The Portland daily press., 1870-05-04
S $500 per annuns, In adrauce.
DAILY PRESS.
Wednesday, Morning, May a, 1870


| American Volunteers i'm Cub.
A young American, who went to Cnba on
board the famous steam yacht Anna. gives
the N. Y. Times very graphic account Of his
experiences, and view of the inside Of the
Cuban army. They landed hastily at Horse
shoe Inlet, in fear of meeting some Spanish
craft, taking on shore lot of munitions of
war and several bags of clothing intended for
the destitute women and children. A quar-
rel then arose as to who should have COM
mand, and finally Clancy got the position tenn
porariy. -Four days after they were visited
by Cuban force. The writer says:
we were very near firing ON them, as they
did not give the proper signal. These were
the nrst Cubans we had met, and such mis-
erable lot OF soldiers / never before saw. They
had scarcely any clothing to cover their max
edness, and weremiserably armed. Some had
no arms-some only the naachete they brought.
They seemed half starved They had some of
the Cuban bread, made from the root called
ucher, but very little else. When they came
up with us, they at once commenced to ran
sack the goods and to help themselves to the
clothing. The next day brought two other
Generals; their names were Modesto Deis and
Deiz. They had about one hundred men with
them, who made a clean sweep of all the cloth
ing, including the women's garments, with
which they covered themselves, thus making
an exceedingly ludcrous appearance. This
second lot looked as wretchedly as the first /
saw. There was no discipline or order among
them. Two-thirds of them were negroes and
Cinnamon of the very lowest types. They
gathered around Is Americans and seemed to
regard us with as much interest as if we had
been wild animals. Col. Ryan was very anx-
ious and happy to show his stock of goods.
He had Brigadier-General's uniform with
him, few dozen kid gloves, and much other
similar warlike material. Two other Cuban
Generals came to see us very soon after; and
we began to think that the Cuban army was
pretty much composed of Generals.
The day after we left San Miguel we join
ed Col. Verona, who had about seven hundred
men for the purpose of escorting us to Jor-
dams headquarters. We now began now to
see some of the families. Nearly all of them
are in deplorable condition. Tine children
and most of the women have no clothing
whatever. If we camped on the plantations
they would gather around to get glimpse of
the Americans. We had plenty of plantains
and eat, occasionally some sweet potatoes,
yams, &c. The negroes would serve them
selves first and the officers afterwards. Our
dishes consisted of palm bark, and our knives
and forks were our fingers.
The Americans visited President Cespades
at his plantation. He received them
very cordially and generously gave them 500
each in Cuban bonds, not worth the paper
they were printed on. The Cubans will not
take them in payment for anything.
On the 22d of February we attacked Span
ish position on the railroad between Puerto
Principe and Nuevitas. The Cubans had
1000 men and three mountain howitzers, and
the Spaniards had two hundred. We make
the attack at daylight, opening with our bat
for of m w I'm
just like mob, and after fighting for one hour,
Jordan ordered them to charge the Spanish
work; but they protested, declaring that it
was too warm for them there, and so we re-
treated with loss of twenty-five wounded
and three killed. Jordan's object was to tear
up the railroad track, burn the bridge that
was there, and cut the telegraph. After this
with Ryan and four Cubans, left for parts un-
known. Some of us began to get very suspic-
ious at all this, and anxious to get away.
Gen. Agramonte succeeded Jordan in COM
mand, and then all the Americans scattered.
OTHER SCENES AND INCIDENTS.
I got permission to go to the Cinco Villas,
and started on the 9TH of March, together with
another American and four Cubans. We
crossed the Remedious Mountains, and here
met with great many Cubans families in the
most wretched condition. The children were
|
ton, and the men and the women, negroes
and Cubans alike, were scarcely better off.
On the 18th joined Gen. Hernandez. He had
O fight the 0ay previous at the foot of the
mountains, twelve miles from Remedies. The
Spaniards drove him into the mountains,
where his force scattered, and he lost sight of
his men, and hardly knew where he was him
self. But after the Spaniards had retired they
came out of the mountain, Joined each other,
and then claimed victory. The men num-
bered about seven hundred. They were half
| naked and very poorly armed. They all kinds
of arms, from double-barrel shotgun to a
Remington rifle, old-fashioned pistols, all kinds
OF old swords. There was no organization,
and much jealousy, all wanting to be chief
officer.
The volunteers next experience with the
Spaniards was on the road to Villa Clara.
There was 500 men in the {" army:
After two days march we came to planta-
tion where there was Spanish guard of about
twenty men. The General sent one hundred
men to set fire to the cane. We were all dis
mounted now, having left our horses in the
mountains. We were very much fatigued. /
noticed that plantains and beef were getting
very scarce. We would be sometimes two
days without anything to eat. After the cane
had been fired, the Spaniards followed and at
tackled us at night, but owing to the darkness
WlluurcWs luc hcAl udy we CTOSSeu u TlNeT
and marched about seven leagues. The Span
iards attacked US in the rear about noon, and
threw us into confusion. The officers found 1t
| impossible to command the mob. Somebody,
for instance, would order silence" and then
everybody would repeat the order, so that in
stead of silence there was a big noise. When
under fire the men did just as they liked. We
attempted to make stand that evening, but
the Spaniards drove us, with loss of twenty
six wounded and four killed. We had to march
slowly, for the wounded had to be carried on
rude stretchers made by themselves. There
were no doctors to attend to them, and every
hour their condition grew worse. They had
nothing to eat and very little attention from
any body. We made about eight leagues and
then encamped. Here we found few PLAN
tains but no beef This is all we had to eat
for three days. The Spaniards again attacked
us the next day; and at the first volley the
Cubans ran through the woods for dear life,
leaving five or six of their wounded after them,
who were not butchered by the Spaniards, but
kindly cared tor. Here got disgusted with