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Updated: June 27, 2025
To the People of Coamo and Neighboring Districts: "To prevent misunderstanding as to the rights and duties of the various members of this community, you are respectfully informed: "1. That no change has been made in the civil laws of Porto Rico, and that none can be made except by the Congress of the United States. The present civil authorities are to be obeyed and respected.
He must at last own up that he himself captured Coamo. On the morning of the 9th of August, 1898, the Sixteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers arrived on the outskirts of that town. In order to get there they had spent the night in crawling over mountain trails and scrambling through streams and ravines.
My administration came to an end in twenty minutes, when General Wilson rode into Coamo at the head of his staff and three thousand men. He wore a white helmet, and he looked the part of the conquering hero so satisfactorily that I forgot I was Mayor and ran out into the street to snap a picture of him. He looked greatly surprised and asked me what I was doing in his town.
As the firing from the Sixteenth still continued, it seemed obvious that General Ernst would be the first general officer to enter Coamo, and to receive its surrender. I had never seen five thousand people surrender to one man, and it seemed that, if I were to witness that ceremony, my best plan was to abandon the artillery and, as quickly as possible, pursue the Second Wisconsin.
On July 27 he entered Ponce, one of the most important ports in the island, from which he thereafter directed operations for the capture of the island. With the exception of encounters with the enemy at Guayama, Hormigueros, Coamo, and Yauco and an attack on a force landed at Cape San Juan, there was no serious resistance.
Colonel Hulings, with ten companies of the Sixteenth Pennsylvania, occupied Juan Diaz, about eight miles northeast of Ponce, on the road to San Juan. The American flag was raised, and greeted with great enthusiasm by the populace. August 1. The American scouts were within six miles of Coamo, and the Spanish rear guard was retiring fast.
The tone in which he spoke caused me to decide that, after all, I would not keep the flag of Coamo. I pulled it off my saddle and said: "General, it's too long a story to tell you now, but here is the flag of the town. It's the first Spanish flag" and it was "that has been captured in Porto Rico." General Wilson smiled again and accepted the flag.
When Major Martinez was found, five wounds, three of which were mortal, were discovered. His horse was shot in four places." The result of the attack on Coamo was the capture of about one hundred and eighty men, or most of the garrison except the cavalry who took to the mountains by paths better known to them than to the Americans.
The Spanish had fled toward Aibonito, thirty miles from Ponce, and the place was being fortified. There the road winds around among the mountains, and the artillery commanding it rendered the position impregnable. Détours were to be made by the Americans from Coamo through Arroyo and Guayamo, thus avoiding the main road, which had been mined for three miles.
Immediately after the surrender this same man became Military Governor of Coamo. He held office for fully twenty minutes. Before beginning this story the reader must forget all he may happen to know of this particular triumph of the Porto Rican Expedition.
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