The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1898-07-03

yr more troops as she went alongside the
flagship and was told to dlsembark the
troops a, Altares.
Then Admiral sampson sIgnalled to
Geenral Dumeld:
when do you want US to commence
arng?'
In a little while a white flag on shore
SEN, back the answer:
when the rest Of the command arrives.
They viii signal you"
u was a long tedious wah for the ships
before the second hfty carloads o. troops
arrived from Altares. BY o'clock the
last of the soldiers had left the open rail-
road tracks. disappearing in the thick
brush that covered the eastern side Of
Aguadores inlet
Ashore there was no sign OF the enc
my. They were believed to be on the
western blum.
Between the bluffs runs a gully. lead
Ing into Santiago city. on the extremity
OF the western arm was an old casiella
FOR, from which flags were flying. and on
the parapet Of the eastern hill command
ing the gully two stretches OF red earth
could easily De seen against the brush.
These were rifle pits.
THE SIGNAL GIVEN.
At loIj the signal for the flagship was
wagged to begin firing and a minute
later the New York's guns blazed away
at the rifle pits and old fort. The sn-
vance and Gloucester Joined in the
echoes which rumbled around and filed
the gully. Smoke soon rose over the hills
and the gully was shut out from view.
The firing became more desperate OF
our troops ashore in the brush nothing
could be seen. but the ping, ping" OF
small arms as they tioated out TO sea
during the lull Of the big guns which pep
pered the rifle pits was heard and clouds
OF red earth rose around them.
An S-inch shell from the Newark drop
ped in the massive old fort and clouds
OF white dust and huge stones filled the
air. When the small shells hits its bat
Elements, almost hidden by green creep
ers. fragments OF masonry came crumol-
ing down. A shot from the Suwanee hit
the eastern parapet and it crumbled away
like air A few more shots leveled the
battlemetns.
KNOCKED THE SPANISH FLAG.
When the firing ceased Lieutenant Del
hanty, Of the Suwanee was anxious to
finish his work, so he signalled to the
New York. asking permission to knock
down the Spanish flag.
yes" replied Admiral Sampson, "f
you can do 1t in three shots"
The Suwanee then lay about 1900 yards
from the old forts, She took her time.
Lieutenant Blue carefully aimed the 4
inch gun and the crews of all the ships
watched the incident. When the smoke
of the first shot cleared away only two
streamers of the flag were LEFT. The shell
had gone through the center of the bunt-
ing. Two or three minutes later the Su-
vance fred again and huge clouds of
debris rose from the base OF the Flagstaff.
The Flagstaff seemed to have charmed
existence and the suwanee had only one
chance left. 1t seemed hardly possible
for her to achieve her object with big
gun at such a distance and such tiny
target. There was breathless silence
among the crews. The Suwanee changed
her position slightly, Then pun Of
smoke shot out from her side and up
went a cloud of debris from the parapet
and down fell the banner of Spain, Such
yells from the flagship will probably never
be heard again.
The Suwanee's last shot struck right at
the base of the flagstaff and had blown ii
clear Of the wreckage.
"Well done" slgnalled the admiral,
FIRE ON THE RIFLE PITS.
At 1850 General Duffield signalled thai
his scouts reported that no damage hat
been done to the Spanish rifle pits by
the shells from the ships and Admiral
Sampson told him that they had beer
hit several times, but that there was nj
one in the pits, However, the suwanet