“The pickets returned to the bush. Several crept along the beach, but the Spaniards had drawn back. It was decided that the soldiers should reëmbark on the _Gussie_, and that the guides take the horses, seek the insurgents, and make a new appointment. They rode off to the westward, and disappeared around a point. “‘Say,’ shouted a man from Company G after them, ‘you forgot your grindstone.’” _May 12._ On Thursday morning, May 12th, the gunboat _Wilmington_ stood in close to the coast, off the town of Cardenas, with her crew at quarters. She had come for a specific purpose, which was to avenge the _Winslow_, and not until she was within range of the gunboats that had decoyed the _Winslow_ did she slacken speed. Then the masked battery, which had opened on the American boat with such deadly effect, was covered by the _Wilmington’s_ guns. There were no preliminaries. The war-vessel was there to teach the Spaniards of Cardenas a lesson, and set about the task without delay. The town is three miles distant from the gulf entrance to the harbour, therefore no time need be wasted in warning non-combatants, for they were in little or no danger. During two weeks troops had been gathering near about Cardenas to protect it against American invasion; masked batteries were being planted, earthworks thrown up, and blockhouses erected. There was no lack of targets. Carefully, precisely, as if at practice, the _Wilmington_ opened fire from her 4-inch guns, throwing shells here, there, everywhere; but more particularly in the direction of that masked battery which had trained its guns on the _Winslow_, and as the Spaniards, panic-stricken, hearing a death-knell in the sighing, whistling missiles, fled in mad terror, the gunboats’ machine guns were called into play. It is safe to assert that the one especial object of the American sailors’ vengeance was completely destroyed. Not a gun remained mounted, not a man was alive, save those whose wounds were mortal. The punishment was terrible, but complete. Until this moment the Spaniards at Cardenas had believed they might with impunity open fire on any craft flying the American flag; but now they began to understand that such sport was in the highest degree dangerous. During a full hour—and in that time nearly three hundred shells had been sent on errands of destruction—the _Wilmington_ continued her bombardment of the defences. When the work was completed two gunboats had been sunk so quickly that their crews had no more than sufficient time to escape. Two schooners were converted into wrecks at their moorings. One blockhouse was consumed by flames, and signal-stations, masked batteries, and forts were in ruins.