The Battle of Santiago

The victory on the hillside cleared the way to the vicinity of Santiago, since the enemy evacuated Sevilla—some miles in advance, where it had been expected a stand in force would be made-on the night of the 24th, and the American army occupied this post without a shot. Here the army was delayed for several days from the difficulty in getting subsistence stores to the front. It was not considered safe to move unless each man had at least three days' rations in his knapsack, and this was impossible in the wretched condition of the roads, which were converted into mud gullies by the frequent rains. Pack-trains alone could get through, and these could supply the army with food only from day to day. To make the road passable for wagon-trains, artillery, and ambulances was a task of the utmost difficulty, which seriously taxed the skill of the engineers and the endurance of officers and men. From Baiquiri the way ran through a tangle of tropical undergrowth and over treacherous swamps bordering streams for a distance of twelve miles. The engineers were kept busy levelling the track, filling pits, and bridging the streams, while a large force with axes, aided by Cubans with machetes, hacked down trees and cleared out the underbrush, widening the narrow way. All this necessarily took time, and kept the army in a waiting state.

Meanwhile, a thorough reconnoissance of the country was being made, which, with information gained from the Cubans, who claimed exact acquaintance with it, enabled a fairly accurate map to be drawn. The daring scouts advanced to the very trenches of the enemy, near enough to hear the sentries on picket duty talking. Lieutenant Smith, of the Fourth Infantry, pushed forward as far as E1 Caney without meeting any Spanish troops, and Captain Wright, of General Bates's staff, followed the line of the railroad from Juragua to within two and a half miles of the city. Lieutenant Blue, of the gunboat Suwanee, repeated his exploit of a fortnight before, making a tour of some sixty miles in extent around the city and again counting the Spanish ships at anchor in the bay. He ventured close up to the enemy's batteries, and at one point in his journey reached a Cuban outpost which faced an outpost of the Spaniards only four hundred yards away. The lieutenant's account of what took place forms a sarcastic commentary upon the character of the former Cuban war.

"They popped away at one another all the time," he said; "but I do not think the Cubans hurt the Spanish very much, and I know the Spanish did not hurt the Cubans."

On June 27 the front rested on the small stream known as the Rio Guama, and extended from the crest of the Sevilla hills for a mile and a half into the interior. General Kent's men lay encamped along the railroad, their advance being not far from Morro Castle. General Lawton's division occupied the road to Santiago, the Third Brigade, which formed the centre, lying across the road and the river, the First Brigade forming the left flank, and the Second Brigade holding the opposite position on the right flank. General Wheeler, with the dismounted cavalry, lay in the rear, between the Sevilla hills and the Rio Guama. At Siboney was a brigade of reinforcements which had just landed from the Yale, and others were hourly expected on the Harvard. Drinking water for the troops was obtained from the Rio Guama, a stream fed by mountain springs and yielding excellent water. The fare, consisting of hardtack, bacon, and coffee, was hardly suited to the climate, and the men could not be kept from eating the great variety of tropical fruits—mangoes, oranges, etc.—which abounded in the woodland, though strict orders had been given to the contrary. Limes and the milk from green cocoanuts were alone considered safe to indulge in, but the attraction of the other fruits proved too great to resist.

General Shafter landed on the 27th, and rode at once to the front, in order to consult with General Wheeler and the division commanders and look over the field of operations. A few cases of sickness had appeared, due to the intense heat of midday, the dampness of the climate, and the inadequate equipment of the troops. The nights were cool, and many of the men seriously felt the need of the blankets and woollen clothing which they had thrown away in the distress of the march, and which the Cubans had hastened to pick up. The inordinate indulgence of many in the forbidden fruits of the country aided in producing sickness, and it became necessary to provide a fixed hospital. This was established at Siboney, trained nurses and the necessary conveniences being landed from the transport Iroquois. The dreaded scourge of yellow fever had not yet appeared among the troops, but some cases were reported by the Cubans, and it might at any time attack the unacclimated Americans.

Though the enemy had withdrawn ftoni their outpost positions, there was reason to believe that a stubborn defence of their interior works would be made. Scouts reported that the top of every hill north and east of the city was occupied by block-houses, whence the movements of the invading army could be observed, while intrenchments were visible on every knoll and bit of high ground fronting the city itself. These trenches were dug to suit the conformation of the ground, over lapping where breaks in the line occurred, thus securing safe retreat to an inner line if an outer trench should be captured. Four parallel lines of rifle-pits, shoulder deep, were reported as existing, in front of which were marked ranges and several rows of barbed-wire fences. The work of defence had been carefully provided for, and to many experienced officers it appeared as if nothing could be done until more artillery was brought up, and that a regular siege might be necessary.

