Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1898-06-09

tremendous energy and strong purpose.
Gomez walked directly up to our lead
er, young Cuban of the name of Real,
and, holding out his hand, said simply,
You are welcome. A break in his
voice, however, betrayed the depth of
his emotions. We We're assigned to quar-
tiers i'll which to spend the hours until
daylight. When we rose, we were dis
tributed about among the different COM
army
My first expedition against the ene-
my occurred the second day after my
arrival in camp. Two hundred Of us
were ordered to proceed to the planta-
ton of a Spanish sympathizer of the
name of Benota, who was known to
have furnished information as to the
whereabouts of the patriot army. The
plantation in question was situated ten
miles from our camp, and we covered
the distance in about two hours. The
progress of the insurgents when on an
expedition is necessarily slow, as a
strict lookout has to be maintained for
the enemy
when we arrived within sight of
the plantation, we found that the pro-
prietor had received word of our ap-
proach. a large force Of Spanish caval-
ry was stationed about the house in an
ticipation Of our coming, while armed
men could be plainly seen in and about
the quarters of the negro farm hands.
We made no attempt to carry out our
first intention of destroying the proper
ty Of the informer, but postponed our
proposed attack until more favorable
opportunity
We had no intention Of retiring
without having inflicted some injury
upon the enemy, however We there
fore made detour, and, by keeping as
much as possible to the woods and cross
ing the open spaces one at time, sue
ceeded i'll getting between the plantation
and the town, thus cutting off the re-
treat Of the Spanish soldiers. The caval-
rymen remained on guard over the
property of their countrylnan, who pos
sessed considerable influence in Havana
and Madrid, for two days, and for that
length of time we lay concealed along
the main highway awaiting their re-
turn. Although in the course Of the two
days several of their scouts passed Oh
each side of the district in which we
were concealed, our presence was not
discovered
"There was considerable suffering
among our men during the weary wait
ing, owing to the scarcity of provisions.
For two days lived on dried fruit,
bread and tepid water. Finally, toward
the close of the second day, our patience
was rewarded by the report brought in
by one Of our watchers that the enemy
was approaching. Each one of us &C
cordingly sought place Of concealment
which commanded the road. The sys-
tenn under which the insurgents fight
requires each man before he goes into
action to select three places Of retreat,
situated in straight line directly back
of one another and separated by about
100 feet, so that when the men retreat
relative formation will be maintained
and there will be no confusion. AS soon
as the head of the Spanish force got to
a point directly opposite we let them
have volley. Six men fell, and the re-
naming troopers were thrown into great
confusion We fired second round,
which wounded and killed few more.
"The officers tried to rally their men,
but despite their efforts the troopers dug
their spurs into the TANKS of the mad
dened horses and rode off in the gather
ing darkness, leaving their wounded to
their fate. We gathered up the wound
ed and made them as comfortable as
possible, and then, taking all the valu-
able equipment and armament in their
possession, made a rapid retreat to the
main body. There we were received
with enthusiasm by our companions,
and our victory, combined with that
scored by another column which had re-
turned with a lot of horses and cattle
captured from a neighboring Spanish
farmer, was made the occasion of a
great celebration. The men Toasted on
such delicacies as were obtainable and
spent the greater part of the night sing
ing and dancing. New York Sun.