after the troops were ashore General Lawton, afterward so well known for his daring military work in the Philippines, threw out a strong picket guard on the Santiago highway westward, and on the roads running north and east.
The day after landing, the troops moved through Juragua to La Guasima, and it was here that the first resistance of the Spanish army was felt. A sharp skirmish that developed into a regular battle ensued, in which some Regular Infantry and Roosevelt's Rough Riders took the principal part. After the loss of about sixty killed and wounded, the enemy were driven back, and our own troops then took up another position which was considered safer to hold.
This portion of Cuba is much broken by mountains and hills, and the roads through the jungles are narrow and in a bad condition. Consequently, the progress of the army was slow. Everything that the Spanish mind could devise to stop the progress of the Americans was used, from pitfalls in the roads to barbed wire fences running through the undergrowth. The Spanish sharpshooters were located at various high
