Until that time the Gatling
battery had been worked with dogged persistency and grim silence, but
from that moment every member of the battery yelled at the top of his
voice until the command "Cease firing" was given. Groups of the enemy,
as they climbed from their trenches, were caught by the fire of the
guns, and were seen to melt away like a lump of salt in a glass of
water. Bodies the size of a company would practically disappear an
instant after a gun had been turned upon them.
This flight of the enemy from their trenches had been caused by the
fact that the charging line had cut through the barb-wire fences at
the foot of the hill, and had started up the slope. The Spaniards were
unable to stay with their heads above the trenches to fire at the
charging-line, because of the missiles of death poured in by the
machine guns; and to remain there awaiting the charge was certain
death. They did not have the nerve to wait for the cold steel. They
were demoralized because they had been compelled to seek the bottom of
their trenches. American troops would have awaited the charge, knowing
that the machine gun fire must cease before contact could occur, but
the Spaniards forgot this in their excitement, and made the fatal
mistake of running.
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