160 The Rough Riders 



before he disappeared with it into the trench. A 

 trooper named Shanafelt repeated the feat, later, 

 with a pail of coffee. Another trooper, George 

 King, spent a leisure hour in the rear making soup 

 out of some rice and other stuff he found in a Span- 

 ish house; he brought some of it to General Wood, 

 Jack Greenway, and myself, and nothing could have 

 tasted more delicious. 



At this time our army in the trenches numbered 

 about 11,000 men, and the Spaniards in Santiago 

 about 9,000,* their reinforcements having just ar- 

 rived. Nobody on the firing-line, whatever was 

 the case in the rear, felt the slightest uneasiness as 

 to the Spaniards being able to break out ; but there 

 were plenty who doubted the advisability of trying 

 to rush the heavy earthworks and wire defences in 

 our front. 



All day long the firing continued musketry and 

 cannon. Our artillery gave up the attempt to fight 

 on the firing-line, and was withdrawn well to the 

 rear out of range of the Spanish rifles ; so far as we 

 could see, it accomplished very little. The dyna- 



* This is probably an understatement. Lieutenant Muller, 

 in chap, xxxviii. of his book, says that there were "eight or 

 nine thousand;" this is exclusive of the men from the fleet, 

 and apparently also of many of the volunteers (see chap, xiv.), 

 all of whom were present on July 2d. I am inclined to think 

 that on the evening of that day there were more Spanish 

 troops inside Santiago than there were American troops out- 

 side. 



