The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-27
CAPTURED BY SIX MEN
FOUR CORRESPONDENTS AND TWO
LIEUTENANTs TOOK C0AMO.
FOrded the River and Reached the
Porto Rican City Ahead of Gen.
Wilson'S Victorious Troops.
Richard Harding, Dayis's Porto Rico Letter

who would much prefer to sleep are so
charmed by its notes that they sit up and
forget to be indignant. But there was no
reveille on the morning of the day the Six
teenth Pennsylvania took Coamo AT Gen.
Wilson's headquarters sentry shook the
flaps of the tents and told US it was time to
get up. He reminded one of Pullman car
porter shaking the curtains of a berth and
saying, "Only twenty minutes to New
York" 1t was so unmiltary that every one
refused to wake.
Then General Wilson taught the officers
of his staff a lesson in punctuality by rid
ing off without them, and they had to gal
| lop three miles to overtake him.
The road was better than any road out
| side of the city parks in America with a
hard, sloping surface and rain cutters at
| each side and brick bridges over the
streams. 1t was shaded by pink and green
| trees and a few common or garden trees
of green, so that we might not think we
were passing beneath a succession of tri-
umpha arches. Sometimes on our right.
| above the sugar cane, We saw the sea and
the white spray breaking at the reefs.
| AS the cavalcade passed the Porto Ricans
| came out lazily to the roadside and peered
| at the officers over the fences of cactus, and
neglected, brown. naked children fell out of
the doors and bumped down the steps, howl
! ing dismally. The white helmet of the gen.
eral was still half mile ahead, and the
saberdash of his aid was beating his horses
| TANKS like a club. The hoofs of our horses
! rang like hammers on the road, and the
| swords and picket pins clattered and
tangled There We're great hills to the left
| and right, clothed with hundred shades of
| green, and below them green lakes of sugar
cane, with the corrugated iron roofs and the
| tall chimneys of the sugar mills rising out
of them and looking like turtieback steam
| water lakes.
AS we raced by we saw teams of six oxen
| pulling long plows through chocolate col
! ored earth. Small boys rode one of each
! droning song. which sounded like the song
| the Lascars sing on a 2. and 0. steamer
| when they pull on rope. The morning was
| very still, for there are few birds in Porto
| Rico, and only the hum of innumerable in
| sect life answered the ring of the horses
| hoofs.
BLOCKHOUSES FIRED ON.
The white helmet of the general halted
next to an open field of high, yellow grass.
where four brown guns pointed at a block
house on the hill above Coamo. AS we
drew up one of the guns roared and flashed,
and cloud of white smoke rushed forward
and stopped as though it had struck solid
wall and then swept back again. hiding the
gun and the men about it in a curtain of
mist. The horses under the trees reared
and tugged at their brides and danced, and
| terrified human beings came running up the
road carrying their children and shying like
| the horses whenever shot was fired "A
| few MauSer rifles answered the guns, but
| the bullets flew high and soon ceased to fall.
| The blockhouse smoked and crumbled and
then burst into. red flames. The artillery
limbered up again and crawled off up hill
| to the right and Troop G, of Brooklyn,
moved off still further to the right and dis
appeared over a hill. All the infantry
| started forward. If advanced in beautiful
| order, with scouts and skirmishers beating
| through the high grass and creeping up be-
over the crests of the hills. In the level
| plain at the left of the road the regiments
moved in blocks of blue and brown.
| The men in blue made target so per
| cent. more conspicuous than that made by
| the men in brown. But there was no one at
| hand to fire on them. On the other side of
Coamo the Spaniards were hurrying across
| the bridge and out into the white road. On
| the hills above the Sixteenth Regiment of
| Pennsylvania were waiting for them and
opened fire. TIE enemy had not thought of
/ an ambush. He had delayed until the first
| shot from the artillery had broken the still
ness of the morning, and then, feeling sure
| of an hours start, had fallen back rapidly
| toward Aibonito. The Spaniards ran off the
road into the rain cutters, and these, with
| trenches. Their white hats were the mark
| at which the volunteers fired.
The Spanish comandante seemed to wish
| to die. He galloped out of the road and into
| the meadow, where he was conspicuous
| from the top of his head to the hoofs of his
horse. AT one time he stood motionless
| hedge, holding his reins easily and looking
up at the firing line above. After he was
| killed the men in the trench along the road
raised a handkerchief on stick and ceased
| firing.
Colonel Biddle of the engineers. who had
| acted as a scout for the volunteers, stood
| out on the edge of the line and held rifle
above his head with both hands and let it
| and repeated his motions. raising the rifles
| and dropping them to their feet. There
| were ten dead, ten wounded and $50 taken
prisoners. Ten of the Sixteenth were
The voleys had been heard on the other
side of the town, and to help matters the
artillery fired three more shots for moral
| effect only. The infantry hurrying to the
rescue, found that the bridge on the Ponce
| road was destroyed and rushed down a
| steep ravine and across the fords in the
MAKING FOR THE TOWN.
There were two aids of General Wilson.
Captain Breckenridge and Lieutenant Titus,
who were riding in the infantry skirmish
line Captain Paget, the British naval at
tache, and four correspondents were also
with them, and they all forded the river to-
| gether. They had seen General Ernst and
his staff hurrying toward the town a half
hour before along the Ponce road, and they
supposed he had already entered it. More
over, the road leading into the town was the
shortest distance to the place from which
| the firing came so they rode down it at a
| gallop in order that they might still be in
| time to see the town surrender.
| For mile the road was quite empty, and
| the houses on either side were either shut
| and barred or open and deserted. A rifle
| pit, also deserted, stretched across the road,
but the horses scrambled around 1t, and,
| turning with the road, brought US into the
main street of Coamo. General Ernst was
| not in the street, nor were there any Span
iards. There was man with a white flag
in the middle of 1t, and he seemed inclined
| to drop 1t and run If needful.
| The horses were racing now, and the clat-
! ter they made in the empty street was inn
! pressive. AS we passed few men crawled
| out from under the porches apd shouted
| viva Americanos, and then ran back
| again and hid. More men with white flags
| peeped out from around croners and SHOOK
| the flags at us frantically.
| 1t was like horse race, with starters
| stretched out all along the course Barri-
| cades of iron pipes across the street and
more rifle pits failed to discourage the
| horses. They were excited by the shouts
| and by the flags, and they carried u.s. racing
! neck and neck, to the other emf of Coamo
| There we found. to our embarrassment that
| it was empty of American troops, and that,
| unwittingly and unwilingly, we had been
| offered its surrender.
| Captain Breckenridge and Lieutenant Titus
| looked at each others shoulder straps, and
| Lieutenant Titus congratulated his superior
officer on having taken a town of five thou
| sand inhabitants with six men.
| Then they borrowed a flag of truce and
/ wigwagged to the Sixteenth that it was
| safe to come in. The people were glad to
see our troops but there was a difference
| between the reception they gave them and
the reception the people of Ponce gave them,