American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-08-23

Il A.
William Niseman, p. Rourke,
W. b. Little Alex McIcer
Robert Cantley John Stubs,
John G. Sanka, James Ellis,
James Stanton, William Hogan,
Thomas Harnatt, Charles A. Robinson
i Patrick Dillon,
The New York papers of yesterday morning
contain lengthy accounts of the Havana exc
cutions and the Lopez expedition. II appears
that Lopez landed on the 18th near Cubanos,
with about one Thousand men. One account
says that they were Immediately joined by the
people of the surrounding country. The Span
ish account is that he threatened the inhabi-
tants of Posas with determination unless they
aided him. Subsequently fight occurred, in
which the Spaniards sustained o severe loss.
On the 10Th the liberators collected near Cuba
nos with the view Of taking it, but were pre-
vented by the Spaniards, and battle ensued,
in which the patriots were defeated and dis
persed to the mountains The party who were
captured and shot at Havana attempted to es-
cape in small boats, but were taken by the
Habanero. The patriot story is that the Span
iards and Lopez had three engagements on the
! 18th, in each of which the former were defeated
with great loss. On the 18th, the patriots
moved towards Diego Munez and Cubanos, with
the view of capturing the fort at the latter
place. Some fifty endeavored to get there in
small launches, and were captured as before
stated by the Habanero. /"
| The New York Herald Of yesterday morning
contains the following: e@.
HAVANA, August 16--44 p. M
am too much affected to write to you more
than to say that I have this day been witness
to one of the most brutal acts Of wanton inhu-
mainly ever perpetrated in the annals Of histo-
ry. Not content, this government, in revenging
themselves in the death of these unfortunate
and, perhaps, misguided men, and which, it
may even be said, was brought upon themselves
but these Spanish authorities deserve to be
most severely chastised for their exceedingly
reprehensible conduct in permitting the desc
Grafton, as they have done, of the senseess
clay of our brave countrymen. This morning,
forty Americans four Irish, one Scotch, one Ital-
ian, one Philippine Islander, two Havaneros,
and two Germans, or Hungarians, were shot at
IL o'clock, after which the troops were ordered
to retire; and some hundreds Of the very vilest
rabble and negroes, hired for the purpose, COM
menced stripping the dead bodies, mutilating
their limbs, tearing out their eyes, and cutting
1 off their noses and fingers. Some of the poor
fellows these wretches brought TO the city on
sticks, and paraded them under the very walls
of the palace. Oh, tho very remembrance Of
the sight is frightful.
j 1 never saw men-and could scarcely have
supposed it possible-conduct themselves at
such an awful moment with the fortitude these
men displayed under such trying circumstances.
They were shot six at q time, j. O., twelve were
brought to the place of execution; six made to
kneel down and receive the fire of the soldiers,
after which the remaining six were made to
walk round their dead comrades, and kneel
| opposite to them, when they also were shot
After being stripped, and their bodies mutilated
in the barbarous manner have described they
were showed, six or seven together, bound as
they were into hearses, which were used last
year for cholera cases. No collins were allowed
them; and / think the manner they were put
into the hearses was equally disgusting as their
other acts; the heads of some were almost
dragging on the ground, and it had more the
appearance of o slaughter-cart on its way to
market from the slaughter than that Of q
hearse conveying the dead bodies Of human
beings.
A finer looking set of young men never saw;
they made not single complaint, not murmur,
against their sentence, and decency should have
been shown to their dead bodies, in admiration
for the heroism they displayed when brought
out for execution. Not muscle was seen to
move, and they proved to the rabble congre-
gated to witness the horrid spectacle, that, be-
ing the fortune Of war that they fell into the
power of this government, they were not afraid
to die. 1t would have been great consolation
to these poor fellows, they repeatedly asked,
to see their consul, and, through him. to have
sent their last adieus, and such little mementos
as they had, to their beloved relations in the
States. One handsome young fellow desired
that his watch should be sent to his sweetheart.
Lastly, at the very hour Of their triumph, when
the people Of the Spanish steamer Habanero
knew that the execution Of the American pris-
oners, which they had taken to Havana, was
about to take place, fired two shots across, or
at the steamer Falcon, off Bahia Honda; and,
notwithstanding that this vessel was we'll known
to them, having, as she had, the American flag
hoisted, &C., she was detained and overhauled
by these Spanish officers, who, upon returning
/ to their vessel commenced cheering and hiss
| ing at the Falcon, proud, no doubt, of the i'm
punity with which they had detained an Ameri-
can mai-steamer on the high seas, ut their
pleasure.
The Spanish official account contains the fol-
lowing paragraph:
The troops formed square. They had on
their war uniform On the arrival of the
troops, the cavalry and the civic guard, the
multitude on foot and on horseback, placed on
the heights, on the plain, on the sea, and
great distance upon the edifces Of Jesus del
Monte and el Cerro, necessarily cheering the
Queen and Spain--eternal idols Of that army
ana OF this people, so much illuminated by
the United States"
No less than three hundred and twenty-ninc
soldiers and sailors, it is said were engaged in
the capture of these brave fifty Americans.
One handsome, noble-looking fellow, from New
Orleans, among the captured, from whom these
wretches endeavored to obtain his declaration.
in the hope of getting him to implicate others,
desired them, in the most peremptory manner,
not to interrogate him, that he was not an in