A recent campaign in Puerto Rico by the Independent Regular Brigade under the command of BrigGeneral Schwan . bad shots. Bullets whistled by ourheads, or kicked up the dirt at our feet;but, though the pop of rifles made up a con-tinuous sound like the opening of a hundredthousand beer-bottles, not a vestige of smokerose in the clear air, not a patch of hostileuniform was to be seen. For some reason our infantry did not atonce reply to the Spanish fusillade; and dur-ing this brief interval two men and twohorses were wounded in the platoon of artil-lery which stood idly just behind the foot-sold
A recent campaign in Puerto Rico by the Independent Regular Brigade under the command of BrigGeneral Schwan . bad shots. Bullets whistled by ourheads, or kicked up the dirt at our feet;but, though the pop of rifles made up a con-tinuous sound like the opening of a hundredthousand beer-bottles, not a vestige of smokerose in the clear air, not a patch of hostileuniform was to be seen. For some reason our infantry did not atonce reply to the Spanish fusillade; and dur-ing this brief interval two men and twohorses were wounded in the platoon of artil-lery which stood idly just behind the foot-soldiers,— too close, in fact, to be of anyservice, and in the way of everybody. Thenthe two Gatling guns under Lieutenant Ma-ginnis went off into the field at our right,where they began to speak for themselves;and Gatling guns in action have a mightycheerful effect upon your nerves, if they hap-pen to be on your side of the fracas. Next,an order from the general sent the artillerygalloping to the rear for abour an eighth ofa mile, where, after a short detour to theleft and a mad race across swampy, ditch-. YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 6i dug fields, it took up a temporary positionon a convenient knoll. The main body ofour command had meanwhile arrived, andgot into the row without ceremony, the fir-ing now being heavy on both sides. Mymemory serves me with no clear impressionof the sequence of events after this period. During the first hour of our fighting allthe powder used by us was as smokeless asthat of the foe, and again and again the re-mark was passed that this did not seem likethe real business of war. In other respectsas well there were few of the accompani-ments that we conjure up in our stay-at-home imagination of battle scenes. Therewas a little galloping of hooves, not long sus-tained ; an occasional sharp cry of commandor sharper oath ; an intermittent rumble andjar from the infrequently moved artillery,not yet in action; and perhaps a groan ortwo from the wounded. But, even
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