The general plan of attack as explained by General Shafter himself in his “Century” article was “to put a brigade on the road between Santiago and El Caney, to keep the Spaniards at the latter place from retreating on the city, and then with the rest of Lawton’s division and the divisions of Wheeler and Kent, and Bates’ brigade to attack the Spanish position in front of Santiago.”  Before that he had said that he wished to put a division in on the right of El Caney and assault the town on that road.  To Admiral Sampson on June 26th he said:  “I shall, if I can, put a large force in Caney, and one perhaps still farther west, near the pipe-line conveying water to the city, making my main attack from the northeast and east.”  His desire at this time was to “get the enemy in my front and the city at my back.”  On June 30th he had modified this plan so as to decide to place one brigade on the road between El Caney and Santiago, with a view merely to keeping the El Caney garrison from retreating into Santiago.

As he was explaining his plan to the division officers and others on the afternoon of the 30th at his own headquarters, Lawton and Chaffee were of the opinion that they could dispose of the Spaniards at El Caney in two hours time.  “Therefore,” says the General, “I modified my plan, assigning Lawton’s whole division for the attack of El Caney and directed Bates’ independent brigade to his support.”  This last modification of General Shafter’s plan was made in deference to the opinion of subordinates, and was based upon observations made especially by General Chaffee.

The force assigned for the reduction of El Caney was to begin its work early in the morning, and by ten or eleven o’clock at the outside it was expected that the task would be accomplished and Lawton would join Kent and Sumner in the assault upon San Juan.  Early on the morning of July 1st Capron’s battery was got into position on a line running directly north from Marianage on a hill about five hundred yards east of Las Guasimas Creek.  Lawton’s division began its move on the afternoon of the 30th, as did in fact the whole army, and bivouacked that night near El Pozo.  The Twenty-fifth Infantry, which belonged to the Second Brigade, commanded by Colonel Miles, a former Major of the Twenty-fifth, left El Pozo at daylight by way of the road leading almost due north, and marched about one mile to the little town of Marianage.  Here a halt was made for an hour, from 6.30 to 7.30, during which time reconnoitering parties were sent out to examine the ground toward the Ducoureau House, which lay about one mile to the northward of Marianage, and which had been designated by General Lawton as a general rendezvous after the engagement should terminate.  Reconnoissance was made also to the front for the purpose of discovering the enemy, and to ascertain the left of Ludlow’s brigade.  This was the first brigade of Lawton’s division and consisted of the Eighth and Twenty-second