The Siege and Fall of Santiago

On July 3, at 8:30 A.M., General Shafter sent a flag of truce to the Spanish lines with a letter, in which he threatened to shell Santiago unless surrender was made, and gave until ten o'clock of the next morning for the removal of the women and children and the citizens of foreign countries. This was no empty threat, for the positions gained during the battle of the 1st and 2nd had given his batteries command of the city, which lay under his guns. General Jose Toral, who had succeeded to the command of the Spanish forces on account of the serious wounding of General Linares, replied that he would not surrender, but would inform the consuls and people of the permission to remove. At the request of the foreign consuls, the bombardment was deferred until noon of the 5th, it being stated that fifteen thousand or more people, many of them old, would probably leave the city.

The offer to escape was gladly taken advantage of by the people of Santiago, particularly by those of foreign birth, and during the next day there was a pitiful scene as the fugitives swarmed in hosts out of the city and trudged wearily over the road to El Caney, San Luis, and other towns in the vicinity. All day long the hegira continued, the fugitives struggling painfully onward under the blazing sun, and over a road in many places ankle-deep in mud. Tottering old men and women supported by their children, mothers carrying their infants, rich and poor, white and black, cultured and ignorant, all fled in terror from the horrors of an expected bombardment that was never to come.

Most of them made their way to El Caney, in which town, with accommodations for not more than five hundred people, over five thousand slept that night, crowded into the deserted houses and camping out on the verandas and in the rain-soaked streets. At dawn of the next day hundreds who had been overtaken on the road by the darkness began to come in, and the flood continued until a multitude of fugitives, estimated at fifteen thousand, overflowed the little town. They had not been permitted to bring food, and there was none in the town, so that those with money were as destitute as those without. Pathetic sights were to be seen on all sides. Ladies of good birth, supported by frail girls, came feebly into the town, seeking to hide their faces from the vulgar gaze of the ignorant and coarse who surged about them. Despair filled all countenances, hunger threatened the miserable multitude with death, the scene being a reproduction on a minor scale of the results of General Weyler's brutal reconcentration order.

MAJ-GEN. WILLIAM R. SHAFTER.

General Shafter was appealed to for the support of the miserable throng. This he was not well able to afford, but promised to give them a limited daily supply of food, the necessities of the troops and the difficulty of getting supplies to the front standing greatly in the way of his feeding this starving multitude. In this dilemma, Clara Barton and the Red Cross officials did noble work, making the most earnest efforts to feed the starving. But it was a difficult task, the tides and the surf standing greatly in the way of landing supplies, while transportation was very difficult to obtain, and the roads between the landing-place and the front were almost impassable.

The wounded in the late battle were in as deplorable state as the refugees. The field hospitals were unadequately supplied with the simplest necessaries for the care of the sick,—medicines, beds, tents, all requisites being greatly lacking. In many cases only the packages of "first aid for the wounded" which the the soldiers carried with them, were available, while the wounded, on being taken from the operating-tables, had to be laid on the ground, often without a blanket between them and the rain-soaked soil or shelter from the scorching Cuban sun.

The result of unfortunate state of affairs was a new hegira, many of the wounded painfully dragging themselves down the long, winding, muddy road to Siboney, where the general hospital had been established, the field hospitals being devoted to those too badly hurt to be moved. Improvised ambulances, principally composed of army-wagons, were crowded with men who could not walk, and whose ride over the rutted roads in these rough vehicles was an awful experience. But of these there was not enough, and numbers of feeble, bullet-pierced unfortunates were forced to drag themselves on foot along that dreary road, which wound for a distances of eight miles around the bases of the hills, and several miles farther for those who set out frem El Caney.

Nor was the weary drag of the wounded over this wheel-scarred and water-soaked trail all that hadd to be endured. Ruthless Spanish guerillas lay hid in the branches of trees that lined the way, and whistling bullets added to the terrors of that dreadful journey. The sharp-shooting was not very straight, but now and then a wounded soldier was killed. The vandals, however, did not do their heartless work with impunity. Some of the men had brought their rifles and fired back at the flash. One of these tells that he took the rifle of a fallen man and fired in succession from different points to give the impression that there were men in the lines able to shoot in all directions. All night long and until the middle of the next day the dreadful march kept up, many of the bleeding plodders ending their life's march on that terrible road. It formed a painful epilogue to a day of battle and blood.