This was not General Shafter's opinion. The situation was a difficult one and delay was dangerous. With a large body of unacclimated men, exposed to hot suns by day and cool winds by night, under tropical rains that kept the ground constantly moist, immediate action seemed imperatively necessary. Sickness threatened, and fever might prove more difficult to combat than the Spaniards with all their rifle-pits and wire fences. And deliberation does not seem to have been General Shafter's idea of war. Whatever might have been done under a more cautious commander, we are only concerned with what was done, and that was to throw the American many upon the Spanish works within a week from the day they completed their landing on Cuban soil.

At set of sun on the closing day of June a general order was issued commanding an advance in force at daybreak on the morrow, and before midnight every man in the army knew that a desperate struggle was at hand. The news put the men in a fever of excitement; cheering and singing banished sleep for the remainder of the night, and from end to end of the line rang the improvised strain—

"There'll be a hot time in Santiago to-morrow."

At four o'clock in the morning of July I, hundreds of bugles rang out the reveille; and before the sun had risen the line was complete. At the extreme left was General Duffield with the Thirty-third Michigan, his command having reached the Aguadores bridge by train. Next to the northeast was General Kent's division, a mile and a half from the sea and held as a reserve force. The centre of the line was held by a cavalry division which, until General Wheeler arrived at noon, was commanded by General Sumner. Owing to General Young's illness, Colonel Wood of the Rough Riders commanded his brigade, which consisted of the First volunteer, the First regular, the Tenth regular, and one battalion of the Ninth regular cavalry, all dismounted with the exception of two troops. On the extreme right was General Lawton's division, fully five miles from the sea.

Military balloons were in use by the signal corps for the purpose of gaining exact information of the location of the enemy and the character of their defences. One Of these was sent up on the morning of the battle, rising over the tree-tops and being guided along three miles of the road towards the lines of the enemy. Photographs were taken of the fortifications as it proceeded, the Spaniards firing at it whenever it halted for this purpose. It approached until it hung over San Juan, not more than five hundred yards from the enemy, who for five minutes vainly sought to puncture it. In the end, however, it was pierced and came down with a run, its mission ended for that day of battle.

THE COUNTRY NEAR SANTIAGO.

The balloon had been of some service, but on the whole did more harm than good. The position of the advancing troops, masked by the bushes from the enemy, was revealed by this trailing globe, which served as a signal to direct the fire of the Spaniards. As a result the advancing lines suffered severely, the observation balloon being responsible for a considerable increase in dead and wounded in the American ranks. The soldiers had nothing but anathemas for this new idea in warfare.

The conflict of July 1 was mainly concentrated about two strong positions of the enemy. General Lawton's division, forming the right wing of the army, faced the picturesque old town of El Caney, a suburban place of residence for wealthy citizens of Santiago, from which it lay about four miles to the northeast. Looking down from the ridge which they occupied, Lawton's men saw in the broad valley below them this quaint old town. The valley was three miles wide. It had been a garden spot in times of peace, but now the abandoned plantations were filled with a rank tropical growth, including numbers of the formerly cultivated cocoanut- and mango-trees. Bordering it on the west rose a low ridge, on which were visible the Spanish barracks and a large red building flying the Red Cross flag. This was the Reina Mercedes Hospital, then the prison of Lieutenant Hobson and his gallant seven. Opposite, on the northern side of the valley, extended a broad plateau, accessible by a good road. This was the key to Santiago, since artillery planted there would command the city. To win it was the purpose of General Lawton's proposed move.

East of the city, in front of Colonel Wood's brigade, lay the village of San Juan, crowning a steep hill which was well fortified and defended by cannon, and which threatened, in the absence of sufficient artillery, to be very difficult to take. Barracks and other buildings occupied the crest. Nearer the coast, where the railroad crossed San Juan River, stood the village of Aguadores, garrisoned by Spanish troops.

