Wikoff’s brigade was now coming up and it was directed upon the same trail.  This brigade consisted of the Ninth, Thirteenth and Twenty-fourth.  Colonel Wikoff was directed by General Kent to move his brigade across the creek by the trail (the left fork) and when reaching the opposite side, of the creek to put the brigade in line on the left of the trail and begin the attack at once.  In executing this order the entire brigade stumbled through and over hundreds of men of the Seventy-first New York Regiment.  When a volunteer regiment broke through the lines of the Ninth Cavalry from the rear, that regiment was in its place on the field in line of battle, with its morale perfect.  It was under discipline and delivering its fire with regularity.  It had an absolute right to its place.  The Seventy-first was in no such attitude, and General Kent directed the advance through it in these words:  “Tell the brigade to pay no attention to this sort of thing; it is highly irregular.”  The Ninth Cavalry’s position was exactly regular; the position of the Seventh-first was to the eyes of General Kent “highly irregular.”

The three regiments of this brigade were to take their positions on the left of the ford after crossing the stream, in the following order:  On the extreme left the Twenty-fourth, next to it in the centre of the brigade, the Ninth, and on the right of the brigade the Thirteenth.  In approaching the ford the Ninth and Twenty-fourth became mixed and crossed in the following order:  First one battalion of the Ninth; then a battalion of the Twenty-fourth; then the second battalion of the Ninth, followed by the second battalion of the Twenty-fourth.  The line was formed under fire, and while superintending its formation the brigade commander, Colonel Wikoff, came under observation and was killed; Lieutenant-Colonel Worth, who succeeded him, was seriously wounded within five minutes after having taking command, and Lieutenant-Colonel Liscum, who next assumed charge of the brigade, had hardly learned that he was in command before he, too, was disabled by a Spanish shot By this time, however, the formation was about complete and the brigade ready to begin the advance.

Leaving Wikoff’s brigade in line ready to begin the advance we must now return in our narrative to the main ford, where the major portions of Hawkins’ and Pearson’s brigades are massed and follow the various regiments as they come to their places in the battle line preparing for the onslaught.  After crossing the ford with the Sixth Infantry, pursuant to the orders given by Lieutenant Miley in the name of General Shafter, General Hawkins attempted to flank the enemy by a movement to the left, the Sixth Infantry leading and the Sixteenth intending to pass beyond it in its rear and join to its left.  The Sixth in passing to its intended position passed to the left of the Sixth Cavalry, which held the left of the line of the cavalry division, which had crossed the ford