A striking feature of the case was the cheerfulness with which the soldiers endured their painful journey. In evidence of this, we cannot do better than quote from a correspondent of the London Daily Mail:

"Besides the wagons there came along from the front men borne on hand-litters, some lying face downward, writhing at intervals in awful convulsions, others lying motionless on the flat of their backs, with their hats placed over their faces for shade. And there also came men, dozens of them, afoot, painfully limping, with one arm thrown over the shoulders of a comrade and the other arm helplessly dangling.

"'How much farther to the hospital, neighbor?' they would despairingly ask.

"'Only a quarter of a mile or so, neighbor,' I would answer; and, with a smile of hope at the thought that, after all, they would be able to achieve the journey, they would hobble along.

"But the ammunition-wagons and the few ambulance wagons did not carry them all. For hobbling down the steep bank from the hospital came bandaged men on foot. They sat down for awhile on the bank, as far as they could get from the jumble of mules and wagons in the lane, and then, setting their faces towards Siboney, they commenced-to walk it. They were the men whose injuries were too slight for wagon-room to be given them. There was not enough wagon-accommodation for the men whose wounds rendered them helplessly prostrate. So let the men who had mere arm and shoulder wounds, simply flesh-wounds, or only one injured leg or foot, walk it: Siboney was only eight miles away.

"True, it was a fearfully bad road, but then the plain fact was that there was not enough wagons for all, and it was better for these men to be at the base hospital, and better that they should make room at the division hospital, even if they had to make the journey on foot.

"There was one man on the road whose left foot was heavily bandaged and drawn up from the ground He had provided himself with a sort of rough crutch made of the forked limb of a tree, which he had padded with a bundle of clothes. With the assistance of this and a short stick he was paddling briskly along when I overtook him.

"'Where did they get you, neighbor?' I asked him.

"Oh, durn their skins!' he said, in the cheerfullest way, turning to me with a smile; 'they got me twice,—a splinter of a shell in the foot, and a bullet through the calf of the same leg when I was being carried back from the firing-line.'

"'A sharp-shooter?'

"'The fellow was up in a tree. '

"'And you're walking back to Siboney. Wasn't there room for you to ride?'

"I expected an angry outburst of indignation in reply to this question. But I was mistaken. In a plain, matter-of-fact way, he said,—

'"'Guess not. They wanted all the riding-room for worst cases 'n mine. Thank God, my two wounds are both in the same leg, so I can walk quite good and spry. They told me I'd be better oft down at the landing yonder; so I got these crutches and made a break.'

"'And how are you getting along?' I asked. "'Good and well,' he said, as cheerfully as might be; 'just good and easy.' And with his one sound leg and his two sticks he went cheerfully paddling along.

"It was just the same with other walking wounded men. They were all beautifully cheerful. And not merely cheerful. They were all absolutely unconscious that they were undergoing any unnecessary hardships or sufferings. They knew now that war was no picnic, and they were not complaining at the absence of picnic fare. Some of them had lain out all the night, with the dew falling on them where the bullets had dropped them, before their turn came with the overworked field surgeons.

"'There were only sixty doctors with the outfit,' they explained, 'and, naturally, they couldn't tend everybody at once.'

'"That seemed to them a quite sufficient explanation. It did not occur to them that there ought to have been more doctors, more ambulances. Some of them seemed to have a faint glimmering of a notion that there might perhaps have been fewer wounded; but then that was so obvious to everybody. The conditions subsequent to the battle they accepted as the conditions proper and natural to the circumstances. The cheerful fellow with the improvised crutches was so filled with thankfulness at the possession of his tree-branch that it never occurred to him that he had reason to complain of the absence of proper crutches. I happened by chance to know that packed away hi the hold of one of the transports lying out in Siboney Bay there were cases full of crutches, and I was on the point of blurting out an indignant statement of the fact when I remembered that the knowledge would not make his walk easier. So I said nothing about it."

The impossibility of supplying the many thousands of refugees at El Caney with army rations soon started a new movement towards the army base at Siboney, and within a day or two thousands of these miserables were plodding along the muddy road in the trail of the wounded, women, and children, dragging wearily on, staggering and slipping under the burdens they bore, and ready to endure any privations to escape from the horrors of a bombarded city. Fortunately, nature provided one alleviation from the suffering which all endured. The woods were fun of mango-trees, bountifully laden With fruit, then ripe and at its best. This fruit is of the size and shape of a pippin apple, of a deep yellow color, and rich and luscious in taste. Just then it was the most precious of nature's gifts.

WOUNDED AT SIBONEY, AFTER THE ROUGH RIDER CHARGE.