The condition of the Americans was excellent. Despite the drenching rains and the hot sun, little sickness had shown itself, and the men were eager for the fight. In preparation for the final assault upon Santiago sixty tried men in each brigade, non-commissioned officers and privates, had been promoted to be wire-clippers, their duty being to precede the firing-line about two or three hundred yards for the purpose of cutting the barbed-wire fences that obstructed the way to the city. Their mission was a most hazardous one, as they would be exposed to the fire of their comrades as well as that of the enemy. But in the general enthusiasm there was no difficulty in obtaining volunteers for this perilous task. The use of barbed wire was a new device in defensive warfare, and could be met only by some such method as this.

The great disadvantage of the army lay in the lack of artillery. The heavy siege-guns were still at Baiquiri. It had proved impossible to convey them over the muddy roads, and General Shafter concluded not to wait for them. The only guns at the front were four batteries of light artillery, sixteen guns in all, where fully five times that many should have been in the line. Of these only eight were actually brought into use. It was a battle in which infantry did the work of artillery, and did it well and nobly, though suffering severely from the lack of guns.

At five o'clock in the morning of the 1st General Lawton's troops were put in motion, preceded by a battery of the First Artillery under Captain Allyn Capron, father of the Captain Capron who fell at La Quasimas. The plan of the battle was for Captain Capron's battery, which held a position in the centre, above General Ludlow, to shell the fort near the town; for General Chaffee to close in as soon as the artillery had reduced the fort and driven the Spaniards towards Santiago; for General Ludlow to lie in the road below the hill on which Captain Capron's battery was stationed and swing in on General Chaffee's left, and for Colonel Miles's brigade to keep close to General Ludlow's right, and by a simultaneous movement sweep the Spaniards in towards Caney. At 6:40 the battery opened fire upon the fort, the first shot falling close by, the second hitting it fairly. This accurate firing was too much for the valor of the garrison, who ran in a body down the hill towards the town. The covered way in front of the fort, however, was held by the Spanish troops, who maintained an obstinate fire upon our men as they advanced slowly through the brush and groves, firing only an occasional shot.

Captain Capron's battery opened on the enemy at once and tore up the ground with shells. A number of these were sent entirely through the fort, tearing down large sections of the walls. This fine marksmanship was of great service, the battery stopping the fire of the Spanish soldiers, who opened repeatedly from the covered- way pits. By eight o'clock General Chaffee's brigade was pressing in towards the town, and the firing at intervals was very warm. It was difficult, however', to see anything of the battle, owing to the rolling nature of the ground and the dense vegetation that obscured the view in almost every direction.

The firing continued heavy, but the Spaniards in the covered way made a most obstinate defence and refused to yield an inch. Time and again the shells from Captain Capron's battery drove them to cover, but as soon as his fire ceased they were up and at it again. In consequence, despite the hot fire of the American troops, they were able to make but little apparent progress during the morning, although eventually they steadily drew in and enclosed the town on all sides.

Up to the middle of the day the Second Massachusetts sustained the heaviest losses, although other regiments were more actively engaged. During the afternoon the conflict continued with the greatest obstinacy, the Spaniards fighting under cover and the Americans in the open. The Spaniards fought with unexpected courage and persistence, clinging to their positions with an unyielding determination that caused great loss on the American side. General Lawton's report emphasizes at once the difficulties overcome by the Americans and the valor of the Spaniards. He says,—

"It may not be out of place to call attention to the peculiar character of the battle, it having been fought against an enemy fortified and intrenched within a compact town of stone and concrete houses, some with walls several feet thick, and supported by a number of covered forts cut in solid stone, and the enemy continuing to resist until nearly every man was killed or wounded,— a desperation apparently predetermined."

At noon it became evident that the fire from the covered way could not be stopped by the artillery alone, and that no permanent advance could be made until the place was taken, and General Lawton decided to capture it by assault. Accordingly he sent a messenger to General Chaffee with instructions to take the position by a charge. General Chaffee thereupon closed in with his men rapidly from the north, while Captain Capron maintained a heavy fire on the fort, keeping the Spaniards in the covered way and making hole after hole in the stone walls. Shortly afterwards he threw a shot from the battery which tore away the flagstaff, bringing the Spanish flag to the ground. It was not raised again.

