234 



CUBA. 



the people who did not go into the towns went off, 

 men und women, to join the insurgents. While 

 Maceo's forces were kept on the western side of the 

 trocha Jose Maceo entered Havana province with a 

 large force from Santiago, and was joined by Serafin 

 Sanchez, the bands of Mayia Rodriguez, Lacret, 

 Masso, Aguirre, and other leaders until 18,000 rebels 

 were concentrated on the eastern side of the trocha. 

 Gomez held sway in the province of Santa Clara, 

 where the Spaniards were shut up in Cienfuegos, 

 rallying occasionally to attack the rebel positions 

 on the neighboring hills. Col. Vasquez was killed 

 and his column routed in one of these expeditions. 

 Col. Gonzalez, the insurgent chief of the Remedies 

 district, put to flight the column of Gen. Oliver 

 near Campana by sweeping the ranks with rapid- 

 firing guns placed in ambush. Nearly all the rebel 

 guns were served by American gunners. Wher- 

 ever the Spanish forces went they treated all the 

 men as rebels who were still found on the planta- 

 tions or in the small towns and hamlets. Some of 

 the commanders killed all who fell into their hands ; 

 others who declined to slay unarmed or wounded 

 men delivered their prisoners to Gen. Weyler in 

 Havana, where they were likely to be shot as bandits 

 in accordance with Gen. Weyler's decree. To de- 

 prive the enemy of resources the Spanish columns 

 killed all the cattle and horses that they found. 

 A meeting of 66 young men of Havana who plotted 

 an uprising was betrayed by a woman and sur- 

 rounded by troops, but 50 escaped. Confessions 

 extorted from the prisoners implicated over a hun- 

 dred persons, and these were arrested, among them 

 a Baptist missionary from the United States named 

 Albert Diaz, accused of furnishing the insurgents 

 in the field with medicines, who was afterward ex- 

 pelled from Cuba. Soon after the battle of Lechuza 

 three Spanish columns made a second attempt to 

 dislodge Maceo from his camp, which resulted in 

 their being attacked and defeated separately. The 

 rebels in the vicinity of Havana burned suburban 

 places every night. Vieja Bermeja was in great 

 part reduced to ashes by El Inglesito's band. Ba- 

 tabano was again invaded and partly burned. 



Gen. Inclan attacked the rebels under Delgado 

 and Socorras in a strongly fortified position in the 

 mountain passes at Cacarajicai-a, but was repelled 

 repeatedly. Finally the rebels charged and drove 

 the Spanish back to Bahia Honda with heavy losses. 

 Early in May the rebels captured Punta Brava, 

 compelled the soldiers in the forts to give up their 

 arms and uniforms, and reduced the town to ashes. 

 Gen. Weyler concluded that he could not conduct 

 operations in the interior of Pinar del Rio without 

 depriving the towns of necessary garrisons, the vol- 

 unteers having proved useless. When the decree 

 of amnesty expired on May 13 the Captain General 

 extended it and declared it of effect throughout the 

 island. The offer had thus far proved absolutely 

 fruitless of results. An edict issued on May 15 

 ordered all corn to be delivered at the nearest mili- 

 tary post, to be purchased for the army at current 

 prices or stored for the owners. Corn not thus de- 

 livered within twenty days would be confiscated as 

 contraband of war. The rebel leaders had already 

 issued an edict forbidding any produce to be 

 brought into towns, and this their ubiquitous 

 patrols were able to enforce, even against Havana. 

 An edict that affected the interests of many Amer- 

 icans who hold mortgages on Cuban estates sus- 

 pended for a year all judicial proceedings against 

 planters in regard to their property. A severe en- 

 gagement look place near Consolacion, where Gen. 

 Suarez Valdes drove Maceo from his position, but 

 afterward retired. On June 22 Gen. Melguizo with 

 a large column and 16 field pieces marched out to 

 attack Maceo in the Rubi hills. Maceo fell back 



from one height to another, firing on the Spanish 

 troops whenever they approached until they were 

 so cut to pieces that they retreated, harassed by 

 the rebel cavalry. The trenches dug along the 

 trocha caused so much fever and mortality among 

 the Spanish garrisons that Gen. Arolas called for 

 re-enforcement after the rainy season began. Si- 

 multaneously Gen. Weyler concentrated all his cav- 

 alry and other troops on the eastern border of 

 Havana province to prevent the entrance of Gome/, 

 who was collecting a force in Santa Clara to march 

 again into Matanzas and Havana province to 

 co-operate with Maceo. Calixto Garcia. Collazo, 

 and other leaders who had organized and trained 

 new forces in the eastern provinces marched west- 

 ward to join Gomez. The insurgents blew up two 

 railroad trains and destroyed bridges. Col. Segu- 

 ra's whole battalion was captured by Gomez on May 

 14. Stories of explosive bullets used by the rebels 

 made the Spanish soldiers afraid to go into action. 

 The Cubans said that these were the new brass- 

 capped bullets imported for the Spanish troops 

 which they had captured. 



The volunteers, when ordered to re-enforce the 

 trocha, refused to go to the field. A third advance 

 upon the positions of Maceo in the hills west of the 

 trocha was unsuccessful. After that the Spaniards 

 resumed the defensive. The trocha was guarded 

 by 50,000 men against Maceo's 11,000 rebels. The 

 other half of the Spanish regular army was em- 



Sloyed in garrisoning the principal towns and forti- 

 ed places, guarding lines of communication, and 

 marching in columns through the country with the 

 object of keeping the rebels on the move. In the 

 province of Santiago the rebels under Jose Maceo 

 continued in possession of the greater part of the 

 country. Bands all over the island went no burn- 

 ing cane fields and destroying houses and property. 

 Machinery was destroyed on more than 50 planta- 

 tions. Nowhere were incendiarism and destruction 

 more common than in the immediate neighborhood 

 of Havana. Gen. Oliver evacuated the Remedies 

 district after an encounter with Col. Gonzalez at 

 Santa Rosa, where two dynamite bombs killed a 

 large number of Spanish soldiers and caused the 

 rest to flee in disorder. In June Gen. Gonzalez 

 Mufioz and Gen. Inclan marched into the Tapia 

 hills, had several skirmishes with the rebels, and 

 when the latter retired destroyed all the dwellings 

 and plantations. Maceo caught the Spaniards in 

 an ambush at Vega do Morales when they pursued 

 small bodies that had been attacking the trocha. 



Summer Operations. Although Gen. Weyler 

 boasted that Spanish troops could fight in the mud 

 as well as Cubans, the flooded condition of the coun- 

 try and the deadly climate prevented any large opera- 

 tions, and in the skirmishing and raids that continu- 

 ously went on the rebels were more aggressive than 

 the Spaniards, especially in the east, where the troops 

 had difficulty in preserving their lines of commu- 

 nications and were subjected to damaging attacks 

 when escorting provision trains to their inland posts. 

 Gomez, after conducting a large convoy of newly 

 imported munitions through Santa Clara till they 

 were safe on the way to Antonio Maceo, returned to 

 Xajasa to organize a new army for the winter cam- 

 paign. Calixto Garcia aided in the gathering of 

 new forces, being joined by young men of the best 

 families of Cuba. Whereas in the beginning the 

 majority of the rebel fighting men were blacks, 

 now nearly three fourths were whites, drawn from 

 all classes and supported by the aid and sympathy 

 of nearly the whole community of native Cubans. 

 There were thousands of Spaniards, too. in the rebel 

 ranks, a large proportion of them deserters from the 

 Spanish army. In the eastern districts the rebels 

 were most active, and when the Spanish general-in- 



