“When do you want us to commence firing?”
In a little while a white flag on shore sent back the answer:
“When the rest of the command arrives; then I will signal you.”
It was a long and tedious wait for the ships before [pg 240]the second fifty car-loads of troops came puffing along from Altares.
By 9.30 the last of the soldiers had left the open railroad tracks, disappearing in the thick brush that covered the eastern side of Aguadores inlet.
The water in the sponge tubes under the breeches of the big guns was growing hot in the burning sun.
Ashore there was no sign of the Spaniards. They were believed to be on the western bluff.
Between the bluffs ran a rocky gully, leading into Santiago City. On the extremity of the western arm was an old castellated fort, from which the Spanish flag was flying, and on the parapet on the eastern hill, commanding the gully, two stretches of red earth could easily be seen against the brush. These were the rifle-pits.
At 10.15 a signal-flag ashore wigwagged to Admiral Sampson to commence firing, and a minute later the New York’s guns blazed away at the rifle-pits and at the old fort.
The Suwanee and Gloucester joined in the firing.