The want of means of communication paralyzed the command, for all the equipment of a modern army was lacking: there were no aeroplanes, no wireless stations, no telephones.
Throughout the morning the situation grew worse, but the nerve of the men did not give way, and American individual initiative rose to the boiling point.

Realizing that safety lay only in advance, the officers on the spot began to take control.

General Hawkins, with the Sixth and Sixteenth Regulars, advanced against the main blockhouse, which crested a slope of two hundred feet, and the men of the Seventy-first New York Volunteers joined promiscuously in the charge.
To the right rose Kettle Hill, jutting out and Banking the approach to the main position.

Facing it and dismounted were the First and Ninth Regular Cavalry, the latter a negro regiment, and the Rough Riders under Colonel Roosevelt.

The Tenth Infantry was between the two wings, and divided in the support of both.