The Boys of '98 Part 31

The water in the sponge tubes under the breeches of the big guns was growing hot in the burning sun.

Ash.o.r.e 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 ash.o.r.e 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.

Of our troops ash.o.r.e in the brush nothing could be seen, but the ping, ping, of the small arms of the army floated out to sea during the occasional lull in the firing of the big guns, which peppered the rifle-pits until clouds of red earth rose above them.

An 8-inch sh.e.l.l from the _Newark_ dropped in the ma.s.sive old fort, and clouds of white dust and huge stones filled the air. When the small sh.e.l.ls. .h.i.t its battlements, almost hidden by green creepers, fragments of masonry came tumbling down. A shot from the _Suwanee_ hit the eastern parapet, and it crumbled away. Amid the smoke and debris, the flagstaff was seen to fall forward.

"The flag has been shot down!" shouted the s.h.i.+p's crew, but, when the smoke cleared away, the emblem of Spain was seen to be still flying and blazing brilliantly in the sun, though the flagstaff was bending toward the earth.

A few more shots from the _Suwanee_ levelled the battlements until the old castle was a pitiful sight.

When the firing ceased, Lieutenant Delehanty of the _Suwanee_ was anxious to finish his work, so he signalled to the _New York_, asking permission to knock down the Spanish flag.

"Yes," replied Admiral Sampson, "if you can do it in three shots."

The _Suwanee_ then lay about sixteen hundred yards from the old fort. She took her time. Lieutenant Blue carefully aimed the 4-inch gun, and the crews of all the s.h.i.+ps watched the incident amid intense excitement.

When the smoke of the _Suwanee's_ first shot cleared away, only two red streamers of the flag were left. The sh.e.l.l had gone through the centre of the bunting.

A delighted yell broke from the crew of the _Suwanee_.

Two or three minutes later the _Suwanee_ fired again, and a huge cloud of debris rose from the base of the flagstaff.

For a few seconds it was impossible to tell what had been the effect of the shot. Then it was seen that the sh.e.l.l had only added to the ruin of the fort.

The flagstaff seemed to have a charmed existence, and the _Suwanee_ only had one charge left. It seemed hardly possible for her to achieve her object with the big gun, such a distance, and such a tiny target.

There was breathless silence among the watching crews. They crowded on the s.h.i.+ps' decks, and all eyes were on that tattered flag, bending toward the top of what had once been a grand old castle. But it was only bending, not yet down. Lieutenant-Commander Delehanty and Lieutenant Blue took their time. The _Suwanee_ changed her position slightly.

Then a puff of smoke shot out from her side, up went a shooting cloud of debris from the parapet, and down fell the banner of Spain.

Such yells from the flag-s.h.i.+p will probably never be heard again. There was more excitement than witnessed at the finish of a college boat-race, or a popular race between first-cla.s.s thoroughbreds on some big track.

The _Suwanee's_ last shot had struck right at the base of the flagstaff, and had blown it clear of the wreckage, which had held it from finis.h.i.+ng its fall.

"Well done!" signalled Admiral Sampson to Lieutenant-Commander Delehanty.

At 11.30 General Duffield signalled that his scouts reported that no damage had been done to the Spanish rifle-pits by the sh.e.l.ls from the s.h.i.+ps, and Admiral Sampson told him they had been hit several times, but that there was no one in the pits. However, the _Suwanee_ was ordered to fire a few more shots in their direction.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ADMIRAL W. T. SAMPSON.]

At 12.18 P. M. the _New York_ having discontinued fire at Aguadores, commenced firing 8-inch sh.e.l.ls clear over the gully into the city of Santiago de Cuba. Every five minutes the sh.e.l.ls went roaring over the hillside. What destruction they wrought it was impossible to tell, as the smoke hid everything. In reply to General Duffield's question:

"What is the news?"

Admiral Sampson replied:

"There is not a Spaniard left in the rifle-pits."

