Our War with Spain for Cuba's FreedomWhite, Trumbull
History
Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom
White, Trumbull
Cuba -- History; Spain -- Foreign relations -- United States; Spanish-American War, 1898; United States -- Foreign relations -- Spain
The American troops went bravely to work, engaging themselves
chiefly with the undermining of one of the walls. To reach this it
was necessary for them to pass along a narrow eminence where they
were in plain view and easy range of the Spaniards. A number were
lost in this dangerous enterprise, but their valor was dimmed
neither by this nor by the still heavier losses which came upon
them through the diseases prevalent in every portion of the
British camp. Though men of such hardiness that they must have
been equal in resisting power to the British, their losses were
comparatively much greater, proving that they occupied positions
of greater danger, either from bullets or the fevers of the
region.
MORRO CASTLE TAKEN.
Five days after the arrival of the reinforcements, Lord Albemarle
judged himself sufficiently strong to assault Morro Castle, and
the word was accordingly given. The sunken ships were blown up
early on the morning of July 25, and the British ships sailed into
the fury of the Spanish cannon, belching shot from all along the
shore. The big guns of the ships could not be elevated
sufficiently to silence the fire from Morro Castle, and this was
accordingly left to be carried by assault. The Puntal was
silenced, troops landed, and after five days of ferocious
fighting, in which the British and American losses were enormous
by reason of their exposed position, and where every one concerned
exhibited the utmost valor, Morro Castle was carried by the
bayonet. The fighting within its walls after an entry had been
made was exceedingly fierce. The Marquis of Gonzalez was killed by
his own cowardly men for refusing to surrender. The cannon from
the other Spanish batteries were turned upon the Morro as soon as
the Spanish flag had been lowered, and the British ensign run up
in its place; and then the slow and disastrous work of the siege
was taken up again.
As the lines grew nearer and nearer, and the last hope of the
Spaniard for relief was given up, there was the usual attempt made
to buy the attacking party off. Though it would have been a
hopeless undertaking at any time, the amount offered for the
ransom of the city was so far below the treasure which was known
to be in the town that the offer was made a subject for derisive
laughter. Fifteen days after Morro Castle had fallen, though the
mortality in the trenches was so great that a few weeks more must
have seen the abandonment of the enterprise, the city fell, the
garrison stipulating for a passage out with all the honors of war,
which was freely accorded them, owing to the climatic predicament
in which Lord Albemarle found himself. It was also stipulated that
private property should be respected. This was strictly observed,
though Spain had set repeated examples of giving a captured city
over to plunder in the face of a stipulation to the contrary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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