“The Annapolis rounded up the Whitney, the Florida, and the Raleigh, yesterday, and they are now at Cape San Juan. There seems to have been a serious mistake as to the rendezvous, for no two ships go to the same place, and it will take several days to overtake them and get them to Ponce, where General Miles is waiting.
“Off San Juan the cruiser New Orleans alone maintains the blockade. The city is grim and silent, but back of her yellow walls there will be plenty of determination to fight when the Americans fire.
“Captain-General Macias has issued a proclamation, in the course of which he says:
“ ‘Spain has not sued for peace, and I can drive off the American boats now as I did Sampson’s attempt before.’
“The daughter of the captain-general is helping to drill the gunners in the fort. Altogether there are [pg 329]ninety-five hundred Spanish regulars in the city. The troops of the enemy, who are retreating from Ponce and the other towns on the south coast occupied by the Americans, have not yet arrived.”
August 5. General Haines, with the Fourth Ohio and the Third Illinois, left Arroyo for the Spanish stronghold of Guayama. The Fourth Ohio was placed in the lead, and when only three miles from Arroyo its skirmish-lines were attacked by the Spaniards from ambush. There was a hot running fight from this time on until the American troops reached and captured Guayama, which is about six miles from Arroyo. The Americans lost three wounded, and the enemy, one killed and two wounded.
August 6. The foreign consuls at San Juan de Porto Rico advised the Spanish authorities to surrender the island to the American troops. The Spaniards, however, in reply, announced that they had resolved to fight; thereupon the consuls notified the Spanish commander, Captain-General Macias, that they would establish a neutral zone between Bayamon and Rio Piedrass, in which to gather the foreign residents and their portable properties in order to ensure their safety in the event of a bombardment of the place by the American forces. The consul sent a similar notification to General Miles.
August 7. A general advance of the American forces. The custom-house in the village of Farjardo was seized.
August 8. The town of Coamo was taken by the Sixteenth Pennsylvania and the Second and Third Wisconsin. Artillery was used on an outlying blockhouse, and under cover of this fire the advance was made.
Two hundred Spaniards were captured and twenty killed, including the commander, Rafael Igleseas, and three other officers.