94 The Rough Riders 



I had not seen Wood since the beginning of 

 the skirmish, when he hurried forward. When the 

 firing opened some of the men began to curse. 

 "Don't swear shoot !" growled Wood, as he strode 

 along the path leading his horse, and everyone 

 laughed and became cool again. The Spanish out- 

 posts were very near our advance guard, and some 

 minutes of the hottest kind of firing followed before 

 they were driven back and slipped off through the 

 jungle to their main lines in the rear. 



Here, at the very outset of our active service, we 

 suffered the loss of two as gallant men as ever wore 

 uniform. Sergeant Hamilton Fish at the extreme 

 front, while holding the point up to its work and 

 firing back where the Spanish advance guards lay, 

 was shot and instantly killed ; three of the men with 

 him were likewise hit. Captain Capron, leading the 

 advance guard in person, and displaying equal cour- 

 age and coolness in the way that he handled them, 

 was also struck, and died a few minutes afterward. 

 The command of the troop then devolved upon 

 the First Lieutenant, young Thomas. Like Capron, 

 Thomas was the fifth in line from father to son 

 who had served in the American army, though in 

 his case it was in the volunteer and not the regular 

 service; the four preceding generations had fur- 

 nished soldiers respectively to the Revolutionary 

 War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the 



