A ragged blue line of four infantry regiments on line and one in reserve moved across the open valley in a series of short rushes with flags waving, the troops firing and advancing the 600 yards in no real order. They cut their way through the wire fences. The Spaniards increased their fire, and with each advance more men fell. The Americans were 150 yards from the foot of the hill when, without orders, the 6th Infantry’s bugler sounded the long notes of ‘Charge!’ Another yell rang out, and the men ran for the hill. All the while Parker advanced his Gatlings with the infantry and, with at least three working guns, sprayed the enemy trenches.

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Across the road, Roosevelt had already lost several of his company officers while waiting for messengers to find either his brigade or division commander. Impatient with the mounting casualties, he decided that in the absence of orders he would lead the charge himself. As a politician, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt had come to Cuba to earn glory, and he lacked the disciplined obedience of the Regular Army officers.

At McClernand’s request, Wheeler rode forward and passed on instructions to Kent to advance. Wheeler then rejoined his cavalry division, and Sumner rode back among the men of the 10th Cavalry to give them the order to advance. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph H. Dorst rode up and told Roosevelt ‘to move forward and support the Regulars in the hills in the front.’ Roosevelt called his regiment out from cover and formed it into a column with each troop on line. Exhausted from the tropical heat, he feared that he could not keep up with his men, so he remained mounted, posting himself properly behind his regiment. The cavalry division advanced. No one, however, gave the order to attack.

The lead elements of the cavalry slowed their pace as men fell from the effects of the heat and bullets. Rear troops crowded into those in front until entire regiments merged into one line. The 1st and 9th cavalries overtook and intermingled with the Rough Riders. The 3rd, 6th and 10th cavalries followed and tied in with the infantry on the left.

The cavalry had the shortest distance to cover. The first line reached the road halfway up the hill, then dropped behind the cover of a depression. Roosevelt’s regiment caught up with the 9th, and he told a captain in command that they ‘could not take these hills by firing at them’ and that ‘we must rush them.’ The captain replied that he could not do so without orders and could not find his commander. ‘Then I am the ranking officer here,’ Roosevelt replied, ‘and I give the order to charge.’ The Regular Army officer still hesitated to follow the order of a volunteer officer, at which point Roosevelt said, ‘Then let my men through, sir.’ With that, the Rough Riders passed over the prone Regulars.

Along the line, other Regular officers took the initiative. Captains John F. McBlain and Charles W. Taylor on the right flank of the 9th Cavalry ordered their own charge. As one body, the entire division again picked up momentum. The men knocked down the barbed-wire fence paralleling the road, fired and then ran, yelling, the rest of the way to the top.

Forty yards from the top, Roosevelt, riding far ahead of his men, reached the last line of wire. He dismounted and turned loose his horse, his orderly having kept up with him on foot. As troopers of the 1st and 9th cavalries and the Rough Riders swarmed over Kettle Hill, the Spaniards withdrew to the next line of trenches. The Rough Riders’ three New Mexico troops, G, E and F, planted their guidons on the hill, while Captains McBlain and Taylor of the 9th planted their guidons on the right. Taylor received a wound shortly afterward and was evacuated.

Color sergeant J.E. Andrews of the 3rd Cavalry took a round in the abdomen. He called for his lieutenant to take the colors, but then he tumbled back down the hill to the road, still clutching the flag. Sergeant George Berry of the 10th Cavalry snatched it up and carried both the 3rd’s and his own regiment’s flags up the slope, shouting, ‘Dress on the colors, boys, dress on the colors!’ Colonel Charles D. Veile placed the 1st Cavalry standard on the hill.

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