Young's Fight at Las Guasimas 79 



as soon after daybreak as possible. Meanwhile I 

 strolled over to Captain Capron's troop. He and 

 I, with his two lieutenants, Day and Thomas, stood 

 around the fire, together with two or three non- 

 commissioned officers and privates; among the lat- 

 ter were Sergeant Hamilton Fish and Trooper El- 

 liot Cowdin, both of New York. Cowdin, together 

 with two other troopers, Harry Thorpe and Munro 

 Ferguson, had been on my Oyster Bay Polo Team 

 some years before. Hamilton Fish had already 

 shown himself one of the best non-commissioned 

 officers we had. A huge fellow, of enormous 

 strength and endurance and dauntless courage, he 

 took naturally to a soldier's life. He never com- 

 plained and never shirked any duty of any kind, 

 while his power over his men was great. So good 

 a sergeant had he made that Captain Capron, keen 

 to get the best men under him, took him when he 

 left Tampa for Fish's troop remained behind. As 

 we stood around the flickering blaze that night I 

 caught myself admiring the splendid bodily vigor 

 of Capron and Fish the captain and the sergeant. 

 Their frames seemed of steel, to withstand all fa- 

 tigue; they were flushed with health; in their eyes 

 shone high resolve and fiery desire. Two finer types 

 of the fighting man, two better representatives of the 

 American soldier, there were not in the whole army. 

 Capron was going over his plans for the fight when 



