The 71st troops were armed only with single-shot black powder 1873 Springfield rifles and might as well have been carrying a banner reading, “Aim right here!” Each time a New Yorker fired, his position was immediately given away by a billow of black powder smoke-“about the size of a cow,” as one trooper put it. They were taking heavy rifle fire from the heights before Santiago. At a curve in the road he found his way blocked at the foot of Kettle Hill by the 71st New York Volunteers. He had just led his Rough Riders in an attack up a winding muddy road from the beach. Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt found himself in a tight spot on the outskirts of Santiago, Cuba, on July 1, 1898. Weaponry: The Springfield Trapdoor rifle | Historynet Close
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