Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-09-18

, by Manuel Quesada, COmmander-1T
Chief of the Cuban army.
The Cubans went into the battl
with cries of their wives and childre
ringing in their ears. They wante
to whip the Spaniards, but they muc
more wanted the coveted stores {
clothing within the walls of Las Tuna
for their we'll nigh naked wives, mo
thers, sisters and children.
/ Quesada, under the circumstances
would not have risked battle agains
so large a Spanish garrison, which il
all particulars was well appointed anC
supplied.
The battle was under fall headway
at quarter to O'Clock. Col. Valera
second in command, endeavOred tC
break the lines of Quesada's forces on
the Santiago de Cuba road, so as tC
gain the rear with cavalry and artil.
lery. He was driven back, after a
sharp and disastrous engagement.
Meantime, the Cubans pressed for
ward. Their few pieces of artillery
reported by the Spaniards to be Par
rot guns-Were well served, and
opened the four gates leading into the
city.
Before reaching the gates Quesada
had to carry an outside line of in
trenchments, which entirely sur
rounded the city. The suddenness
and early hour of the attacks, tOgeth-
er with the grand array which Que
sada had massed before the city, de-
moraliZed nearly the whole garrison.
Boniche alone seemed to realize the
position.
Had he partaken of the mOmentary
Generalization of the troops, all the
garrison would have been captured.
Col. Valera contested the street
leading into the city on the south,
inch by inch. Capt. Martin AlOZance
commanded the Spanish force on the
BayamO road, Col. De La Tore COM
mauded on the HOlguin side.
Quesada's artillery first opened from
the Macades Hills upon the Church of
Jesus, where a company of Spanish
ritiemen were stationed, upon the
towers and on the roof. The two
towers were utterly riddled. The ri
tiemen were diSlOdged, and imme-
diately following Quesada, in person,
led column of his army through the
southern gate into the city.
This was a signal for a hasty retreat
Of the whole Spanish garrison into the
plaza, or guard square. Artillery, in
tantry and eaValFy FASTENED, pellmell,
into that square, which, being SUI
rounded by larger and stronger stone |
buildings than the surrounding houses |
formed for them an easily defended |
fortress.
Al noon Quesada had secured three |
hundred thousand dollars worth of |
stores, of ali kinds. Halt his COM /
mand kept BOniche's army engaged,
while the other half pillaged the gro
leries, warehouses, and retail and /
wholesale stores alike.
During all these hours the Spaniards
ought like regulars, but were repulsed
rom every point from which they un-
lertOOk to break the lines of the Gu
BANS.
Carlos Manuel Cespedes, his Cabinet
md nearly the whole number of the
Of the Republican Congress
IrriVed in the neighbOrhCOd of Las
fun4S at IL am, and took a COIN
position on the Macades
Hills, overlooking the city, but By Y
H. uCl4lJ CNCi iitHiBtI VI AOtiEslt-SS |
lad mingled in the sanguinary strug-
,le. At a quarter past l o'clock, nine
md a half hOufsI kser the battle had
,egun, Gen. Quesada ordered a retreat
rom the city. He would have con-
inued the kaitic, after securing the
lesired stores, until he had compelled
he SpaniarCis to surrender, but his
couts from the Eayamq and Holguin
oads came, F7orting one thousand
lpaniarfis coming from either of these
owns, 20 reinfnrre Rapiche,
The great object of the battle had
,een obtained in securing the much
leeded stores, and Quesada and Ces-
)edes could not afford the chances
.gainst the garrison, augmented by
Wo thousand fresh troops, coming on
o them from the rear.
The Cubans lost two hundred and
ifty in killed and five hundred men
Wounded. The number of the Span
afds killed could not be ascertained.
The DiGriO de I0 JfOpijia, Of this
ity, acknowledges only one hundred
nd six killed, with two hundred and
did wounded and thirteen missing.