Three hours' waiting made the men on the transports impatient to get ashore and in action, and every move of the warships was closely watched by the soldiers.
A little before 9 o'clock the bombardment of the batteries of Juragua was begun. This was evidently a feint to cover the real point of attack, Juragua being about half-way between Baiquiri and Santiago. The bombardment lasted about twenty minutes. The scene then quickly shifted back again to the great semi-circle of transports before Baiquiri.
At 9:40 o'clock the New Orleans opened fire with a gun that sent a shell rumbling and crashing against the hillside. The Detroit, Wasp, Machias and Suwanee followed suit. In five minutes the sea was alive with flotillas of small boats, headed by launches, speeding for the Baiquiri dock. Some of the boats were manned by crews of sailors, while others were rowed by the soldiers themselves. Each boat contained sixteen men, every one in fighting trim and carrying three days' rations, a shelter tent, a gun and 200 cartridges. All were ready to take the field on touching the shore should they be called upon.
The firing of the warships proved to be a needless precaution, as their shots were not returned and no Spaniards were visible.
General Shafter, on board the Seguranca, closely watched the landing of the troops. Brigadier-General Lawton, who had been detailed to command the landing party, led the way in a launch, accompanied by his staff, and directed the formation of the line of operation.
A detachment of eighty regulars was the first to land, followed by General Shafter's old regiment, the First infantry. Then came the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-second, Tenth, Seventh and Twelfth infantry in the order named, and the Second Massachusetts and a detachment of the Ninth cavalry.
The boats rushed forward simultaneously from every quarter, in good-natured rivalry to be first, and their occupants scrambled over one another to leap ashore. As the boats tossed about in the surf getting ashore was no easy matter, and the soldiers had to throw their rifles on the dock before they could climb up. Some hard tumbles resulted, but nobody was hurt. At the end of the pier the companies and regiments quickly lined up and marched away.
General Lawton threw a strong detachment for the night about six miles west, on the road to Santiago, and another detachment was posted to the north of the town among the hills. The rest of the troops were quartered in the town, some of them being housed in the buildings of the iron company.
Some of the troops were quartered in deserted houses, while others preferred the shelter of their tents in the adjoining fields.
The morning's fire, it was seen, had destroyed the roundhouse, the repair shops and several small dwellings. The town was deserted when the troops landed, but women and children soon appeared from the surrounding thickets and returned to their homes.