162 The Rough Riders 



charge of Sergeant (afterward Lieutenant) Tif- 

 fany, assisted by some of our best men, like Ste- 

 phens, Crowninshield, Bradley, Smith, and Herrig. 

 The guns were mounted on tripods. They were 

 too heavy for men to carry any distance and we 

 could not always get mules. They would have been 

 more effective if mounted on wheels, as the Gat- 

 lings were. Moreover, they proved more delicate 

 than the Catlings, and very readily got out of order. 

 A further and serious disadvantage was that they 

 did not use the Krag ammunition, as the Catlings 

 did, but the Mauser ammunition. The Spanish car- 

 tridges which we captured came in quite handily 

 for this reason. Parker took the same fatherly in- 

 terest in these two Colts that he did in the dynamite 

 gun, and finally I put all three and their men under 

 his immediate care, so that he had a battery of seven 

 guns. 



In fact, I think Parker deserved rather more 

 credit than any other one man in the entire cam- 

 paign. I do not allude especially to his courage 

 and energy, great though they were, for there were 

 hundreds of his fellow-officers of the cavalry and in- 

 fantry who possessed as much of the former quality, 

 and scores who possessed as much of the latter; 

 but he had the rare good judgment and foresight to 

 see the possibilities of the machine-guns, and thanks 

 to the aid of General Shatter, he was able to or- 



