Page:Theodore Roosevelt Rough Riders.djvu/312

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304
The Rough Riders

tiago," has cast one of them in a more permanent form; and I shall discuss one or two of his statements.

Mr. Bonsai was not present at the fight, and, indeed, so far as I know, he never at any time was with the cavalry in action. He puts in his hock a map of the supposed skirmish ground; but it bears to the actual scene of the fight only the well-known likeness borne by Monmouth to Macedon. There was a brook on the battleground, and there is a brook in Mr. Bonsai's map. The real brook, flowing down from the mountains, crossed the valley road and ran down between it and the hill-trail, going nowhere near the latter. The Bonsal brock flows at right angles to the course of the real brook and crosses, both trails—that is, it runs up hill. It is difficult to believe that the Bonsal map could have been made by any man who had gone over the hill-trail followed by the Rough Riders and who knew where the fighting had taken place. The position of the Spanish line on the Bonsai map is inverted compared to what it really was. On page 90 Mr. Bonsai says that in making the "precipitate advance" there was a rivalry between the regulars and Rough Riders, which resulted in each hurrying recklessly forward to strike the Spaniards first. On the contrary, the official reports show that General Young's column waited for some time after it got to the Spanish position, so as to allow the Rough Riders (who had the more difficult