The Boys of '98 Part 30

"Through gla.s.ses our infantry could be seen advancing toward this fort. As the cannon at our side would bang, and the sh.e.l.l would swish through the air with its querulous, vicious, whining note, we would watch its explosion, and then turn our attention to the little black specks of infantry dodging in and out among the groups of trees. Now they would disappear wholly from sight in the brush, and again would be seen hurrying along the open s.p.a.ces, over the gra.s.s-covered slopes, or across ploughed fields. The infantry firing was ceaseless, our men popping away continuously, as a string of firecrackers pops.

"The Spaniards fired in volleys against our men. Many times we heard the volley fire, and saw the brave fellows pitch forward and lie still on the turf, while the others hurried on to the next protecting clump of bushes.

"For hours the Spaniards had poured their fire from slits in the stone fort, from their deep trenches, and from the windows of the town. For hours our men answered back from trees and brush and gullies. For hours cannon at our side banged and sh.e.l.ls screamed through air and fell upon fort and town. Always our infantry advanced, drawing nearer and closing up on the village, till at last they formed under a group of mangrove-trees at the foot of the very hill on which the stone fort stood.

"With a rush they swept up the slope and the stone fort was ours. Then you should have heard the yells that went up from the knoll on which our battery stood. Gunners, drivers, Cubans, correspondents, swung their hats and gave a mighty cheer. Immediately our battery stopped firing for fear we should hurt our own men, and, dashing down into the valley, hurried across to take up a position near the infantry, who were now firing on Caney from the blockhouse. The town artillery had not sent half a dozen shots from its new position before the musketry firing ceased, and the Spaniards, broken into small bunches, fled from Caney in the direction of Santiago.

"Laine and I hurried up to the stone fort and found that James Creelman, a _Journal_ correspondent with the infantry column, had been seriously wounded and was lying in the Twelfth Infantry hospital. Our men were still firing an occasional shot, and from blockhouses and isolated trenches, from which the Spaniards could not safely retreat, flags of truce were waving.

"Guns and side-arms were being taken away from such Spaniards as had outlived the pitiless fire, and their dead were being dumped without ceremony into the trenches, after the Spanish fashion.

"When I left the fort to hunt for Creelman, I found him, b.l.o.o.d.y and bandaged, lying on his back on a blanket on the ground, but shown all care and attention that kindly and skilful surgeons could give him. His first words to me were that he was afraid he could not write much of a story, as he was pretty well dazed, but if I would write for him he would dictate the best he could. I sat down among the wounded, and Creelman told me his story of the fight. Here it is:

"'The extraordinary thing in this fight of all the fights I have seen, is the enormous amount of ammunition fired. There was a continuous roar of musketry from four o'clock in the morning until four in the afternoon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VICE-PRESIDENT HOBART.]

"'Chaffee's brigade began the fight by moving along the extreme right, with Ludlow down in the low country to the left of Caney. General Chaffee's brigade consisted of the Seventeenth, Seventh, and Twelfth Infantry, and was without artillery. It occupied the extreme right.

"'The formation was like two sides of an equilateral triangle, Ludlow to the south, and Chaffee to the east.

"'Ludlow began firing through the brush, and we could see through the palm-trees and tangle of bushes the brown and blue figures of our soldiers in a line a mile long, stealing from tree to tree, bush to bush, firing as they went.

"'Up here on the heights General Chaffee, facing Caney, moved his troops very early in the morning, and the battle opened by Ludlow's artillery firing on the fort and knocking several holes in it.

"'The artillery kept up a steady fire on the fort and town, and finally demolished the fort. Several times the Spaniards were driven from it, but each time they returned before our infantry could approach it.

"'Our artillery had but four small guns, and, though they fired with great accuracy, it was ten hours before they finally reduced the stone fort on the hill and enabled our infantry to take possession.

"'The Twelfth Infantry const.i.tuted the left of our attack, the Seventeenth held the right, while the Seventh, made up largely of recruits, occupied the centre.

"'The Spanish fired from loopholes in the stone houses of the town, and, furthermore, were ma.s.sed in trenches on the east side of the fort. They fought like devils.

"'From all the ridges round about the stream of fire was kept up on Chaffee's men, who were kept wondering how they were being wounded. For a time they thought General Ludlow's men were on the opposite side of the fort and were firing over it.

