766 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



sponse to a demonstration, the inhabitants of that 

 place offered to surrender, but he was too prudent 

 to take possession with his feeble force. Gen. Henry 

 followed with his column of troops to occupy the 

 places that had been willingly surrendered to the 

 reconnoitering party from which the Spaniards ran 

 away. Gen. O. H. Ernst's brigade of Gen. Wilson's 

 division encountered opposition in its advance by 

 the main military road. Leaving Juan Diaz, 13 

 miles from Ponce, on Aug. 4, it took Coamoon Aug. 

 9 after a short but sharp engagement, in which the 

 Spaniards lost their commander and many soldiers 

 and the Americans had 6 men wounded. Near 

 Aybonito the enemy was found intrenched on the 

 hills commanding the pass through the mountains. 

 Gen. Wilson brought up re-enforcements, and after 

 Capt. Potts had shelled the position of the Spaniards, 

 who replied with artillery and musketry fire, killing 

 1 man and wounding 1 officer and 4 men, more ad- 

 vantageous ground was gained for the artillery, 

 which was about to resume the battle on the follow- 

 ing day, Aug. 13, when news of the armistice reached 

 the front and hostilities ceased. A simultaneous ad- 

 vance was made from Arroyo by Gen. Brooke, who 1 

 marched on Aug. 12 with the main body of his 

 troops to Guayama and moved up the enemy's 

 intrenched position in the hills near Cayey in the 

 afternoon of the same day. Just as the dispositions 

 for the attack were completed and the guns were 

 about to open fire orders came to stop all operations. 

 Not one of the movements in Gen. Miles's well- 

 conceived strategic plan was brought to completion, 

 yet every manoeuvre as far as it had gone had been 

 carried out swiftly, smoothly, and harmoniously, 

 precisely as^was intended. Gen. Miles had kept the 

 Spaniards in a state of uncertainty, and while they 

 were withdrawing along the line of the great mili- 

 tary road, destroying bridges behind them to 

 obstruct the road and lortifying strong positions in 

 the mountain passes, they were surprised to see one 

 column of the Americans sweeping round to the 

 west and capturing the principal towns, while 

 another made its way over a mountain trail that 

 was believed to be impassable. Suddenly a strong 

 brigade of Americans appeared near the northern 

 coast at the terminus of the railroad connecting San 

 Juan and Arecibo. The brilliant campaign was 

 already virtually won, and in a few days more all 

 the columns would have been closing in upon San 

 Juan. The positions gained by the United States 

 forces in less than three weeks" had rendered every 

 Spanish post untenable outside of San Juan. The 

 Spaniards had been defeated in six engagements, 

 leaving a large part of the island in the control of 

 the United States troops, who by skillful tactics and 

 good generalship had achieved this with a loss of 3 

 killed and 40 wounded, about a tenth of the enemy's 

 loss in killed, wounded, and captured. 



Actions at Manzanillo and Nipe. After the 

 destruction of Cervera's squadron and the surrender 

 of Santiago, the blockading vessels were at liberty 

 to push the war at other points of the coast with 

 less restraint. Admiral Sampson ordered the flotilla 

 blockading Manzanillo to go in and destroy the 

 shipping there. Under the command of Command- 

 ey Chapman C. Todd the gunboats " Wilmington " 

 and " Osceola " and the auxiliary vessels " Scor- 

 pion," "Hist." "Hornet," " Wompatuck," and "Os- 

 ceola " steamed boldly into the harbor on the morn- 

 ing of July 18 and opened fire upon the Spanish 

 shipping. Several Spanish gunboats came out to 

 meet them, firing briskly but without accurate aim. 

 After two hours and a half the American vessels 

 withdrew, having sunk 3 Spanish gunboats and 

 driven 2 ashore in a disabled state, and destroyed 

 3 transports without a single casualty on their 

 side nor any injury to the vessels. 