The truce which had been granted in order that noncombatants might leave the city was extended for more than a week in hope that the Spaniards might by a surrender avoid the necessity of further bloodshed. There was no truce, however, in the preparations for attack and defence. Active measures for bombardment were taken on the American side, new batteries being brought up from the rear and planted in commanding positions. Three of these were posted on El Paso ridge, twenty-four hundred yards from the city, while the batteries of Captains Capron and Grimes, which had done such good service in the battle, were placed in the rear of General Lawton's division, fifteen hundred yards north of the road. In firing they would have to shell the town over the heads of the troops; but this could be safely done from their elevated position.

Twelve mortars had been brought to the front, and were mounted in a battery ready for use. A dynamite gun which had played its part in the battle of San Juan was depended upon to do effective work in the coming bombardment, its twenty-pound charges of gun-cotton being likely to cause havoc in the Spanish trenches. The navy was also expected to play an imposing part in case hostilities were reopened, Admiral Sampson promising to drop a shell into the city every five minutes, or every two minutes if deemed necessary.

On the Spanish side similar activity was displayed, the trenches being deepened and extended and guns mounted in position for active work. Some of these guns were of much heavier caliber than any the American army had been able to get to the front, but many of them were of antiquated pattern and not likely to do serious damage. There were, however, a fair show of modern guns, capable of excellent performance, and the works of defence were very strong. The principal weakness was a deficiency of food and water. The main aqueduct leading to the city was cut by the Americans on the 11th, yielding them an abundance of excellent water of which they had deprived the enemy.

At the end of the truce the American lines extended around the city in the shape of a horseshoe, five miles in length. The side of the hills facing the city was a succession of bomb-proof rifle-pits, trenches, and redoubts, looking like the openings of so many mines, and threatening to turn the Spanish works into pits of death. General Garcia, with the Cubans, hitherto of little service, had been thrown out on the roads of approach from the west to cut off reinforcement seeking to enter the city, which was not invested on that side, and it seemed to be but a question of hours when surrender would become inevitable.

General Toral, acting commander-in-chief, was fully aware of his desperate position, and at noon on the 9th, the hour fixed for the beginning of the bombardment, sent a flag of truce to the American lines with an important proposition. The little group of officers under the flag were met and escorted to comfortable quarters, while the letter they bore was taken to General Shafter's tent, two miles in the rear. It conveyed an offer from General Toral to surrender the city, provided his army might capitulate "with honor." This, he stated, meant that they should march from the city with colors flying and arms in hand, and go unmolested whither they would. Surrender under any other conditions, he said, was impossible and could not be considered.

This proposal Shafter unhesitatingly refused, but agreed to extend the truce until Sunday at noon, so that he might communicate with his government. During Sunday he notified General Toral that no terms but unconditional surrender could be granted. These the Spanish general declined to consider, and at four o'clock, to which hour the truce had been extended, a fire from the Spanish trenches began. It was answered from the American works, and until dark a hot fire was kept up, the fleet joining in from its position five miles away, and for an hour dropping shells at intervals of two minutes. Most of these, however, fell short and wasted their energy on the waters of the bay, the intervening cliffs, over which the shells had to be thrown, preventing the guns from doing their best work. The Spanish return to the severe American fire was so weak that fear was entertained that the enemy might have withdrawn from the city, leaving a few men in the trenches. Shafter's army, on the contrary, had been strongly reinforced during the truce, and now numbered nearly twenty-six thousand men, of whom about twenty-three thousand were available for duty.

The bombardment continued on Monday, the 11th, the army and navy joining in the work, while the reply from the Spanish guns continued very weak. Step by step the Americans advanced, entering several of the Spanish trenches, in which they found no soldiers and only dummy wooden guns. At one P.M. the booming of the guns ceased, and Shafter again sent a flag of truce into the city, once more demanding its unconditional surrender. While he awaited a reply he extended his lines on the north down to the bay, thus completing the investiture of the place and placing a barrier of American guns between the Spaniards in the city and any reinforcements which might seek to enter from the west. This line, as yet a thin one, was composed of General Lawton's division, whose flank occupied the little town of Caimenes, on the harbor's edge, the trenches vacated by Lawton's men being occupied by reinforcements from; uragua. Ten batteries of light artillery had also been landed, and were ordered to be rushed to the front.

