United States or Cocos Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The bullets of the enemy began to drop lower. The cheering had furnished them the clew they needed. They had located our position, and the 71st atoned for this thoughtlessness by the loss of nearly eighty men, as it lay cowering in the underbrush near Balloon Fork. Just before reaching the Aguadores ford, the battery was met by Col.
General Shafter, after inspecting the coast, decided to land in the notches occupied by the villages of Daiquiri and Siboney. He could then advance on Santiago either along the strip of beach under the rampart, by way of Aguadores and Morro Castle, or over a rough wagon-road running through the valleys and across the foot-hills of the interior, three or four miles back of the rampart.
A column of infantry the Thirty-third Michigan, I think, under command of General Duffield had moved westward along the railroad under the rampart to the mouth of the Aguadores ravine, and was apparently engaged in attacking the enemy's position there under cover of Admiral Sampson's guns.
I understand, from officers who were in a position to know the facts, that the original plan of attack on the city of Santiago provided for close and effective coöperation of the army with the navy, and for a joint assault by way of Aguadores and Morro Castle.
Hail, ye aguadores of Asturia! who, in your dress of coarse duffel and leathern skull- caps, are seen seated in hundreds by the fountain sides, upon your empty water-casks, or staggering with them filled to the topmost stories of lofty houses. Hail, ye caleseros of Valencia! who, lolling lazily against your vehicles, rasp tobacco for your paper cigars whilst waiting for a fare.
These men were distributed 890 at Caney, two companies of artillery at Morro, one at Socapa, and half a company at Puenta Gorda; in all, not over 500 or 600 men, but for the sake of argument we can say a thousand. In round numbers, then, we had immediately about the city 8,500 troops. These were scattered from the cemetery around to Aguadores.
The road forked about two hundred yards east of the Aguadores ford, turning sharply to the left. Down the road from El Poso crept the military balloon, it halted near this fork "Balloon Fork." Two officers were in its basket, six or eight hundred feet above the surface of the ground, observing the movements of the troops and the disposition of the enemy.
“In 1662 there was a serious attack made upon the place by a squadron of fifteen vessels under Lord Winsor, whose people landed at the place now known as the ‘Aguadores,’ and to the number of eight hundred men marched without opposition on the city, of which they took possession, after repulsing a small force sent out to meet them.
This, it was thought, might be accomplished with very little loss, because the fleet could shell the Spaniards out of their fortifications, and thus make it possible for the army to occupy them without much fighting. Having taken Aguadores, General Shafter was to continue his march westward along the coast, still under the protection of Admiral Sampson's guns, until he reached Morro.
Grimes' battery of artillery and the Rough Riders were to support General Kent in his attack on Aguadores, while General Duffield, with the Thirty-third and a battalion of the Thirty-fourth Michigan volunteers, was in advance of Kent's left. The first shot of the engagement came at 6:45 o'clock Friday morning. It was fired by Captain Allyn M. Capron's Battery E of the First artillery.
Word Of The Day