The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-25

would make an American marksman's
tfigger-hnger CULVER up to his elbow"
Gomez's few men surrounded the Span-
ish forces, and to the merry music of a
quick-step by two trumpeters, poured bull
lets into the square until the Cubans had
expended all the ammunition they could
spare. How sure they were of the timi-
dity of the several hundred Spanish SOL
diers from Europe Is shown by the fact
that when Gomez withdrew he marched
scarcely more than a mile away where
his men had supper and turned In.
Al the battle of Saratoga the SpaniarsIs
were even more cowardly. They advanced
from Puerto Principe with 1000 infantry.
200 cavalry and artillery. Gomez had 4Oo
cavalry and 100 infantry. The Spanish
forces massed on the bend of the river
With forests on their north and west. and
open, hily country to the east. Gomez
led the attack from the south, and then
dividing his puny forces surrounded the
enemy on three sides. In every possible
way he endeavored to draw out the snan-
ish troops so that he might charge them
with machets, but they would not come
CUT
From three sides Gomez men shot down
the Spaiards, whose infantry and artillery
fired wildly their cavalry remaining bacIr
under the trees. That night Gomez went
into camp half a league away He left
/ TWO bands of insurgents 10 harrass the
| Spaniards, and all night they shot into the
kuddled enemy
AZ dawn Gomez renewed the general att
| tack. Repeatedly he dashed I'D 10 the
very lines of the Spaniards, hoping to
| draw them out into the open, when he
could charge them "a la machete'' But
| the Spaniards would not come out To
| meet him. In the afternoon Gomez con-
uhued the general attack on both wings of
| the enemy with two detachments nom
| ping away on it's rear" The Spaniards
however, refused TO advance, preferrng
the slaughter OF rifles to the dreaded Cn.
ban machete. Al shutdown Gomez wenr
into camp again. leaving a detachment as
| on The night before, to spatter bullets into
the Spanish.
All that second night there was firing on
| the enemy, and at $50 in the morning tbs,
| enemy having been reinforced by far
more men, threw out a solid line of in
| fantry to the high road. Gomez moved
to the rising ground, prepared to charge
when the enemy advanced but It stood
| sun until noon, When the Spaniards re-
| ured, and then were in full retreat back
to Puerto Principe.
The Spanish loss at Saratoga was heavy
| but the valorous troops never once ehowed
fght. They left ten large trenches filed
! with dead men, whom they had thrown
hastily into half-covered burial. They car
| ried away more than 200 wounded
But the Spaniards will fight-paciicos.
Maj. Flint gives several instances of their
| herolsm against non-combatants. Here is
one where Spanish infantry charged the
sugar house of Branlio Duarte because
| insurgents had camped there
| On the approach OF the Spaniards M.
Quartz locked himself in his house, a
small, two-storied frame building, lay
down on his bed and wrapped himself in
the French flag. The troops burst In the
| door, dragged M. Duarte outside and cut
| him to pieces with their machetes In his
own doorway. The flag of France was
| soaked in blood. An indiscrininate
| slaughter of the plantation hands and
their families was now begun. Men, wo-
men and small children were dragged from
| their homes and cat down in the usual
brutal manner. The ingenio and all the
| surrounding buildings, the store-houses
and the cottages of the plantation negroes
were set on fire, and the bodies of the
victims, dead or dying, were thrown
among the flames. Only one escaped, a
Chinese coolie, who succeeded in making
the woods near by with Six Mauser bull
let holes In him.