The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-07-09

Bstteries-How Caprop Battered IN
the Fort Was Taken-story Creeimal
Dictated While Wounded and In Pain
How General Chsfree Urged His Men I,
Meet the Foe.
Mr.. W. r. Hearst, editor of the New
York Journal, writing under the date OF
July from Siboney. Cuba, sent the
following dispatch to his paper describ-
ing the capture of FL Caney by our
troops:
Tonight, as I write this, the am
balance trains are bringing wounded
soldiers from the battle around the little
inland village of I'll Caney. Siboney,
| the base is a hospital-nothing more
| There is no saying where it will cease.
The tents are crowded with the wound
ed. Surgeons are busy with their me-
chanical work There is an odor of an
aesthetics and CHATTER of ambulances in
the one narrow street
Under the fierce fire of artillery,
which it was scarcely supposed the
Spaniards had in store the American
infantry and dismounted cavalry have
done their work | have been at the ar.
tillery positions all day TO see what our
guns could or could not do There is no
question to be raised of the skill or
courage of the American gunners
Their work was as near perfect as gun
merry gets TO be. But there was no artil-
lery to speak Of / set out before day
break this morning on horseback with
Honore Laine, who is colonel in the
Cuban army and has served for months
as a newspaper correspondent in Cuba.
We rode over the eight miles of difficult
country which intervenes between the
army base on the coast and the line
which is being driven forward toward
Santiago
We arrived at the front, on the ridge
Of Ell Pozo, where our batteries were
assailing the advance line of the Santi-
ago defenses III Pozo was i'll chosen as
the position Of our batteries, for the
Spaniards had formerly occupied it as
fort. They knew precisely the distance
to it from tEeir guns and began their
fight with the advantage Of pe..,ot
knowledge Of the range. Upon "a N4..te
house back of the ridge their first shell
exploded in very unpleasant way,
leaving its marks from foundation to
roof Of the house, whose doors we were
approaching.
We turned here to the right toward
our battery on the ridge. When we
were half way between the white house
and the battery the second shell which
the Spaniards fired burst above the
American battery, ten feet over the heads
of the men. Six of our fellows were
battery wavered for minute and then
returned to their guns, and the firing
went on. We passed from there to the
right again, where General Skaters
war balloon was ascending. Six shells
fell in this vicinity. Then our battery
ceased firing Smoke clouds from our
guns We're forming altogether too plain
target for the Spaniards There was
no trace to he made out of the enemy's
fire, by reason of their use of smokeless
powder
OFF far to the right of the line of for.
nation Captain Capron's artillery,
which had come through from Baiquiri
without rest could be heard banging
away at FL Caney. We had started with
a view to getting where we could OBJ
serve the artillery operations, so we di-
rected our course thither We found
Captain Capron blazing away with four
guns where he should have had dozen
He had begun Smelling FL Caney at 4
O'Clock in the morning. 1t was now
noon, and he was still firing He w;is
aiming to reduce the large stone fort
which stood on the hill above the town
and commanded it. Since that time
dozens of shells had struck the fort, but
it was not yet reduced. 1t had been
much weakened, however. Through
glasses our infantry could be seen ad
vancing toward it, as the cannon at our
side would bang, and shell would
swish through the air with its queru-
lous, vicious, whining note The in.
fantry firing was ceaseless. Our men
were popping away continuously, as a
string of firecrackers pops, and the
Spaniards Were firing in volleys when.
ever our men came in sight in the open
spaces. Many times we heard this vol
ley fire and saw numbers of our brave
fellows pitch forward and lie still on
the turf, while the others hurried on to
the next protecting clump of bushes.
For hours the Spaniards poured their
fire from Sits in the stone fort, from
their deep trenches and from the win
dows Of the town. For hours our men
answered back from trees and brush and
gulleys. For hours cannon at our doors
banged and shells screamed through the
air and fell upon the fort and town, and
always our infantry advanced, drawing
nearer and closing up on the village,
till at last they formed under a group of
trees at the foot of the very hill on
which the stone fort stood and with
rush swept up the slope, and the stone
fort was ours.
Then you should have heard the yell
that went up from the knoll ON which
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