The record-union., 1898-11-11
WORK OF The ENGINEERS.
IMPORTANT SERVICE IN THE
SANTIAGO CAMPAIGN.
Graphic Description Of Movements
Of the Fifth Army Corps
in Cuba.

The echo Of the heavy cannonading
from our warships-which from early
dawn had taken their position in front
OF Daiquiri-had hardly died away, and
clouds Of smoke from the lombard
ment We're still hanging here and there
over the landscape, when the advance
guard Of the Fifth Army Corps landed
on Cuban soil on June I'D without any
opposition from the enemy. Among
the transports near shore waiting for
orders to unload her troops was the
steamship Alamo, with the Fifth Army
Corps Battalion of Engineers, which
was composed of two companies OF the
United States Engineer Corps OF the
regular army-Company G and Com
pany e, of 100 men each. The latter
company started from West Point Tor
Tampa on April Both, and the former
went from Willett's Point on May l4th.
Both companies were organized into a
battalion in Tampa, under the COM
mand of Captain James L. Lusk, who
was relieved before the sailing of the
expedition by Captain Edward Burr,
afterward Lieutenant Colonel of the
Second Volunteer Regiment OF En-
gineers. The officers of Company E
were Captain Edward Burr, First
Lieutenant E. E. Winslow, now Cap
tain, and Second Lieutenants II. b.
Ferguson and L. Brown The officers
of Company were Captain G. D.
Fitch, afterward Major of Volunteer
Engineers; Lieutenant II. H. Rees, now
Captain, and Second Lieutenants G. M.
Hoffman and S. A. Cheney.
On board the Alamo were slowed a
large amount of square timber Of va
rfous sizes, twelve pontoons and fifteen
completed trestles, susceptible to ad-
justment to any hight from three to
twelve feet for military bridges; and
all the tools and materials that any
possible emergency might have called
into requisition. All the contingencies
that might arise had been considered
in Tampa, before sailing, and under
the personal supervision of Brigadier
General William Ludlow, Chief En-
gineer of the army in the field all the
necessary material had been provided
Through his efforts, also, many pho
tographs of the Spanish blockhouses
and forts had been secured.
The work performed by the engineers
in the Santiago campaign may be sub
divided into Reconnaissance" piers,
and Road and Bridge Work"
Reconnaissance.
On the morning of June 22d, shortly
after the first troops had landed, Lieu
tenants G.. H. Hoffman and S. A
Cheney, with four men each, were de-
tached from the Engineer Corps for
reconnaissance work under Lieutenant
Colonel George McC. Derby, Chief En-
gineer Fifth Army Corps. They fol-
lowed close to the advance, taking
topography and mapping roads and
foot-paths, noting their condition with
reference to the transportation of
artillery and supplies They reached
the Siboney landing six miles away,
on the next day The two parties had
kept separate, doing work along diff
ferent roads. They reported every
evening to the Chief Engineers office
at headquarters-whic for the first
week was kept ON board. the steamer
Seguranca, that lay first in Daiquiri
and then in Siboney Bay. After the
troops passed beyond Las Guasimas,
three miles from Siboney on the road
to Santiago, where the first skirmish
Of the war was fought by the Cavalry
Division, on June Oath, four line Off
GERS were added to the reconnaissance
party under orders of Major William
d. Beach, Division Engineer of the
Cavalry Division, through whom they
reported to Lieutenant Colonel Derby,
Chief Engineer of the Fifth Army
Corps. These line officers were Lieu
tenant Guy H. B. Smith and Lieuten-
q, nj n Of tho inf Mt and
Lieutenants G. p White and NJ A.
Batson sof the cavalry After July Sd
they reported direct to the Chief En-
gineer. During the six days of rest
and preparation that followed the first
battle and while the troops were
camped on either side of the road to
Santiago. the reconnaissance party
kept constantly at work, very often
venturing considerably beyond our
outposts and going into the very heart
of the enemy's country. The quiet and
unostentatious manner in which the
work was performed failed to bring it
into general notice, and very little has
been known by outsiders of the many
risks incurred by individual members
of the party, and of the commendable
and valuable services rendered by
them. After looking back over the
excellent work accomplished by that
small number of men. the only regret
IS that a much larger party was not
placed inrthe field so that it could have
covered the whole country around
Santiago before July 1st The infor-
nation we started with was very
meager, as the Spanish Government
has never made a typographical map
of Cuba, and the maps we had for
reference showed merely a general out
line without typographical features
On June 9th, when the American
outposts were located at La Redon6a,
near where General Shafter established
his headquarters three days later, and
the Cuban outposts were a mile fur
ther on the road TO Santiago at FL
Poso. Lieutenant Colonel Derby and
Lieutenant Holman pushed the recon-
neissance work half a mile beyond on
the same road.
On June 2Sth Lieutenant Hoffman
went three quarters of a mile beyond
the outposts on the road to Caney, and
Lieutenants Batson and Smith, from
another direction, approached with
in less than a mile of the forts around
that village.
The writer, on that morning, was or