The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1898-06-25
THE BATTLE ArssAN JUAN.
A Graphic Description Given by One of the
Participants.

A Graphic Description Given by One of the
Participants
The follo3 wing is taken from the
Clinton, Missouri, Democrat, and is a
letter written to his brother at Clinton,
by Quartermaster Harry Williams. of
the cruiser Montgomery, who is a
nephew of Mrs W. c. Allaway, of this
city:
We left Cape Haytien on the day
last wrote you and steamed eastward
toward Porto Eco. A Z o'clock on
the morning ": 5ighted ohe city of
San Juan. The ..dmiral's orders were
to give the Spanish forts little shak
ing up to see if there were any Spanish
warships in the harbor and to give our
gunners little target practice.
At o'clock the Detroit was sent in
under the forts to draw the fire so the
fleet could get line On them. At 5:15
the forts opened fire and she immedi-
ately returned it, and steamed in so
close under the forts, they could no5
train their guns down on her. In the
meantime the fleet had formed In bat.
tie column in the following order:
Flagship Iowa, Indiana, New York,
Terror, Amphitrite; and steamed slow
ly past the forts with all their guns in
action.
AS the Iowa was in the lead, was
tnh h NJ hnf al hn h
gun she fired, 1 could see terrible
pile of dust. rubbish and Spa lish fly
ing through the air. The booming of
all the big guns was something grand
and terrible. The Montgomery was
assigned position to the right flank
at the entrance of the harbor and in
front of small battery. Our business
was to stop any vessel that might at
tempt to come out of the harbor and
to silence the fort in front of us. AS
soon as the big ships opened fire, we
did the same. There were only three
shots fired from the fort we were to
look after for in three minutes after
we opened fire we had it riddled and
silenced.
In the meantime, Moro fort was
keeping up terrible fire. The place
seemed to be alive with guns, and col
umns of smoke and flame belched forth
from it continually. 1t was certainly
a grand sight. The fight was kept up
for three hours, when our admiral
to stop firing, and we with ,
drew out of range to see what damage
had been done.
The New York was struck by one
shell and one man killed. None of
the other ships were touched. So you
can see what poor marksmen the |
Spanish are. The distance from the |
ships to the forts was from 200 to
4, 900 yards. We were 5000 yards from
the fort we silence1. When the large |
ships were making the circle to come |
back again in position, the large forts |
would turn their guns on us. We |
stood it like old timers. The shells |
few all around US. They make ter
r;ble music-something different from
1 ever heard before. We |
would hear screeching sound and |
then watch for the shell to strike.
They lit all around US. The nearest |
struck fifty feet from the Mont
g gomery's stern.
There is no telling how many Span !
ish were killed. Advices to this port
are that their loss cannot be counted.
After our admiral found there were no |
in the harbor, we steamed |
until evening and then we
were ordered here with dispatches for
the auxiliary cruisers, ST. Louis and
St. Paul.
A French warship has just come in
here that was lying in San Juan har-
Dor while the bonn 5ardment was going
On. She has hole through her
smoke stack from one of our shells.
They said it was too hot for them in
here,