General Toral delayed his reply to General Shafter's demand until eight o'clock on the morning of the 12th, when he sent a defiant message, saying in effect that if the Americans wanted Santiago they could come and take it. Unconditional surrender, he declared, was unreasonable and impossible, and he was ready to meet an attack whenever the invading army chose to make one. The white flag which had been flying over the city during the truce was withdrawn, and defiance was the order of the day.

General Shafter accepted this reply as final, and, while not ordering an immediate bombardment, he made rapid preparations for a severe struggle. In truth, the state of the weather was far from favorable to active operations. For two days the army had learned to the full what is meant by the rainy season in Cuba, fierce thundershowers coming in rapid succession with an almost incessant downpour of rain. The rifle-pits and trenches were flooded, and the men who sought to sleep under their shelter-tents were drenched to the skin, the canvas proving unable to keep out the pitiless floods of rain. Cooking was impossible; not a stick of dry wood could be found. There was nothing to eat but hardtack. The trail to the front was in a frightful condition, the streams and the fords being swollen and the soft soil everywhere cut into deep ruts by the wheels of the supply-wagons. Through this violent tropical storm General Miles, commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States, who had just landed, rode to the front, his horse in many places sinking to its knees in the mud as it toiled despondently onward. Bad as conditions were in the American camp, they were still worse in that of the refugees, for whom it had become next to impossible to provide food, and most of whom were exposed without shelter to the drenching floods.

The bad conditions in the American army due to the rains were added to by the yellow fever, which had broken out in the camps, probably through infection from some of the refugees. General Miles found the buildings at Siboney so shockingly lacking in sanitary conditions that he had them set on fire as the most available means of cleaning them, several wooden buildings, including the one he had himself temporarily occupied, being reduced to ashes. The debris  being removed, fresh, clean tents were provided, with a ditch around each to carry oft the rain. To these the sick were removed. The wounded, except those who were only slightly hurt, had already been placed on hospital-ships for conveyance to the cooler climate of the north.

MAJ-GEN. NELSON A. MILES

On reaching the front, General Miles showed no intention of superseding General Shafter in command, but, in fear of a possible epidemic of yellow fever, pressed for an immediate settlement of the surrender question. As a final attempt at a peaceable solution of the problem, an offer was made to General Torat, under sanction from the government, to send all his troops, if surrendered, back to Spain. At eight o'clock on Wednesday, the 13th, Generals Miles and Shafter, with their respective stafts, rode to the front under a flag of truce and sent a request to General Toral for a personal interview. This was acceded to, and at nine o'clock Miles, Shafter, Wheeler, and others of the American commanding officers crossed the intrenchments and rode into the valley beyond. Here they were met by General Toral and his chief of staff under a spreading mango-tree midway between the lines, and an interview of an hour's length took place.

Toral was offered the alternative of being sent home with his army or of leaving Santiago province with his troops, but without their arms. He replied that he had no discretion. He had been granted permission by his government to evacuate Santiago, but nothing more. He could accept no other terms without permission from Madrid. He was accordingly given until noon of the 14th for a final answer.

"If he refuses," said General Shafter on his return, "I will open on him at twelve o'clock to-morrow with every gun I have, and will have the assistance of the navy, which is ready to bombard the city with 13-inch shells." Evidently the case had reached a climax. On the previous day the wounded General Linares, the Spanish commander-in-chief, had telegraphed an urgent appeal to Madrid, showing clearly the hopelessness of the situation. They had but half forage for the horses and no food but rice for the men, he said. The works were so thinly held that even the sick had to serve in the trenches. It would be impossible, in their weakened condition, to break through the enemy's lines, and there was no hope of aid from without. He drew a pathetic picture of the condition of the men under his command, and made a moving appeal for authority to obtain what terms they could, ending with the usual rodomontade that they would all die in their tracks if ordered to do so.

This and Toral's appeal brought Madrid to its senses. The proposed bombardment did not take place, being prevented by an agreement to surrender on the terms proposed. "Santiago surrendered at three," came the significant despatch to the President at Washington, and soon the exhilarating news passed from end to end of the land. The strained situation at Santiago was at an end, and what seemed to many the decisive turning-point in the war was reached.

