The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-07-06
ROOSeVGlt's Riders Meet SpaliardS
in AmbuSCadG.
SIXTEEN AMERICANS KILLED
Spanish Fleet For Pacific-Addi,
tional Troops For Cuba-No
Vote on Annexation,

JURAGUA, Cuba, June %. 4 u. m.
per Associated Press Dispatch Boat
Dandy via Kingston, Jamaica, June
26, 10 a. m.-The initial fight of Colonel
Woods Rough Riders and the TROOPERS
OF the First and Tenth Regular Caval-
ry will be known in history as the
battle of La Quasina. That it did not
end in the complete slaughter of the
Americans was not due TO any mis-
calculation in the plan of the Spanish.
for as perfect an ambuscade as was
ever formed in the brain Of an Apache
| Indian was prepared, and Lieutenant
| Colonel Roosevelt and his men walked
! squarely into it. For an hour and a
| half they held their ground under a
| perfect storm of bullets from the front
| and sides, and then Colonel Wood. at
| the right, and Colonel Roosevelt. at
! the left, led a charge which turned the
tide of battle and sent the enemy fly
ing over the hills toward Santiago.
Sixteen on the American side were
killed and 60 were wounded or report
ed missing. Already 81 dead Spanish
soldiers have been found and buried
How many others there were is not
known.
The main body of the Spaniards was
posted on hill, ON the heavily-wooded
slopes of which had been erected two
blOckhOuses, fanked by irregular in
trenchments of stone and fallen trees |
At the bottom of these hills runs two |
roads along which Lieutenant-C Colonel |
RoOsevelt's men and eight troops of |
the First and Tenth Cavalry. with |
battery of four howitzers, advanced. |
These roads are but little more than
gullies, rough and narrow, and at
places almost impossible. In these
trails the fight occurred.
A terrific fire was poured in on the
Americans as they advanced up these
trails. RooseveIt's men stated up the
bluff to attack the enemy on the flank
while General Young took the road
around the foot of the hill. About
two and one-half miles from the camp
which RoOsevelt's men were to take
the Spaniards were found strongly in j
trenched. The line moved cautiously
until the hill was reached
where the Spaniards were lying and
the fight began.
At 7:30 a. m. General Young gave f
the command to the men at the Hotch- I
kiss guns to open fire. The command
was the beginning of a stubborn fight .
seldom equalIed. Volley after volley i
was pored from the hillside and an
3wered by the men in the road who
covered every part of a Spaniard that
vas exposed. L
Colonel Roosevelt found 1900 Span t
ards holding the hillsides with rife I
1its and machine guns. They had a y
body of men in an ambush in the thick
ungle at the sides of the road. The s
ire lasted for two hours. Roosevelt @
says Of it: "The Spanish firing was }
accurate. so accurate indeed, that it .
me- and their firing was $
eqrfuIly heavy
Colonel Wood took the right wing c
md Roosevelt the left when the com
nand to charge in open order was
made The objective point was
)lOckhOuse, 500 yards away. When =
within 500 yards Of it the Spaniards !
broke and ran and for the first time
he Americans had the pleasure which
he Spaniards had been experiencing
III through the fight, Of Ihooting at
he enemy in sight.
Sergeant Hamilton Fish, Jr., was the
irst man killed by the Spanish fire.
lie was near the head of the column
Is it turned from the road into the
.ange of the Spanish ambuscade. He
hot one Spaniard who was firing from
he cover of a dense patch of under
)rush When buliet struck his
,reast he sank at the foot of a tree,
With his fack against it. Captain Cap
on stood over him, shooting, and
Tiers rallied around him, covering the
men. The ground this af-
arnOOn was thick with empty shells
where Fish lay lie lived twenty
minutes.