302 The Rough Riders 



Captain (now Colonel) A. L. Mills, the Brigade 

 Adjutant-General, has written me some comments 

 on my account of the fight on July ist. It was he 

 himself who first brought me word to advance. I 

 then met Colonel Dorst who bore the same mes- 

 sage as I was getting the regiment forward. 

 Captain Mills was one of the officers I had sent 

 back to get orders that would permit me to ad- 

 vance; he met General Sumner, who gave him the 

 orders, and he then returned to me. In a letter 

 to me Colonel Mills says in part : 



I reached the head of the regiment as you came 

 out of the lane and gave you the orders to enter 

 the action. These were that you were to move, 

 with your right resting along the wire fence of the 

 lane, to the support of the regular cavalry then at- 

 tacking the hill we were facing. "The red-roofed 

 house yonder is your objective," I said to you. You 

 moved out at once and quickly forged to the front 

 of your regiment. I rode in rear, keeping the sol- 

 diers and troops closed and in line as well as the 

 circumstances and conditions permitted. We had 

 covered, I judge, from one-half to two-thirds the 

 distance to Kettle Hill when Lieutenant-Colonel 

 Garlington, from our left flank, called to me that 

 troops were needed in the meadow across the lane. 

 I put one troop (not three, as stated in your ac- 

 count*) across the lane and went with it. Ad- 

 vancing with the troop, I began immediately to 



* The other two must have followed on their own initiative. 



