"Colonel Carroll and Major Wessels were both wounded during the charge, but Major Wessels was enabled to return and resume command. General Wyckoff, commanding Kent's Third Brigade, was killed at 12:10. Lieutenant-Colonel Worth took command and was wounded at 12:15. Lieutenant-Colonel Liscum then took command and was wounded at 12:20, and the command then devolved upon Lieutenant-Colonel Ewers, Ninth Infantry.
"Upon reaching the crest I ordered breastworks to be constructed, and sent to the rear for shovels, picks, spades, and axes. The enemy's retreat from the ridge was precipitate, but our men were so thoroughly exhausted that it was impossible for them to follow. Their shoes were soaked with water by wading the San Juan River; they had become drenched with rain, and when they reached the crest they were absolutely unable to proceed further. Notwithstanding this condition these exhausted men labored during the night to erect breastworks, furnished details to bury the dead and carry the wounded back in improvised litters."
Wheeler's loss was 6 officers and 40 men killed, 29 officers and 288 men wounded, and 10 men missing—total 372, out of a force of 127 officers and 2,536 men.
General Bates says that after his brigade remained for some time in the first cross road after wading the San Juan river: "We moved to the right to assault a small hill, occupied upon the top by a stone fort and well protected by rifle pits. General Chaffee's brigade charged them from the right, and the two brigades, joining upon the crest, opened fire from this point of vantage, lately occupied by the Spanish, upon the village of El Caney.
"From this advantageous position the Spanish were easily driven from place to place in the village proper, and as fast as they sought shelter in one building were driven out to seek shelter elsewhere. The sharpshooters of my command were enabled to do effective work at this point. The town proper was soon pretty thoroughly cleaned out of Spanish, though a couple of blockhouses upon the hill to the right of the town offered shelter to a few, and some could be seen retreating along a mountain road leading to the northwest. A part of these made a stand in a field among some bowlders.
General Lawton observes: "The light battery first opened on a column of
Spanish troops, which appeared to be cavalry moving westward from El
Caney, and about 2 miles range, resulting, as was afterwards learned,
in killing 16 in the column."
The General has much to say of a pleasing personal nature.
The report of General Kent is of extraordinary merit for the exact detail and local color. Colonel McClernand, he says, "pointed out to me a green hill in the distance which was to be my objective on my left," and as he moved into action, "I proceeded to join the head of my division, just coming under heavy fire. Approaching the First Brigade I directed them to move alongside the cavalry (which was halted). We were already suffering losses caused by the balloon near by attracting fire and disclosing our position.
"The enemy's infantry fire, steadily increasing in intensity, now came from all directions, not only from the front and the dense tropical thickets on our flanks, but from sharpshooters thickly posted in trees in our rear, and from shrapnel apparently aimed at the balloon. Lieutenant-Colonel Derby, of General Shafter's staff, met me about this time and informed me that a trail or narrow way had been discovered from the balloon a short distance back leading to the left to a ford lower down the stream. I hastened to the forks made by this road, and soon after the Seventy-first New York Regiment of Hawkins' brigade came up. I turned them into the by path indicated by Lieutenant-Colonel Derby, leading to the lower ford, sending word to General Hawkins of this movement. This would have speedily delivered them in their proper place on the left of their brigade, but under the galling fire of the enemy the leading battalion of this regiment was thrown into confusion and recoiled in disorder on the troops in the rear."
The Second and Third Battalions "came up in better order," but there was some delay, and General Kent says: