Part 69 (1/2)
On the same date Admiral Sampson's squadron arrived at San Juan, Porto Rico, whither it had gone in the expectation of meeting with Admiral Cervera's fleet, which had sailed westward from the Cape Verde Islands on April 29th, after Portugal's declaration of neutrality. The Spanish fleet, however, did not materialize, and Admiral Sampson, while on the ground, concluded it would be well to draw the fire of the forts that he might at least judge of their strength and efficiency, if indeed he should not render them incapable of a.s.sisting the Spanish fleet in the event of its resorting to this port at a later period. Accordingly, Sampson bombarded the batteries defending San Juan, inflicting much damage and sustaining a loss of two men killed and six wounded. The loss of the enemy is not known. The American war-s.h.i.+ps sustained only trivial injuries, but after the engagement it could be plainly seen that one end of Morro Castle was in ruins. The Cabras Island fort was silenced and the San Carlos battery was damaged. No shots were aimed at the city by the American fleet.
Deeming it unnecessary to wait for the Spanish war-s.h.i.+ps in the vicinity of San Juan, Sampson withdrew his squadron and sailed westward in the hope of finding Cervera's fleet, which was dodging about the Caribbean Sea. First it was heard of at the French island, Martinique, whence after a short stay it sailed westward. Two days later it halted at the Dutch island, Curacoa, for coal and supplies. After leaving this point it was again lost sight of. Then began the chase of Commodore Schley and Admiral Sampson to catch the fugitive. Schley, with his flying squadron, sailed from Key West around the western end of Cuba, and Sampson kept guard over the Windward and other pa.s.sages to the east of the island. It was expected that one or the other of these fleets would encounter the Spaniard on the open sea, but in this they were mistaken. Cervera was not making his way to the Mexican sh.o.r.e on the west, as some said, nor was he seeking to slip through one of the pa.s.sages into the Atlantic and sail home to Spain, nor attack Commodore Watson's blockading vessels before Havana, according to other expert opinions expressed and widely published. For many days the hunt of the war-s.h.i.+ps went on like a fox-chase. On May 21st Commodore Schley blockaded Cienfuegos, supposing that Cervera was inside the harbor, but on the 24th he discovered his mistake and sailed to Santiago, where he lay before the entrance to the harbor for three days, not knowing whether or not the Spaniard was inside. On May 30th it was positively discovered that he had Cervera bottled up in the narrow harbor of Santiago. He had been there since the 19th, and had landed 800 men, 20,000 Mauser rifles, a great supply of ammunition, and four great guns for the defense of the city.
OPERATIONS AGAINST SANTIAGO.
On May 31st Commodore Schley opened fire on the fortifications at the mouth of the harbor, which lasted for about half an hour. This was for the purpose of discovering the location and strength of the batteries, some of which were concealed, and in this he was completely successful.
Two of the batteries were silenced, and the flags.h.i.+p of the Spaniards, which took part in the engagement, was damaged. The Americans received no injury to vessels and no loss of men. On June 1st Admiral Sampson arrived before Santiago, and relieved Commodore Schley of the chief command of the forces, then consisting of sixteen war-s.h.i.+ps.
[Ill.u.s.tration: RICHMOND PEARSON HOBSON.]
Admiral Sampson, naturally a cautious commander, suffered great apprehension lest Cervera might slip out of the harbor and escape during the darkness of the night or the progress of a storm, which would compel the blockading fleet to stand far off sh.o.r.e. There was a point in the channel wide enough for only one wars.h.i.+p to pa.s.s at a time, and if this could be rendered impa.s.sable Cervera's doom would be sealed. How to reach and close this pa.s.sage was the difficult problem to be solved. On either sh.o.r.e of the narrow channel stood frowning forts with cannon, and there were other fortifications to be pa.s.sed before it could be reached.