On July 21 the "Annapolis," " Topeka," " Wasp," 

 and " Leyden," under the orders of Commander 

 John J. Hunker, entered the harbor of Nipe on the 

 northeast coast of Cuba for the purpose of captur- 

 ing it as a base of operations for the Puerto Rican 

 campaign. As the result of a lively bombardment 

 for an hour the three forts were silenced, the Span- 

 ish gunboat " Jorge Juan " was sunk, the Spanish 

 infantry who fired upon the vessels from various 

 points of vantage were driven away, and the Amer- 

 icans were left in possession of the harbor. The 

 ships received no damage, and not a man was hurt. 



The Taking of Manila. The United Stales 

 Government, after Commodore Dewey's victory, 

 decided to carry on an aggressive military campaign 

 in the Philippines, and to send 12,000 troops to oc- 

 cupy Manila. Major-Gen. Wesley Merritt was 

 assigned to the command of the expedition and 

 appointed Military Governor of the Philippines. 

 The troops of his command, consisting of volunteers 

 from States and Territories west of the Mississippi, 

 and regulars stationed on the Pacific coast, were 

 ordered to a training camp at San Francisco. Gen. 

 Merritt asked for a larger force and one consisting 

 to a great extent of regulars. The first expedition 

 under Brig.-Gen. Francis V.Greene, numbering 158 

 officers and 3,428 men, sailed from San Francisco 

 on May 25 and arrived at Manila on June 30. Brig.- 

 Gen. T. H. Anderson followed with another force 

 on June 3. The United States troops occupied a 

 line of intrenchments in front of Malate, the center 

 of the Spanish position, with their left flank resting 

 on the sea and their right covered by the insurgent 

 forces, who infested the eastern and northern sides 

 of the city completely, and were armed with the 

 weapons they had taken from Cavite arsenal and 

 some that they had imported, in addition to those that 

 the volunteer regiments organized among the natives 

 by Gen. Augustin had taken over to the insurgents 

 when they deserted. The American commanders 

 never had recognized them as allies, and were anxious 

 to have a sufficient force on the spot, not only to com- 

 pel the surrender of Manila, which the ships might 

 have accomplished by a bombardment, but to oppose 

 Aguinaldo's forces if necessary and prevent them 

 from taking and sacking the city. Gen. Merritt 

 arrived with the third expeditionary force under 

 Brig.-Gen. Arthur McArthur on July 31, and on 

 Aug. 4 the monitor " Monterey " joined the fleet. 

 having heavier guns than the 10-inch Krupps that 

 the Spaniards had mounted on the sea front. While 

 waiting behind the breastworks the Americans 

 had repeatedly been subjected to harassing night 

 attacks. Immediately after the American troops 

 occupied the trenches on the sea side, which the in- 

 surgents had been induced by clever negotiation to 

 yield up, and found themselves for the first time 

 immediately in front of the Spanish lines, an as- 

 sault was made on July 28 upon both flanks and in 

 front by 3,000 Spanish, who demoralized the Tenth 

 Pennsylvania by a cross fire and had begun t<> 

 throw into confusion a battery of Utah volunteer 

 artillery, when a battery of the Third Regular Ar- 

 tillery was brought up by Lieut. Krayenbuhl and 

 Lieut. Kessler, which checked the Spaniards as they 

 were sweeping before them a battalion of the Penn- 

 sylvanians that was moving across an open space 

 to re-enforce the right flank. Gen. Greene hastened 

 to the scene, and with another battery of artillery 

 turned the tide of battle and drove the Spaniards 

 to cover. Capt.-Gen. Augustin who had frequently 

 declared that he would resist to the death, when he 

 saw that he could not save the Philippines tor 

 Spain, resigned his authority on July 24 into the 

 hands of Gen. Fermin Jaudenes, and with the per- 

 mission of Admiral Dewey sailed away on a German 

 man-of-war. With Gen. McArthur's division the 



