Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-07-16
aalistellaneons &eading.
CIJBA'S BOLD HORSEMEN.
Record of the Ten Years War and the
Present Struggle.

Record of the Ten Years War and the
Present Struggle.
Cuba's historian, when he writes the
story of her years of struggle for lib
erty, rightfully will give prominence
to the deeds of the Cuban cavalry.
Some of his most stirring pages will be
those on which are recorded the vic.
tories won by small bands of mounted
patriots. Cuba's cavalry has never
been large force. Today it is so re-
duced in numbers that the work it can
do is limited. General Gomez has a
few hundred mounted men in bis COM
mand, and there are small cavalry
forces in Camaguey, Sancti Spiritus,
and the province of Havana. They
have maintained a vigorous guerrilla
warfare.
1t has been lack of horses, not men,
that has kept the Cuban cavalry force
small. When mounted patriot loses
his horse in an engagement or by sick
ness, or by the necessity of killing him
to furnish meat for the mess table-as
has been the case at times in this and
| in the Ten Years war-that cavalry
man becomes perforce an infantryman.
He has only one chance of securing
another mount-by capturing the horse
of some Spaniard. But even that sup
ply is limited. Horses are scarce in
Cuba today.
With plenty of horses, the Cubans
could organize a powerful cavalry.
They are fine horsemen. Cuban boys
are taught to ride as soon as they are
to walk or talk. Tomas Estrada Pal
ma, head of the Cuban delegation in
this country, learned to ride on a goat
before he was old enough to cling to
the saddle of a horse. The native
Cuban horses are small and wiry,
sound of limb and deep of chest.
And the machete, that weapon of the
Cubans, can be welded with its full
force in a cavalry charge.
1t is true that the Spanish cavalry
on the island has not been such as to
reflect credit on its government. The
Spanish peasantry, from whom the
men for Spain's Cuban army are draft
ed, are not good horsemen in time OF
peace, and they have not been good
horsemen in war. When you mount
naturally poor horseman and put a
carbine in one hand and sabre or a
machete in the other you have made
life miserable for him. But the Span
iards have always had the advantage
of largely superior numbers, and so
their poor horsemanship does not take
any credit from the victories won by
the smaller Cuban forces.
The mettle of these men was shown
during the Ten Years. war, when the
Cuban cavalry was at its best. The
history of that war, when it is written,
will bristle with incidents of heroic
daring against superior numbers. In
conversation with Sun reporter a
few days ago Colonel Manuel Sanguily,
of this city, who with his brother,
General Julio Sanguily, took q promi-
nent part in the Ten Years war, out
lined the history of the Cuban cavalry
and recalled some stirring incidents OF
that struggle.
When the revolution broke out in
1868 the patriots gathered a small
force of mounted men. Ramon Cantu,
an officer of the Mexican army, who
had Joined the Cubans, was put in
command. The force did not do much
under him, and the next year Lieuten-
ant Colonel Sanguily was put in
charge. He brought the force up to
two squadrons. Manuel Sanguily was
in charge of one and Antonio Serrano
of the other. With these forces he
fought number of engagements. In
November, 1869, the Cuban junta, OF
New York, sent Colonel Thomas Jor-
dan, of Virginia to Cuba with the rank
of commander-in-chief to organize the
Cuban army. Jordan had fought in
the Civil war. Among one Of his
changes was the substitution of the
Prussian sabre for the machete as a
cavalry arm, and with these the Gu
bans fought just one battle. That was
at San Jose in Puerto Principe prov
ince, and though the Cubans dispersed
and defeated large force of Spanish
infantry, they discarded the sabre
thereafter and have used the machete
ever since. During the early part of
1870, Colonel Sanguily resigned and
Jondan appointed w. H. c. Ryan, an
American citizen, to the command of
the cavalry, with the rank of colonel.
Ryan was born in Toronto, but was
educated in Buffalo and became cit
izen of the United States. He fought
in the Civil war and went to Cuba in
1869. After good service there he re-
turned to the United States on a mis-
sion from the Cuban government. He
returned to Cuba on the ill-fated Vir-
ginius expedition, and was shot in San
tiago with Captain Fry and others.
While at the head of the Cuban cav
airy Ryan introduced reforms in drill
and took part in a number of engage
ments. The fighting was SO severe
that the cavalry dwindled until at the
end of 1870 there were not so mounted