Young Lieutenant Richmond Pearson Hobson, a naval engineer, had attached himself to Admiral Sampson's flags.h.i.+p, _New York_, just before it sailed from Key West, and it was this young man of less than thirty years who solved the problem by a plan originated by Admiral Sampson, which he executed with a heroic daring that finds perhaps no parallel in all naval history. At three o'clock A.M., June 3d, in company with seven volunteers from the _New York_ and other s.h.i.+ps, he took the United States collier _Merrimac_, a large vessel with 600 tons of coal on board, and started with the purpose of sinking it in the channel. The chances were ten to one that the batteries from the forts would sink the vessel before it could reach the narrow neck, and the chances were hardly one in one hundred that any of the men on board the collier would come out of this daring attempt alive. The s.h.i.+p had hardly started when the forts opened fire, and amid the thunder of artillery and a rain of steel and bursting sh.e.l.ls the boat with its eight brave heroes held on its way, as steadily as if they knew not their danger. The channel was reached, and the boat turned across the channel. The sea-doors were opened and torpedoes exploded by the intrepid crew, sinking the vessel almost instantly, but not in the position desired. As the s.h.i.+p went down the men, with side-arms buckled on, took to a small boat, and, escape being impossible, they surrendered to the enemy. It seems scarcely less than a miracle that any of the eight men escaped, yet the fact remained that not one of them was seriously injured. The Spaniards were so impressed with this act of bravery and heroism that they treated the prisoners with the utmost courtesy, confined them in Morro Castle, and Admiral Cervera promptly sent a special officer, under a flag of truce, to inform Admiral Sampson of their safety. The prisoners were kept confined in Morro Castle for some days, when they were removed to a place of greater safety, where they were held until exchanged on July 7th.
THE SECOND BOMBARDMENT OF SANTIAGO AND THE COMING OF THE ARMY.
On the 6th of June the American fleet under Admiral Sampson bombarded the forts of Santiago for about three hours. The gunners were all instructed, however, to spare Morro Castle lest they should inflict injury upon Hobson and his heroic companions, who were then confined within its walls. Nearly all of the fortifications at the entrance of the harbor were silenced. An examination after the fleet had withdrawn revealed the fact that no lives were lost on the American side, and none of the vessels were seriously injured. The Spanish s.h.i.+p _Reina Mercedes_ was sunk in the harbor, she being the only s.h.i.+p from the enemy's fleet which ventured within the range of the American's guns.
The danger of entering the narrow harbor in the face of Cervera's fleet rendered it necessary to take the city by land, and the government began preparations to send General Shafter with a large force from Tampa to aid the fleet in reducing the city. Some 15,000 men, including the now famous Rough Riders of New York, were hurried upon transports, and under the greatest convoy of gunboats, cruisers, and battles.h.i.+ps which ever escorted an army started for the western end of the island of Cuba.
But the honor of making the first landing on Cuban soil belongs to the marines. It was on June the 10th, a few days before the army of General Shafter sailed from Tampa, that a landing was effected by Colonel Huntington's six hundred marines at Caimanera, Guantanamo Bay, some distance east of Santiago. The object of this landing was twofold: first, to secure a place where our war-s.h.i.+ps could safely take on coal from colliers, and, second, to unite if possible with the insurgents in hara.s.sing the Spaniards until General Shafter's army could arrive.
Furthermore, Guantanamo Bay furnished the American s.h.i.+ps a safe harbor in case of storm.
In the whole history of the war few more thrilling pa.s.sages are to be found than the record of this brave band's achievements. The place of landing was a low, round, bush-covered hill on the eastern side of the bay. On the crest of the hill was a small clearing occupied by an advance post of the Spanish army. When the marines landed and began to climb the hill, the enemy, with little resistance, retreated to the woods, and the marines were soon occupying the cleared s.p.a.ce abandoned by them. They had scarcely begun to compliment themselves on their easy victory when they discovered that the retreat had only been a snare to lure them into the open s.p.a.ce, while unfortunately all around the clearing the woods grew thick, and their unprotected position was also overlooked by a range of higher hills covered with a dense undergrowth.
