3 of Capron's Battery,
succeeded in planting a shell directly in the old stone fort, which
knocked a hole in the masonry; but, just at this juncture, the battery
was ordered to cease firing at the blockhouse, and to shell the
enemy's trenches. The enemy forthwith utilized the hole made in the
wall by the shell as a loop-hole, and continued to fire through it
until the fort was taken by the infantry assault at about half-past
four o'clock. No worse commentary than this could possibly be made
upon the tactical handling of this battery of artillery, because,
having obtained perfectly the range of the enemy's stronghold, it was
simply asinine not to knock that block-house to pieces immediately.
So Lawton's Division had remained in front of El Caney, held by about
1000 Spaniards, while the shadows crept from the west to the north,
from the north to the northeast, and from the northeast toward the
east. It was coming toward night before the artillery was finally
turned loose. One corner and the roof of this block-house were knocked
off, but even then the artillery was so poorly handled that the enemy
had to be dislodged from this block-house by hand-to-hand fighting, A
single Hotchkiss gun, properly handled, should have converted it into
ruins in thirty minutes.
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