Show If AMERICANS AME By S Albert Payson UNDER R Terhune- Terhune e FiRE I EL Et CANEY AND SAN JUAN HILL i in three thirty s 1 I For th the first time i years an American army was to clash clashin II 1 in regular battle with foes other than Indians The time was July 1 I 1898 1598 I The Spanish American war was at its I climax The scene was Cuba Tho the Amer Americans cans were were advancing upon important city of Santiago Before I Ithe I the city could be taken the Spaniards I 1 1 must be driven from its two defending defending defend- defend defendI I ing hills El Caney and San Juan i iEl El EI Caney was first to be attacked I IThen Then when this should be well under j I fire the capture of San Juan was to tobe i ibe be attempted El Caney hill and El Ell i j Caney village viltage were guarded by only jabout j I about Spaniards A blockhouse fort crowned the U hill Against El ElCaney ElCaney I Caney United States troops were I launched It looked like a pitifully easy victory for our men It was not j i The Spanish sharpshooters p 1 I scourged j i the advancing Yankees using smokeless smoke- smoke less power then new in American warfare which made them hard to locate Barbwire entanglements barred the assailants' assailants path For nearly nine hours the Spaniards Span Span- lards held El EI Caney against their stronger foes fighting gallantly If hopelessly Not until late afternoon did a general charge win the final victory And then it was found that almost tenths nine-tenths of the defenders defend- defend ers had been killed or wounded by bythe I the unerring marksmanship of the Americans They had literally fought to the last gasp I Vara Del Rey Key the Spanish general was dead and his two sons had died with him The American losses were I eighty-eight eighty killed and wounded j I jIt It is no slur on our victory at ni Caney to say that our outnumbered I foes fought like heroes and sold their j lives at a big price I While Generals Lawton Chaffee i and Ludlow were storming El EI Caney a more wholesale battle was raging i at San Juan General Wheeler and General Kent with men moved against the Spaniards' Spaniards main body which was in in- in trenched along the crest of San Juan heights There were troops fathe la ha lathe the Spanish advance guard with a support and a reserve of behind I them At 8 a a. a m m. Grimes' Grimes battery opened fire tire by firing oil on a San Juan block block- I house bouse The Spanish guns returned the fire And an artillery duel set in At first the Spaniards had the ad advantage advantage advantage ad- ad vantage in this duel for tor as at El ElCaney ElCaney I Caney their smokeless powder rendered rendered rendered ren ren- dered them hard to locate The American Arner- Arner ican lean batteries on the other hand I Amer-I were made easy targets by the pall of dense hanging aboVe them j I The negro cavalrymen the Rough RoughRiders RoughRiders Riders and portions of several other I regiments began the thc advance Under Undera I a hail of ot fire they moved forward up the heights Here Is a modern historians historian's historians historian's his his- torian's description of what followed i The charging line was thin It I i I seemed unequal to its tremendous task It was swept at every stride j by ceaseless and galling fire tire from the hilltops But In less than an fifteen minutes I Ithe the summit a was as reached The SpanIsh Span- Span I Ish lab entrenched there were driven heli hel- i i to the blockhouse and thence down Into the valley behind IRe i Re Reinforcements from the Thirteenth Thirteenth Thir Thir- Twenty-fourth Twenty and Nineteenth Infantry and Parkers Parker's Gatling Catling battery loll followed owed this first wild charge The The I ridge was cleared of Spaniards The I i blockhouse was was' stormed The battle was won Ameri American ln courage and American 1 marksmanship had thus been vindicated vindicated vindicated vindi- vindi once more to the whole world Our loss In killed at San Juan was i I IH in wounded IThe i iThe iThe The heights seized the city of ot San San- tiago was helpless There There was no I I I longer any barrier between it and the I victorious invaders The garrison realized it could not hold the tho place Said the local British consul I If It the Americans had followed up upI their advantage and rushed the town I they would d have carried it Instead General Shatter Shafter waited until July 3 and then demanded SanItago's Sanitago's Sanitago's San- San surrender A ten-day ten truce was agreed on while terms of capitulation capitulation lation were pending But the victories victories vic vic- tories of El EI Caney and San Juan had made the surrender inevitable Thus ended the greatest greatest- land battle battle battle bat bat- tle of the Spanish-American Spanish war war war-a a battle that showed how little our prowess had been weakened by a third of or a century of or peace Copyright 1917 1517 by The Tr Pre s Publishing Co Lo Th NewYork New o ew York lork World |