The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-07-19
PORTO Rico INVASION.
The Advance Guard Has Already
Left For the Scene. :
GENERAL MILES IN THE VAN.
Thirty Thousand of Our Troops VIII
. Proceed at Once to the New Point
of Invasion, and Ten to Twenty
Thousand May Follow.

ana the expedition itself was gOtte
under way General Miles, with som
artillery and troops. sailing yesterda
for Porto Rico on the converted cruise
Yale. to be followed quickly by Al
army of about 10000 men.
General Miles leads the way. He ha
been promised by the president tina
he should &c. to Porto Rico and TIL
promise was redeemed when the Yal
headed yesterday from Siboney 70
Porto Rico. 800 miles distant. Genera
Brooke will be the senior officer II
Miles command. and upon him will
fall the responsibility for the executlo,
OF the details of his superiors plans. :.
1t is estimated that General Mile,
should arrive by tomorrow night at tn,
point selected for the landing. and viii
hoist the American flag at once ovel
Porto Rican soil. The point chosen fol
his landing Is kept secret, as the Gen
eral will land before the full body o
the expedition is at hand. and it is
, consequently not desirable that the
enemy should be able to assemble a
superior force to meet him. The dis.
tance from Charleston, where the frs,
body of troops 70 Miles expedition will
start today Is more than double the
distance from Santiago to. Porto Rico
so that the transports which sail from
the former city can scarcely reach Gen
eral Miles before the early part of
next week. Included in the troops which
will sail from Charleston today Is the
sixteenth Pennsylvania regiment, The
l3ooo men at Tampa will probably go
soon. These include the Third Pennsyl.
vania. the Fifth Maryland and the Sec
ond New York regiments. General
Brooke will take from Chickamauga
Park most of the Second and Third
brigades. including the First and
Fourth Pennsylvania and the Second
and Sixth Ohio.
The purpose of Secretary A'ger Is to
make the Porto Rican Campaign a.
short one. An overwhelming force will
be thrown upon the islgad, and It is
possible that bloodess victory will he
achieved when the Spanish become
convinced that they have no reasonable
chance to resist successfully. The ex
pedition is to comprise 10000 men at
the start. and 1t will be soon swelled
to 10000 men. and if necessary to So
600 men, the equipment of the volun-
teer FORCES having now progressed so
well as to warrant the statement that
that number of men can be ready for
service in Porto Rico within a yery
short time.
The part which the navy is to take
IN the assault against Porto Rico has
been FULLY matured. The several trans
port fleets will have with them one or
TWO auxiliary craft carrying secondary
batteries of six or eight Founders.
Secretary Long said yesterday after
noon that no time had beeen fixed for
the departure of Admiral Sampson's
feet for San Juan. AS to the naval
Plans he would cooperate in every
way with the movements of the army.
The reports that three monitors were
on their way from Key West to San
Juan was characterized by the secre-
tary as unauthorized
1t Is the general understanding, how
ever, that the navy will rely mainly
On armored ships for the bombardment
d san Juan. as the big battleships and
afford the best means of Of
[ensive warfare. while their armor
belts protect them from such fire as
the San Juan batteries can bring to
bear The Notifications there are much
ike those of Santiago, with a Moro
Castle at the entrance of the harbor
md a number of lesser Notifications
eading up to the city. These, how
'Ver. are viewed with less awe since an
of the Moro batteries at
has shown them to be an
iquated and capable of little effective
esistance.
The movement of the ships from San
iago to their new fields of action will
'egin at once, and it Is probable that
ONE of Admiral Sampson's ships were
etached yesterday and proceeded with
ieneral Miles first expedition toward
Porto Rico. They will be needed to
over the debarkation of the troops on
'orto Rican soil. The others will fol-
ow as soon as the full army expedi-
ion Is ready to make a landing, when
he attack will begin simultaneously
rom land and sea.
1t has been finally decided that none
T the troops that participated in the
ctual fighting before Santiago shall
e employed on the Porto Rico expedi-
ion. There are two reasons for this
rst, the men have suffered severely
'om hardship, the climate and from
svers, and are entitled to rest; Sec
nd, 1t Is deemed to be very bad prac-
ce to allow the soldiers who have
cen exposed to yellow fever to be
rought In contact with those fresh
ON the United States There is also
ill another reason. a purely military
le. There are 100000 Spanish troops
Holguin, Manzanillo and other points
thin striking distance of Santiago,
I'd they might not lose an opportunity
recover the ground lost at Santi-
20 If the place were left insufflciently
Therefore, Skaters entire
my Is to be kept on guard on the high
lis in the rear of the town until the
en- have stamped out the yellow fe-
IT. Then they will take turn at the
'aniards. If they can be found, and IL
ay be that Skaters march will end
Havana.