Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1898-06-25
LAST BOMBARDMENT
WAS DESTRUCTIVE
American Gunners Spread Death
and Destruction Among
the Forts.
GREAT WORK BY The VESUVIUS
Whole Hill Tops Are Blown Away
by the Gun Cotton Charges
Thrown.
FEARS ENTERTAINED FOR H0BS0N
Half Masted Ffng on Moro May
Have n Dcplorablc Signi2-
cance.--Suspfcion OF
TreaChcry.

On Board the Associated Press Dis
patch Boat Dauntlcss, Off Santiago dc
Cuba, Saturday, June Is. noon, via
Kingston, Jamaica, June 2l.-(Copy'
right, 1898, by the Associated Press.)-
A careful inspection of the fortitiea-
tons along the crest Of the hills de-
Tending Santiago harbor since the
bombardment Thursday morning
shows that the American gunners
| spread wreck aud ruin everywhere.
Some of the batteries were demolished
beyond repair. The vulturcs which cir
cled on level wings over the hills as
thick as swallows around Il chimney,
for hours after the fighting ceased,
furnished gruesome evidence of the IA
tality among the Spanish soldiers.
Hundreds of troops could be seen from
the ships digging fox bodies in mounds
of earth piled up by the explosions of
the proiectiles from the heavy guns,
while their heads were famed by the
wings of the black ~scavengers of the
battlefield. There were two spots, one
on the east and the other OF the west
of the harbor entrance, which were
denuded of foliage. The hilltop seems
literally blown away. These marked
the places where the 200 pound charges
of gun cotton blown by the Nesuvius
landed. But the most ominous token
of death flew from MORO castle. The
sa tfron flag of Spain was half masted
for several hours. The significance of
this is not known. 1t is not customary
10 half mast flags, but possibly some
Spanish leader was killed by the heavy
fire Of our guns, though some officers
of the squadron believe that the flag
was half masted as a notification TO the
Americans that Lieutenant Hobson
and his brave men were dead. If such
is the case they must have been wan
tonly murdered. The Spanish might
seek to lay their death to the bonn
bardment, but not II shot from the
American ships struck the fortress.
Neither Admiral Sampson nor Com
modorc Schley believe that Lieutenant
llobson and his party have been killed.
We have seventeen prisoners taken at
Guantanamo, including n lieutenant,
besides Il number in the United States,
for reprisals or exchange.
There were evident generalization
among the Spanish troops during the
bombardment. Officers could be seen,
with drawn swords, driving the men TO
The guns, but even then they could not
be forced to stay as long as our guns
were directed AT them. The fifteen
minutes night work Of the Nesuvius
had shattered their nerves.
May Have DESTROYED n Warship
1t is believed by some that the thir-
teen inch projectile fired from the
Texas, which was reported to have ex-
ploded in the magazine u one of the
western batteries. did not fill in the
battery, but went beyond and blew up
one Of the ships In the harbor.
A dramatic incident of the bonn
bardment was the act of a Spanish Of
ficer, who bravely ran along the para
pet under the fire encouraging his men
TO stand by their guns. Shot and shell
rained about him and after one terrific
explosion he was seen no more and the
parapet had disappeared. He could
not have escaped death.
From the foretop of the Brooklyn,
1900 yards distant, the men in the
grounds could be noticed, but a minute
later dust and flying debris would take
their places and when the smoke
cleared away only a spot of red earth
could be ~seen-guns and gunpers had
been swept away. 1t was the most
deadly and destructive bo~mbardment
of the war thus far. Scarcely a shot
from the big guns of the squadron
went astray. The aim Of our gunners
,,.oe c,parh and not np1v u,are tho coaSt
forts annihilated, but the batteries on
Cayo Smith, up the harbor, were de-
stroyed. Had all the slips used smoke
less powder, as did the New Orleans,
there would remain no signs of guns
or Notifications 10 indicate that there
had ever been any defenses there.