MAJOR-GENERAL FITZHUGH LEE.
Major Henry C. Cochrane, second in command, states that he slept only an hour and a half in the four days, and that many of his men became so exhausted that they fell asleep standing on their feet with their rifles in their hands. It is remarkable that during the four days the Americans lost only six killed and about twenty wounded. The Spaniards suffered a loss several times as great, fifteen of them having been found by the Americans dead on the field. It is not known how many they carried away or how many were wounded.
THE LANDING OF SHAFTER'S ARMY.
On June 13th troops began to leave Tampa and Key West for operations against Santiago, and on June 20th the transports bearing them arrived off that city. Two days later General Shafter landed his army of 16,000 soldiers at Daiquiri, a short distance east of the entrance to the harbor, with the loss of only two men, and they by accident. Before the coming of the troops the Spanish had evacuated the village of Daiquiri, which is a little inland from the anchorage bearing the same name, and set fire to the town, blowing up two magazines and destroying the railroad roundhouse containing several locomotives. As the transports neared the landing-place Sampson's ships opened fire upon Juragua, engaging all the forts for about six miles to the west. This was done to distract the attention of the Spanish from the landing soldiers, and was entirely successful. After the forts were silenced the New Orleans and several gunboats shelled the woods in advance of the landing troops. The soldiers went ashore in full fighting trim, each man carrying thirty-six rations, two hundred rounds of ammunition for his rifle, and a shelter-tent.
REAR-ADMIRAL WILLIAM T. SAMPSON.
While the troops were landing at Daiquiri, the battleship Texas, hitherto considered as an unfortunate ship by the attachés of the navy, completely changed her reputation and distinguished herself by assailing and silencing, unaided, the Spanish battery La Socapa at Santiago, which had hitherto withstood the attacks against it, though all the ships of Commodore Schley's command had twice fiercely bombarded it without result. Captain Philip and his men were complimented in warm terms of praise by Admiral Sampson. The Texas was struck but once, and that by the last shot from the Spanish fort, killing one man and wounding eight others, seriously damaging the ship.
THE VICTORY OF THE ROUGH RIDERS.
On June 24th the force under General Shafter reached Juragua, and the battle by land was now really to begin. It was about ten miles out from Santiago, at a point known as La Guasima. The country was covered with high grass and chaparral, and in this and on the wooded hills a strong force of Spaniards was hidden. Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt's Rough Riders, technically known as the First Volunteer Cavalry, under command of Colonel Wood, were in the fight, and it is to their bravery and dash that the glory of the day chiefly belongs. Troops under command of General Young had been sent out in advance, with the Rough Riders on his flank. There were about 1,200 of the cavalry in all, including the Rough Riders and the First and Tenth Regulars. They encountered a body of two thousand Spaniards in a thicket, whom they fought dismounted. The volunteers were especially eager for the fight, and, perhaps due somewhat to their own imprudence, were led into an ambuscade, as perfect as was ever planned by an Indian. The main body of the Spaniards was posted on a hill approached by two heavily wooded slopes and fortified by two blockhouses, flanked by intrenchments of stones and fallen trees. At the bottom of these hills run two roads, along one of which the Rough Riders marched, and along the other eight troops of the Eighth and Tenth Cavalry, under General Young. These roads are little more than gullies, very narrow, and at places almost impassable. Nearly half a mile separated Roosevelt's men from the Regulars, and it was in these trails that the battle began.