Here the first bloodshed in the Tenth occurred, a young-volunteer named Baldwin fell, pierced by a Spanish ball." An aide hastened up and gave the colonel of the regiment orders to move forward.

The summit of the hill was crowned by two block-houses, and from these came an unceasing fire.

Lieutenant Roberts said he had been lying on the ground but rose to his knees to repeat an order, "Move forward," when a mauser ball struck him in the abdomen and passed entirely through his body.

Being wounded, he was carried off of the field, but after all was over, Lieutenant Roberts says it was said (on the quiet, of course) that "the heroic charge of the Tenth Cavalry saved the 'Rough Riders' from destruction." Lieutenant Roberts says he left Cuba on the 12th of July for Fort Monroe, and that a wounded Rough Rider told him while coming over that "had it not been for the Tenth Cavalry the Rough Riders would never passed through the seething cauldron of Spanish missiles." Such is the statement of one of Springfield's best citizens, a member of the Tenth Cavalry, United States regulars.
[Illustration: FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE CUBAN REPUBLIC.] Some days later, Lieutenant Roberts had occasion to visit Chicago and Fort Sheridan, and while there he was interviewed by a representative of the Chicago Chronicle, to whom he related practically the same story as above stated, "You probably know my regiment is made up exclusively of Negroes except for the commissioned officers, and I want to say right here that those men performed deeds of heroism on that day which have no parallel in the history of warfare.

They were under fire from six in the morning until 1:30 in the afternoon, with strict orders not to return the hail of lead, and not a man in those dusky ranks flinched.