| Show OtRPLUGKY r MARNES j Believe They Can Lick the Whole Spanish Army > i TOUGH AND COURAGEOUS I THEIR SUCCESSFUL OPERATIONS AT GUANTANAMO Climate Is All Sight and They Have Become Hardened Soldiers Their Cuban Allies Win Respect Half Starved But Thirsting 3TorVeng I eance Effect of ModernRifles Copyright 1893 by the Associated Press On Board the Associated Press Dispatch Dis-patch Boat Dauntless off Marine Camp Guantanamo Bay Cuba June 20 via Port Antonio Jamaica June 27Aside from the energetic attack of the Spaniards on the first American camp established in Cuba nothing has astonished the inhabitants of Camp McCalla and the fleet generally as much as the present long dry interval in the midst of what was supposed to be Cubas rainy season May was ushered ush-ered in with rains onthe northeast and when the troops reached the south coast there were a few afternoon rain I gusts then cloudy threats but no rain and since the marines have landed at Camp McCalla there has f been but one brie shower and no more The Cuban auxiliaries say this is the usual thing for this vicinity and I prophesy no more rain until the first day of August ushers in the hurricane I season Camp McCalla ha proven healthful I and a fine place to acclimate and harden har-den soldiers The men some of whom were half sick from six weeks confinement con-finement on the Panther when they landed are all as brown as Indians and hard as prize fighters They have had theii baptism of fire and stood the ordeal They have gone six miles Inland I in-land and smoked the Spaniards out of their holes on the peninsula beaten them in the brush at their particular II kind of fighting and lost one man wounded in the exploit while the Spaniards Span-iards lost 75 dead and wounded and not accounted for When Lieutenant Delehantys pioneer expedition to clear the river of mines below Caimanera was broached yesterday yester-day the marines were eager to follow the achievement by capturing both Caimanera and Guantanamo notwithstanding notwith-standing that Guantanamo is 15 miles inland from the bay and far out of supporting distance from the warships Besides there are 3000 Spanish regulars there but the marines thought if two companies of them had whipped six companies of Spaniards at Cusco mountain the whole party ought to I i come pretty near getting away with them dagoes up the river ThE offi I cers smile quietly at overhearing these enthusiastic outbursts and are well 1 satisfied them with the spirit that prompts I AH reports from inland agree in picturing the Spanish situation a desperate des-perate The Cubans invest Santiago and Guantanamo so closely that even dispatches between sections of the Spanish army are captured oftener than they get through The < military governor of Santiago made peremptory demand three days ago on Guantanamo for foo and reinforcements The captured cap-tured reply despondently stated that Guantanamo was worse off than Santiago San-tiago and that nothing could be sent The Cubans watch every creek and crossroads gatherinsr in Spanish couriers and bringing chem in to Mc I Calla or Sampson EFFICIENCY OF CUBANS The Cubans are gradually winning the respect of the American regulars The Cuban soldiers so far seen are about 95 per cent negroes usually with white Cuban officers The officers are intelligent and anxious for their troops to win the good opinion of the Americans Ameri-cans They are ready for any service These black Cubans are fine fighters skilled in woodcraft and are invaluable guides Most of the trouble with them as guides has been when they attempted at-tempted too much They are greedy as to American food but will readily be excused for that when they are seen to strip for swimming off the marine camp Every one of them is emaciated owing to the uncertain commissariat of the insurgent army They have been almost unconsciously but systematically sys-tematically starving I will take many weeks of good feeding to get them into comfortable condition Nearly every one of them has blood debt against Spain At Camp McCalla there is one big negro whose real name is not known but who is called by the marines Old Machete for his fondness fond-ness for the Cuban national weapon He has with him his little boy the only I one of his family left All the rest even to his cousins have been butchered butch-ered by the guerillas In action the old man becomes half mad with excitement ex-citement drops his gun at the first chance for close quarters and plies his big machete like a flaiL When the expedition from Cusco mountain yesterday brought in a couple cou-ple of bulletpierced Spanish skulls as medical specimens the old man eyed J tlKm like a connoisseur