There were these commissary stores carried, calculated by pounds: Bacon, 67,275; corn-meal, 31,250; roasted coffee, 10,200; raw coffee, 3,250; sugar, 2,425; mess pork and beef, 9,600; corned beef, 24,000; beans 18,900; hardtack, 1,250; cans of corn, 1250.
June 29. The expectation was that the landing [pg 307]would be effected at San Juan Point, on the south coast of Cuba, midway between Cienfuegos and Trinidad. This place was reached Wednesday evening, June 29th. A scouting party put off in a small boat and sculled toward shore, but had made only half the distance when there came a lively fire from what had been taken to be an abandoned blockhouse near the point. The men were called back and the three ships moved to the eastward. About four o’clock the next afternoon they arrived at Las Tunas, forty miles away.
Four miles west of the town, at the mouth of the Tallabacoa River, stood a large fort built of railroad iron and surrounded by earthworks. The Peoria ran boldly in and fired several shots from her 3-pounders, but brought no response and no signs of life. Here was thought to be the desired opportunity, and another scouting party was organised. This was made up of fifteen volunteers under Winthrop Chanler, and as many Cubans under Captain Nunez.
The Peoria took a position within short range of the fort to protect a landing or cover a retreat, and the small boats headed for the shore. They reached it five hundred yards east of the fort; the boats were beached, and their occupants cautiously scrambled toward the brush. But at almost the very moment they set foot on the sand, the fort and the entrenchments around it burst into flame, and shot and shell screamed about the little band of invaders. Captain Nunez was stepping from his boat when a shot struck him between the eyes [pg 308]and he went down dead. Chanler fell with a broken arm. The others safely gained a thicket and replied with a sharp fire directed at the entrenchments.
Meanwhile the Peoria set all her guns at work, and rained shells upon the fort until the enemy’s fire ceased. The moment the gunboat slackened fire, however, the Spanish fire was renewed with fury, and it became evident that their forces were too large to allow a landing there. A retreat was ordered, and the party on shore rushed to the boats, but volley after volley came from the shore, and they were compelled to throw themselves into the water, and paddle alongside the boats with only their heads exposed, until the ships were reached. The Spaniards had the range, however, and five Cubans were wounded, though none seriously. Returning to the Peoria, the men reported that a vicious fire had come from a grove of cocoanut palms to the eastward of the fort. The Peoria opened her guns on the place indicated, and must have killed many Spaniards, for her shells dropped into the smoke and flash of the adversary’s fire, silenced it at once, and forced them to send up rockets for help.
A number of volleys were sent at the Peoria with a view to disabling her gunners, but they were badly directed, and fell against her side and into the water. When the small boats reached the ship it was dark. Then the discovery was made that, besides Captain Nunez, whose body was left on the beach, there were missing, Chanler, Doctors Lund and Abbott, Lieutenant [pg 309]Agramonte, and two Cubans. It was reported that Chanler had been mortally wounded, and was kept hidden in the bushes along the shore by the two doctors. Rescue parties were immediately organised, composed of volunteers, and no less than four were sent ashore during the night. Toward morning Lieutenant Ahearn, in charge of one of these, found Chanler and his companion.
Chanler’s wound proved to be in the right elbow. After sunrise Agramonte and his Cubans were discovered and brought off.
July 1. The next day the gunboat Helena, under Captain Swynburn, arrived, and she and the Peoria steamed in toward Las Tunas, which the Spaniards had been vigorously fortifying.
Tunas is connected by rail with Sancti Spiritus, a town of considerable size, and reinforcements and artillery had been rapidly coming in. Range buoys had been placed in the bay, but avoiding these, the ships drew in to close range, and opened fire, the Peoria at twelve hundred and the Helena at fourteen hundred yards. The Spaniards had several Krupp field-pieces of three or four inches, mounted on earthworks along the water-front, and they began a vigorous, but ill-directed reply with shell and shrapnel. The fire of the American ships was most accurate and terribly destructive. The Spanish gunners had not fired more than fifteen or twenty shots before their guns were flying in the air, their earthworks a mass of blood-stained [pg 310]dust, and their gunners running for their lives. Both the Peoria and the Helena were struck several times, chiefly by shrapnel, but no one on either ship was injured. As they withdrew, several buildings on shore were in flames.
That afternoon both ships again turned their attention to the fort and the entrenchments at the mouth of the Tallabacoa River, and for half an hour poured a wicked fire upon them. The Spaniards had been largely reinforced during the day, and some field-pieces had been mounted near the fort. These replied to the American fire, but without effect, and the shells of the two ships speedily silenced them. The iron blockhouse was struck repeatedly, and the earthworks were partially destroyed. No damage was done to the ships, and they again withdrew.