It was probably half or three-quarters of an hour after the firing began that Captain Capron was killed, and perhaps twenty minutes after that I was struck as we were about to make a charge. Our men had been instructed to save their ammunition and not shoot unless they saw something to shoot at. Our men and the Tenth infantry afterwards buried about 100 Spaniards, and great numbers of their killed and wounded among them were carried to the rear, so that the fire on our side must have been pretty accurate.
When asked to relate some of the scenes taking place about him before he was struck, he replied:
One of the worst things I saw was a man shot while loading his gun. The Spanish Mauser bullet struck the magazine of his carbine, and going through the magazine the bullet was split, a part of it going through his scalp and a part through his neck. This was Private Whitney, and from his neck down he was a mass of blood. He was taken back of the firing line, and had recovered before we left Siboney and was again back in the ranks.
Captain Capron showed great pluck on the field of battle, and refused to leave even when he was mortally wounded. We were at that moment deploying and lying down. He was struck in the left shoulder, the ball coming out of his abdomen. He lived one hour and fifteen minutes after being shot. He was taken back to the field hospital by some of our men. About twenty minutes after that a Mauser ball struck me in the leg.
SENSATION OF BEING WOUNDED.
When asked what the sensation was at the time of being wounded he replied:
My leg felt as if it had been struck by some heavy body. It felt paralyzed, and then I fell to the ground. There was no great pain experienced at the time, but fifteen minutes later the pain was very great.
A very touching incident happened during the fight. Captain McClintock was struck in the left leg, two Mauser bullets entering his leg just above the ankle. A private who had been sick for some days, seeing Captain McClintock lying on the field, crawled up to him, and lying beside the captain between the latter and the firing line, said: "Never mind, Captain, I am between you and the firing line. They can't hurt you now."
Ed Culver, a Cherokee Indian, showed himself particularly brave during the fight. He was alongside of Hamilton Fish when the latter was shot. When Fish was hit he said: "I am wounded." Culver called back: "And I am killed."
Culver was shot through the left lung, the ball coming out of the muscles of the back. He believed he was dying, but said if he was to die he would do the Spaniards as much damage as possible before leaving this world. He continued to fire, and sent forty-five bullets at the enemy before being taken away. At first, after receiving his wound, he was in a dazed condition, but after he recovered somewhat he shot straight.