And so time wore on until between 4.30 and 5 in the afternoon, when ringing cheers announced that the last trench had been won and El Caney was ours. Then followed the reunion of the regiment. Lieut. Leyden marched his gallant platoon back and the men fell into their old places in G company. B and K came back from the left with the 22d and the regiment gathered once more on the Santiago road, soldiers now, stained with powder and battle smoke and grim with the thoughts of the day and its events. Further down the road in the improvised hospital lay the forms, cold in death, of five brave men and with them were 40 more or less seriously wounded, three of them mortally.
The Second had received its baptism of blood.
[CHAPTER XIII.]
WE LEARN SOME MORE THINGS ABOUT THE ART OF WAR AS CONDUCTED IN THESE DAYS.
IT was not exactly a joyous reunion as the companies assembled in the Santiago road that afternoon. True, we were all glad to see one another again, but the heat and burden of the day had been great and there were many faces missing from the ranks. Nearly ten hours on the battlefield under the burning Cuban sun and without much to comfort us in the way of food or drink was not conducive to good temper and to this was added the spur of the ingratitude of our so-called Cuban allies. It will be remembered that just before the regiment went into action the rolls and haversacks had been discarded and placed by the roadside and it fell out that while the owners were up on the firing line fighting for Cuba Libre, some of the Cuban patriots came along and, the guards placed over the property being absent, helped themselves to the rations in the haversacks. These were the Cubans, by the way, who were supposed to be fighting over on our left that day, but it seems they had more important business, to them, on hand to bother much about fighting. So as we gathered there in the road in the stillness which followed the battle storm and realized that we were to go supperless there were some things said about our Cuban friends which indicated a not very high feeling of esteem for them.
Once gathered together again and the roll called came the after work of the battle. Squads were sent over the field to bring in any dead or wounded that might have been overlooked and to gather up any property left there. The companies which had lost men prepared to march to the hospital to bury the dead and those fortunate ones whose haversacks had been untouched began to light their cooking fires. Hardly an hour had elapsed since Caney was taken when up came an aide with orders for Col. Clark and when he read them the assembly sounded and we heard with disgust the orders that the regiment was to move at once to San Juan to reinforce the first division. We had anticipated after our hard day's work a bite to eat and a night's rest and here we were disappointed in both. Faintly through that day at intervals we at Caney could hear the sounds of battle in our rear and we heard late in the afternoon that it was our troops attacking the San Juan forts but it was not until after we had finished our job at El Caney that we heard what the first division had done.