Witnessing the assault on San Juan Hill, Col. Roosevelt decided to cross
the steep ravine from Kettle Hill to San Juan Hill to support the
fighting still going on there. Calling for his men to follow him, he ran
forward, only to find just five of the Rough Riders following him (most
had not heard his command). Roosevelt returned and gathered together a
larger group of his men, leading them down the western slope of Kettle
Hill, past a small lagoon, and up the northern extension of San Juan
Hill, but the fighting was over for the top of the heights. General
Summer intercepted Roosevelt and ordered him back to Kettle Hill
immediately to prepare for the expected counterattack. When he returned
his men were exhausted and his horse was again spent from the heat. A
counterattack directed at Kettle Hill by some 600 Spanish infantry was
stopped primarily by the fire of a single ten-barreled .30 Gatling Gun
manned by Sergeant Green of the Gatling Gun Detachment, which (according
to Spanish officers captured after the attack) killed or wounded all
but 40 of the Spanish attackers.[18]You read that right. Five hundred and sixty men mowed down by a single Gatling Gun isn't anything I'd normally take as gospel, but there's enough eye witness evidence to prove it. We really didn't have the rifles to compete with the Spaniards, but the Gatling's struck fear into them and well it should have.
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