With Wheeler's Division were the Rough Riders, the most unique
aggregation of fighting men ever gathered together in any army. There
were cowboys, bankers, brokers, merchants, city clubmen, and society
dudes; commanded by a doctor, second in command a literary politician;
but every man determined to get into the fight. About three-quarters
of a mile in advance was the first ford, the ford of the Aguadores
River; beyond this a quarter of a mile was another ford, the ford of
the San Juan. The road forked about two hundred yards east of the
Aguadores ford, turning sharply to the left. Down the road from El
Poso crept the military balloon, it halted near this fork--"Balloon
Fork." Two officers were in its basket, six or eight hundred feet
above the surface of the ground, observing the movements of the troops
and the disposition of the enemy.
The sharp crackle of the musketry began in front, and still the
Gatling Gun Detachment lay beside the road with the 71st, waiting,
swearing, broiling, stewing in their own perspiration, mad with
thirst, and crazed with the fever of the battle. The colonel of the
71st was again approached, to ascertain whether he was now going to
the front, but still there were no signs of any indication to move
forward.
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