The previous evening, 250 Cuban Rebels, led by Manuel Quesada, a prominent leader of the Cuban Rebellion made contact with General Grissom’s pickets, who escorted Quesada to Captain Johnson; who was the officer on duty. Hannibal interviewed Quesada, then brought him to Grissom’s headquarters. Grissom and Quesada had a very productive meeting. He told Grissom that he commanded thousands of Cuban guerrillas, and had cut off all land routes and communication in or out of Guantanamo City. Grissom welcomed Quesada and his men into the camp.
Touring the fortifications, Quesada heard the bird calls and informed Grissom they were often used as signals between troops of soldiers. Grissom ordered soldiers to the fortifications, and for them to sleep in shifts. He placed Hannibal in charge of organizing the defense. Hannibal ordered the cannons loaded with canister and the Gatling gun crews to have their ammunition boxes ready.
Cuban rebels volunteered to join the Buffalo Soldiers at the fortifications and listened closely to the bird calls. Detecting a signal pattern they alerted Hannibal who had the sergeants quietly wake the soldiers, and sent a lieutenant to alert General Grissom of the impending attack.
The Spanish soldiers and loyal Cubans ran towards the fortifications shouting war cries. A fusillade of Gatling gun fire, combined with rifle fire and canister decimated the attackers. Bravely they pushed forward only to be cut down by the dozens. Slowly they began to retreat and melted into the brush.
Grissom’s men kept firing into the brush with the bullets and canister acting like sickles clearing a path. Grissom ordered a counter attack, and with the Cuban rebels leading the way as scouts, the Buffalo Soldiers chased after the retreating Spaniards to their headquarters defending Cuzco Well. There the defenders fought hard before being forced to withdraw. The Spaniards initially retreated in good order. However, an assault led by the Cuban rebels forced them into a rout; the formation broke up into small units with the Cuban Rebels and Buffalo Soldiers in hot pursuit.
Hours later the surviving Spaniard stragglers entered Guantanamo City and told the commanding General Diego Garcia that at least ten thousand American soldiers had landed. General Garcia, who was ordered to hold Guantanamo city at all costs, was paralyzed by indecision. He was without communication to Santiago or San Juan. Finally, he decided to follow orders, and hold the city. He ordered the construction of additional defensive emplacements.
Five days later, General Grissom’s transports returned from Port-au-Prince with the other three battalions of Buffalo Soldiers, cannons, Gatling guns, ammunition, and supplies. Secure in this position, Grissom sent USS Ossipee and USS Juanita to find the fleets of Admiral Lee and Admiral Treat. His dispatch indicated that he had captured Guantanamo Bay and the coal facilities.
February 10.
USS Ossipee intercepted Admiral Lee’s fleet and signaled he had important dispatches. Lee read the dispatches and signaled the transports, frigates, and sloops of war to steam to Guantanamo Bay in preparation for a rendezvous with Admiral Treat. Then he ordered Captain Powell to signal the ironclads to follow USS Massachusetts into Santiago Bay.
The Spanish had heavily fortified San Juan Hill to protect the entrance to the harbor and El Caney which blocked the road to Santiago. Extensive trench development protected the top of San Juan Hill with emplacements containing cannons and rifle pits for the Spanish Regulars and Militia. One-thousand Spanish soldiers defended San Juan Hill and another thousand fortified El Caney. An additional seven thousand regulars defended Santiago.
Admiral Lee steamed his warships into Santiago Bay and commenced a bombardment of El Caney, and San Juan Hill, and searched for Spanish warships. Four gunboats, trapped in the harbor, sallied out and in a running battle were destroyed.
The bombardment of the fortifications continued for another hour, then USS Quinsigamond reported its propeller had fouled on a buoy. The Captain ordered longboats lowered, and a closer investigation revealed the buoy was a contact mine completely encrusted with barnacles, which prevented the mine from exploding. The mine was disarmed and cut free. Admiral Lee’s warships bombarded the fortifications on another pass, then steamed out of the bay towards Guantanamo.
