The official reports show that the strength of the Spanish position was before the right of our line.  Mr. Bonsal says:  “Directly in front of the Tenth Cavalry rose undoubtedly the strongest point in the Spanish position—­two lines of shallow trenches, strengthened by heavy stone parapets.”  We must remember that so far as we can get the disposition of these troops from official records, Troop A connected the Rough Riders with the First Cavalry, and Troops I and B were on the right of the First Cavalry.  Troop A did not fire a shot; the fighting, therefore, was done by Troops I and B on the extreme right of the line, and it was on their front that “undoubtedly the strongest point in the Spanish position” lay—­nor should the reader forget that at this very important moment Troop B was commanded by its First Sergeant, Buck, Lieutenant Williard having by his own report been “unfortunate enough to lose the troop.”  This is said with no disparagement to Lieutenant Williard.  It was merely one of the accidents of battle.

Says Mr. Bonsal:  “The moment the advance was ordered the black troopers of the Tenth Cavalry forged ahead.  They were no braver certainly than any other men in the line, but their better training enabled them to render more valuable services than the other troops engaged.  They had with them and ready for action their machine guns, and shoved them right up to the front on the firing line, from where they poured very effective fire into the Spanish trenches, which not only did considerable execution, but was particularly effective in keeping down the return fire of the Spaniards.  The machine guns of the Rough Riders were mislaid, or the mules upon which they had been loaded could not be found at this juncture.  It was said they had bolted.  It is certain, however, that the guns were not brought into action, and consequently the Spaniards suffered less, and the Rough Riders more, in the gallant charge they made up the hill in front of them, after the Tenth Cavalry had advanced and driven the Spaniards from their position on the right.”

Corporal W.F.  Johnson, B Troop, was the non-commissioned officer in charge of the machine guns during the brief fight at Las Guasimas, and his action was such as to call forth from the troop commander special mention “for his efficiency and perfect coolness under fire.”  Here I may be pardoned for calling attention to a notion too prevalent concerning the Negro soldier in time of battle.  He is too often represented as going into action singing like a zany or yelling like a demon, rather than as a man calculating the chances for life and victory.  The official reports from the Black Regulars in Cuba ought to correct this notion.  Every troop and company commander, who has reported upon colored soldiers in that war, speaks of the coolness of the men of his command.  Captain Beck, of Troop A, Tenth Cavalry, in the Guasimas fight, says:  “I will add that the enlisted men of Troop A, Tenth Cavalry, behaved well, silently