Another possession or claim of the decadent peninsula monarchy remains to be catalogued—the country on the banks of the Muni and Campo rivers, 69,000 square miles, and containing a population of 500,000. The title to this section is also claimed by France.
CHAPTER XLVII.
PROGRESS OF HOSTILITIES.
Eagerness to Fight—Matanzas Bombarded—Weyler's Brother-in-law a
Prisoner of War—The Situation in Havana—Blanco Makes a Personal
Appeal to Gomez—The Reply of a Patriot—"One Race, Mankind"—The
Momentum of War—Our Position Among Nations.
The striking peculiarity at the commencement of the war was the general eagerness to fight. There have been wars in which there was much maneuvering and blustering, but no coming to blows. There have been campaigns on sea and land in which commanders exhausted the devices of strategy to keep out of each other's way, but in this war the Americans strained strategy, evaded rules, and sought excuses to get at the Spaniards.
Given a Spanish fortified town and an American fleet, and there was a bombardment on short notice. Given a Spanish fort and a Yankee gunboat, and there was a fight. There were no "all-quiet-on-the-Potomac" or "nothing-new-before-Paris" refrains. The Americans knew they were right, and they went ahead.
MATANZAS BOMBARDED.
The first actual bombardment of Cuban forts took place on April 27th at Matanzas, when three ships of Admiral Sampson's fleet, the flagship New York, the monitor Puritan, and the cruiser Cincinnati, opened fire upon the fortifications. The Spaniards had been actively at work on the fortifications at Punta Gorda, and it was the knowledge of this fact that led Admiral Sampson to shell the place, the purpose being to prevent their completion.
A small battery on the eastern side of the bay opened fire on the New York, and the flagship quickly responded with her heavy guns. Probably twenty-five eight-inch shells were sent from the battery at our ships, but all of them fell short. A few blank shells were also fired from the incomplete battery.
One or two of those whizzed over Admiral Sampson's flagship. After completing their work the ships put out to the open sea, the flagship returning to its post off Havana, while the Cincinnati and the Puritan remained on guard off Matanzas. While the flagship New York, her sister cruiser, the Cincinnati, and the monitor Puritan were locating the defenses of Matanzas harbor the batteries guarding the entrance opened fire on the New York. Their answer was a broadside from Admiral Sampson's flagship, the first fire being from the forward eight-inch gun on the port side. The monitor attacked the Point Maya fortification, the flagship went in close and shelled Rubalcaya Point, while the Cincinnati was soon at work shelling the fortification on the west side of the bay. In less than twenty minutes Admiral Sampson's warships had silenced the Spanish batteries.