Guantanamo Bay.
General Grissom’s soldiers were very busy. They had burned off all the brush in in the area to make way for a tent city. Siege works were also constructed to contain the Spanish garrison inside Guantanamo City. A steam pump was fabricated to bring fresh water from Cuzco Well to the encampment through extra piping maintained for the warship’s steam engines. Grissom also posted a garrison to protect the well.
A cannon shot from the patrolling USS Natick alerted General Grissom of the approach of the transports. With the arrival of General Ord’s troops, command switched to Ord. He accompanied Grissom on a tour of his preparations and Ord agreed that containment of the Spanish garrison was the best option. Keeping them penned up inside their fortifications relieved the need to feed and house prisoners.
February 15.
General Johnson met with Rear Admiral Treat at his headquarters in Galveston, Texas. Treat’s squadron had escorted the new cargo ships into Galveston for the loading of Johnson’s ordinance, artillery, wagons, ammunition, and supplies. The transports were scheduled to arrive in five days. USS Juanita also arrived and provided Admiral Treat with General Grissom’s dispatches. He provided return dispatches with his anticipated timetable, then ordered USS Juanita to return to Guantanamo.
Admiral Treat also escorted General Johnson into his seagoing headquarters aboard the USS Miantonoth. Johnson was very pleased and ordered his adjutant to begin moving his belongings aboard. Johnson was eager to tour the vessel and was very impressed with the 11-inch long guns, and the operation of the turrets.
Treat smiled and said: “Accompany me on a tour of USS Puritan. The yard rebuilt her from the keel up and provided her with the new 12-inch long guns. The view from the new bridge is magnificent. Our navy is now the best in the world. When we get to Guantanamo, request that Admiral Lee provides you a tour of The USS Massachusetts. She is the ironclad prototype of a new generation of battleships. Her sister ship the USS Indiana is under construction and will incorporate all the lessons we learned from USS Massachusetts.
The transport ships arrived on February 20, and it took the next four days to load the transports with General Johnson’s troops. At dawn on February 25, with USS Puritan in the lead, Admiral Treat’s fleet steamed out Galveston. Once out of the harbor the warship captains opened their sealed orders and learned their destination was Guantanamo Bay.
March 1, 1874
The sloop of war USS Venture, patrolling thirty miles west of Guantanamo Bay saw smoke on the horizon, sailed to investigate and identified the ships as Admiral Treat’s fleet. Following an exchange of signals, USS Venture came about and sailed back to Guantanamo to alert Admiral Lee of the pending rendezvous.
Four hours later, Admiral Treat’s fleet sailed into and anchored in Guantanamo Bay. Admiral Lee signaled for Admiral Treat, and General Johnson to attend a meeting with him aboard USS Massachusetts. Longboats ferried Admiral Treat and General Johnson to USS Massachusetts.
Other attendees included General Ord, General Grissom, and Manuel Quesada. Before opening the meeting, Admiral Lee provided the dispatches from Washington DC which had arrived earlier in the day aboard USS Dispatch. The orders confirmed the pending assault on Santiago de Cuba and San Juan Puerto Rico. Admiral Lee’s naval squadron would bombard the defenses surrounding Santiago and destroy any Spanish warships stationed there before the assault. He had already completed the first portion, but must now clear the mine field before the ground assault could begin. The dispatches also indicated that twenty thousand additional troops were assembling in Savannah, Georgia.
Admiral Treat’s assignment was to escort fifteen thousand troops to Puerto Rico, bombard the defenses at San Juan, destroy any Spanish warships and support the landing. General Ord’s soldiers would conduct the actual assault.
General Johnson and Ad
miral Lee met and decided that 5,000 soldiers under former Confederate General Joseph Wheeler, would remain to contain the Spanish garrison in Guantanamo City. USS Natick and three sloops of war would remain on station to provide the garrison naval support for the defense of Guantanamo Bay and the coaling station.
