two o'clock in the morning
A thousand naked figures , screaming , ducking , and splashing one another like so many schoolboys on a frolic , assisted and impeded the landing of their comrades , who , crowded into pontoons and small boats , were pitched , howling with delight , from the crest of each in-rolling breaker . A half-moon and the powerful search-lights of two war-ships flooded the whole extraordinary scene with brightness . On shore the dripping arrivals crowded about the red camp-fires drying their soaking uniforms , cooking , eating , singing , laughing , and filled with irrepressible happiness at having escaped from their `` prison hulks '' and reached Cuba at last . Thus , at dead of night , was an army landed on a hostile shore , and by two o'clock in the morning five thousand American troops were crowded in and about the village of Siboney . Acting on the reports brought him by Ridge Norris and by certain Cubans whom the Spanish rear-guard had driven back the day before , as well as upon the knowledge gained by his own reconnoissance , General Wheeler had determined to attack the enemy , who were strongly posted at the forking of two roads leading from Siboney to Sevilla . The broader of these roads bore to the right through a narrow valley , while the other , merely a rough trail , climbed the hill back of the village and followed the crest of a ridge to the place of intersection . Both passed through an almost impenetrable growth of small trees and underbrush , thickly set with palms , bamboos , Spanish-bayonets , thorn bushes , and cactus , all bound together by a tangle of tough vines , and interspersed with little glades of rank grasses .