Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-07-18
MOVEMENT AGAINST PORTO
RICO.

The movement against Porto Rice
NAV be said to have begun. No troops
have vet left these shores openly con
SIGNED to that island but the contin-
ued forwarding of additional regl'
ments to Santiago when it is recOg-
/ nized that General Shafter has as big
an army as he needs to take that town
is in reality the laying of the founda
ton of the Porto Rican expeditionary
| force, and the hurry orders that have
been sent to the Southern concentra-
ton camps for the making ready OF
large bodies of troops for early move
ment mark the preparation for the
superstructure.
The determination of the War De-
partment to send formidable force
for the capture Of Porto Rico has
been strengthened by the resistance
made by the Spanish at Santiago. An
effort will be made to avoid the mis-
takes of the Santiago campaign. Al
though the force to be overcome at
San Juan ir smaller than at Santiago,
and the harbor is by no means SO in
accessible, it is proposed to send a
larger army on the next eXpeditio n,
and one that will go fully equipped
with the artillery and cavalry it needs.
There will be no despatching Of an in
sufficient force half equipped and i'm
properly supplied, as was done when
General Shafter was sent away from
Tampa.
The expedition to go against Porto
Rico will consist Of between %, 600 and
10000 men. According to the Span
ish army register for 1898, the total
strength of the Spanish regular forces
in the island of Porto Rico is 1919. Of
these 5214 were infantry, armed with
Mauser rifles; 1872 are artillery and
211 are engineers. The total cavalry
strength is ten officers and men. The
rest of the garrison is made up Of the
Civil Guard, which is a sort of a Gus
tom house guard, and the police force.
There are in the island, according to
the information brought back by
Lieutanant Whitney, some IA, 900 vol
unteers, who are to be reckoned with,
as we'll as the additional men the
Spanish commander might be able to
impress from the male population of
the island.
With total for all arms Of some
21 900 or % 900, it is not doubted that
an American force Of $4,000 or 10000,
with the help of the fleet, will be am
pie to take the island.
1t is not believed that there has
been any change in the plan to have
Brooke lead the Porto Rico
force, as Shafter did that TO Santiago.
General Miles, as the general COM
the army, is expected to be
in supreme command, however, with
Brooke next to him, and to
be made military governor of the
island after it has been subdued.
1t is thought to be not unlikely that
the army of invasion may have a
harder time landing on the northern
coast of Porto Rico than it had on the
south coast of Cuba. The Porto Rico
coast line has few of the inlets and in
such as that at Baiquiri,
and there is no harbor near San Juan
ike Guantanamo to furnish a refuge
and coaling base for the feet.
The landing may be made at Ponce,
where the defences are said to consist
chiefly Of somo very fine mountain
nowitzers on the hills back of the
town. The Smelling of San Juan itself
is expected to be a comparatively
easy task, if 1t becomes necessary, as
5he town would be more easily reach
I'd by the big guns of the fleet than
Santiago.