During the Civil War, General Wheeler was a cavalry commander in the Army of Tennessee and first served with distinction under Joseph Johnson, then under John Bell Hood. When General Grant recalled General Johnson to active service, he enlisted Joe Wheeler into his service. Wheeler commanded Johnson’s cavalry battalions in the recent Mexican incursion.
One of General Wheeler’s assignments was to prepare a field hospital to treat the expected casualties, as Guantanamo was only forty miles from Santiago. Admiral Lee ordered that two of the troop ships be used as hospital ships to transport the wounded to Guantanamo.
Wheeler ordered the construction of a hospital building for surgeries and hospital wards for the most severely wounded soldiers. He also positioned tents to house the less seriously injured soldiers. Army and Navy physicians would staff the hospital, and volunteer nurses, mostly Nuns were brought over from Dominica. Wheeler provided a fresh water supply by extending buried pipe to the hospital and fabricating a steam boiler for hot water.
During the hospital preparations, General Wheeler used cannons to harass the Spanish Garrison in Guantanamo City. General Garcia responded by frequent attempts to destroy the well complex. Wheeler’s garrison repulsed all of those attacks.
Chapter 27
San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Lighthouses along the coast sighted Admiral Treat’s squadron, and the Spanish defenses had time to prepare before USS Puritan preceded the warships into the harbor at San Juan. Cannons thundered from Morro Castle, Fort San Cristobal, and well-entrenched shore batteries joined the fray. USS Puritan’s 12-inch guns blasted holes in Moro Castle’s masonry walls and the 4-inch secondary battery added to the damage. After three salvos, USS Puritan steamed beyond the castle, then concentrated its fire on San Cristobal and the shore batteries.
Following in line behind USS Puritan steamed USS Agamenticus, USS Onondaga, USS Tecumseh, USS Weehawken, USS Miantonoth, USS Towanda, and USS Sangamon. Each fired three salvos into the castle, reducing it to ruins. The combined firepower quickly silenced the guns at San Cristobal and the shore batteries.
One thousand United States Marines, covered by naval gunfire, landed from longboats and secured the waterfront. Admiral Treat then ordered USS Agamenticus and USS Sangamon to escort the transports which landed five thousand troops onto the waterfront piers. The troops quickly moved into the city, encountering light resistance. Within two hours the Spanish troops had recovered, and reinforcements rushed in from neighboring districts.
Treat used hot air balloons to gain intelligence on Spanish troop movements, and the long guns began shelling troop concentrations. The explosions caused many fires, and San Juan began to burn. Civilians ran in panic attempting to reach the safety of the countryside. The exodus of the civilians interfered with the deployment of the Spanish reinforcements.
After the first day of combat, over ninety percent of San Juan was under American control. Supply ships docked at the piers and unloaded cannons, Gatling guns, ammunition, food, and supplies. House to house fighting cleared out pockets of resistance. General Ord landed with his staff and 2,500 reinforcements. He set up his headquarters in the Governor-General’s Palace.
Admiral Treat, leaving USS Agamenticus, USS Towanda, and USS Sangamon to provide naval artillery support then steamed away in with his flotilla. Accompanying Treat were transport ships containing the 7,500 soldiers under the command of General Ames.
Admiral Treat steamed to the port city Guayama on the South coast of Puerto Rico. There he landed General Ames’ troops, who were unopposed as the Spanish soldiers, and Puerto Rican militia had moved north to confront the American invaders in San Juan. Ames used one day to consolidate his beachhead, then advanced north towards San Juan.
The civilians in the Guayama district welcomed the Americans as liberators from slavery and Spanish oppression. They provided General Ames with valuable intelligence about the strength of the Spanish military and their supply depots. Ames captured those supplies in his drive towards San Juan.
Ames’ troops encountered strong resistance when they entered Aibonito Pass. In a 2-day battle, his men made little progress. That evening, Ames’ chief of staff brought two liberated slaves to his tent. The former slaves told him about goat herder paths situated on both sides of the pass. Ames smiled, thinking to himself about Thermopylae and sent 300 men up the paths on both sides of Aibonito Pass.
