Lieutenant G.P.  Ahearn, of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, who went on this expedition as a volunteer, rendered important service on the night after the attack on the blockhouse at Tayabacoa.  As the attacking party met with repulse and escaped to the ship in the darkness, several of their wounded were left on shore.  Several boats sent out to recover them had returned without the men, their crews fearing to go on shore after them.  Lieutenant Ahearn volunteered to attempt the rescue of the men, and taking a water-logged boat, approached the shore noiselessly and succeeded in his undertaking.  The crew accompanying Lieutenant Ahearn was made up of men from Troop M, Tenth Cavalry, and behaved so well that the four were given Medals of Honor for their marked gallantry.  The action of Lieutenant Ahearn in this case was in keeping with his whole military career.  He has ever manifested a fondness for exceptional service, and has never failed when opportunity occurred to display a noble gallantry on the side of humanity.  Nothing appeals to him so commandingly as an individual needing rescue, and in such a cause he immediately rises to the hero’s plane.  The noble colored soldiers who won medals on that occasion were all privates and became heroes for humanity’s sake.  Their names deserve a place in this history outside the mere official table.  They were Dennis Bell, George H. Wanton, Fitz Lee and William H. Tompkins, and were the only colored soldiers who, at the time of this writing, have won Medals of Honor in the Spanish War.  Others, however, may yet be given, as doubtless others are deserved.  The heroic service performed by whole regiments, as in the case of the Twenty-fourth Infantry, should entitle every man in it to a medal of some form as a souvenir for his posterity.

Losses of the Ninth Cavalry in the battles of San Juan: 

OFFICERS—­Killed, Lieutenant-Colonel John M. Hamilton.

MEN—­Killed, Trumpeter Lewis Fort, Private James Johnson.

OFFICERS—­Wounded, Adjutant Winthrop S. Wood, Captain Charles
W. Taylor.

MEN—­Wounded.  First Sergeant Charles W. Jefferson, Sergeant
Adam Moore, Sergeant Henry F. Wall, Sergeant Thomas B. Craig, Corporal
James W. Ervine, Corporal Horace T. Henry, Corporal John Mason,
Burwell Bullock, Elijah Crippen, Edward Davis, Hoyle Ervin, James
Gandy, Edward D. Nelson, Noah Prince, Thomas Sinclair, James R. Spear,
Jr., Jacob Tull, William H. Turner, George Warren, Alfred Wilson.

Losses of the Tenth Cavalry during the battle of San Juan: 

OFFICERS—­Killed, First Lieutenant W.E.  Shipp, First
Lieutenant W.H.  Smith.

MEN—­Killed, John H. Smoot, Corporal W.F.  Johnson, John H.
Dodson, George Stroal, William H. Slaughter.

OFFICERS—­Wounded, Major T.J.  Wint Captain John Bigelow, Jr.,
Adjutant and First Lieutenant M.H.  Barnum, First Lieutenant R.L. 
Livermore, First Lieutenant E.D.  Anderson, Second Lieutenant F.R. 
McCoy, Second Lieutenant H.C.  Whitehead, Second Lieutenant T.A. 
Roberts, Second Lieutenant H.O.  Willard.