Later General Duffield signalled that his scouts thought reinforcements were marching to the battered old fort, and Admiral Sampson wigwagged him:

"There is no Spaniard left there. If any come the _Gloucester_ will take care of them."

A little later the _Oregon_ joined the _New York_ intending 8-inch sh.e.l.ls into the city of Santiago. This was kept up until 1.40 P. M. By that time General Duffield had sent a message saying that his troops could not cross the stream, but would return to Altares.

On the report that some Spanish troops were still in the gully, the _New York_ and _Gloucester_ sh.e.l.led it once more, and _Newark_, which had not fired, signalled:

"Can I fire for target practice? Have had no previous opportunity."

Permission for her to do so was signalled, and she blazed away, shooting well, her 6-inch sh.e.l.ls exploding with remarkable force among the rocks.

At 2.40 P. M. Admiral Sampson hoisted the signal to cease firing, and the flag-s.h.i.+p returned to the blockading station.

On the railroad a train-load of troops had already left for Altares.

Mr. A. Maurice Low, of the Boston _Globe_, thus relates his personal experience:

"When the fighting ceased on Friday evening, July 1st, every man was physically spent, and needed food and rest more than anything else. For a majority of the troops there was a chance to cook bacon and make coffee; for the men of the hospital corps, the work of the day was commencing. At convenient points hospitals were established, and men from every company were sent out to search the battle-ground for the dead and wounded.

"It is the men of the hospital corps who have the ghastly side of war.

There is never any popular glory for them; there is no pa.s.sion of excitement to sustain them. The emotion of battle keeps a man up under fire. Something in the air makes even a coward brave. But all that is wanting when the surgeons go into action.

"Men come staggering into the hospital with blood dripping from their wounds; squads of four follow one another rapidly, bearing stretchers and blankets, on which are limp, motionless, groaning forms.

"To those of us at home who are in the habit of seeing our sick and injured treated with the utmost consideration and delicacy, who see the poor and outcast and criminal put into clean beds and surrounded with luxuries, the way in which the wounded on a battle-field are disposed of seems barbarous in the extreme. Of course it is unavoidable, but it is nevertheless horrible.

"As soon as men were brought in they were at once taken off the litters and placed on the bare ground. Time was too precious, and there were too many men needing attention for a soldier to monopolise a stretcher until the surgeon could reach him.

"There was no shelter. The men lay on the bare ground with the sun streaming down on them, many of them suffering the greatest agony, and yet very few giving utterance to a groan. Where I watched operations for a time there was only one surgeon, who took every man in his turn, and necessarily had to make many of them wait a long time.

"And yet these men were much more fortunate than many others, some of whom lay on the battle-field for twenty-four hours before they were found.

There was no chloroform; very little of anything to numb pain. Painful gunshot wounds were dressed hastily, almost roughly, until ambulances could be sent out to take the men to the divisional hospitals in the rear.

"It is claimed that the hospital arrangements were inadequate, and that many regiments went into action without a surgeon. From what I saw I think the criticism to be justified. Naturally the wounded were taken care of first,-the last duties to the dead could be performed later.

"It was ghastly as one moved over the battle-field to come across an upturned face lying in a pool of blood, to see what was once a man, bent, and twisted, and doubled. And still more horrible was it as the moonlight fell over the field, and at unexpected places one ran against this fruit of war and saw faces in the pallor of death made even more ghostlike by the light, while the inevitable sea of crimson stood out in more startling vividness by the contrast.

"We had won the battle, but our position was a somewhat precarious one.

"Our line was long and thin, and there was a danger of the Spaniards breaking through and attacking us in the rear or left flank. To guard against this possibility, Lawton's division at El Caney was ordered to move on to El Pozo, and Kent's division was under orders to draw in its left. The men who had fought at El Caney were hoping to be allowed to sleep on the battle-field and obtain the rest which they so badly needed, but after supper they were placed under arms and the march commenced.