We have now traced the actions and the fortunes of the three following brigades:  Ludlow’s Chaffee’s and Bates’.  But what has become of Miles’ brigade?  Unfortunately, the Second Brigade has not been so well reported as were the others engaged in the action at El Caney.  We have seen that it was ordered to take position on the right of Ludlow’s brigade at 11.30, when Capron’s battery ceased its firing for the fifty minutes.  “We were detained in reaching our position by troops in our front blocking the road,” says the brigade commander.  “We came into action directly in front of the stone blockhouse at 12.30, and from that hour until about 4.30, when the command ‘cease firing’ was given, the blockhouse having been captured, my command was continuously under fire.”  The reader will note in this report that the brigade went into action at 12.30, several hours before the charge was ordered by General Chaffee, and at least an hour and a half before, according to the report of the commander of the Third Brigade, “this fort was practically in the possession of the Twelfth Infantry.”  Major Baker, who commanded the Fourth Infantry, says:  “About 12 m. we received orders directing us to take our place in the line of battle, and arriving at the proper point the regiment was placed in line in the following order:  The First Battalion in the fighting line; the Second Battalion in support and regimental reserve.  In this order the First Battalion, under my command, took up the advance toward the blockhouse, to our right, south east of Caney.”  This battalion advanced until it reached a position about 200 yards from the village, where it remained, assisted by the Second Battalion until the capture of the fort.  Two companies of this First Battalion “fired into the town and also into the blockhouse until its fall.”  A good part of the fire of this regiment was directed upon the fort.

Colonel Miles says:  “The brigade advanced steadily, with such scanty cover as the ground afforded, maintaining a heavy fire on the stone fort from the time the fight began until it ended.”  The reader is asked to note particularly that this fire was continuous throughout the fight; that it was characterized by the brigade commander as “heavy,” and that it was “on the stone fort”.  He says:  “As the brigade advanced across a plowed field in front of the enemy’s position the latter’s sharpshooters in the houses in Caney enfiladed the left of our line with a murderous fire.  To silence it Major Baker, Fourth Infantry, in command of the battalion of that regiment on the left of our line of battle, directed it to turn its fire upon the town.  In so doing this battalion lost heavily, but its steady front and accurate volleys greatly assisted the advance of the remainder of the brigade upon the stone fort.”