Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1898-07-06

SdLl d lopiu hiiii6 ih'o
The guns of the two batteries
made the place SO hot that the
enemy finally retired, having
no artillery.
The town was surrounded by
rough earthworks and lines OF
barbed wire.
After the enemy had been
driven from Ell Paso, tyenty-one
shots were fired by Captain Grimes
and Captain Capron from that
position into the outer Notifications
of Santiago before a response came.
When it did come, however, it
came with unexpected accuracy,
the shots being from three and
fve-inch rapid-fre rifles, evidently
taken from Admiral Cervera's war
ships and mounted behind the
Notifications. The Spanish gun
ners 1aked the hill on which FL
Paso stands and which meantime
had been made the headquarters OF
General Summer and the Cuban
Generals Garcia, CASTILLO, Capote
and Rabi, One shell struck a large
sugar sstore house, on the red
corrugated roof of which stood ten
Cubans viewing the fight. The
roof fell and all the Cubane were
wounded and three of them will
die.
A detatachment of 200 Cubans
went forward from Ell Paso, and
then Col. Wood, with the Rough
Riders, the First and Tenth
cavalry, started down the hillsides
straight for the enemy's fortifca-
tions..
Captain Grimes's battery poured
a steady fire into the Spaniards to
protect Col. Woods advance. The
dismounted cavalry passed on
their way through the tangled
grass and underbrush and half
way down the hillside selected a
good spot to halt, and from there
opened and maintained for twenty
minutes a hot fire. The opposing
batteries banged away, Captain
Grimes sending a storm of lead
down into the oater Notifications
and the Spaniards pounding away
at the hilltop with vicious perals-
tence.
Most of the Spanish shells went
over the hilltops and fell i'll
ravine beyond. Here several
detaohments of Cuban troops were
stationed as reserves and before
they could be moved seven in
surgents were seriously wounded
and several slightly hurt. At the
same time, two Americans were
killed and nine wounded. The
lSpaniards used smokeless powder,
1,.and shot.with much more accuracy
than during the previous engage
ment:: The wonder is that many
more lives were not lost, as the
opposition batteries were less than
two miles apart.
Col. Woods command behaved
with great bravery, firing steady
and deadly volleys, with the
enemy's shells screeching and
bursting over their heads.
Twenty minutes of fearfully hot
work silenced the Spanish batter
lies. Ten shots were sent into them
after they ceased firing, but there
was no response, and 1t is pre-
sumed that the guns were dis
mounted or the gunners driven off.
Away to the left General Law
toms division, with Chafee's men
and Capron's battery, was mean
time fighting fiercely with the
enemy entrenched in and about
Caney. The Spaniards contested
every inch of ground bitterly and
fought with unexpected coolness
and courage, but the irresistible
onward mcvement.of the Ameri-
cans slowly forced them back upon
and beyond Caney. About II
q. clock the terrible fire from Capt.
Capron's guns and the muskets of
the men broke the Spanish line
and a retreat began toward the
line OF outer Notifications. The
enemy took the trail known as the
main Santiago road and Captain
Grimes's battery Immediately be-
gan pitching shells in ahead of the
retreating men while a detachment
of 1000 Cubans headed by Garcia
started to cut off the retreat.
No report has yet been received
from them. A large detachment