Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1898-05-17
THE CUBAN INSURGENTS
An Estimate of the Present
Strength of Their Forces.
INCIDENTS FROM CAMP AND FIELD,

ouceu his FIGURES OF GENERAL Betan-
courts Army From Five Thousand Men
to One Thousand-An Americans Efforts
to Join the Insurgents.
There seems TO be diversity of opin-
ion concerning the strength of the Gu.
ban insurgents. Various accounts have
been published on this subject, and it
may be of interest at this time to note
the following estimate given by Thorn
as R. Dawley, Jr., in the New York
Evening Post:
The prevailing idea is that there is a
marked difference between the Spaniard
and the Cuban, and that all our army
has to do is to land upon the island,
and there, finding the Spaniards on one
| side Of well defined line and the Gu.
bans on the other, they have only to
step between and tell the Spaniards to
go away and leave the others to govern
| themselves. But when our troops do
| invade Cuba they may find it a much
| more difficult task to separate these peo-
pie than any our government officials
| have counted upon. As an illustration
may be cited an incident of Senator
Thurston' experiences in Cuba and his
subsequent statement ON the floor of the
| senate, in which he gave, as an exam
pie of the discipline of the Spanish ar
my, his purchase of machete from q
| Spanish soldier. AS matter of fact
man sold his machete to the senator on
| the wharf at Matanzas, but he was nei-
Their Spaniard nor a Spanish soldier.
| The man wore blue uniform, was
Cuban and was appointed by the Cuban
| governor to escort the party of Ameri.
! can visitors around the city, and his
duties correspondent to those of our own
municipal police. =.
Upon my setting out to find Gomez,
| his headquarters was designated to me
| upon the map Of Cuba, where he was
| represented to be making bold stand
| against the combined forces of General
| Weyler. After travelling several weeks
through a desolated and depopulated
part of the island which was being over
run by Spanish soldiers, found the in
| surgent chief in a palm grove, surround
ed by his army of $50 armed men and
some 200 naked servants. mostly black,
! termed the impedimenti. While with
Gomez we were Joined by the renowned
| General Quintin Bandera, who, Gen.
eral Gomez had previously stated, was
on his way from the east with force
of 2,200 volunteers. But upon review
| ing General Bandera's new contingent
| found that he had but $50 men, most
ly naked negroes. In the two weeks that
| passed with Gomez the army occupied
itself in selecting appropriate camping
places where there was grass and water
| for the horses and wild cattle for the
men. During the day the horses were
kept constantly saddled ready TO mount
| and run upon the approach of the Span
| lsh troops, who were almost constantly
wandering about the country looking
| for us.
As for the number OF insurgents un-
der arms, we have never had any figures
| except those given by the insurgents
themselves and the various estimates
placed upon them by the Spaniards AS
| to the value of the Spanish estimates,
may cite an instance where l have
known the entire garrison Of city to
| be placed on the defensive, a report hay
ing come in that large force of rebels
was camped within short distance.
Upon evading the sentries and joining
the insurgents I found that the large
| force consisted of a major and four men,
three of them armed. On another occa-
sion have been with ten insurgents at
the top of mountain, keeping back a
Spanish column, which undoubtedly,
| fearing the overwhelming numbers of
the enemy, failed to come up and drive
| the ten men away.
In one SO called battle between the
forces of Maxine Gomez and a Spanish
column, in which participated to
certain extent, the Spanish general in
his official report of the engagement
gave out that be had counted 20 of cur
dead abandoned upon the field of battle
| The truth was that in this particular
| engagement our side did considerable
| running, led by the old chief in person,
while 60 of his men tried to check the
oncoming Spaniards OF the 60 who
were actually in the fight but two of
them were wounded. The Spaniards
pursued Us till night, the next day re-
turning to their headquarters, where
they reported their victory.
have before me the report of the in
| surgent chief of staff, Miro, at the be-
ginning of the invasion in November,
| 1895, in which he states that the insur-
gent army then numbered, including
armed and unarmed, 2, 600 men. In the
month Of January following he states
that the "entire forces of the liberating
army" reunited near Hoyo Colorado,
numbered ll,700. After this Maceo.
with 1900 men, went into Pinar del
Rio, and the rest Of the army was d.
vided into bands and distributed
throughout the provinces Of Matanzas,
Havana and Santa Clara.
Today it is admitted by the friends
of Cuba that the island has been devas-
tated and depopulated and that all the
friends OF the insurgents who formerly
planted their crops and fed them have
been driven into the cities to starye, vet
they insist upon making US believe that
there are today in this devastated, de-
populated island from $1,000 to 40, 600
insurgents ready to co-onerafa with our