Turning now to the centre and left of the American line we follow the advance of that division of infantry commanded by General Kent, and which met the brunt of Spanish resistance at San Juan. This division, known as the First Division, Fifth Army Corps, consisted of three brigades, composed as follows:
First Brigade, Brigadier-General Hawkins commanding, made up of the Sixth Infantry, the Sixteenth Infantry, and the Seventy-first New York Volunteers.
The Second Brigade, Colonel Pearson commanding, made up of the Second Infantry, the Tenth Infantry and the Twenty-first Infantry.
The Third Brigade, commanded by Colonel Wikoff, in which were the Ninth Infantry, the Thirteenth Infantry and the Twenty-fourth Infantry; in all 262 officers and 5,095 men. Thus, in the whole division there were eight regiments of regular infantry and one volunteer regiment, the Seventy-first New York.
Although our present purpose is to bring into view the special work of the Twenty-fourth Infantry, it will be necessary to embrace in our scope the work of the entire division, in order to lay before the reader the field upon whic h that particular regiment won such lasting credit. General Kent, who commanded the division, a most accomplished soldier, gives a lucid account of the whole assault as seen from his position, and of the work performed by his division, in his report, dated July 8, 1898.
When General Kent's division arrived in the neighborhood of the San Juan ford and found itself under fire and the trail so blocked by troops of the cavalry division, which had not yet deployed to the right, that direct progress toward the front was next to impossible, the welcome information was given by the balloon managers that a trail branched off to the left from the main trail, only a short distance back from the ford. This trail led to a ford some distance lower down the stream and nearly facing the works on the enemy's right. General Kent on learning of this outlet immediately hastened back to the forks and meeting the Seventy-first New York Regiment, the rear regiment of the First Brigade, he directed that regiment into this trail toward the ford. The regiment was to lead the way through this new trail and would consequently arrive at the front first on the left; but meeting the fire of the enemy, the First Battalion of the regiment apparently became panic stricken and recoiled upon the rest of the regiment; the regiment then lay down on the sides of the trail and in the bushes, thoroughly demoralized.
Wikoff's brigade was now coming up and it was directed upon the same trail. This brigade consisted of the Ninth, Thirteenth and Twenty-fourth. Colonel Wikoff was directed by General Kent to move his brigade across the creek by the trail (the left fork) and when reaching the opposite side, of the creek to put the brigade in line on the left of the trail and begin the attack at once. In executing this ord er the entire brigade stumbled through and over hundreds of men of the Seventy-first New York Regiment. When a volunteer regiment broke through the lines of the Ninth Cavalry from the rear, that regiment was in its place on the field in line of battle, with its morale perfect. It was under discipline and delivering its fire with regularity. It had an absolute right to its place. The Seventy-first was in no such attitude, and General Kent directed the advance through it in these words: "Tell the brigade to pay no attention to this sort of thing; it is highly irregular." The Ninth Cavalry's position was exactly regular; the position of the Seventh-first was to the eyes of General Kent "highly irregular."
The three regiments of this brigade were to take their positions on the left of the ford after crossing the stream, in the following order: On the extreme left the Twenty-fourth, next to it in the centre of the brigade, the Ninth, and on the right of the brigade the Thirteenth. In approaching the ford the Ninth and Twenty-fourth became mixed and crossed in the following order: First one battalion of the Ninth; then a battalion of the Twenty-fourth; then the second battalion of the Ninth, followed by the second battalion of the Twenty-fourth. The line was formed under fire, and while superintending its formation the brigade commander, Colonel Wikoff, came under observation and was killed; Lieutenant-Colonel Worth, who succeeded him, was seriously wounded within five minutes after having taking command, and Lieutenant-Colonel Liscum, who next assumed charge of the brigade, had hardly learned that he was in command before he, too, was disabled by a Spanish shot By this time, however, the formation was about complete and the brigade ready to begin the advance.