The Spanish loss may be taken as about 264 killed and drowned and 151 wounded; the prisoners, including officers, numbered 1,813. The Americans lost 1 killed, 1 wounded, both in the Brooklyn.
The Spanish could not have expected to escape, nor did they. They went to their death like heroes. There has been nothing finer than the calm bravery of their exit from the narrow harbor entrance without accident or delay on the part of any ship. We had against them six heavy ships to four; fourteen 12-inch and 13-inch guns against six 11-inch; thirty 8-inch against none of that calibre; forty-four 6, 5, and 4 inch against thirty-six 5.5 and 4.7 inch, and ninety-six 6-pounders against thirty-eight Spanish. We had a like superiority in armor. In one point, speed, the Spanish were, nominally at least, decidedly superior, all their ships being of twenty knots. Only two of the Americans: the New York and Brooklyn, had such.
There remained now only the question of reducing the city of Santiago, in which the navy took an active part in bombardment of the city from the sea. On July 17th it surrendered.
The success of the navy at Santiago was due to the circular blockade instituted by Admiral Sampson on his arrival, and to the lighting up the harbor entrance nightly with the searchlights of the battleships, which were relieved every two hours. Escape at night was thus, by Cervera’s own report, made impossible. The circular form of Sampson’s blockade during the day and night left no such chance of finding an extensive unguarded space, such as existed in steaming in column to and fro across the entrance. The whole is summed up in the report of Captain (now Rear-Admiral) Clark of the Oregon to Admiral Sampson: “We went ahead at full speed with the determination of carrying out to the utmost your order: ‘If the enemy tries to escape, the ships must close and engage as soon as possible and endeavor to sink his vessels or force them to run ashore.’”
With their only battle fleet destroyed, the preservation by the Spanish of communication with Cuba was now impossible and the fall of the island certain. Thus an expedition under the command of Admiral Cámara left Cadiz on June 17th for the Philippines. It reached Port Said on June 25th. A strong force was detailed from Admiral Sampson’s fleet to go to the Philippines under Commodore Watson, to be accompanied through the Mediterranean by the rest of the available ships of the fleet under Sampson himself. The news of the 3d of July, and also of the preparation of this fleet, caused Spain to recall Cámara’s force before it had left the vicinity of Suez. Meanwhile a large number of ships had taken a prominent part in the convoying of part of General Miles’s force to Puerto Rico and in the seizure of the south coast of that island.
Spain, with full recognition of the meaning of her loss, opened negotiations for peace, and on August 12, 1898, the protocol was signed by which she relinquished all sovereignty over Cuba, ceded to the United States Puerto Rico and an island in the Ladrones to be selected, and agreed to our occupancy of the city of Manila pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace which would determine the future of the Philippines.
At the moment of the signing of the protocol our fleet and troops were preparing for the assault at Manila. By noon the city had surrendered and was in our possession. The date at Manila, owing to difference in time, was August 13th. Thus there were but a few hours between the surrender and the signing, but the latter had preceded the surrender and Manila could not be claimed as ours by right of conquest. Although the claim was put forward, it was soon withdrawn, and we now possess the archipelago by right of purchase, though indeed it must be said that the sale by Spain was an enforced one. The war thus ended with Puerto Rico and Guam as possessions by conquest, with the Hawaiian Islands a United States territory by annexation, with Cuba a protectorate, and the Philippines a purchased possession. We had gone far afield and had incurred heavy responsibilities which stretched eight thousand miles westward from California, and had taken up a naval base adjacent to what is sure to be one of the great fields of future world action—Eastern Asia.
It is difficult to leave the subject of the Philippines without a word as to the continuation of naval action among the islands and the share taken by the navy in the release of Spaniards held by the natives, in frequent punitive expeditions, and in the general pacification of the region. For several years our ships were active equally with the army in this work. In February, 1899, the important point of Ilo-Ilo was bombarded and captured by the small cruiser Petrel. Constant work of patrol and blockade was carried out, not always without loss. Throughout there was active coöperation with the army in transporting troops and in attack and defence, with for some years separate expeditions by the marines of great hardship and courage.