"Just as darkness fell, the regiment left the military road and struck at a right angle for the hills to the northward. Porto Rican guides led the way over paths so rough and narrow that the men could move only in single file. It was toilsome progress. Absolute silence was enjoined; no smoking was permitted lest the fitful flash of a match should betray the movement to the watchful Spaniards on the hills. For hours the men toiled on. The officers were compelled to walk and lead their horses. Creeks and rivulets were waded; lofty hills were climbed or skirted; yawning ravines were crossed. The men dripped with perspiration, although the night air was chilly. "At dawn both General Wilson and General Ernest were in the saddle, and long before the shadows lifted from the valleys the main body of the army was in motion to drive the enemy out of the town and into Hulling's net. Nearer than the village and off to the right was the blockhouse of Llamo de Coamo. The blockhouse was the first place attacked. There was a heavy, jarring rumble over the macadam of the military road. Anderson's battery came along at a sharp trot. At a turn in the road where the blockhouse came into view it halted. Two minutes later the fight opened. For a few minutes the Spanish returned the fire with Mausers, but as shell after shell crashed through the blockhouse, they abandoned it and fell back toward Coamo. Soon flames leaped upward from the roof, and an hour later the fort was but a smoldering ruin. "Meanwhile the infantry was pressing rapidly forward. General Wilson was wondering what had become of Hulings. Not a warlike sound came from the village, a mile and a half away. Had the garrison escaped? Suddenly from beyond the town came the rattle of musketry. Soon the sound swelled into a steady roar, which the mountains echoed again and again." The same writer tells a story in regard to one whom he terms a real hero of the war, and he calls attention to the callous manner in which Spanish soldiers were sacrificed to protect political adventurers at home. To quote his own words: