ABSTRACT
In Quinto's steep, narrow, twisting streets the men of the Lincoln Battalion were baptized in the art of street fighting, as they learned to scan the rooftops and windows for snipers, use their bayonets, and pitch grenades through shattered windows and down cellar stairs. The Lincolns were used to artillery fire, but it annoyed them more on their leaves than it ever did on the battlefield. The Americans were learning for the first time the reason for the long Spanish afternoon siesta, for in the steaming summer days it was almost impossible to move outdoors during the afternoon hours. In Albares, as in all the Spanish towns where they were quartered during the war, the Lincolns were learning about way of life different from anything they had ever imagined. If the men of the Lincoln Battalion thought about such things, they probably judged them inessential phenomena that would vanish when the Republic brought its people fully into the modern age.
