The History of Cuba, vol. 4Johnson, Willis Fletcher
History
The History of Cuba, vol. 4
Johnson, Willis Fletcher
Cuba -- Economic conditions; Cuba -- History
But the Spanish did make trouble. Weyler once more strove to place an
impassable barrier between Pinar del Rio and Havana, to keep Maceo shut
up in the former province. He constructed it so strongly, with ditches,
block houses, barbed wire fences, artillery and what not as to make it
almost impossible of passage. Then he put 10,000 of his best troops west
of it, to fight Maceo, and distributed 28,000 more along the trocha to
keep Maceo from breaking out. The result was most unfortunate for the
Spanish troops west of the trocha. They were there to hunt down Maceo.
Instead, Maceo hunted them. If they ventured to attack him, he repulsed
them. More often he attacked them, and almost invariably routed them. At
Lechuza he cut to pieces Colonel Debos's column and drove its survivors
to the shelter of a gunboat at the shore. At Bahia Honda and Punta Brava
the Spanish were badly beaten. In the Rubi Hills a Spanish force was all
but annihilated, and the commanders began to clamor for reenforcements;
though Maceo had only 11,000 men, and the Spanish had 50,000 along the
trocha to keep him from crossing it. During the summer the campaign
slackened a little, though Maceo won several spirited engagements and
maintained his control of practically all the province excepting parts
of the coast. In the early fall, with his army increased to 20,000 he
resumed the aggressive; using for the first time a dynamite gun which
thoroughly demoralized the Spaniards. Near Pinar del Rio city, at Las
Tumbas Torino, at San Francisco, at Guayabitos and at Vinales, he
defeated the enemy and inflicted heavy losses. The same record was made
early in October at San Felipe, at Tunibar del Torillo, at Manaja, at
Ceja del Negro, and Guamo. A solitary Spanish victory was won at
Guayabitos.
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