The next morning Ames resumed the attack up the pass. When the Spanish and militia defenders exposed their positions to fire at the advancing Americans, the soldiers secreted at the top of the pass fired into them from the rear, decimating the defenders, then attacked. Caught by surprise, finding themselves in a crossfire, and assaulted from both sides the Spanish withdrew, surrendering the pass. Ames road to San Juan was now open, and his troop's cannons and Gatling guns poured through the pass. Once free of the mountains, his cavalry were able to roam the countryside freely, utilizing former slaves as guides. The guides also met up with fugitive slave groups, incited an uprising, and began to attack large haciendas. Puerto Rican militia troops, torn by their loyalty to Spain and the safety of their families began to desert with their weapons and joined the uprising. Spanish control began to disintegrate.
General Ord sent cavalry patrols south to link up with General Ames’ army. This joining cut Puerto Rico in half. With telegraph communication established between the armies, coordinated attacks became possible. Within days, the entire eastern portion of Puerto Rico fell under American control.
The victorious Americans then started the push west along the coastal plains. The growing insurrection by freed slaves hampered Spanish and militia movements with guerrilla-style raids, interrupting supply lines. With casualties mounting, the Spanish Colonial Governor-General Rafael Primo de Rivera y Sobremonte requested a ceasefire and asked for terms. General Ord granted the cease-fire and invited the Governor-General to San Juan. The Governor-General accepted, and three days later, he and his senior officers arrived in San Juan, at the head of his column of troops.
March 21, 1874.
General Ord selected the reception room in the Governor-Generals former palace as the location of the peace conference. Stewards arranged a table with seats with General Ord, the Theater Commander sitting in the middle, Admiral Treat and General Ames on either side. General Sobremonte and his two aids on the other side. Both Spanish Flag and the Stars and Stripes were on flag staffs.
Following introductions, all the participants took their seats. Admiral Treat and General Ames provided copies of the surrender agreement in both English and Spanish. The terms were uncomplicated.
1. General Rafael Primo de Rivera y Sobremonte will unconditionally surrender his army, equipment arms, and munitions.
2. The Spanish Garrison and loyalist militia will board transports for internment on the Isle of Pines. Their family members and other Puerto Rican loyalists will be allowed to live with them.
3. General Sobremonte and his officers will leave Puerto Rico for internment in Port-au-Prince.
4. The US Military will appoint a governor of Puerto Rico. The island will be under martial law pending municipal elections for mayors and local legislatures.
5. All slaves are henceforth and forever free. Hacienda owners can retain their services for suitable wages.
General Rafael Primo de Rivera y Sobremonte, fluent in both English and Spanish read both versions of the surrender terms, signed, and directed his staff to sign. Following the signing, stewards brought out refreshments.
Following the refreshments, General Sobremonte ordered one of his aides to carry the Flagstaff with the Spanish Flag out of the building. He followed and stood next to the flag on the top step of the Palace.
With a blare of trumpets, he watched as his troops paraded past, stacked their weapons, and furled their battle ensigns. Sobremonte’s aids detached the Spanish flag from the staff, folded it, and presented it to General Sobremonte; who walked over to General Ord, and gave him the flag and his sword. Ord handed the flag to his aid and gave the sword back to General Sobremonte.
The next day transports docked at the piers. The troops and their families boarded ten transport ships, and under escort steamed to the Isle of Pines. General Sobremonte and his officers boarded another which steamed under escort to Dominica.
USS Dispatch was present for the surrender ceremonies. Reporters took photographs of the surrender ceremony, and the departure of the Spanish Army; and placed them in dispatch pouches. USS Dispatch sailed the same day for Washington DC, with an initial stop in Santiago.
Chapter 28
Santiago de Cuba.
Admiral Lee’s fleet again entered Santiago Bay. The naval barrage of the fortifications resumed. During the bombardment, longboats with weighted ropes strung between them searched for submerged mines. When the ropes snagged a mine, it was hauled up and disarmed. At day’s end, eighteen mines had been discovered and disarmed.
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