At three o'clock the advanced line of General Chaffee's skirmishers, the Seventh Infantry, began to appear on the edge of the woods below the fort, and by rapid rushes advanced up the hill towards it. No shot was fired as they swept forward, and it was evident that the covered way had been abandoned. In a few minutes the American troops were thick around the fort, which commanded the north side of the town. The Spaniards were completely surrounded. The main part of the army was between them and Santiago, and General Lawton's division was around them on the other three sides. They retreated to buildings in the town, and made a gallant defence, but from the time General Chaffee's men took the stone fort they were lost troops to Spain.

Rather than attempt to take the town by a general assault, without the aid of artillery, which must certainly result in a great loss of life, General Lawton decided to order forward artillery to shell it at close range. Although the road from the hill to the edge of the town was nearly impassable for artillery, Captain Capron made the effort, and by five o'clock had his guns in position to open upon it.

For some time General Chaffee's brigade held its position behind the stone fort, and then began the descent towards the town, firing rapid volleys as it advanced. General Ludlow and Colonel Miles pressed closely in on the other sides, and at nightfall El Caney was practically in the hands of the Americans, and a large number of prisoners had been taken.

The valley in which this battle was fought was intersected, by several ridges of fifty feet or less in height. Groves of cocoanut- and mango-trees rose here and there, divided by broad fields of grass, often waist-high. It was in crossing the ridges and open spaces that the Americans suffered most severely, and this was particularly the case with Ludlow's and Miles's men, who were compelled to make their final charges across an open space through which the Spanish fire swept with deadly effect.

No finer work has ever been done by soldiers than was done by these brigades as they closed in on the town. The Spanish blazed at them with Mausers and machine-guns but without checking their advance; nothing could stop them. They pushed in closer and closer during the afternoon, and by the time General Chaffee's men were in form Miles and Ludlow were on the skirts of the town, holding on with tenacity and preventing the Spaniards from retreating towards Santiago, while Chaffee closed in on the right.

As evidence of the opinion of American courage entertained by the Spanish, a quotation from the narrative of an officer who took part in the battle will be in place:

"The enemy's fire was incessant, and we answered with equal rapidity. I have never seen anything to equal the courage and dash of those Americans, who, stripped to the waist, offered their naked breasts to our murderous fire, and literally threw themselves on our trenches, on the very muzzles of our guns.

"Our execution must have been terrible. We had the advantage of our position and mowed them down by the hundreds, but they never retreated or fell back an inch. As one man fell shot through the heart, another would take his place, with grim determination and unflinching devotion to duty in every line of his face. Their gallantry was heroic. We wondered at these men, who fought like lions and fell like men, courting a wholesale massacre, which could well have been avoided had they only kept up their firing without storming our trenches."

On the extreme left General Duffield had begun the day's fighting by an attack on the coast village of Aguadores, in which he was aided by the fire of the war vessels New York, Gloucester, and Suwanee, which actively shelled the fort and the rifle-pits, driving all the Spaniards from the vicinity. The railroad bridge which crossed the little San Juan River was down, and the troops were unable to occupy the town, though the Spaniards did not seem inclined to hold it.

Meanwhile, a hot engagement had been in progress at San Juan, between Aguadores and El Caney and on the main road from Siboney to Santiago. Here was, as has been said, a steep hill, strongly fortified, and likely to be very difficult to take in the absence of sufficient artillery. On the morning of July I Wheeler's cavalry division moved forward by the Santiago road and formed its line with its left near the road, and Kent's infantry division did the same, its right joining the left of the cavalry division. The men were all compelled to wade the San Juan River to get into line, and this they did under a very heavy infantry and artillery fire from the Spanish works on the crest of the hill, which rose before them some three hundred feet high. Men and officers fell in numbers as they emerged into the open space in full view of the enemy, and their position became a very trying one.

A charge by these troops seems not to have been contemplated, they being held in column on the road to reinforce General Lawton, if necessary, while Grimes's battery made a diversion on the left. But when the Spanish guns began to drop shells over the road which they occupied, and when word of General Lawton's success reached them, a movement of advance or retreat became necessary. Anything was better than to remain where they were. It was, as we have before said, the observation balloon, which was drawn forward by the troops as they advanced and hung in the air above them, that directed the fire of the Spanish artillerymen, whose shells reached the waiting columns in the road and caused severe loss.

Grimes's battery took a position in the little town of EI Paso, from which the Spaniards had been driven by the sharp musketry fire of the cavalry division, and from here it protected the advance by pouring a steady fire into the Spanish works.

