The War Between Spain and the United States, Part III, Chapters VII-X [pp. 155-173]

THE WAR BETWEEN SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES
paign for the reduction of Santiago was the
assistance of the insurgents in that province. When Lieutenant Rowan made his
daring trip to Garcia's camp in April, he
found about eight thousand troops under
the insurgent general's command. Supplies
were subsequently landed sufficient to enable Garcia to equip fifteen thousand men,
and arrangements were made for the cooperation of the Cuban forces with the
American armies whenever they should begin
the invasion.
When the order to embark the Tampa expedition was given, General Miles, on the
2,, of June, sent a message to General Garcia requesting him:
To move as large a force as possible to the vicinity
of the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, and to co-operate
with our army and navy on their arrival; to drive in
and harass any Spanish troops near Santiago de Cuba,
threatening and attacking them at all points and prevernting any re-inforcements; and pending the arrival
)f our troops, to seize any positions east or west of
Santiago or both, which could be used to advantage
by our artillery.
(General (Garcia received the message on
the 6th of June and sent reply that he
would regard the suggestions as orders.
Hle at once dispatched General Rabi to take
a strong position to the west of Santiago,
and began a concentration of his forces in
the neighborhood of the threatened city.
On the 19th General Garcia himself reached
;eneral Rabi's camp, eighteen miles to the
west of Santiago, and was taken aboard the
flagship New York for a consultation with
Admiral Sampson. He reported that he
brought four thousand troops, leaving three
thousand at Holguin to prevent reinforcements being sent by General Pando to the
Spanish army in Santiago.
In Santiago the Spanish General Linares
had gathered an army of about fifteen
thousand men, and was busy erecting earthworks and mounting guns to command the
land approaches. His forces were well
armed with the Mauser rifle and provided
with smokeless powder, but his food suppl)ies were very deficient. Bread was scarce,
and little grain was to be had. The most
abundant food was rice, but the quantity of
this was so small that even the troops were
on short rations in the early days of June.
The poorer people of the city were able to
obtain but scant fare. General Linares sent
urgent requests to General Pando, the commander of Eastern Cuba, for reinforcements
and supplies. He was able to increase his
garrison somewhat by drawing in the troops
from the outlying towns, but there was no
more food to be had. The efforts of General Pando to drive cattle to relieve the
scarcity of food were frustrated by the
activity of the Cubans.
The embarkation of the troops at Tampa
was completed at last, and at nine o'clock
on the morning of June 14th the first expedition sailed for Cuba under command of
Major-General Shafter. The fleet that bore
the expedition consisted of thirty-five
transports, fourteen convoys, and four tenders. The force carried by the fleet made
a total of 773 officers, and 14,564 enlisted
men, of which 561 officers and 10,709 enlisted men were of the infantry, 159 officers and 2,875 enlisted men were dismounted cavalry. The remainder were of
the artillery, engineers, signal corps, and
the hospital service.
The infantry regiments were the Sixth,
Sixteenth, and Seventy-first New York Volunteers; the Second, Eighth, Ninth, Thirteenth, Twenty-second, and Twenty-fourth
Massachusetts Volunteers; and the First,
Third, Seventh,Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Twentieth Regulars. The cavalry were squadrons from the First, Third,
Sixth, Ninth, and Tenth Cavalry, and four
troops from the f'irst United States Volunteer Cavalry, usually known as the "Rough
Riders." These had been organized by
Theodore Roosevelt while Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and he had resigned his
place to become their Lieutenant-Colonel.
The vessels moved forward in three columns, flanked by the warships, and made
their way slowly down the coast, a magnificent pageant on the summer sea. The first
orders gave a speed of seven knots an hour,
but even this proved too much for some of
the transports, and the lines were broken
time and again. As the fleet took its way
eastward between Florida and Cuba the
speed was reduced to six knots an hour,
and even at this rate the ships with difficulty kept together. The first sight of the
Cuban shore was had on Saturday, the 18th,
when the fleet passed near Cape Lucrecia,
on the north coast of the province of Santiago de Cuba. No Spanish gunboat attempted to attack the scattered lines, and
on the morning of the 20th of June, the
seventh day after the start, the transports
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