The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-05-06
Tho Cuban Struggle.

vile COUrier-JOurnGl
Little more than six months ago, CAR
LOS MANUEL CEsPEDES, native Cuban
of good education, great activity and
energy of character, and wild daring,
and perhaps desperate spirit of adven-
ture, commenced at Ysra, in the Eastern
Department of Cuba, upon the alleged
ground of intolerable Spanish oppres.
sion and tyranny, the insurrection
which now excites 50 much of the atten
tion of the civilized world. No sooner
did he raise the standard of revolt and
call his countrymen to the rescue than
they gathered around him with alacrity
snd in numbers which indicated that
he had struck in the depths of their
hearts chord that had long been ready
to give forth its echoes to the touch of
q master hand. The Spanish authorities
could not afford to disregard, even for a
day, the movement of the insurgents,
for they had long expected and had long
had reason to expect it. They at once
took as vigorous measures as they could
for the suppression of the revolt, know
ing all the time that they were opera
ting in the midst of a population gen
orally hostile to them and to their de-
signs of subjugation.
The Spaniards have made three dis
tinct and separate movements for the
suppression of the revolt, neither of
them complete failure and neither Of
them any considerable success. The
first was in the Eastern Department,
from Havana to take possession of Bay
amo, then the revolutionary headquar-
ters. After encounteTing many hard
ships, vast difficulties and Instructions,
and heavy and damaging losses, he got
to the place of his destination, but only
to find it blackened and blasted ruin,
the insurgents having set fire to it with
their own hands before his arrival. He
is still at Bayamo, and keeps bodies OF
troops at points around to distance of
thirty or forty miles, but the insurgents
are continually in arms on all sides,
harassiug and cutting off his detach'
ments and supplies, and he can subju-
gate the people only at the immediate
points which he is able to keep gar
risoned. He intiicts some injuries and
sufferings, and is said to endure quite
as many. Still he undoubtedly needs
only the necessary troops to accomplish
whatever he wishes to accomplish in the
quarter Of the island where he is.
The next movement was that of LESCA,
who marched from Guanaja to relieve
Puerto Principe in the Central Depart
ment, where the Spanish garrison,
which had been stationed there for a
considerable time before the breaking
out of the insurrection, was threatened
and besieged by the insurgents led by
QUEsADA. The result was to consid-
erable extent like that experienced by
VALMASEDA. LEsCA's whole march was
through a region thickly beset by ef-
fective guerrillas, and, after having lost
thirty-One officers, six hundred soldiers
killed and wounded, two-thirds of his
ammunition and provisions, and all his
money, he at last entered Puerto Prin-
cipe, already sacked though not de.
stroyed by the retreatiug insurgents,
and ever since he has been cooped up
within very limited space, unable, for
the want of adequate force, to accom-
plish to any important extent the OBJ
jeCt of his expedition.
The third and last of the Spanish op-
erations consisted of a concentriG move
ment of three columns against Siguauea
IN the southwest portion of the Central
Department. One column of one thou
sand men, under General EsCALANTE,
marched from Alvorez, in the District
of Sagua, one of one thousand, under
BUcETA from Villa Clara, and the third
OF one thousand, under LETONA, north
ward from Trinidad. These three col.
umns had an experience much like that
oil the other two expeditions. They
louhd no organized bodies of rebel
troops and had no opportunities
TO hight, but they suffered an
noyances in almost every mile
OF their progress from guerrilla
attacks, which they were powerless
either to avoid or to svenge. No state
ment was made as to the losses of EscA-
LANIE aud BCcETA, except that they
were heavy. Those of LEToSA amount
ea 10 three hundred, nearly one-third
| Vi MS whole force. The three forces.
I having arrived at their point of desti.
nation, are now said to be holding THAR
own but they have done scarcely more.
q tneir aetaehments in search of subsist.
, enee being continually attacked. rob
bed, aud partially destroyed by rowing
bodies OF the insurgents familiar with
every square rod of territory aud burn.
ing with hate and vengeance against
the invaders.
There can be little doubt that the ua.
tive Cubans would be able to achieve
, and to maintain their independence
against the spanish forces now upon
. their island, but, according ts the latest
dispatches, General LEToNA, the ablest
of the Spanish Generals, has taken CON-
mand of the Central District, and, hav-
ing received q reinforcement of seven