Shortly after midnight, on the morning of July 15, the preliminary basis for the capitulation of the Spanish forces in Eastern Cuba was agreed to and signed under a picturesque cieba-tree half-way between the lines. Efforts to obtain further delay and further consent from Madrid had been made, but the American commissioners insisted upon final action then and there, only consenting to substitute the word "capitulation" for the harsher word "surrender." As for Toral's desire to take the arms of his men back to Spain, as a concession to Spanish honor, the utmost the commissioners would do was to offer to recommend it to Washington. With this understanding the papers were signed. The conference had lasted, with intermissions, from two o'clock in the afternoon until midnight. Further delay followed, due to Toral's desire to obtain an authorization of his action from Madrid. It duly came, Sagasta, the Spanish prime minister, being fully convinced that a longer struggle in that quarter was useless and perilous, and on the morning of the 16th the following letter, couched in English "as she is wrote" in Spain, reached the American lines:

"SANTIAGO DE CUBA, July 16

"To HIS EXCELLENCY, Commander-in-Chief of the American forces

"EXCELLENT SIR,—I am now authorized by my government to capitulate. I have the honor to so apprise you, and requesting that you design the hour and place where my representatives shall appear to compare with those of your excellency to effect the articles of capitulation, on the basis of what has been agreed upon to this date in due time. I wish to manifest my desire to know the resolutions of the United States government respecting the return of army, so as to note on the capitulations, also the great courtesy of your great graces and return for the great generosity and impulse for the Spanish soldiers, and allow them to return to the peninsula with the honors the American army do them the honor to acknowledge as dutifully descended.

"JOSE TORAL, General Commanding Fourth Army Corps."

The receipt of this letter was followed by the following despatch from Shafter to Washington:

"HEADQUARTERS NEAR SANTIAGO, July 15,

"ADJUTANT-GENERAL U.S. ARMY, Washington.

"The conditions of capitulation include all forces and war-material in described territory. The United States agrees, with as little delay as possible, to transport all Spanish troops in district to kingdom of Spain, the troops, as far as possible, to embark near to the garrisons they now occupy. Officers to retain their side-arms, and officers and men to retain their personal property. Spanish authorized to take military archives belonging to surrendered district. All Spanish forces known as volunteers, Moirilizadves, and guerillas who wish to remain in Cuba may do so under parole during present war, giving up their arms. Spanish forces march out of Santiago with honors of war, depositing their arms at a point mutually agreed upon, to await disposition of the United States government, it being understood United States commissioners will recommend that the Spanish soldiers return to Spain with arms so bravely defended. This leaves the question of return of arms entirely in the bands of the government I invite attention to the fact that several thousand surrendered, said by General Toral to be about twelve thousand, against whom a shot has not been fired. The return to Spain of the troops in this district amounts to about twenty-four thousand, according to General Toral.

"W. R. SHAFTER, U.S. Volunteers."

At nine o'clock in the evening a further message was made public at the White House, saying: "The surrender has been definitely settled, and the city will be turned over to-morrow morning, and the troops will be marched out as prisoners of war. The Spanish colors will be hauled down at nine o'clock and the American flag hoisted." In response. President McKinley and Secretary Alger thanked the victorious general and army in the following congratulatory words:

"To GENERAL SHAFTER, Commanding, Front, near Santiago, Playa.

"The President of the United States sends to you and your brave army the profound thanks of the American people for the brilliant achievements at Santiago, resulting in the surrender of the city and all of the Spanish troops and territory under General Toral. Your splendid command has endured not only the hardships and sacrifices incident to the campaign and battle, but in stress of heat and weather has triumphed over obstacles which would have overcome men less brave and determined. One and all have displayed the most conspicuous gallantry and earned the gratitude of the nation. The hearts of the people turn with tender sympathy to the sick and the wounded. May the Father of Mercies protect and comfort them.

"WILLIAM MCKINLEY"

"To GENERAL SHAFTER, Commanding, Front, near Santiago, Playa.

"I cannot express in words my gratitude to you and your heroic men. Your work has been well done. God bless you all.

"R. A. ALGER, Secretary of War."

Shafter's reply, reaching Washington on the evening of the 16th, said:

"To THE PRESIDENT

"I thank you, and my army thanks you for your congratulatory telegram of to-day. I am proud to say every one in it performed his duty gallantly. Your message will be read to every regiment in the army at noon to-morrow.

"W. R. SHAFTER, Major-General."

Shafter and the army richly deserved congratulation for they had accomplished much more than the capture of Santiago and its garrison. The territory surrendered by General Toral included a large portion of the province of Santiago de Cuba, embracing the eastern extremity of the island. The surrendered territory lay east of a line drawn from Ascerraderos, twenty-five miles west of Santiago, northward to Dos Palmas, and thence northeastward to Sagua de Tanamo on the northern coast. This district embraced some five thousand square miles of territory and a population of more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand, and contained the four important cities of Santiago, Guantanamo, Sagua, and Baracoa. These cities and other points had their garrisons, equaling in total number those in Santiago, making the total number of prisoners included in the surrender, as estimated by Toral, twenty-two thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine. Officers and troops were at once sent, accompanied by Spanish officers, to receive the surrender of those interior garrisons. In Santiago over ten thousand rifles and about ten million rounds of ammunition were sent in to the American ordnance officer.

