The times., 1898-06-05
CAPTURE OF HAVANA, 1852.
The Way the British Did the Job
I3S Years Ago.


1876 Years Ago.
There was a time when Havana was
believed to be impregnable, but that
belief was dissipated when the Brit
ish flag was raised over the city On
August II, 1862. The change in the
methods and appliances of warfare In
more than a century makes the taking
Of Havana by the United States in the
present war a very different task from
that which was accomplished by Ad-
miral Sir George Peacock and Lieut..
Gen. George Keppel. Earl Of AlbemaTle,
in 1852. The beginning of hosulities
between England and Spain at that
time came toward the end of the
French and English colonial wars,
Spain undertook to help France. Eng
land declared war, AID determined to
take away from Spain her West In
dian possessions, beginning operations
with the capture of Havana.
Havana was then a small walled city.
There We're batteries outside the city,
one where the queens battery is now,
and another between that and the
Punta Castle at the eastern edge of the
mouth of the harbor. Then there were
MORO Castle and another castle called
the Cojima, off toward Guanabacoa.
From Punta to a point just outside
the MORO a great iron chain has been
stretched, and back of that a number
of vessels had been sunk in the chan
mel. The Spanish fleet, OF formidable
proportions, lay within the harbor
Thomas Mante, historian of the the
Ten Years War, and during part of it
a soldier in the English army, gives
this description of MORO Castle as it
was in that day.
1t was, he said, "a fort built upon a
narrow point of land to the north of
the town, which is large enough to hold
a garrison of 1000 men, with all the
necessary provisions to resist a long
and vigoruos seige 1t contains very
good easements and two systems which
afford plenty of water. AS 1t stands
on steep rocks, it is inaccessible from
the sea, which lashes its foundations
1t is fortified to the east by two bas-
tions, a curtain, and a good covered
way with dry ditch, half of which
is cut in solid rock. 1t commands the
fort De la Ponte on the opposite side
of the harbor's mouth and part of the
town from its three bastions to the
north. A little more within the harbor
and on the MORO side is battery
built of stone called the Twelve Apos-
ties, and a little higher up another
called the Shepherds Battery, and
above these a chain of hills called the
0aNannOS tAlT. Mdnte was not q great
| Spanish scholar apparently, for he
clearly refers to the hills where the Ca
| banas fort is now situated) extend
| themselves from the Morro to the
| plains Of Guanabacoa.. These hills
| command the town and the docks and
can always be protected by the ships
| lying in port"
A monograph has been found, print
| ed at Charing Cross. London, in 1862,
which purports to be the authentic
| journal of the seige of the Havana by
| an officer" The fleet was under the
command of Admiral Peacock. He had
| nineteen ships of the line, eighteen
frigates, sloops of war and mortar
! boats. The landing force, numbering
| about 10000 troops, was carried on
about $50 transports. The expedition
sailed from the Mole st. Nicholas on
May 27, in seven divisions, all of them
absolutely destitute of pilots, out of the
| Windward Passage and through the
old Bahama Channel to Havana
| The first division was made up Of the