eight o'clock
These movements were to occupy one day , and on the next the reunited army was to attack the entire line of the San Juan ridge . In the mean time no one knew anything of the valley lying between this strongly protected ridge and those who proposed to capture it . So the order was issued , and late in the afternoon of June 30th , in a pouring rain , the camps were broken , and the drenched army eagerly began its forward movement . Lawton 's division marching off to the right slipped and stumbled through the mud along a narrow , almost impassable , trail over the densely wooded hills until eight o'clock that evening , when , within a mile of Caney , it lay down for the night in the wet grass without tents or fire , and amid a silence strictly enjoined , for fear lest the Spaniards should discover its presence , and run away before morning . At the same time Wheeler 's division of dismounted cavalry , including the Rough Riders and Kent 's infantry division , advanced as best it could over the horrible Santiago road , ankle-deep in mud and water , to El Poso Hill , on and about which it passed a wretchedly uncomfortable night . Seven thousand heavily equipped men , mingled with horses , artillery , pack-mules , and army wagons , all huddled into a narrow gully slippery with mud , advance so slowly , however eager they may be to push forward , that although the movement was begun at four o'clock , midnight found the rearmost regiment still plodding wearily forward . With the coming of daylight , on July 1st , the army lay beneath a dense blanket of mist that spread its wet folds over the entire region they were to traverse .