and roiling 7 t one over gently with his bare foot in the sand chuckled deeply and murmured mur-mured Uno bueno Espanol one good Spaniard He had probably never heard the American army phrase ai out the only brand of Good Indian Admiral Sampson is reported to have len favorably impressed with his interview in-terview with the veteran General Gar cia If the regulars of the army take as kindly as the marines of Camp Mc I Calla to their dusky allies of the rank and file and take the trouble to cultivate cul-tivate their cod qualities and deal leniently with their defects there seems no reason why the allied armies should not do swift and effective ef-fective work in Cuba EFFECT OF MODERN RIFLES Ever since the introduction of the modern high power small calibre rifle among the armies of the world there has been intense interest in the med ical profession as wen as among the laymen to know the effect of the new arm in the nature of wounds it would inflict and the proportion of mortality to wounded Dr Orlando Ducker of the American Medical association who is here to study the practical aspects of battlefield surgery as well as trop ical diseases and their treatment went aver the battlefield of Cusco mountain with Surgeon Edgar of the marine corps and examined the bodies there A sight of the battlefield gave the impression im-pression of a bigger fight than had been conveyed by the cold official statement state-ment of the case at Camp McCalla last Tuesday The additional bodies found raised the estimate of Spanish killed from 58 the first days count to more than 75 Many bulletpierced straw I hats littered the ravine where the Spaniards iards made their last disastrous lat dIsatrus retreat The narrow glen was literally covered with empty Mauser shells for half a k mil while cactus plants were plentifully plenti-fully peppered with the telltale bullet k holes and trees were scarred and twigs were hanging in profusion along the i closegrown foot path Only eight bodies were found in condition con-dition to examine The doctors brought back two bulletpunctured Spanish skulls Speaking of what he had learned learn-ed Dr Ducker said The effective ness of rifles of small calibre but of great initial velocity like the Krag Jorgenren LeeMetford or Mauser for Instance should be regardedas settled if we ifcceDt the results of the battle of Cusco mountain on June 1 One of o our soldiers received a flesh wound in the left arm at a distance of 20 yards The ball struck just below the elbow as the arm was being extended semi flexed The wound at the entrance was wa no larger than the bullet but the exit was a terrible laceration so great in fact that It was supposed until a minute examination had been made used that an explosive bullet had been j KRAGJORGENSEN WOUNDS I Of the Spanish soldiers examined I one had sustained a comminuted frac ture of the fifth and sixth ribs at the anterior curvature The soldier was evidently stooping and running when I struck by the fatal bullet the ball entering the back below the tenth rib and ranging upward striking the inner side of the sixth and the outer side of the fifth rib shattering them for the space of two inches In both cases of wounds of the skull the fracture was parallel the course of the ball and complete A thin bladed leni vas passed through the fractures The shootn was from 600 to 800 yards and the fractures along the line of greatest pressure Whether a ball passed through the head from side to side will cause a fracture at a right angle to the long diameter of the head or not farther investigation in-vestigation will demonstrate The bursting of the skull is no doubt due I I to the great velocity of the ball through the brain substances not giving sufficient cent time for cell compression Another fact yet remains to be proven whether the mortality is greater great-er from the use of modern or the old style rifles In the case of our own I troops the fatality was greater to the proportion of wounded than formerly I However that will require further demonstration as the results of the 14th of May have been purely accidental a to fatalities There is yet no means of ascertaining ascertain-ing the proportion of wounded to the number killed of Spanish troops during the engagement referred to but i might be safely assumed that in the case of the Spanish the mortality was I also larger than normal The topography topo-graphy of the region where the fight occurred and the evidently scanty means of transportation at hand makes it unlikely that the Spaniards could have removed all their wounded had there been a great number of them A a mater of fact however pot a single wounded Spaniard has a been found |