The line was no sooner formed than an advance began, as if by a general impulse. The men simply could not stand at rest under the punishment they were receiving. "It was evident," said General Wheeler in his report, "that we were as much under fire in forming the line as we could be by an advance, and I therefore pressed the command forward from the covering under,.,hicl1 it was formed. It emerged into open space in full view of the enemy, who occupied breastworks and batteries on the crest of the hill which overlooks Santiago, officers and men falling at every step. The troops advanced gallantly, soon reached the foot of the hill, and ascended, driving the enemy from their works and occupying them on the crest of the hill. To accomplish this required courage and determination of a high order on the part of the officers and men, and the losses were very severe."

In the charge of the Rough Riders, Colonel Roosevelt led the way, the only mounted man in the line. It was little short of a miracle that he came through that desperate charge alive. In truth, the whole line behaved with the most conspicuous gallantry, and that wild climb up a steep hill in the face of a murderous fire was one of the most courageous actions ever performed by American troops. Apparently, the Spanish, though well capable of bearing punishment when intrenched, could not stand such a charge. In the reports of the battle from Santiago the American troops were claimed to have been beaten, the Spaniards retiring only because the Americans "persisted in fighting." Evidently they belonged to the class of men who "do not know when they are whipped."

C. E. Hand, the correspondent of the London Daily Mail, thus graphically describes the taking of the San Juan heights, as seen by him from a distance:

"When afternoon came—I lost exact count of time—there was still a jumble of volleying over by Caney. But in front our men were away out of sight behind a ridge far ahead. Beyond there arose a long, steepish ascent, crowned by the block-house upon which artillery had opened fire in the morning.

"Suddenly, as we looked through our glasses, we saw a little black ant go scrambling quickly up this hill, and an inch or two behind him a ragged line of other little ants, and then another line of ants at another part of the hill, and then another, until it seemed as if somebody had dug a stick into a great ants' nest down in the valley, and all the ants were scrambling away uphill. Then the volley firing began ten times more furious than before; from the right beyond the top of the ridge burst upon the ants a terrible fire of shells; from the block-house in front of them machine-guns sounded their continuous rattle. But the ants swept up the hill. They seemed to us to thin out as they went forward; but they still went forward. It was incredible, but it was grand. The boys were storming the hill. The military authorities were most surprised. They were not surprised at these 'splendid athletic dare-devils of ours doing it, but that a military commander should have allowed a fortified and intrenched position to be assailed by an infantry charge up the side of a long, exposed hill, swept by a terrible artillery fire, frightened them, not so much by its audacity as by its terrible cost in human life.

"As they neared the top the different lines came nearer together. One moment they went a little more slowly, then they nearly stopped, then they went on again faster than ever, and then an of us sitting there on the top of the battery cried with excitement. For the ants were scrambling all round the block-house on the ridge, and in a moment or two we saw them inside it. But then our hearts swelled up into our throats, for a fearful fire came from somewhere beyond the block-house and from somewhere to the right of it and somewhere to the left of it. Then we saw the ants come scrambling down the hill again. They had taken a position which they had not the force to hold. But a moment or two and up they scrambled again, more of them, and more quickly than before, and up the other face of the hill to the left went other lines, and the ridge was taken, and the block-house was ours, and the trenches were full of dead Spaniards.

PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF SANTIAGO.

"It was a grand achievement,—for the soldiers who shared it,—this storming of the hill leading up from the San Juan River to the ridge before the main fort. We could tell so much at two thousand five hundred and sixty yards. But we also knew that it had cost them dear. Later on we knew only too well how heavy the cost was."

At nightfall the Americans held every point for which they had fought, and two thousand prisoners were in their hands, the fruits of the capture of El Caney. General Lawton occupied the plateau on the north, Generals Kent and Wheeler held the position at San Juan, and Aguadores had been evacuated by the enemy. The army had fought its way across two and a half miles of strongly fortified and hotly contested country, and reached a position in which its guns commanded the city of Santiago. In this work nearly the entire army had been engaged, with four thousand of Garcia's Cuban auxiliaries. But this success had not been gained without severe loss, hundreds of killed and wounded attesting the valor with which the Americans had fought and the persistency with which the Spaniards had held their ground.

