Two days after the landing at Guamico, Lieutenant Perry Cochrane, of Eau
Claire, an officer of the Third, was sent forward with seventeen other
Eau Claire men, to open up the railway line leading to the little
village of Yauco, lying about twenty miles westward of Ponce, and to
capture that place. The track and the bridges had been wrecked by the
fleeing enemy, so that Cochrane's party endured much peril and fatigue
before they reached their destination; and Yauco was not disposed to
succumb to this handful of men. Cochrane successfully held his own,
however, until the following day, when reënforcements arrived.
A few days after the fall of Ponce, the Sheboygan company was acting as
guard to a detachment repairing the San Juan road, several miles out of
town. Hearing that a party of Spanish soldiers had taken a stand at
Lares, eighteen miles away, a detail was sent with a flag of truce, to
treat with them. The squad consisted of Lieutenant Bodemer, four
privates, and a bugler. The Spaniards were not in a pleasant frame of
mind, and but for their officers would have made short shrift of the
visitors, despite the peaceful flag which they bore. Finally, the
Spaniards agreed to receive a deputation of native Puerto Ricans, and
talk the matter over with them. Our men withdrew, and sent natives in
their stead; but the latter were treacherously assaulted, and only one
of them escaped to tell the story.
Upon the 9th of August, there was a sharp fight at Coamo. Both of our
regiments were actively employed in this encounter, and were of the
troops which finally raised the American flag over the town walls.
The final engagement was fought two days later, at the mountain pass of
Asomanta, near Aibonito, where 2500 Spanish troops were centered. The
Second Wisconsin was the last American regiment in this fight, and lost
two killed and three wounded. These were Wisconsin's only field losses
during the war, although her deaths from camp diseases were about
seventy.
INDEX
Albanel, Father Charles, 57.
Albion, 227.
Algonkin tribes, 16, 24.
Allouez, Father Claude, 45, 55-57, 147, 149.
American Fur Company, 85, 86, 90.
André, Father Louis, 57.
Apostle Islands, 40.
Appleton, 36, 86.
Ashland, 40, 146.
Astor, John Jacob, 85.
Atkinson, General Henry, 131, 139-141.
Aztalan, 7, 8.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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