The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-06-29


 Santiago de Cuba, The third brigade, 1 under General Chaffee, the 17th, 18th | and 7th regiments, holds the trenches with his command lying across the road and river. The First brigade, the | Sth, 22d and 2d Massachusetts under General Clarke, lies on the left flank, slightly in the rear, and the Second brigade, the list, 4th and 18th, occupy the opposite position on the right flank
 General Wheeler, with the cavalry, is
 in the rear, between Sevilla hills and the Rio Guamo. A strong line of out posts is maintained ahead. General Chaffee's brigade, with 5000 Cubans, under General Aguirra and several hundred under Colonel Gonzales, was skirmishing towards the city this morning. The Cubans had several slight slkirmishes with the Spaniards stationed on the hills on the ground on the American right flank, and our aux diaries occupied the blockhouses in that vicinity, which were evacuated by the Spaniards. The latter retreated towards Santiago de Cuba. No fatal ities are reported. General Lawton, General Chaffee and General Wheeler have thoroughly reconnoitered the Spanish position and, with the aid of information furnished by the Cubans, have very good maps of the roads and defences of the city.
 Much information has also been ob- tained from Spanish pacificos who have given themselves up in the hope of get ting food They report great starva-
 tion and distress in Santiago de Cuba. They say the Spanish troops are on short rations and that all the supplies are being held for their use. The sick in the hospitals, the pacificos aslo say, are suffering from want of food and report several Spaniards were killed and eighty-nine were wounded as the result of the engagement of Friday last with Cols Woods and Young's com mands. The most startling informa- | tion obtained from the pacificos is that since the advance began almost 10000 | Spanish soldiers have arrived at San tiago de Cuba. This statement is made l on the authority of General Lawton, and he is also of the opinion that Gen. | eral Pando may be able to effect | junction with General Linares at San l tiago de Cuba.
 There are two forts of considerable | importance within the Spanish lines. | Punta Blanco at the southern end of | the bay and Santa Ursula at the south l east corner. On the road to Coney, on 1 the north, is another fort There are about $50 men in each of these fortifi-
 cations and stretching around the city
 are nine barbed wire fences, 50 yards apart, while just inside of these are | lines of trenches. Outside to the east l ward about two miles beyond the American outposts, is line of en- l trenchments, extending from the north
 ern extremity of the city to Morro Cas- 1 tle A little west of south at a dis l tance of about seven miles from Gener-
 al Lawtons headquarters, lies Moro Castle. The road to within a few hundred yards of the batteries at the rear of Morfo. was accommodated yes- terday afternoon by General Chaffee
 and several members of his staff. l The Cubans believe that if the water supply of the city can be cut off, San <! tiago will have to yield at once. They
 say that Admiral Cervera's entire
 fleet, except the torpedo boat destroyer
 Terror, is in the harbor. General Law | ton is inclined to discredit the reports
 that guns have been taken from the ships to strengthen the defenses on land. He said it would be impossible
 for Admiral Cervera to reach the po-
 sition of the American army with his
 big guns from where the Spanish ships | lie. Last night one pack train ar
 rived with supplies sufficient to last
 until tonight, and as this dispatch is
 being written, another train of ammu-
 milton is coming in. A train of ammu-
 milton has reached General Chaffee's l brigade, and a battery of Gatling guns
 and dynamite guns, attached to the
 rough riders, has been moved on to
 General Wheeler's camp.
 | There is no high ground in the pres- ent position where Hotchlsiss or Cat
 ling guns could be put into position, l but a little further on is ground where 1 guns can be mounted and from which l effective fire can be directed at the Spanish entrenchments. There were
 no alarms last night. Many of our of
 ficers are amazed, as they have looked | for resistance to our advance. The ground over which they have travelled could have easily been defended, but the Spanish have steadily retired, not
 even attempting to harass our Hanks,
 as the columns moved through nat
 ural ambuscading country. Apparently General Linares prefers to place his
 faith in the defenses of the city and in- tends to make a Hast ditch fight of it.
 A few-though only a few-hold to the
 theory that he does not purpose fight ing at all.
 General Calixto Garcia, who, with 5000 men, landed yesterday, is expect
 ed to reach the front to-day. The | Americans are in excellent spirits and there is remarkable lack of sickness Thus far the water supply has been good, and there have been no bad ef-
 fects from the change, except a few
 cases of dysentery. There was a brief
 rain squall last night. At noon to-day | Major Collage received orders to clear
 the road beyond the front where the stream doubles back across it, for the
 advance of artillery. A dynamite gun
 and a Hotchkiss gun will be put in position.
 General Wheeler, who made a re- connoisance for half mile beyond the | sliruish lines this morning finding