THE BATTLESHIP "MAINE"
Destroyed in Havana Harbor, February 15, 1898, by which the lives of two officers and 264 members of the crew were lost. This disaster was popularly believed to have been the work of Spaniards, and was a potent factor in hastening the war between Spain and the United States.
ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY.
On April 22d the United States fleet was ordered to blockade Havana. On the 24th Spain declared war, and the United States Congress followed with a similar declaration on the 25th. The call for 75,000 volunteer troops was increased to 125,000 and subsequently to 200,000. The massing of men and stores was rapidly begun throughout the country. Within a month expeditions were organized for various points of attack, war-vessels were bought, and ocean passenger steamers were converted into auxiliary cruisers and transports. By the first of July about 40,000 soldiers had been sent to Cuba and the Philippine Islands. The rapidity with which preparations were made and the victories gained and the progress shown by the Americans at once astonished and challenged the admiration of foreign nations, who had regarded America as a country unprepared for war by land or sea. On April 27th, following the declaration of war on the 25th, Admiral Sampson, having previously blockaded the harbor of Havana, was reconnoitering with three vessels in the vicinity of Matanzas, Cuba, when he discovered the Spanish forces building earthworks, and ventured so close in his efforts to investigate the same that a challenge shot was fired from the fortification, Rubal Cava. Admiral Sampson quickly formed the New York, Cincinnati, and Puritan into a triangle and opened fire with their eight-inch guns. The action was very spirited on both sides for the space of eighteen minutes, at the expiration of which time the Spanish batteries were silenced and the earthworks destroyed, without casualty on the American side, though two shells burst dangerously near the New York. The last shot fired by the Americans was from one of the Puritan's thirteen-inch guns, which landed with deadly accuracy in the very centre of Rubal Cava, and, exploding, completely destroyed the earthworks. This was the first action of the war, though it could hardly be dignified by the name of a battle.
THE BATTLE OF MANILA.
It was expected that the next engagement would be the bombardment of Morro Castle, at Havana. But it is the unexpected that often happens in war. In the Philippine Islands, on the other side of the world, the first real battle—one of the most remarkable in history—was next to occur.
On April 25th the following dispatch of eight potent words was cabled to Commodore Dewey on the coast of China: "Capture or destroy the Spanish squadron at Manila." "Never," says James Gordon Bennett, "were instructions more effectively carried out. Within seven hours after arriving on the scene of action nothing remained to be done." It was on the 27th that Dewey sailed from Mirs Bay, China, and on the night of the 30th he lay before the entrance of the harbor of Manila, seven hundred miles away. Under the cover of darkness, with all lights extinguished on his ships, he daringly steamed into this unknown harbor, which he believed to be strewn with mines, and at daybreak engaged the Spanish fleet. Commodore Dewey knew it meant everything for him and his fleet to win or lose this battle. He was in the enemy's country, 7,000 miles from home. The issue of this battle must mean victory, Spanish dungeons, or the bottom of the ocean. "Keep cool and obey orders" was the signal he gave to his fleet, and then came the order to fire. The Americans had seven ships, the Olympia, Baltimore, Raleigh, Petrel, Concord, Boston, and the dispatch-boat McCullough. The Spaniards had eleven, the Reina Christina, Castilla, Don Antonio de Ulloa, Isla de Luzon, Isla de Cuba, General Lezo, Marquis de Duero, Cano, Velasco, Isla de Mindanao, and a transport.