The silver lance., 1898-07-08


made. But little. sickness outside of
exhaustion from intense heat and ex-
ertion of the battle of day before yes
terday and the almost constant fire
which is kept up on the trenches.
Wagon road to the rear is kept up
with some difficulty, on account of
rains, but l will be able to use it for
the present.
General Wheeler is serinusly Ill and
will probably have TO go to the hear to-
day. General Young is very ill; con-
fined to his bed. General Hawkins
slightly wounded in foot during sort;e
made list night, which was handsome
ly repulsed.
The behavior of our troops was
magnificent.
General Garcia reports that he holds
the railroad from Santiago to San Luis
| and has burned a bridge and removed
some rails; also that General Pando has
arrived at Palma and that the French
consul with about 400 French citizens
came into his line yesterday from San
| tiago; have directed him to treat them
with every courtesy possible.
SHAFTER.
| Secretary Alger sent the following
| reply to General Shafter:
| To General Shafter: The President
| directs me to say that you have the
gratitude and thanks of the nation for
| the brilliant and effect work of your
noble army on Friday, July LIST. The
| steady valor and heroism of officers
and men thrill the American people
with pride. The country mourns the
brave men who fell in battle They
have added new names to our roll of
| heroes.
| (Signed r. A. ALGER,
| Secretary of War
The dispatch speaks for itself, and.
as Adjutant General Corbin said, tells
what desperate fight our gallant
| troops have been in. 1t was received
at noon to-day, and after Iull of near
| ly thirty-six hours in the official in
formation from the field
AT first. when 1t become known that
the American commander had report
| ed the defenses to be so strong il
would be impossible to carry them
| with his present force, there was mo-
mentarily wave of deep apprehen-
sion. But this was not shared by the
military authorities here All their en-
ergies, all their attention. was turned
TO meet the situation as presented by
| General Shafter. There was neither
time nor disposition to take account of
| What mad gone before, when the fact
was plain that the American army had
felt its way, inch by inch. under a
| blazing sun. through n tropical vegeta-
tion, steadily advancing and beating
back the foe, taking position after pO-
siton. until. as General Shafter report
| ed, the town was well invested on the
north and east by the long drawn out
line of American troops. This was a
suff1cient tribute TO the valor of our
brave men, and it silenced all cavil
over the conditions now presented by
| General Shafter.
1t was time for action. for rein
forcements, and toward the execution
of this end every effort of the admin
istration was at once turned.
But there was other information of a
more encouraging nature at the
| same time.
| Shortly after II o'clock this morning
| Assistant Secretary of the Navy Allen
| left the White House hastily. and. go
ing directly to the department. posted
| the following on the bulletin board:
General Shafter telegraphs:
Playa del Este, July 3.-Early this
morning l sent a demand for the sur
render Of Santiago, threatening to bonn
bard the city. | believe the place will
| be surrendered.
This contradicts the report that Gen
eral Shafter had sallen back
Following the receipt of General
| Skaters telegram there was hur-
ried war conference at the White
| House. Secretary Alger accompanied
by General Corbin, reached there a few
minutes before o'clock and were i'm
mediately closeted with the President.
The officials hope to rush the rein
| forramqnfS to Ganaral Sha ftar. 81 tbat
there will be from 1000 to 81. 900 men
under his command within the next
| ten days, and sooner if this can be ar
| ranged. This is exclusive of the insur-
| gents, of whom General Garcia has
| been able to bring to Skaters COM
mand approximately 1000 men. There
were about 1000 men and officers in
| the expedition that set out from Tam
pa less than a month ago. These have
since been reinforced by the troops of
Brigadier General Dufiield's command.
| amounting to 5000 men.
Colonel Humphries is in charge of
the transport service with Shafter's
army, and he will send back to Tampa
the vessels that can be spared as rap
idly as possible; in fact. word has
been received that the transports had
started for the United States this
morning.
If possible. the War Department will
send $4,000 men from Tampa on these
transports. Six vessels have been re-
Gently loaded with men, ammunition,
arms. supplies, etc, and are now either
at Key West or on their way to rein
force Shafter's army. Included in this
expedition are some batteries of artil-
lery. In all, these forces constitute
about $500 or 5000 men.