The heaviest fighting by land was done around the city of Santiago de Cuba, the second city of the island, and the old Spanish capital of the same. Santiago (which means "St. James," in Spanish) was very strongly fortified, and pretty well defended by the ancient and modern methods of an old nation going down in the world. On account of the great danger of assaulting a city built upon hills, and thus strongly defended by nature and art, Uncle Sam wisely decided to send his veteran troops there—not merely the pick and cream of the volunteers—but first of all, the old, well-seasoned regulars of the American standing army, of which there were four regiments of colored men, that is to say, the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, and the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry. Among the first that went to Santiago in General Shafter’s expedition were those four regiments—brave, powerful, well-built fellows, big, brawny men, who could knock Spaniards over like ninepins, and smite them hip and thigh like the heroes of old. In the different engagements that took place while the enemy was being driven into his beleaguered city, and was being pushed back, back farther and farther, into the fortifications of Santiago, these colored regiments did splendid service, laying on with might and main, and making their enemy flee before them into his last retreat. Our troops were usually mixed up with the whites in the days in the end of June, and the beginning of July, and thus the history of the one is the history of the other.