The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-07-13
SMELLING
SANTIAGO.
Explosive PrOjectiles Weighing
$50 Pounds Hurled
With Unerring Precision Into
the City
FROM SCHLEY'S SHIPS,
At a Distance of Four and a
Half Miles.
Town Was Set on Fire in Nu-
merOus Places.
FROM SCHLEY'S SHIPS,

kingston, Jamaica, July 13.-Ine UNI
ted States navy had the following prob
lem presented to it: What is the best
manner of effectually bombarding
city distant four and a half miles and
concealed from view by a range Of hills
$50 feet high at it's lowest part?
The problem has been satisfactorily
solved. So. if the army hereafter never
fired a shot and merely guarded the
roads, the navy could make Santiago
untenable, if indeed it did not destroy
1T in a few days.
Sunday and today, the sea was calm
er than usual so the opportunity for
good practice was afforded.
In pursuance of Gen. Skaters re-
quest, Commodore Schley, Rear Admiral
Sampson being absent at Guantanamo,
at 3 o'clock on Sunday afternoon rang
ed the Brooklyn, Indiana and the Texas
within five hundred yards of the shore,
at a point almost due south of the city
of Santiago, distant little over four
and half miles. The ships were about
a mile apart. The army signal men
were on the beach opposite the ships
and also on the crest of a hill over
looking both the ships and the city.
These men wig-wagged the results of
each shot, telling the gunnerS if the
shell was aimed too high or too low,
or not in line.
Sundays practice was good. but it
opened by the New York, which re-
turned from Guantanamo Bay, during
the night.
The New York BROOKLYN and Indiana
were the ships, which participated in
the Smelling this morning. Each shot
was carefully calculated and the wig
Wag Signaled from the shore to the
ships where each shell fell and notified
the gunners if they had the proper ell
AVIATION
The ships ran out their big guns on
the side opposite the firing, in order to
secure the desired list to port or to
StarbOard.
General Shafter signalled at noon
that some of the shells fell in the bay
and some in the city. The latter do not
appear to do great damage"
Comment on this subject was chang
ed Immediately by a message saying:
THE last shot struck st. Nicholas
church, where powder was stored, blow
ing up the same and doing great dam
age
The bombardment closed for the day
at l p. m. at Gen. Shafter'S request as
he was about to send a flag of truce in
to the city, in order to demand its sur
render for the third and last time The
whole proceeding was business like in
the extreme. The ordinary vacations
on shipbOard went on, punctuated at
intervals of five minutes by the roar OF
the big guns, the scream of prOjectiles
and the echoes from the mountains in
the rear of MORO castle, plainly visible
to the westward and having the bonn
harding ships well in range, but not
gun was fired by the Spaniards.
The effects of the shells when they
did hit can easily be ina gined when it
is known that each of them carries 250
pounds of explosives and travels 925
feet per second When such missile
lands at a distance of four and a half
miles from the muZzle to the city it Oc-
cupieS 22A seconds in its flight. Four
shells during the bOmbardment today
tgnited fires in different parts of the
city, proving the feasibility of burning
the place by using the guns of the fleet
alone.
Death must have come to many in the
city by reason Of the Smelling.
Land Fighting.
Before Santiago de Cuba. July Ii. via
Kingston, July 13.-When the fire open
ed from the American lines, after the
conclusion of the armistice, our men
were in much better position. CaprOn'S
and Hines batteries were posted on the
heights on the left of the line and in
the rear Of Bates line. The HOtchkiss,
gathng and dynamite guns occupied a
crest on the right center and on the ex-
IRENE right. Best's and Grimes bat
teries were posted in the center of
LawtOn's division. Our right was
strengthened by a brigade of Kent's
division, the Sixth and Sixteenth regu-
lars and the Seventy New York, which
was pushed to the westward until with
Garcia S line, it formed an arc, reach
ing within a quarter of a mile of Cal
mera which skirts the bay and forts.
The only road by which General To-
AdA [OulQ escape was InuS commanded.
Small detached bodies of Spaniards had
been observed slipping out of town
westward early in the morning, includ-
ing a squad of cavalry. A move was
made to cut off their retreat and a land
bOmbardment began. A shot from the
Grimes battery was followed by one
OF Capron's guns on the left. and from
the right center the gatling and Hotch-
kiss batteries opened fire. For the first
ten minutes the firing was quite gen
era1. the Spaniards replying spiritedIy.
but the rifle fire on both sides soon
waned, and from 3 o'clock to half past
6, when the action ceased, the firing
was confined almost exclusively to the
artillery.
Our batteries soon got the range and
poured shells into Spanish entrench-
ments- The HOtchkiss battery swept
the outer line of the entertainments
back and forth, cutting down the brush
shelters like a Scythe. The Spanish
were soon forced to the block house
A Spanish battery left OF the town en-
ragged by Capron'S battery, fired only a
few shots, but the battery on the right
fired spirftedIy until a. gun cotton shell
from Woods dynamite gun exploded
directly in front of it, tearing up two
trees and diSmounting the gun. It was
the last shot of the afternoon and was
greeted with cheers. Two men in Cen
eral Kent's division were killed by
shell and several were wounded Ser
geant johnson and Private Clay of
troop B, Ninth cavalry, were among
the wounded.
A Spanish deserter came to our lines
this afternoon for food. He said: 1.-The
Spanish are as good fighters as the
Americans, and if we had food and
cigarettes in abundance we would fight
forever"
General Kent recommends the follow
ing officers of his division for gallantry
under fire: Major Sharp, Major Phil