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144 on with all speed, came up in the rear and opened a murderous machine-gun and rifle fire.

The cavalry wheeled and charged straight at the guns. Such was the impetus of their onrush, that those who survived that decimating fire, some 200 in all, broke through the first and second line before they were brought down. Those of the guns which could be brought into action swept the enemy with shrapnel at close range. Such an unequal contest could have but one issue. The gun detachments withered under the pitiless hail of German bullets, and when the enemy charged home, not a man was on his feet to dispute possession of the guns.

Leaving their own and the American wounded to be cared for by the stretcher-bearers of Fort Myer garrison, the Germans, now some 2,000 strong, mounted and moved back to the city. Here, on