Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-02-02
SEVERE FIGHTING IN CUBA.
Heavy Losses by the spaniards.

/, T. SEVERE FIGHTING IN CUBA.
Heavy Losses by the spaniards.
We clip the following from the Havani
correspondence of the n. Y. World i
shows that the insurgents are still active
and able to do the Spaniards much damage
SPANISH SUCCESSES IN SANTIAGO.
Santiago news to the 9th of January tell,
of some heavy fighting In the Curia hills
and mountains, between the Spanish forces
of Colonel Camara and the insurgent ones
of General Marmoi, So far the Spaniards
appear to have had the advantage Each
side has lost over 200 men. While Genera
Marmoi was thus employed in resisting the
main body of the Spanish troops operating
within the districts of Santiago and Guar.
tanamo, General Taymayo and Colone
\ Jesus Perez managed with their forces tc
sweep around Colonel Camara's column
and throw themselves, with 120C
men, between Palma, Sorina and
Santiago City, and then cut up q
few Spanish detachments. Quite a large
number of Spanish wounded have since
been brought to the latter place. Rein
forcements have been hurried forward by
| Count de Valmaseda, that will most proba-
bly, drive General Tamayo and Colonel
Perez back to the mountains, but not be-
fore they will have done the Spaniards con-
siderable injuries by their unexpected IL
ruption within the Spanish lines. A pri-
vate letter from Santiago City, states that
Count de Yalmaseda is not at all satisfied
with the turn military affairs are taking
You know from his letter to Captain Gene
raj Rodas, sent you couple of weeks ago,
that he proposed general plan of cam
paign which was rejected, and that the
| h ;,,Iv-
| ed as shown by the forward movements of
| General Pueblo, against which he strongly
advised. The very probable disasters to
| this Generals expedition are not, indeed
calculated to diminish Count de Valmase-
| da's dissatisfaction.
A THREE DAYS BATTLE.
From Manzanillo | have advices of the
| hardest fighting of this war, some of it
surprising, in its bloody results, the most
stubborn contests in the late American civil
war. This is, I know, a strong statement
to make, but I will establish its correctness.
[ have already told you of a large body of
Spanish troops being concentrated at Gna-
mo to escort provision train to Las Tunas
for the use of the famished garrison of that
town. Altogether l, 700 men were gathered
at Guamo, with two piees of artillery, and
the command given to Colonel VeIasco
pedition, and established camp at Miuui-
abo, on the Spaniards left flank, to watch
tneir movements. Colonel Velasco saw the
dangers to his column by this move of the
enemy, and at once resolved to dislodge
him. For this purpose he detached. on
December 81, 600 men, under Colonel Jose
Valera Ga Dominican mulatto by birth) and
had the good fortune to see the Colonel re-
turn the same day successful, having
driven away the insurgents, some 500 in
number, after a brisk engagement, in
which 35 Spaniards were killed and wound
ed, and about as many insurgents. This
much done, on December 90, Colonel Ve-
Iasco started his column and train for LIS
Tunas. The first days march was made
without much resistance from the Cubans
but on the second day, from 5 a. M, when
the column reached the Callejon de las
Arenas, till 5 p. m., when it entered Las
Tunas, it literally had to fight its way
through 1000 insurgents. The heavies
engagements were at Sabana de la Piedra
and Iona Alta. Colonel Benegasi, with
part of the Las Tunas garrison,
aided the column to enter the
town. It came not day too soon, for it
found the garrison hard pressed for
the necessaries Of lite, and so closely be-
Generals Vicente Garcia and Rubalcada
that it was unable to obtain anything from
the outside. AS the column, despite the
hard fighting it did, lost but small part of
the train 1t escorted, it introduced nearly
thirty thousand rations in Las Tunas, thus
provisioning the place for about twenty-five
days. On January 1st, Colonel Velasco
star ted on his return march, leaving Colonel
Valera In Las Tunas to act as military COM
mander of the town. He left also his
many wounded, and was accompanied by
ffty-slx of the citizens of Las Tunas, men,
women and children, who desired to aban-
don the war-stricken town. On the way he
was several times met by the insurgents;
but, disembarrassed of the provision train,
he more easily routed them than when
going, and reached Guamo and protection
on the evening of the I'd.
THUS FOUGHT THE GREEK OF OLD.
Altogether, the losses of the Spaniards
during the expedition are to be reckoned
by the hundred. Those of the
insurgents were also great, but less than
those OF their opponents, owing to the fact
of their having done most of their fighting
from behind entrenchments and under
cover. The battalion of Espana, in the
march to Las Tunas. formed the advanced
guard of the Spanish expedition, and
and experienced losses that [ will
now aver were never experienced by any
Federal or Confederate regiment in a three
days fight. Out of some thirty officers
and a full complement of sergeants it lost
them all, either killed or wounded,
save one, Lieutenant Cristobal Afau, of
The first company. This is unprecedented
believe. At least, during my four and a
half years active service in the American
civil war, heard of nothing in the way Of
Federal cr Confederate losses to equal it
The heaviest losses in officers during that
war for single battle of one, two or. three
days duration, that [ know of, was that of
a regiment atthe battle of Antietam( (Sharps-
burg), which had "a officers killed and
wounded out of 27, and came out with a
few of its sergeants unframed, whilst the
Spanish battalion, remember, had all of
It's officers and sergeants either killed or
wounded. OF course, it necessarily fol-
lows that the battalion lost at the same
time very large proportion of its corporals
and priVates.