A Recent Campaign in Puerto Rico/Introduction
INTRODUCTION
I HAVE ventured to set down in this place the following bald and brief items of our recent history, not because I doubt an already existing common knowledge of their substance, but simply because they serve to illuminate and give finish to the succeeding narrative.
Major-General Miles sailed from Guantanamo, Cuba, on the 21st of July, 1898; and landed at Guanica, Puerto Rico, on the 25th of the same month. The troops sailing with him numbered 3,554 officers and men, mainly composed of volunteers from Massachusetts, Illinois, and the District of Columbia, with a complement of regulars in five batteries of light artillery, thirty-four privates from the battalion of engineers, and detachments of recruits, signal, and hospital corps.
On August 1st he was re-enforced by General Schwan's brigade of the Fourth Army Corps and part of General Wilson's division of the First Corps, raising his numerical strength to 9,641 officers and men. The Spanish forces in Puerto Rico at that time numbered some 18,000, about evenly divided between regulars and volunteers, and scattered advantageously over 3,700 square miles of territory. By the end of August the American strength had nearly doubled.
In the brief campaign that followed, a large part of the island was captured by the United States forces, and the positions of all the Spanish garrisons, except that at San Juan, were made untenable. There were altogether six engagements, — at Guanica Road, Guayamo (2), Coamo, Hormigueros, Aibonito, and Las Marias, — with a total loss to the Spaniards of about 450 killed and wounded, while the American casualties of the same nature amounted to 43.
General Miles, in his scheme of operations, intended that three columns of our troops — each composed of infantry, cavalry, artillery, and their adjuncts — should march through the eastern, western, and central parts of the island, respectively, diverging at Ponce and coalescing before San Juan. The entire success of this plan was prevented only by the arrival of the order to suspend hostilities, on the 13th of August.
The column marching east — known as the First Division, First Army Corps — was commanded by Major-General James H. Wilson, and took part in three engagements. The column sent through the interior — known as the Provisional Division — was commanded by Brigadier-General Guy V. Henry, and met no opposition of moment.
The third column, called the Independent Regular Brigade, and directed to proceed through the western section of the island, was commanded by Brigadier-General Theodore Schwan, and had two engagements with the Alphonso XIII Regiment of Cazadores.
It is the story of General Schwan's campaign that I am about to relate.