The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1898-06-02
WAR NOTES.


The 9th Massachusetts Regiment
Volunteers, has been ordered to Falls
Church, Va.
The defeat of the Spanish fleet, which
the best informed people regard as only
a question of few days, is bound to
precipitate an outbreak.
The Bath naval reserves, 50 men,
have left Bath for Boston, to join the
monitor " yandotte, soon to be station
ed at the mouth of the Kennebec.
The two newspaper correspondents
held as prisoners in Havana, Charles
Thrall and MADDEN Jones have been
exchanged for two Spanish officers.
Orders were issued Thursday, assign
ing the Oregon to the North Atlantic
squadron, and Capt. Clark will report
at once to Admiral Sampson for duty.
The Marietta has not as yet been as
signed.
Emperor Frances Joseph of Austria,
is said to have strongly advised the
Queen Regent to prepare to fly, and her
mother, who is now in Madeira, is re-
ported to have given her the same adj
vice. But, it is added, the Queen Re-
gent is determined to remain.
The President and cabinet have de-
cided to increase the number of troops
to be sent to the Philippine islands as
soon as the transports can be secured,
and to accomplish this second expedi-
ton will be made up after the one now
preparing starts.
Representative Acheson of Pennsyl-
vania, has introduced a bill increa >ing
the pay of the enlisted men who in time
of war serve outside the territorial
limits of the United States 100 per cent.
of the rate as fixed by law during the
period of such service.
The new naval auxiliary cruiser
board has sent to Washington list OF
40 yachts inspected by the old board,
which it recommends for purchase.
Among the vessels named are George
Gould's Atalanta and John Jacob AS
tors Nourmahal, which are recon-
mended for purchase at 100000 each.
The Monterey, ZEN route from San Fran
cisco to Manila, may stop for coalng
purposes at the Carolinas. These Span
ish possessions are unfortitied, and
could be ours for the asking. The ma
tives there lead miserable existence
through Spanish oppression, and mis-
sionary work has been sadly interrupted
by Spanish blgotry.
The First Regiment of Maine National
Guards has become the 74th Regiment
of United States Volunteers at Chcka-
manga. After Chickamauga may come
Tampa and Cuba perhaps, or Porto
Rico. But wherever the regiment may
go and whithersoever the fortunes of
war may lead it, it is followed by the
benediction of the State.
1t has been currently reported that
the Spanish government has ordered all
the Spanish steamers from 1000 tons up,
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knots to be impressed as auxiliary cruis-
ers. The Spanish commanders at the
various ports, it is added, have been in
structed to take charge of such steamers
whether mail boats or others.
The Sunday Herald states that the u.
S. auxiliary cruiser, Harvard arrived at
Kingston, at O'Clock Saturday morn
ing for coal. The Harvard reported
that at noon Friday, an American fleet
of II ships was lying off Santiago de
Cuba, and that the Spanish fleet was in-
side the harbor. No engagement had
taken place up to the time of the Har-
wards departure.
Spain's one prize of this war-the
barque Saranac, caught at lloilo, in
the Phillippines-has been restored to
her owners, without waiting for Dew
ey's ships to release her. The SaTanac,
by the way, was captured in Spanish
port, where she had just discharged a
cargo of coal. That havoc which the
Spaniards Dragged that they were going
to work among American merchantmen
has not yet materialized-