[19] Official Report of General Sumner.

CHAPTER VIII.

SAN JUAN (Continued).

     Kent’s Division:  The Twenty-fourth Infantry; Forming Under
     Fire—­A Gallant Charge.

Turning now to the centre and left of the American line we follow the advance of that division of infantry commanded by General Kent, and which met the brunt of Spanish resistance at San Juan.  This division, known as the First Division, Fifth Army Corps, consisted of three brigades, composed as follows: 

First Brigade, Brigadier-General Hawkins commanding, made up of the Sixth Infantry, the Sixteenth Infantry, and the Seventy-first New York Volunteers.

The Second Brigade, Colonel Pearson commanding, made up of the Second Infantry, the Tenth Infantry and the Twenty-first Infantry.

The Third Brigade, commanded by Colonel Wikoff, in which were the Ninth Infantry, the Thirteenth Infantry and the Twenty-fourth Infantry; in all 262 officers and 5,095 men.  Thus, in the whole division there were eight regiments of regular infantry and one volunteer regiment, the Seventy-first New York.

Although our present purpose is to bring into view the special work of the Twenty-fourth Infantry, it will be necessary to embrace in our scope the work of the entire division, in order to lay before the reader the field upon which that particular regiment won such lasting credit.  General Kent, who commanded the division, a most accomplished soldier, gives a lucid account of the whole assault as seen from his position, and of the work performed by his division, in his report, dated July 8, 1898.

When General Kent’s division arrived in the neighborhood of the San Juan ford and found itself under fire and the trail so blocked by troops of the cavalry division, which had not yet deployed to the right, that direct progress toward the front was next to impossible, the welcome information was given by the balloon managers that a trail branched off to the left from the main trail, only a short distance back from the ford.  This trail led to a ford some distance lower down the stream and nearly facing the works on the enemy’s right.  General Kent on learning of this outlet immediately hastened back to the forks and meeting the Seventy-first New York Regiment, the rear regiment of the First Brigade, he directed that regiment into this trail toward the ford.  The regiment was to lead the way through this new trail and would consequently arrive at the front first on the left; but meeting the fire of the enemy, the First Battalion of the regiment apparently became panic stricken and recoiled upon the rest of the regiment; the regiment then lay down on the sides of the trail and in the bushes, thoroughly demoralized.