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Show 1880 TO 1912 O37 killed in the charge up San Juan Hill, and his men lost very heavily. They were black heroes every one of them. But they lay ahead of the Rough Riders and did not attempt to go beyond their orders which were to lie there and wait for some one to tell them, from General Shafter, to go ahead. That Colonel Hamilton was as brave a man as Colonel Roosevelt and as brave a man as any man ever was I do not doubt for a moment, but his regular army training did not stand him in good stead that day. He had been a soldier all his life and he did what a soldier is supposed to do — he did what he was told to do. He had been told to wait. Colonel Roosevelt understood the necessity of obeying orders as well as Hamilton did, but Colonel Roosevelt had not been turned into a fighting machine by years of discipline, and he thought for himself when his superior officers failed to think for him. Colonel Hamilton did not. So Colonel Roosevelt was the hero of San Juan Hill, although the opportunity for heroism had been before Colonel Hamilton just as long as 1t had been before Colonel Roosevelt. Hamilton doubtless saw the necessity for the charge as soon as Roosevelt did, but he waited for some superior to see it too. Roosevelt waited a reasonabl e time for his superiors to see it, and then he went ahead on his own hook. There was great confusion at this time,’’ says ‘the different regiments being completely intermingColonel Roosevelt, led — white regulars, colored regulars, and Rough ‘Riders. We were still under a heavy fire and I got together a mixed lot of men and pushed on from the trenches and ranch houses which we had just taken, driving the Paniards through a line of palm trees and of hills. When we reached these crests we over the crest of a chain found ourselves overlookIng Santiago. ’’ Here Colonel Roosevelt was ordered to advance no further, but to hold the hill at all hazards. With his own command were all the fragments of the other five cavalry regiments at the extreme right. The Spaniards had fallen back upon their supports, and our troops pene still under a very heavy fire from rifles and artillery. Our artillery made one or two efforts to come into action on the infantry tring line, but their black powder rendered each attempt fruitless. In the course of the afternoon the Spaniards made an unsuccessful attempt to retake the hill. A few seconds of firing stopped their advance and drove them into cover of the trenches. The troops Slept that night on the hill-top, being attacked but once before daybreak — about 3 A. M. — and then for a short time only.*°° At dawn *0In the attack on San Juan Hills the American forces numbered about che the Spanish, about 4,500. The American total loss in killed and wounded 071. The fighting continued July 2, but most of the Spanish firing |