At daylight on the morning of 4 September only two officers and approximately half the men who had assembled on the hill , were alive . As the day passed , with ammunition down to about one clip per man and only a few grenades left and no help in sight , McDoniel decided to abandon the position that night . When it got dark the survivors would split into small groups and try to get back to friendly lines . That evening after dark the North Koreans launched another weak attack against the position . At 22 : 00 , McDoniel and Caldwell and 27 enlisted men slipped off the hill in groups of four . Master Sergeant Travis E. Watkins , still alive in his paralyzed condition , refused efforts of evacuation , saying that he did not want to be a burden to those who had a chance to get away . He asked only that his carbine be loaded and placed on his chest with the muzzle under his chin . Like Oullette , he would also win the Medal of Honor for his actions . Of the 29 men who came off the hill the night of September 4 , 22 escaped to friendly lines , many of them following the Naktong downstream , hiding by day and traveling by night , until they reached the lines of the US 25th Infantry Division .