"'The fact was the fire came from heavy breastworks on the northwest corner of Caney, where the princ.i.p.al Spanish force lay, with their hats on sticks to deceive our riflemen. From this position the enemy poured in a fearful fire. The Seventeenth had to lie down flat under the pounding, but even then men were killed.

"'General Chaffee dashed about with his hat on the back of his head like a magnificent cowboy, urging his men on, crying to them to get in and help their country win a victory. Smokeless powder makes it impossible to locate the enemy, and you wonder where the fire comes from. When you stand up to see you get a bullet.

"'We finally located the trenches, and could see the officers moving about urging their men. The enemy was making a turning movement to the right. To turn the left of the Spanish position it was necessary to get a blockhouse, which held the right of our line. General Chaffee detailed Captain Clark to approach and occupy this blockhouse as soon as the artillery had sufficiently harried its Spanish defenders.

"'Clark and Captain Haskell started up the slope. I told them I had been on the ridge and knew the condition of affairs, so I would show them the way.

"'We pushed right up to the trench around the fort, and, getting out our wire-cutters, severed the barbed wire in front of it. I jumped over the severed strand and got into the trench.

"'It was a horrible, blood-splashed thing, and an inferno of agony. Many men lay dead, with gleaming teeth, and hands clutching their throats.

Others were crawling there alive.

"'I shouted to the survivors to surrender, and they held up their hands.

"'Then I ran into the fort and found there a Spanish officer and four men alive, while seven lay dead in one room. The whole floor ran with blood.

Blood splashed all the walls. It was a perfect hog-pen of butchery.

"'Three poor wretches put their hands together in supplication. One had a white handkerchief tied on a stick. This he lifted and moved toward me.

The other held up his hands, while the third began to pray and plead.

"'I took the guns from all three and threw them outside the fort. Then I called some of our men and put them in charge of the prisoners.

"'I then got out of the fort, ran around to the other side, and secured the Spanish flag. I displayed it to our troops, and they cheered l.u.s.tily.

"'Just as I turned to speak to Captain Haskell I was struck by a bullet from the trenches on the Spanish side.'"

Before five o'clock, on the morning of July 2d, the crew of the flag-ship _New York_ was astir, eating a hurried breakfast.

At 5.50 general quarters was sounded, and the flag-ship headed in toward Aguadores, about three miles east of Morro Castle. The other ships retained their blockading stations. Along the surf-beaten sh.o.r.e the smoke of an approaching train from Altares was seen. It was composed of open cars full of General Duffield's troops.

At a cutting a mile east of Aguadores the train stopped, and the Cuban scouts proceeded along the railroad track. The troops got out of the cars, and soon formed in a long, thin line, standing out vividly against the yellow rocks that rose perpendicularly above, shutting them off from the main body of the army, which was on the other side of the hill, several miles north.

From the quarter of the flag-ship there was a signal, by a vigorously wigwagged letter, and a few minutes later, from a clump of green at the water's edge, came an answer from the army. This was the first cooperation for offensive purposes between the army and navy. The landing of the army at Daiquiri and Altares was purely a naval affair.

[Ill.u.s.tration: U. S. S. NEWARK.]

With the flag in his hand, the soldier ash.o.r.e looked like a b.u.t.terfly.

"Are you waiting for us to begin?" was the signal made by Rear-Admiral Sampson to the army.

"General Duffield is ahead with the scouts," came the answer from the sh.o.r.e to the flag-ship.

By this time it was seven A. M. The admiral ran the flag-ship's bow within three-quarters of a mile of the beach. She remained almost as near during the forenoon, and the daring way she was handled by Captain Chadwick, within sound of the breakers, made the Cuban pilot on board stare with astonishment.

The _Suwanee_ was in company with the flag-ship, still closer insh.o.r.e, and the _Gloucester_ was to the westward, near Morro Castle. From the southward the _Newark_ came up and took a position to the westward. Her decks were black with fifteen hundred or more troops.

She went alongside of the flag-ship, and was told to disembark the troops at Altares.

Then Admiral Sampson signalled to General Duffield:

"When do you want us to commence firing?"

In a little while a white flag on sh.o.r.e sent back the answer:

"When the rest of the command arrives; then I will signal you."

It was a long and tedious wait for the ships before the second fifty car-loads of troops came puffing along from Altares.

By 9.30 the last of the soldiers had left the open railroad tracks, disappearing in the thick brush that covered the eastern side of Aguadores inlet.