismounted Cavalry Division on the morning of July 1 presented
2,663 fighting men, including officers. The First Brigade, commanded
by Colonel Carrol, had 50 officers and 1,054 men, in regiments as
follows: Third Cavalry, 22 officers, 420 men; Sixth Cavalry, 16
officers, 427 men; Ninth Cavalry, 12 officers, 207 men, the Ninth
having hardly one-half the strength of either of the other regiments
of the brigade. The Second Brigade, commanded by General Wood,
contained 1,559 persons, distributed as follows: Brigade staff, 9
officers, 14 men; First Cavalry, 21 officers, 501 men: Tenth Cavalry,
22 officers, 507 men; First Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders), 25
officers, 517 men.

Before the troops left El Poso, Grimes' battery had been put in
position and had fired a few shots at a blockhouse on San Juan Hill,
distance 2,600 yards. Using black powder, which created a cloud of
smoke with every shot, the battery was readily located by the foe, and
the shrapnel from their guns was soon bursting among our forces. The
second shot from the Spaniards wounded four of the Rough Riders and
two or three of the regulars, while a third killed and wounded several
Cubans. As a matter of course there was a rapid movements of the
troops from that immediate vicinity. The firing soon ceased, and the
troops took up that general advance movement already noted.

It is no easy task to follow the movements of the Cavalry Division
from the time it left El Poso that July morning until it finally
entrenched itself for the night on San Juan Hills. As heretofore we
will take the official reports first, and from them make up the
itinerary and the movements of the battle that followed, as far as
they will enable us to do so. General Sumner says the division
proceeded toward Santiago, and when about three-fourths of a mile from
El Poso was halted in a narrow road to await orders and remained t