Chapter 24Major Lang was wrong. The next evening, just before
midnight, the Spanish launched an assault along the perimeter of
trenches occupied by Greene’s troops. For almost two hours, Spanish
artillery bombarded our positions; and whenever the shelling
stopped, we were pinned down by relentless rifle fire. Fortunately,
Manfred and I had moved our horses a few hundred yards behind our
lines and tethered them to some trees.
I had never experienced anything like it.
Manfred and I were pressed up against the muddy walls of one trench
along with several dozen men from the First Colorado Volunteers.
Most of these men had never experienced combat before, and the
earsplitting explosion of the five-inch shells from the Spanish
Ordóñez guns battering and shaking the earth all around u
