Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1898-06-23
rms to the cubans, have developed
No. 13.

nell and Lieut. Crawford, who partiei-
pated in these expeditions. were with
the Cubans during q sharp engagement
with the enemy. Capt. Dorst's several
expeditions have been of great service
to the government, his last one in par
ticular bringing important results
He started from Kew West, but instead
of going direct to Cuba he went north
and east Of Nassau, then turned south
and landed on the Cuban coast at q port
called Banes.
It has been held by the Cubans, and
Is good harbor, with about 81 feet of
water. Protected by q small gunboat,
Capt. Dorst landed steamers load OF
supplies for the Cuban army, inelud-
ing $500 rifles, over 200, 900 cartridges
and great quantity of stores. A
thousand Cubans came to him while
there.
"The special Importance Of this trip,
however, was In opening direct COM
munication between Gen. Garcia and
myself. Two of Garcia's staff officers
had returned from Cuba with Rowan
and came to Washington to see
me. One of these I sent to Banes,
with the supply of erms, with In
structions to Gen. Garcia, say
ing wanted him to move al his forces
| to Santiago de Cuba He had by that
time been fully equipped by Capt.
Dorst. The message to Gen. Garcia
| was sent June Q, reached him June 9,
and got his reply, cabled from Mole
st. Nicholas, on June 9. He had about
| 5000 armed Cubans before he received
the munitions of war by Capt. Dorst.
The supplies sent him will enable
| Garcia to adequately equip over $1,000
Cubans"
Gen. Miles was asked for the com.
| munications between him and Garcia,
and glancing them over he gave their
general purport:
SIN my communication to him I
| asked him to move as large force as
possible to the vicinity of the barbor of
| Santiago de Cuba, and to cooperate
with our army and navy on their
| arrival, which / hoped would be
within few days. He was
to drive In and harass any
Spanish troops near Santiago dc
Cuba, threatening and attacking them
at all points and preventing any REIN
forcements from reaching that point
Pending the arrival of our troops he
was to seize any positions east or west
| of Santiago, or both, which could DO
used to advantage by our artillery.
He replied that he would regard my
| wishes and suggestions as orders and
would Immediately adopt measure to
concentrate his forces as indicated.
| ALI his subordinates are ordered to as.
sist in the disembarking OF the United
States troops and to place themselves
under orders. Gen. Garcia said he be-
lieved 1t possible for the artillery posi-
| tions to be taken as I had suggested.
He sent force at once to pre-
vent aid and reinforcements going
to Santiago de Cuba. The energy of
his course is shown by the reports of
the last few days, for see that Gen.
Rabi and his men have taken strong
position Just west of Santiago While
there were unavoidable delays at Tam
pa, very annoying to myself and others,
], at least, had the consolation of know
ing that every day enabled the Cubans
to make their march across the country
and get positions which would be of
the greatest value to our troops when
they landed"
Gen. Miles does not apprehend any
long or serious delay In disembarking
the troops on Cuban soil, The trans
ports have o large number of small
boats to assist In this work. The en-
gineer corps has large barges and q
pontoon train by which they can put
together floating pier, so that, unless
there Is very rough sea or the men
are compelled to disembark in the surf,
which. is not anticipated, the disem.
barkation is expected to proceed rap.
idly.
When Gen. Miles was asked II he ex.
pected an early fight, he answered Ia.
conically: 'That's what they've gone
for"