The Hawaiian gazette., 1899-02-14
Description Of 81 Caley July lst,
bya Nan who Saw It.
WHERE the BULLETS STRUCK
Anxieties and Thriils-Action Hot
ard Dsadly-Pain OF Waiting.
spanish Retreat.

Lieut.. William Wassel, commanding
NJ Company, Twenty-second Regulars,
aboard the transport Senator. was In
the thickest of the fray at Ell Caney,
Cuba. He was ut the head Of his conf
pany until well along in the afternoon.
when he was shot through the shoulder
and face. He was carried to the rear
and after many weeks confinement in
the hospital recovered. His wounds
have left one side Of his face paralyzed.
Lieut.. Wassel Is keen observer AMI
has the faculty OF describing events
well. While there has been much
said and written about the Cuban cam
paign, the story told by the Lieutenant
on the verandah OF the Hawaiian hotel
to a coterie of local acquaintances. is
well worth publication. He said:
"On the night OF June Both we BIZ
vouacked along the roadside. about
two miles from the village Of FL Caney.
We were up and on the march before
u"shSh' ehS hSAt "o'h'"s' EN''"S '"c
narrow trails. across creeks, through
the deep grass we went to some place
,o,o IN, oo,,r,r,,ro omoor, L,or
"here' Al sunrise we hau reached
sunken road running between Ell Caney
and Santiago. Here we were deployed
as skirmishers. Then We plunged into
thicket, the like OF which can not be
found outside of Cuba. Il Is the same
luxuriant vegetation that one finds
here, except that II is much more
dense. In about a square yard of ord
mary Cuban soil one can find every
, species of plant known to a tropical
soil. Most of them are armed with
lbriars, thorns and other scratching
projections. This was what We plunged
into. After hacking our way for few
= hundred yards we changed direction ia
|. the right and headed for Eel Caney.
y soon we caught scattering shots
where they came from no one knew
We could hear the ping-g-g OF a bullet
e and here and there a man was hit. But
j. we were, not in the fight-not yet. For
fully an hour and half we literally
cut our way through the vegetation; as
we advanced the bullets began to come
faster.
For two hours we were under fire
r before we dared fire a shot in return.
, We were afraid of hitting some of our
own people; In addition, we could see
5 none OF the enemy But we could hear
their bullets.
4 AT about 0 o'clock we struck open
. ground-the village OF lei Caney was
in front OF us. We. the second battal-
u ion Of the Twenty-fecond, were on the
n extreme left of our lines-we were Il
e intercept the Spaniards when they be-
q gan to retreat. In the morning w
were afraid we would not get there be-
fore they retreated.
eel Caney consists Of a few scatter.
ing houses, surrounded by trees. South
n of the town-in fact all around it
were block houses, trenches, wire
. fences, anything to shelter a Spanish
}. rife and check our advance.
g "Our end OF the line had the difIicul
A task OF remaining under fire without
-, ladvance-we were there to intercept
the retreat. We were 400 yards from
the hornets nests OF bullets and w
stretched out on the open ground ant
began a fight with men behind earth
, works. The bullets were coming lik,
= hail. a bullet cut leaf would fall a
. ones side; little cloud of dust would
s be thrown in ones face. Sometime
the leaves and the dust would b
=, missed, then some poor fellow woul
look around in wondering way Will
'e little stream OF blood trickled dow
l. his blue shirt
,e "See a Spaniard? Not once all da,
,e Every few minutes we could see ROY
or heads pop up from behind some par
: OF their trenches, then came a fias
'e and the bullets whistled through III