confirm Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett’s report, for he says he is sure the regiment did excellent work, “as reported;” and at that time he is commenting on Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett’s report, the report printed above.  The broad statements of General Lawton do not touch the exact question at issue between the reports of the subordinate commanders; nor do they throw any light on the circumstances of the final charge.  Miles’ brigade had been advancing on the stone fort for some hours, and the Twenty-fifth was so near when the charge of the Twelfth was made that portions of it were on the hill and near the fort at the same time.  The commander of the Third Brigade saw the fight from one side and reported events as he learned them.  His official statement requires no support.  The commanding officer of the Twenty-fifth Infantry saw the fight from another standpoint, and his official reports are entitled to equal respect.  Both the General’s and the Lieutenant-Colonel’s must be accepted as recitals of facts, made with all the accuracy that high personal integrity armed with thorough military training can command.  Happily the statements, which at first appear so widely at variance, are entirely reconcilable.  The following supplementary report of the regimental commander, when taken in connection with the final complimentary orders published in the regiment before leaving Cuba, will place the whole subject before the reader and put the question at rest, and at the same time leave undisturbed all the reports of superior officers.

     Headquarters Twenty-fifth Infantry,
     Montauk Point, Long Island, August 22, 1898.

     The Adjutant-General, U.S.  Army, Washington, D.C.

Sir:—­I have the honor to submit a supplementary report to the original one made on the 19th (16th) of July, 1898, of the battle of El Caney de Cuba, so far as relates to the part taken therein by the Twenty-fifth Infantry: 

1.  I stated in the original report that the Twenty-fifth Infantry, in advancing, broke away from and left the Fourth Infantry behind.  This may inferentially reflect on the latter regiment.  It was not so intended, and a subsequent visit to the battle-field convinces me that it would have been impossible for the regiment to advance to the fort, and, although it might have advanced a short distance farther, it would have resulted in a useless slaughter, and that the battalion commander exercised excellent judgment in remaining where he did and by his fire aiding the Twenty-fifth Infantry in its advance.

2.  Colonel Miles, the then brigade commander, informed me that his first report of the battle would be brief and that a later and full report would be made.  In his former report I think he failed to give credit to myself and regiment.  As he was soon after relieved of the command of the brigade I assume that no further report will be made.

I have reported what the regiment did,