Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-06-04

At last point within oOO 1eet OF
the cable house was reached. They
we're within 200 feet of the rifle pits
where the Spaniards were lying ready
to open fire on the boats.
THE FUsILADE OPENS.
Lieutenant Winslow stood up in the
boat and gave the command to throw
out the anchor and begin graphing
for the cable. The water was clear as
glass. The bright morning sunlight
penetrated it and every object upon
the bottom was clearly seen. Calmly
as if trolling for fish the men bent
over the boats and began to work with
the graphing hooks. All this time
the men on the Nashville, Marblehead
and Window stood at their guns ready
to rain shot and shell upon the shore
the moment the first puff of smoke
was seen to come from the rifle pits.
The men in the boats worked on
steadily and in silence. Lieutenant
Winslow urged them to work speedily,
telling them that at any moment
volley might come. They made no
reply, but bent to their, work. At
last one of the graphing hooks caught
something a few inches below the
soft white sand and the arms Of two
strong sailors soon brought the cable
into view. Then came the first shot.
1t was just fash, sharp snap,
singing over the heads of the sailors
and a splash in the water below.
There was no white puff from the shot.
The Spaniards were using smokeless
powder. This was the signal for the
opening of the deadly fire upon the
men in the boats. 1t was promptly
answered by the guns on the ships in
the bay. A hurricane of shells shrek
ed and hissed above the heads of the
men in the boats and tore to frag-
ments the earth where the Spaniards
were crouching and hiding. Again
and again the guns roared from the
ships. Again and again the great
clouds of dust and debris flew sky
ward on the shore. Another mighty
crash from the Nashville and the cable
house flew into the air, torn into num-
berless fragments.
HAILsToRM OF IRON.
Another crash from the Marblehead
and the blockhouse was in ruins. Then
this iron storm from the seas swept
the hills. 1t shattered the rocks and
trees. 1t plowed great flu. ows in the
soft sand. 1t drove a throng Of panic
stricken men scurrying to shelter.
Then it lowered again like the rays Of
mighty searchlight and raked and
riddled the rifle pits. What marks
manship. The terrible fire pouring in
upon the rifle pits passed only few
feet above the sailors working in the
boats. Who but Yankee gunners
could do that? Who would do it, and
who but Yankee sailors would work
on like horses under such blast fur
mace of destruction?
At the time heavy sea was rolling
and the miscalculation of fraction OF
an inch or the fraction of a second
would have slaughtered the men in
the boats. But there came moments
pause in the awful believing from the
ships, and that moment was the fatal
one.
Snap, snap, crash from a hundred
different points came the fire from the
Spanish rifles and eight brave men
sank down in the boats. Two were
dead and six were wounded.
But the Spaniards were too late.
Already one cable had been hauled up
and $50 feet cut out of it. This was
the cable that ran to Battabano and
connected with Havana. 1t was slow,
laborious work. The heavy cables had
to be hauled up across the small boats
and then by slow degrees the tough
steel wires were hacked Oft with axes,
chisels and saws.
After the volley had been fired by
the Spaniards, the men transferred the
dead and wounded to another boat
and began looking for the other cable
which ran east to Santiago. This was
soon found and again under the canopy
of shot and shell from the ships they
worked bravely on until a section OF
so feet had been taken from that one.
After this another smaller cable rum
ming to some local point east was cut
and Captain General Blanco's last line
of communication with the world was
apparently severed.
"CUTTING DOWN" LIGHTHOUSE.
When our ships first opened fire on
the shore it was the intention to allow
the lighthouse to remain standing, but
when the Spaniards poured their fire
upon the boats the men on the Marble
head discovered that large number
of shells had come from the lighthouse.
The guns from the Marbehead were
at once trained upon the building.
"Cut il down. shouted the COM
mander from the bridge, and the Mar
blehead's guns again thundered.
The craftsmanship was marvellous.
First the small house about the base
of the tower was literally torn to
atoms, and then, like an axeman cut
ting down a tree, one of the great guns
of the ship, with shot after shot, bit
!, off the great tower at the top. This