Thus the Spanish were able under cover of the bushes to creep close up to our forces, and they soon began to fire upon them from the higher ground of the wooded range. The marines replied vigorously to the fire of their hidden foe, and thus continued their hit-and-miss engagement for a period of four days and nights, with only occasional intermissions. Perhaps the poor marksmans.h.i.+p of the Spaniards is to be thanked for the fact that they were not utterly annihilated. On the fourth day the Spanish gave up the contest and abandoned the field.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MAJOR-GENERAL FITZHUGH LEE.]
Major Henry C. Cochrane, second in command, states that he slept only an hour and a half in the four days, and that many of his men became so exhausted that they fell asleep standing on their feet with their rifles in their hands. It is remarkable that during the four days the Americans lost only six killed and about twenty wounded. The Spaniards suffered a loss several times as great, fifteen of them having been found by the Americans dead on the field. It is not known how many they carried away or how many were wounded.
THE LANDING OF SHAFTER'S ARMY.
On June 13th troops began to leave Tampa and Key West for operations against Santiago, and on June 20th the transports bearing them arrived off that city. Two days later General Shafter landed his army of 16,000 soldiers at Daiquiri, a short distance east of the entrance to the harbor, with the loss of only two men, and they by accident. Before the coming of the troops the Spanish had evacuated the village of Daiquiri, which is a little inland from the anchorage bearing the same name, and set fire to the town, blowing up two magazines and destroying the railroad roundhouse containing several locomotives. As the transports neared the landing-place Sampson's s.h.i.+ps opened fire upon Juragua, engaging all the forts for about six miles to the west. This was done to distract the attention of the Spanish from the landing soldiers, and was entirely successful. After the forts were silenced the _New Orleans_ and several gunboats sh.e.l.led the woods in advance of the landing troops. The soldiers went ash.o.r.e in full fighting trim, each man carrying thirty-six rations, two hundred rounds of ammunition for his rifle, and a shelter-tent.
While the troops were landing at Daiquiri, the battles.h.i.+p _Texas_, hitherto considered as an unfortunate s.h.i.+p by the attaches of the navy, completely changed her reputation and distinguished herself by a.s.sailing and silencing, unaided, the Spanish battery La Socapa at Santiago, which had hitherto withstood the attacks against it, though all the s.h.i.+ps of Commodore Schley's command had twice fiercely bombarded it without result. Captain Philip and his men were complimented in warm terms of praise by Admiral Sampson. The _Texas_ was struck but once, and that by the last shot from the Spanish fort, killing one man and wounding eight others, seriously damaging the s.h.i.+p.
[Ill.u.s.tration: REAR-ADMIRAL WILLIAM T. SAMPSON.]
THE VICTORY OF THE ROUGH RIDERS.
[Ill.u.s.tration: AMERICANS STORMING SAN JUAN HILL
The most dramatic scene and the most destructive battle of the Spanish War.]
On June 24th the force under General Shafter reached Juragua, and the battle by land was now really to begin. It was about ten miles out from Santiago, at a point known as La Guasima. The country was covered with high gra.s.s and chaparral, and in this and on the wooded hills a strong force of Spaniards was hidden. Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt's Rough Riders, technically known as the First Volunteer Cavalry, under command of Colonel Wood, were in the fight, and it is to their bravery and dash that the glory of the day chiefly belongs. Troops under command of General Young had been sent out in advance, with the Rough Riders on his flank. There were about 1,200 of the cavalry in all, including the Rough Riders and the First and Tenth Regulars. They encountered a body of two thousand Spaniards in a thicket, whom they fought dismounted. The volunteers were especially eager for the fight, and, perhaps due somewhat to their own imprudence, were led into an ambuscade, as perfect as was ever planned by an Indian. The main body of the Spaniards was posted on a hill approached by two heavily wooded slopes and fortified by two blockhouses, flanked by intrenchments of stones and fallen trees.
At the bottom of these hills run two roads, along one of which the Rough Riders marched, and along the other eight troops of the Eighth and Tenth Cavalry, under General Young. These roads are little more than gullies, very narrow, and at places almost impa.s.sable. Nearly half a mile separated Roosevelt's men from the Regulars, and it was in these trails that the battle began.