The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1898-07-08
ROoseVelts Riders Meet Spaliards
in Ambuscade.
SIXTEEN AMERICANS KILLED
Spanish Fleet For Paciflc-Adci.
tlonai Troops For Cuba-No
Vote on Annexation.

JUfAGUA, CUBA, June 20, 4 p. m,
per Associated Press Dispatch Boat
Dandy, via Kingston, Jamaica, June
26, 10 a. m.-The initial fight Of Colonel
Woods Rough Riders and the troopers
Of the First and Tenth Regular Caval-
ry will be known in history as the
battle of La Quasina. That it did not
end in the complete slaughter Of the
Americans was not due to any mis-
calculation in the plan Of the Spanish,
for as perfect an ambuscade as was
ever formed in the brain of an Apache
Indian was prepared, and Lieutenant
Colonel Roosevelt and his men walked
squarely into it. For an hour and a
half they held their ground under a
perfect storm of bullets from the front
and sides, and then Colonel Wood, at
the right, and Colonel Roosevelt, at
the left, led a charge which turned the
ing over the hills toward Santiago.
Sixteen on the American side were
killed and 60 were wounded or report
ed missing. Already 81 dead Spanish
soldiers have been found and buried.
How many others there were Is not
known.
The main body of the Spaniards was
posted on a hill, on the heavily-wooded
slopes Of which had been erected two
blockhouses, flanked by irregular. in
trenchments of stone and fallen trees.
At the bottom of these hills runs two
roads along which Colonel
Roosevelts men and eight troops Of
the First and Tenth Cavalry, with a
battery of four howitzers, advanced.
These roads are but little more than
gullies, rough and narrow, and at
places almost impossible. In these
trails the fight occurred.
A terrific fire was poured in On the
Americans as they advanced up these
trails. Roosevelts men stated up the
bluff to attack the enemy on the flank
while General Young took the road
around the foot of the hill. About
two and one-half miles from the camp
which Roosevelt's men were to take
the Spaniards were found strongly in
trenched. The line moved cautiously
forward until the hill was reached
where the Spaniards were lying and
the fight began.
At 1880 a. m, General Young gave
the command to the men at the Hotch-
kiss guns to open fire. The command
was the beginning Of a stubborn fight
seldom equalled. Volley after volley
was pored from the hillside and an
swered by the men in the road who
covered every part of a Spaniard that
was exposed.
Colonel Roosevelt found $500 Span
iards holding the hillsides with rife
pits and machine guns. They had a
body of men in an ambush in the thick
jungle at the sides Of the road. The
fire lasted for two hours. Roosevelt
says Of 1t: "The Spanish firing was
accurate, so accurate. indeed, that 1t
surprised me. and their firing was
fearfully heavy"
Colonel Wood took the right wing
and Roosevelt the left when the COM
mand to charge in open order was
made. The objective point was a
blockhouse. 800 yards away. When
within 500 yards of 1t the Spaniards
broke and ran and for the first time
the Americans had the pleasure, which
the Spaniards had been experiencing
all through the fight, Of ihooting at
the enemy in sight.
Sergeant Hamilton Fish, Jr., was the
first man killed by the Spanish fire.
He was near the head of the column
as 1t turned from the road into the
range OF the Spanish ambuscade. He
shot one Spaniard who was firing from
the cover Of dense patch Of under
brush. When bullet struck his
breast he sank at the foot OF tree,
with his TACK against 1t. Captain Cap
ron stood over him, shooting, and
others rallied around him, covering the
wounded men. The ground this az
ternoon was thick with empty shells
where Fish lay. He lived twenty
minutes.