Under the Star-Spangled Banner: A Tale of the Spanish-American War

by F. S. Brereton

"So bad as that, is it?" the officer exclaimed, lifting his eyebrows. "Well, if you are set upon it, I'll do a trifle for you, but it won't be yet a while. We're bound elsewhere, and will be cruising up the other side of the island. But when the chance comes you shall go, and you can trust Samuel K. Billing to help you."

The young American officer, whom Hal had first met beside the magazines on board the ill-fated Maine, and who had so miraculously escaped the disastrous results of the explosion, had not exaggerated matters when he declared that America was not ready for war.

True, her people, the nation as a whole, and the newspapers for the most part, had asked for war—nay, demanded it. Sympathy for the miserable people in the concentration camps had first stirred them into action, but the awful calamity on board the Maine, and the particular circumstances in which the explosion had occurred, had roused their anger and indignation. At their very door thousands of poor helpless people were dying of sheer starvation, and of the hundred and one diseases which follow inevitably where want and destitution have undermined the constitution. That in itself was an offense against their feelings of humanity. And there was no error in this case, for no lying tales had reached their ears, but only the truth. They had not been told stories innumerable of awful misery existing in Cuba when such was not the case. No. There was no doubt that there was reason for intervention between oppressor and oppressed, and America had espoused the cause of the latter with great earnestness.

She had insisted on war, and had embarked upon it, as the reader knows. But under what conditions? Her navy was one of which she was justly proud; her army, on the other hand, was far too small to undertake the task which America had set herself—namely, the expulsion of Spain from the Island of Cuba. Twenty-seven thousand officers and men were, roughly, the army of this great country; but, though few in numbers, they were, indeed, men to be proud of, for all were picked, and many were accomplished in that most important branch of war—scouting.

In addition, America possessed militia, though few of the battalions were in an efficient state; and the reason of this was that a reaction had followed the fierce civil war between North and South. There was no longer need for soldiering, and trade occupied the attention of the people instead. Had it been otherwise, the lads of the States are too much like our own to have done otherwise than throw their hearts and energy into the army, and fight for their country. And in this emergency they came to the fore with a zeal and impetuosity which warranted the statement of Hal's naval friend, to wit, that the whole of the American nation was roused to enthusiasm.

The sons of the States came forward in their thousands. Those of the militia battalions who were still of the right age, and medically fit, volunteered for active service almost to a man, and within a very short space of time America found herself with a hundred thousand men added to her regular army. The latter was sent down to the department of the South, to Tampa in Florida, and the remaining volunteers were transferred from the various departments into which the States are divided, to certain training camps, from which they were to be sent to Chickamauga in Tennessee, and from there, when efficient, to Tampa.

And now, having hinted at the manner in which the army of invasion was raised, we will turn to the navy, and to events in and around Cuba.

"There, sir, that's just about where we are," said the American lieutenant, who had introduced himself as Samuel K. Billing, throwing himself back in his chair. "As I've hinted to you, the boys ashore are drilling their boots off, and up to this it has been a naval war. On April the 21st hostilities commenced, and America made a haul, for we captured the Cataluna, with a cargo of mules, about to sail from New Orleans to Cuba. Then Admiral Sampson—that's the commodore, you'll understand—flew his signals, and out the fleet sailed from Key West. We steamed to sea with orders to blockade the coast of Cuba from Cardenas to Cienfuegos, that is right along east of Havana. Next day we fell in with the Buenaventura, and captured her, sending her along home with a prize crew aboard. That, sir, is all the news. Here we are, and here we shall stay till the troops are ready. Lucky for you both that we happened to put in an appearance! It was by the merest chance that we came cruising down this way."

No doubt it was remarkably fortunate for Hal and Gerald; but, though Santiago with the neighboring coast was, from this day, efficiently blockaded, the failure to carry the movement out before had allowed the Montserrat, a Spanish liner, to approach the southern part of the island, and land troops, ammunition, and stores at Cienfuegos, whence they were conveyed to Havana. Beyond this nothing of importance had occurred in the neighborhood, while thousands of miles away, in the Pacific Ocean, an American fleet lay at anchor in Mirs Bay, on the Chinese coast, ready to make an attack upon the Philippines, Spain's stronghold in those waters. The fleet of which Spain boasted had gone to St. Vincent in the Cape Verde Islands, and awaited events there.

"And what will happen now?" asked Hal. "Are you likely to be sailing in close to Santiago? If you are, I shall take my chance and hop overboard. Besides, I'd forgotten, there's the launch. The commodore would allow us that."