The Spanish retreat from the crest of San Juan hill was precipitate, but the men were too exhausted to follow, while their shoes were soaked with water from wading the San Juan and their clothes were drenched with rain. It was afterwards asserted that had the pursuit been continued the demoralized Spaniards would have surrendered that night, but a pursuit was physically impossible. Yet, despite the exhausted condition of the men, they labored during the night in erecting breastworks, doing their best to excavate the rocky soil with shovels and picks. General Wheeler was appealed to by many officers to withdraw and take up a stronger position farther back, his lines being so thin on account of his losses during the day, and his men so worn out that it seemed doubtful if they could hold their own against an assault. He refused, however, fearing to lose prestige for the troops by a reverse movement.

At dawn on Saturday the battle began again, the Spaniards making a desperate effort on that day to regain the positions they had lost. The four batteries of artillery were placed in position, and opened fire on the San Juan quarter of the city and the works in front of the American right. One of these batteries, that of Major Diffenbach, was advanced to a position within four hundred yards of the Spanish lines, where it was exposed to so hot a fire that the men could load only while lying down, and were soon forced to withdraw. The fleet in the harbor added to the din of battle, Admiral Cervera sending in many shells which exploded close to the intrenchments. Admiral Sampson also took part in the work, his great guns at intervals sending shells which exploded within the city limits.

On this day the Americans fought mainly on the defensive, holding the earthworks which they had thrown up during the night, and from which the enemy sought in vain to dislodge them. At about ten o'clock the Spanish infantry made a vigorous charge upon the American lines, driving back the men in one or two places. But they quickly rallied, and in turn drove the enemy into their trenches, numbers of them falling before the hot rifle-fire of the American troops. The loss this day was small, as the men fought mainly under cover. The Spaniards lost heavily. One result of the morning's fight was the capture of two hundred Spanish soldiers and sixty-two officers, who were marched to the rear with the prisoners of the day before.

An element of the fight that exasperated the men was the discovery of many sharp-shooters in the trees along the trail. The courage of these guerillas cannot be over-estimated, as they were absolutely cut oft from their own forces, but their barbarity is beyond belief. They kept up a steady fire on a dressing-station of the field hospital, and before their hiding-places were discovered had killed and wounded many surgeons and others of the hospital corps, besides soldiers who were already wounded. A detail was sent into the woods to scout for these men, and a number of them were discovered in the branches of trees and disposed of. Their programme also included picking off officers and aides passing beneath them along the trail. For a long time their fire was supposed to be spent bullets of the enemy.

On the 3rd the army rested, so far as the fire of the enemy would permit. The lack of artillery prevented any farther advance, and little reply was made to the infantry fire during the night. The situation was as follows: Santiago rises from the harbor to the crest of a long hill, three-quarters of a mile back from which rise the hills of San Juan, which were held by our army. El Caney and the commanding plateau to the north were in American possession. In these positions the troops had strongly intrenched themselves, but they were nearly exhausted from their long and severe struggle in the heat and rain, and from the lack of sleep and of food. Their position would have been a critical one had the enemy been in any condition for an assault in force. But they had suffered still more severely than the Americans, and equally needed rest and recuperation.

HOW THE AMERICAN SOLDIERS FOUGHT AT SANTIAGO.

This battle was fought with the general in command invalided two miles in the rear. He had been overcome by the heat on the day before its opening, and lay in his tent. General Wheeler was also sick, but rose from his bed and reached the front about noon. The losses of the three days' fight, as reported by General Shafter, were 21 officers and 205 men killed, 77 officers and 1197 men wounded, 84 men missing, making a total of 1584. The Spanish loss was much heavier, as they clung to their rifle-pits until they were shot dead in windrows. General Linares, their commander-in-chief, was badly wounded, and General Vara del Rey, their second in command, was killed upon the field.

The work of the American soldiers in this desperate conflict was of the most admirable character. Not a man of them had ever faced an army in battle before. They were very largely raw troops, only about two months in service. They confronted an enemy their equal in numbers and strongly posted in intrenchments and rifle-pits, which they held with obstinate energy. They were sadly deficient in artillery and had to trust mainly to the rifle and the bayonet. Yet, with a vim and valor which foreign observers designated as superb, they rushed upon the works of the foe, pushing forward with grim determination, never for a moment giving way, inspired apparently by the single thought that they were there to win the posts of the enemy, and must do it through blood and death, and persisting until all these posts were in their hands, their defenders dead, captive, or in flight. It was truly a remarkable instance of American courage and self-reliance, and the battle of Santiago must take its place in history among the most glorious of those in which American soldiers have fought.