The herald., 1898-09-11
THE CAPTURE OF COAMO

sylvania were waiting for them, and
u opened fire.
The enemy had not thought Of an ann
bush. He had delayed until the first shot
from the artillery had broken the still
ness Of the morning, and then, feeling
sure of an hours start, had fallen back
rapidly toward Aibonito. The Spaniards
ran Off the road into the rain cutters.
and these, with the cactus lining the
road, served as trenches. There white
hats were the marks at which the vol
unteers fired.
| The spanish commander seemed to
wish to die. He galloped out Of the road
and into the meadow, where he was con-
spicuous from the top Of his head to the
hoofs of his horse. At one time he stood
motionless where there was a break in
the cactus hedge. After he was killed
the men in the trench along the road
raised a handkerchief on a stick and
ceased firing.
Col. Biddle Of the engineers, who had
acted as a scout for the volunteers, stood
out on the edge of the line and held a
rifle above his head with both hands and
let it fall. The Spaniards stepped into
the road and repeated his motions, rais-
ing the rifles and dropping them at their
| IL,
and 100 taken prisoners. Ten of the Six
teenth were wounded.
The volleys had been heard on the 9TH.
er side of the town. and to help matters
the artillery fired three more shots for
moral effect only. The infantry, hurry
ing to the rescue. found that the bridge
on the Ponce road was destroyed, and
rushed down steep ravine and across
the fords in the river
There were two aides of Gen. Wilson.
Capt breckenridge and Lieut.. Titus.
who were riding in the infantry skirmish
i1ne. capt. Paget, the British naval at
tache. ana -FOUR correspondents We're also
with them, and they all forded the river
together. They had seen Gen, Ernst
ana his staff hurrying toward the town,
a half hour before. along the Ponce road.
and they supposed he had already en-
tered 1t. Moreover. the road leading into
the town was the shortest distance to the
place from which the firing came, SO thew
rode down it at a gallop. in order that
they might still be in time to see the
| town surrender.
For a mile the road was quite empty.
and the houses on either side were either
shut up and barred or quite open and de-
serted. A rifle pit, also deserted, stretched
across the road, but the horses scrambled
around it. and. turning with the road.
| brought 1t into the main street of Coamo.
Gen. Ernst was not in the street, nor
were there any Spaniards. There was a
man with white flag in the middle Of
it. and he seemed inclined to drop it and
run If needful.
| The horses We're racing now, and the
clatter they made in the empty street
was impressive. AS we passed a few
men crawled out from under the porches
and shouted viva Amercanos!" and
then ran back again and hid. More men
! with white flags peeped out from around
corners and shook the flags at us fran
| tically.
1t was like horse race with starters
stretched out all along the course. Bar
ricades of iron pipe across the street and
more rifle pits failed to discourage the
| horses. They were excited by the shouts
and by the flags, and they carried us,
| racing neck and neck, to the other end
| Of Coamo. There we found, to our en-
barrassment, that 1t was empty Of Amer
| ican troops, and that unwittingly and un-
I willingly we had been offered its surren-
der.
Capt. Breckenridge and Lieut. Titus
| looked at each others shoulder straps.
and Lieut.. Titus congratulated his supe-
rior officer on having taken a town Of
5000 inhabitants with six men.
Then they borrowed flag Of truce and
wigwagged to the Sixteenth that 1t was
safe to come in. The people were glad
to see our troops, but there was differ
ence between the reception they gave
them and the reception the people OF
Ponce gave them which was as marked
as possible.
At first the people of Coamo were ter.
rified, and carried brandy bottles with
them, as being possibly stronger means
Of protection than the flags of truce. But
as soon as they saw no harm would come
to them they became more friendly, but
not so delirious as We're the people Of
Ponce. The Americans did not care.
They sang Just tell them that you saw
us, and that we We're doing WELL"
Gen. Wilson had established himself
in the home of the alcalde. and was
sending modest kilograms to the COM
mander-in-chiefa at Ponce and receiving
congratulations. The men We're smoking
cigarettes and We're drinking the wine
the people pressed, upon them, and the
officers swarmed in the only hotel and
fought the skrmish over again.
But some one always has to pay the
cost, and back of the negro quarter of
the town, at the end of an avenue of
palms. the men who had paid the heav-
lest price were being buried in the Cath
olic graveyard. 1t was just after sunset.
and the place was damp and chilly and
dark. Two hospital stewards, who had
been keeping count of the Spanish dead
as they were put into the graves. sat
on a tombstone and checked off the last
foreign name on the list with q stub of a
pencil.
"Well, that's ALL" said the hospital
steward, as he put on his blouse. 1--WE
can go now."
The hospital stewards stood looking at
each other doubtfully, as though they
were trying to think If there was any,
thing still left to do And as they hesf-
ated there came family from the other
END Of the town the throb and beat Of
martial music advancing up the main
street of Coamo. The old keeper Of the
graveyard left the gates to lock them
selves and hobbled off in pursuit, and
from the center of the town there were
wild shouts of "Viva!" and from the ne
gro quarters came the sound of bare feet
pattering down the road.