The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-13
THE PORTO RICAN EXPEDITION.
1t Will Probably BE Started Soon Aft
err Santiago Has Fallen.

CT StAMNAASO y
NEW YORK, July IA special to the
Times from Washington says: The move
ment of the American army on Porto Rico
may be said to have begun. No troops have
yet left these shores openly consigned 10
that island but the continued forwarding of
additional regiments to Santiago when it is
recognized that General Shafter has as large
army as he needs to take that town is.
in reality, the laying of the foundation of
the Porto Rican expecitionary force, and
the hurry orders that have been sent to
the Southern concentration camps for the
making ready of large bodies of troops for
early movement mark the preparation for
the superstructure.
The determination of the War Department
to send a formidable force for the capture
OF Porto Rico has been strengthened by the
resistance made by the Spaniards in Santi-
ago. An effort will be made to avoid the
mistakes Of the Santiago. campaign. AL
though the force to be overcome at San
Juan is smaller than at Santiago, and the
harbor is by no means so inaccessible, it is
proposed to send a larger army on the next
expedition, and one that will go fully
equipped with the artillery and cavalry it
needs. There will be no dispatching of an
insufficient force half equipped and improp-
erly supplied. as was done when General
Shafter was sent away from Tampa.
The expedition to go against Porto Rico
will consist of between twenty-five thousand
and thirty thousand men. According to the
Spanish army register for 1898 the total
strength of the Spanish regular forces in
the Island of Porto Rico is 1919. Of these
5,214 are 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 custom
house guard, and the police force. There are
in the island, according to the information
brought back by Lieutenant Whitney, some
fourteen thousand volunteers who are to
be reckoned with, as well as the additional
men the Spanish commander might be able
to impress from the male population of the
island
With a total for all arms of some twenty
one thousand or twenty-five thousand it is
not doubted that an American force of
with the help of the fleet will be ample 10
take the island: To make up this force
Major General Miles, who will organize it at
Santiago. after the fail of that city, will
draw heavily on the nucleus of regulars
who have borne themselves splendidly at
Santiago. For the rest of the force he will
take his choice of the reserves at Tampa
including twelve thousand infantry, $500
cavalry and one thousand artillery of the
ments under Lee, at Jacksonville, of the
great mass of volunteers at Chickamauga
where more than forty regiments are await
ing orders to the front and of the big force
stu stationed at Camp Alger There will be
no lack of men, and efforts are making by
the quartermaster's department to see that
there shall be no lack of equipment
Materials to complete the outfits for the
First Corps. under Major General Brooke.
which is expected to form the backbone of
the Porto Rico force, next to the regulars
are being forwarded to Chickamauga by ex-
press. This corps is expected to be ready to
move within a week, and if Santiago falls
as soon as it is expected to do, it's moving
orders will probably be given in that time
1t is not believed that there has been any
change in the plan to have General Brooke
lead the Porto Rico force Shafter did
that at Santiago. General Miles, as the gen.
eral commanding the army, is expected to
be in supreme command, however with
General Brooke next to him and TO be made
military governor of the island after it has
been subdued
The officers who are to command in Porto
Rico are making exhaustive studies of the
Island, and the armys bureau of infOrma-
tlOn, which has elaborate data concerning it
on file is being drawn upon heavily. Detail
maps of the island and of it's principal towns
are being supplied TO these officers, and the
information which they most in need of
VIII be forwarded to them as rapidly as
practicable. 1t is thought to be not unlikely
that the army of invasion may have a
harder time landing on the north coast of
of Cuba. The Porto Rico coast line has few
of the inlets and indentations such as that
al Baiquiri, and there is harbor near
San Juan like Guantanamo to furnish
refuge and coaling base for the fleet The
landing may be made at Ponce where the
defenses are said to consist chiefly of some
back of the town The Smelling of San Juan
itself is expected to be a comparatively EASY
would be more easily reached by the big
guns OF the fleet than Santiago.