The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-14
Terrible Slaughter ON Both Sides. but
Great Havoc Wrought Among
General Skaters Troops.
TRIBUTE TO THEIR COURAGE
AMERICANS FOUGHT LIKE LIONS,
THE SPANIARD SAYS,
And offered Their Naked Breasts as
Targets for Mauser BusIets-The
killing of General Rey.


Correspondence of the Associated Press.
SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Aug. 2.-One of
the few surviving Spanish officers at the
battle of Caney, fought on July l, an aid
on General Vara del Rey's staff and present
at the death of that officer has related his
impression of the engagement to an Asso-
ciated Press correspondent, The narrative,
which is told in the officers own words,
gives the Spanish view of ore of the hardest
fought battles of the war. The narrator
said:
Brig. Gen. Joaquin Vara del Rey, in COM
mand of the brigade of San Luis, composed
of three companies of the Twenty ninth
regulars, numbering 467, and forty-seVen
guerrilas, were ordered by General Linares
to proceed from San Luis to Santiago, there
to reinforce the garrison in that city. We
left San Luis on June g. marched to Ell
Pose, and thence to Santiago where we
stayed forty-eight hours, when we were or
dered out to Caney to strengthen the left
flank of the Spanish lines. We arrived there
on the 18th in the evening, after an UNI
eventful march The 514 men of General
Vara del Reys command were the only
troops at Caney and were never reinforced.
The 467 regulars were armed with Mausers
and the forty-seven guerrillas with Rem
ington rifles.
On the afternoon of the 9Oth we noticed a
balloon ascending in the air about quarter
of a mile off. After the descent we the
enemy pick up their tents and move their
camp, but as the night was falling we were
unable to locate their new position, al
though we guessed at it pretty correctly.
We hurriedly dug trenches about three feet
deep, in which the men fired kneeling. We
through the night, assigned the men to their
posts and placed thirty regulars in the front
of the blockhouse, known as Ell Paraiso,
fearing a surprise from the enemy. Our
fears proved only too well founded, for at
daybreak the next morning, July l, the first
shell from the enemy's guns fell into the
town. The Americans simultaneously opened
with four rapid-fire guns and kept up d
volcanic fire until p. m We had no artil-
lery with which to reply. and soon realized
that we had to fight for our lives on our
hands. All the ammunition we had were
twelve muleloads of eight cases each, a to-
tai of $4,000 rounds.
THE enemy'S fire was ncessant and we
answered with equal rapidty. l have never
seen anything to equal the courage and dash
of those Americans, who, stripped to the
waist, Offering their naked breasts to our
murderous fire, literally threw themselves
guns. Our execution must have been terri
BILE. We had the advantage of our position
and moved them down by the hundreds, but
they never retreated or fell back an inch.
AS one man fell, shot through the heart,
another would take his place with grim de-
termination and unfiinching devotion to
duty in every line of his face. Their gal
lantry was heroic. We wondered at those
men, who fought like lions and fell like
men counting wholesale massacre, which
could we'll have been avoided had they only
kept up their firing without Storming our
trenches.
''Our stock of ammunition was dwindling
fast, we were losing men rapidly and were
fighting the battle of despair, the inevitable
staring us in the face. General Vara del
Rey was standing in the square opposite
the church, when word was brought him
that the last round had been served to the
men. This was about o'clock in the after
noon. He at once gave the order, to re-
treat, crying to his men, 'Salvez Quien
pugda.'
fell, shot through both legs One of his
aids, Lieut.. Joaquin Dominguez, turned to
the general as he fell, exclaiming, General,
what Slaughter A bullet took the top
In the meantime l had secured a stretcher
and ordered four men to place the general
on it and carry him to a place of safety.
was against us. AS they placed him on the
stretcher General Del Ray :, was shot
bearers were shot and Lieut. Won Vara Del
Rey a brother and aid to the general, was
wounded and taken prisoner.
Earlier in the day Majors Aguero and
Aragon both the generals staff, had
been killed. Besides these, ten other Of
ficers were shot and we had 230 men killed
and wounded.
AT Gen. Vara del Rey's death all took
flight, running down the hill and toward the
woods and underbrush in effort to get
away with their lives.
Toward evening small bands of stray
Cling, WORKOUT soldiers began to arrive in
Santiago. and at 500 o'clock that night
Lieut.. Col. Punet came in with 1O3 men
whom he had been able to rally and bring
into the city in some sort of order.
None of the blockhouseS in the surround
ing country was engaged that day, but in
the early morning a shell from the Amer
lean lines fell in the San Miguel blockhouse,
setting it on fire and killing seven men.
I'VE estimated the enemys forces en-
gagged at Caney on July l at 5000 men, and
their artillery at four rapid-fire guns. 1t
was the hardest fighting | have ever seen
or eyer care to see. The brilliancy and dar-
ing of the American attack only
euualled by the GOODNESS ana stubbornnesS
of the Spanish defense
THE report that the body of General
Vara del Rey had never been recovered is
untrue. 1t was buried by the American
troops and his grave was marked with a
wooden cross. A decoration found on his
breast was unpinned and later handed to
General Toral by General Shafter."