304 The Rough Riders 



tiago," has cast one of them in a more permanent 

 form; and I shall discuss one or two of his state- 

 ments. 



Mr. Bonsai was not present at the fight, and, in- 

 deed, so far as I know, he never at any time was 

 with the cavalry in action. He puts in his book a 

 map of the supposed skirmish ground; but it bears 

 to the actual scene of the fight only the well-known 

 likeness borne by Monmouth to Macedon. There 

 was a brook on the battleground, and there is a 

 brook in Mr. Bonsai's map. The real brook, flow- 

 ing down from the mountains, crossed the valley 

 road and ran down between it and the hill-trail, 

 going nowhere near the latter. TTie Bonsai brook 

 flows at right angles to the course of the real brook 

 and crosses both trails that is, it runs up hill. It 

 is difficult to believe that the Bonsai map could 

 have been made by any man who had gone over the 

 hill-trail followed by the Rough Riders and who 

 knew where the fighting had taken place. The po- 

 sition of the Spanish line on the Bonsai map is 

 inverted compared to what it really was. 



On page 90 Mr. Bonsai says that in making the 

 "precipitate advance" there was a rivalry between 

 the regulars and Rough Riders, which resulted in 

 each hurrying recklessly forward to strike the 

 Spaniards first. On the contrary, the official reports 

 show that General Young's column waited for some 

 time after it got to the Spanish position, so as to 

 allow the Rough Riders (who had the more difficult 



