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

THE WAR BETWEEN SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES
were thus provided with a base of operations
only nine miles from Santiago. General
Wheeler,in command of the advance,ordered
Colonel Wood with the Rough Riders and
General Young with squadrons of the First
and Tenth Regular Cavalry to occupy
Sevilla, four miles nearer to Santiago, on
the morning of Friday the 24th. Both
commands were dismounted cavalry, and
Colonel Wood's men had been landed on
Thursday evening.
The Cuban scouts had brought information that a Spanish force of some size was
at La Quasina, (or Las Guasimas as some
maps have it), on the road to Sevilla, and
the troopers were ordered to dislodge it.
The advance was made in two divisions.
General Young with the Regulars taking
the road at the base of the hills, while
Colonel Wood's command climbed the hills
and took the trails a half mile to the left
and south. The Rough Riders were compelled to march eight miles, and suffered
severely from the heat, thirst,and insufficient
food. The ground over which they passed
was exceedingly rough, and the trail was
lined with thick brier underbrush. Between
half past seven and eight o'clock, at points
three or four miles in advance of Juragua,
both General Young and Colonel Wood were
attacked by the Spanish forces. General
Young was provided with three Hotchkiss
guns, and was able to clear the thicket in
front of him with little loss, though the
Spanish poured in a heavy fire from their
cover. Colonel Wood's command was more
roughly handled. Owing to the steepness
of the ascent, the Hotchkiss guns had to be
left behind, and the difficulties of the path
prevented the throwing out of flanking
scouts. Just as the advance under Captain
Capron reached a point where the trail
opened on a space covered with high grass,
the enemy was developed in force, and from
the thickets and grass began a hot fire on
the troopers. The men were exhausted
with thirst and exertion, and this attack
from the invisible enemy, for a moment
threw them into confusion. They steadied,
however, as their comrades hastened forward, and as the column came up men were
rapidly deployed to right and left. The
Spanish were found to be in position within
two hundred yards, but favored by the
thicket and by the smokeless powder with
which they were provided, it was difficult to
learn their exact location. The American
line was deployed into the open space to the
right, and a detachment under LieutenantColonel Roosevelt thrown into the thicket
to the left. After a sharp fusillade the
mencharged, and the Spanish forcebroke
and ran down the steep hill and up another
hill to a blockhouse on a commanding position, eight hundred yards away. Colonel
Wood and Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt led
an assault on this position, but as the troops
came within five yards the Spanish broke
and ran. The force attacking General
Young had already retreated to this blockhouse, and the American troops were left
masters of the field of battle.
The loss of the Americans was sixteen
dead and fifty-two wounded. Captain Capron of the Rough Riders, and Sergeant
Hamilton Fish, Jr., a grandson of President
Grant's Secretary of State, were killed in
the first attack while the command was
still in disorder. The Spanish loss was
officially stated from Madrid to be a Captain
and seven soldiers killed, and two Lieutenants and twelve men wounded. As the
bodies of thirty-nine Spaniards were found
on the field of battle, the Spanish report
was not generally credited in the American
lines. Refugees from Santiago reported
that seventy-seven were killed and eightynine wounded. The number of Spanish
engaged in this action was reported from
American sources to have been seventeen
hundred. The retreat of this force from
such an advantageous position gave the
American troops a confidence that cost
them dear in the following week.
After the skirmish of La Quasina, General Linares completed the withdrawal of
his troops from the outlying positions,
which he had begun upon the landing of
General Shafter's advance guard. He then
occupied a line from El Caney, a suburb of
Santiago on the north, to Aguadores and
Morro castle on the south.
The American advance was steadily
maintained. On Saturday, the day following the engagement of La Quasina, Generals
Wheeler and Lawton with eight thousand
men occupied Sevilla, and the advanced
posts were pushed rapidly forward without
resistance from the enemy. For a few days
the troops in the advance line suffered for
lack of supplies. The roads from Daiquiri
were not built for the accommodation of
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