The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-14
SPANS RECORD in CUBA
WITH ALL HER ADVANTAGES SHE
HAS NEVER WON BATTLE THERE.
Has Lost Many Good Chances Com
pletely to Crush Out the Insurgent
FOrces-FutiIity in Arms.
New York Evening Sun.

Francis Napier's summing up of his opin-
ion Of the Spanish soldiers. That the Sc
we're criticism of the distinguished English
officer and historian was perfectly correct
has been sufficiently proved by the conduct
OF the Spanish army in Cuba during the
last three years. Almost in contact with 1t,
the American people have been able to fol-
low step by step the movements of an
army which, great in numbers as 1T is, has
often had the unenviable privilege to at
tract the attention of the civilized world by
its acts of cruelty and rapacity, never by
its military achievements
Those who have carefully watched the
course of events in the neighboring island,
however favorable to Spain they may have
felt inclined to be, have failed to find occa-
sion to praise the tactics or the strategy
of even one of the numerous leaders of her
Cuban army. For three years the in
surgents have been the aggressors in the
campaign They have never fought unless
1t was their choice to do In no case
have they been compelled to accept battle
as the inevitable result of well-contrived
plans of the Spanish generals. These have
tried to find excuse for their lack of success
in the irregularity of the insurgents war
fare, which, they allege, has not afforded
the soldiers of Spain an opportunity to dis
play their military qualities. But there is
not much truth in this
Military science is sufficiently advanced to
enable a leader whose soldiers are ten times
as numerous as those of the enemy to force
1T to fight decisive battles, and the failure
to engage in such battles merely proves
the military incapacity of the leader. But
In the course of this war real battles nave
been fought in Cuba in which, if the in
surgents did not actually carry the field,
q %
were victorious.
In the battle of Peralejo in, July. 1895.
Gampos, at the head of Zoo well-equipped
regulars, failed to defeat Antonio Maceo,
whose Heterogeneous bands scarcely num-
bered nine hundred men, with firearms of
all descriptions, from the almost unservice-
able shotgun to the Remington rifle
In the battle of Saratoga, in June. 1896,
eral, Jiminez Castellano, with large columns
of infantry, cavalry and artillery, was only
soldiers of Maxine Gomez by the opportune
arrival of a relief force from Puerto
Principe.
SPANISH IMBECILITY.
Military writer's of repute while recognize
ing the merit of Gomez and Maceo's march
upon the western provinces of Cuba, have
declared that whatever the holiness,
shrewdness and courage of the two rebel
chiefs, their famous raid could never have
been carried out but for the imbecility of
the Spanish commanders. AS all probably
remember Martinez Campos, who had at
his disposal an army of 100000 regular sol
diers and nearly as many volunteers, and
who had control of all the railway and
steamship lines in the island, and who knew,
as we'll as everybody else, what the itinerary
of the insurgents would be, never succeeded
in placing column ahead of them in order
to check their western march 1t was
fact known to all that the invading rebel
forces did not have munitions other than
those which they managed to secure as they
advanced, and thus it was evident that they
would have been forced to go back to the
east if Spanish columns had been stationed
at certain places through which they would
necessarily have to pass.
Martinez Campos was we'll aware of this,
and he constantly tried to bar the insur-
gents passage; but his columns under Gar
cha Navarro, Oliver, Suarez Valdes and ten
other minor generals always arrived at
Every attempt of the Spaniards to head off
the invading insurgents was a failure.
At Coliseo, If Martinez Campos had been
a soldier, he would have been able to crush
the insurgent forces and have thus dealt a
death blow to the rebellion. but Gomez, by
a most intelligent move, caused Martinez
Campos to engage small rebel group de-
tached for that purpose, while he and Mac
go, at the head of the main body, proceeded
on their march to the west lnmolested
For nearly. two months in the early part
of 1896 Maxine Gomez remained within a
radius of some twelve miles around the
city of Betucal. Havana province, where
there are no mountains or natural defenses
of any kind that might serve as an excuse
for the Spanish to say that they were I'M
able to trace the whereabou of Gomez
Everybody knew where he was, but dozen
or more Spanish generals with 10000 SOL
diers did not succeed in cornering the old
Cuban chieftain.
To crush Antonio Maceo General Weyler
threw S. 900 soldiers into the small province
of Pinar del Rio. Bloody fights were fought
from January to December, 1896. in none of
xy1 iaha IF he SY1aT Oh proic
-Arolas, Luque, Fernandez Bernai
Echague, Aguirre,. Linares, Suarez Indian
and many others-boast of having obtained
leader
When the time came for Maceo to leave
Pinar del Rio he crossed the so-called i'm
passable trocha, and SO. this bulwark Wey-
ler's pride, the building of which cost Spain
millions of treasure and thousands of lives,
but. as the Spanish press has repeatedly
said his death was due to hazard, not to
the skill Of any Of the leaders of the Spanish
army.
Nine different times, through sheer i'm
becility of their commanders, and deceived
by adroit movements of the insurgents, have
Spanish columns engaged in bloody fights
among themselves. The more striking were
those between General Aldecoa and General
Galbis, another between General Goday and
Colonel Holguin, and between the Lierena
and the San Quintin battalions.
In opposition to all these proofs of the in
competency of the Spanish generals in Cuba
nothing could with justice be said which
might lead one TO believe that there is at
least one among them who may reveal him.
self a redoubtable opponent.
Don Ramon Blanco, general-ln-chlet OF
the Spanish army in Cuba. is about sixty
six years old Brave though he may nave
been there is nothing in his military his
tory to show that he would be able to LEAD
an army to victory. Greatly addicted TO
pleasure and dissipation, General Blanco is
said to be complete wreck, both physically
and mentally.
General Gonzales Parade, Blanco's sec
end in command, is better known in his
country as a military writer than as an
army leader. His most wonderful military
achievement is perhaps his combination OF
four columns to surprise and Kill the cuban
chief Aranguren while visiting a 1amlIy III
a solitary hut.
Lieut. Gen. Pando has for years been con-
sidered to be mentally affected; In 1881,
while civil governor of Pinar del Rio, he
proposed to hold a universal eXhlbltlon at
that city of ,0C0 inha bitants, which at that
time did not even have railway communlca-
ton with Havana.
Lieut. Gen. Salcedo is the personifcation
of prudence In April 1885, when Antonio
Maceo made his appearance near the city or
Santiago de Cuba General Salcedo, then
commander of the Spanish forces IN that re-
eion started out at the head of 3OGO men.
Maceo was said to be encamped at the
Jarahucca mountains Little or no hghtlng
had as yet occurred since the outbreak OF
the war and all were anxious that there
should he none. In leaving the city, SalcedO