Sometimes we took the initiative and started to quell the fire of the
Spanish trenches; sometimes they opened upon us; but, at whatever hour
of the twenty-four the fighting began, the drumming of the Gatlings
was soon heard through the cracking of our own carbines.
[Illustration: Map--Santiago and Surrounding Area.]
I have had too little experience to make my judgment final; but
certainly, if I were to command either a regiment or a brigade,
whether of cavalry or infantry, I would try to get a Gatling
battery--under a good man--with me. I feel sure that the greatest
possible assistance would be rendered, under almost all circumstances,
by such a Gatling battery, if well handled; for I believe that it
could be pushed fairly to the front of the firing-line. At any rate,
this is the way that Lieut. Parker used his battery when he went into
action at San Juan, and when he kept it in the trenches beside the
Rough Riders before Santiago.
Theodore Roosevelt.
CHAPTER I.
L'ENVOI.
The history of the Gatling Gun Detachment, Fifth Army Corps, is to a
certain extent the history of the Santiago campaign. The detachment
was organized on the spur of the moment, to utilize material which
would otherwise have been useless, and was with the Fifth Corps in all
the campaign.
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