At exactly nine o'clock on the morning of Monday, July 18, the Spanish flag was lowered from the staff crowning the heights on which stood the venerable antiquity known as Morro Castle, which, mediaeval as it was, had borne its several bombardments with the best of modern guns with little material harm. This immunity was mainly due to its elevated situation. Immediately after the lowering of the flag, Lieutenants Hobson and Palmer entered the harbor in steam launches, penetrating as far as the firing station of the submarine mines. These mines were all exploded in the afternoon, and once more Santiago harbor was open to the commerce of the world. Shortly after noon, Commodore Schley and Captain Cook, of the Brooklyn, entered the harbor and made an inspection of the condition of affairs. The main result of their reconnoissance was to discover that the batteries had borne their bombardments remarkably well, conveying the lesson that in the duel between ships and land defences the latter have largely the advantage. The conclusion reached from a later and more complete inspection was that over two million dollars' worth of ammunition thrown at the batteries defending Santiago harbor was absolutely harmless in its effect, so far as the reducing of the batteries was concerned, and simply bore out the well-known fact that it is a waste of time and money to bombard earthworks." And this bombardment had been done by the same men who had effectually proved their skill in gunnery on the Spanish fleet under conditions of unusual haste and excitement.

Shortly after six o'clock on Monday morning, July 18, Lieutenant Crook, of General Shafter's staff, entered the city and received a surrender of all the arms in the arsenal. At about seven o'clock General Torat sent his sword to General Shafter in evidence of his submission, and about nine o'clock Shafter and his generals, with mounted escorts of one hundred picked men of the Second Cavalry, rode over the trenches to the open ground beyond, midway to the deserted Spanish works. On the crest of the heights beyond the several regiments of the army were drawn up under arms; comprising, as they did, a total of over twenty thousand men, and extending along seven miles of intrenchments, they formed an imposing spectacle.

On reaching the selected ground, General Shafter found confronting him General Toral and his staff, all mounted and in full uniform, followed by a select detachment of Spanish troops. The scene that followed was dramatic and picturesque. General Shafter, with his generals and their staffs grouped immediately in the rear, and the troops of cavalrymen with drawn sabres on the left, advanced to meet his vanquished foe. A few words of courteous greeting passed, and then the American general returned General Toral his sword, with words of compliment which seemed to touch him deeply and drew from him a warm response of thanks. The conclusion of the ceremony was performed by the Spanish company, which in miniature represented the army, and, under Toral's command, grounded, wheeled, and marched across the American lines to the place selected for the prisoners' camp.

General Toral throughout the ceremony was deeply dejected. When General Shafter introduced him by name to each member of his staff, the Spanish general appeared to be a very broken man. He seemed to be about sixty years old and of frail constitution, though stern resolution was shown in every feature. The lines were strongly marked, and his face was deep drawn, as if he was in physical pain. He replied with an air of abstraction to the words addressed to him, and when he accompanied General Shafter, at the head of the escort, into the city to take formal possession of Santiago, he spoke but few words. The appealing faces of the starving refugees streaming back into the city did not move him, nor did the groups of Spanish soldiers lining the road and gazing curiously at the fair-skinned, stalwart-framed conquerors. Only once did the faint shadow of a smile lurk about the comers of his mouth. This was when the cavalcade passed through a barbed-wire entanglement. No body of infantry could ever have got through this defence alive, and General Shafter's remark about its resisting power found the first gratifying echo in the defeated general's heart.

Farther along, the desperate character of the Spanish resistance, as planned, amazed our officers. Although primitive, it was well devised. Each approach to the city was thrice barricaded and wired, and the barricades were high enough and sufficiently strong to withstand shrapnel. The slaughter among our troops would have been frightful had it ever become necessary to storm, the city. General Shafter remarking that it would have cost him the lives of five thousand men to take the city by storm.

The palace was reached soon after ten o'clock, the American generals being here introduced to the municipal authorities. At noon the closing ceremony took place, the American flag rising gracefully to the peak of the staff over the palace walls, and Santiago finally changed hands. After nearly four centuries of rule it had passed from the control of Spain and become for, the time being an appanage of the great republic of the West.