Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-02-16
STAINS BLOCK HOUSES.
Strategic Value Extollod by American
 Army Omcors.

Strategic Value ExtoIiod by American
 Army ohlcors.
 What is known as the "block house system" started throughout nearly the whole of Cuba by the Spaniards in the beginning of the trouble with the in- surgents, called forth the admiration and unstinted praise of the most ex- perienced officers of our army, par ticularly those who were strategic en- ough to note the care with which these hastily constructed forts had been plac- ed. 1t was a revelation to many of us, says a correspondent to note the mili- tary keenness of the Spanish officers who had the work in charge.
 Every straight path we rounded into and every trail our men entered in the province of Santiago de Cuba was found to be commanded at its extreme end by one of these block houses, perehed on a height overlooking the whole line of advance. Had the Span iards been possessed of. sufficient c0ur- age to have occupied and attempted to hold all their block houses situated be- tween Siboney and Santiago our ad- yanees would have involved q much
 
 nately most of them were vacated be fore we reached them.
 Owing to the peculiar style of light ing" carried on by the Cubans this block house system was found to be the best, and, in fact, the only way of successfully preventing the insurgent advances and checking their depreda- tions. If once q small body of men came down from their caves in the hills to road they were practically at the mercy of the Spaniards. Retreat along the path would bring them under the guns of another block house; a dash Up the hills on either side of the road would also have been impotent because every movement of such q nature would be covered from one of the two forts.
 The Spanlards found that the great est difficulty in the maintenance of these block houses was in keeping the men who occupied them supplied with food and ammunition The ammu- hilton itself came in small quantities on various ships and was distributed every few weeks. In getting material to the scattered block houses the greatest danger was run continually, half q dozen Spanish soldiers probably forming the sole convoy for a great quantity of supplies. The Cubans watched for these periodical visits and often made short work of the carriers.
 While the block house has been de- scribed as q lookout, it is in reality 8 fort of no mean strength when com bated only by rifles. To artillery, of course, such structure would be a mere mouthfuI; bae In withstanding rife shots and in earring out the pur- pose for which it was built there can be no question of the great value it must have proved to the Spaniards.
 These forts generally range from fourteen to eighteen feet square and are built to a height of twenty-six feet of the heaviest yellow pine timber ob- tainable, backed in most cases with old boiler-plate metal. The main room is twelve feet high, with its floor sunk four feet below, along q slit flush with the outside stonework. T his slit is generally from three to four inches wide, and through it the Spanish sol diers pointed their rifles in every di- rection. The upper room, perched on top of the lower roof in Chinese pa goda fashion, was used more for look out purposes. but it was also provid- ed with a slit similar to that below which, when occasion demanded could be also used for firing purposes.
 In parts of the country which the in surgents were known to occupy in numbers q block house contained from twenty-four to thirty men. The four sides of the lower chamber each hold six firing stalls, somewhat similar in build to the stations used at rifle com petitions in our own country. But gen. erally sixteen men formed the sole force of each of these forts.