points, and they picked off our officers and men at every available opportunity.
General Shafter's plan was to form a semicircle around Santiago, starting from El Caney on the north and running in an irregular line to Aguadores on the south. He had now with him some additional troops, yet the line to be covered was nearly twenty miles long, consequently the picket guard at some points was exceedingly thin.
The troops under General Shafter consisted of two divisions of infantry, two brigades of cavalry, and two brigades of light and four brigades of heavy artillery. As we know, the Rough Riders were without horses, and the artillery found it next to impossible to move about, owing to the bad roads.
It was not until the end of June that the American and the Spanish armies faced each other for the battles of El Caney and San Juan hill. Each force occupied a semicircle as before mentioned, that of the Spanish lying of course between the American line and the city of Santiago. North of the line, at the head of Santiago Bay, were
