The battery halted about half a mile to the rear, and the 13th
Infantry passed it here, on their way to the front. The comments
bestowed were not calculated to soothe the ruffled feelings of people
who had been ordered to retreat. "I told you so." "Why don't you go to
the front?" "Going to begin firing here?" "Is this the place where you
shoot?" "Is this all there is of it?" "I knew they would not get into
the fight." "Watch them hang around the rear." "Going to start in
raising bananas back here, John Henry?" "What do you think of machine
guns now?" and similar remarks, of a witty but exasperating nature,
greeted the detachment, from both officers and men, as the regiment
passed on its way to the front. The only thing that could be done was
to endure it, in the hope of getting a chance to make a retort later
in the day.
About nine o'clock, the artillery firing ceased, and the Gatling Gun
Battery returned to El Poso. Grimes' guns were still up on the hill,
but there were no cannoneers; they had ceased to fire, and had left
their guns. Two or three dead men were lying on the side of the hill;
wounded men were limping around with bandages. Cubans were again
passing to the front.
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