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Updated: June 27, 2025
The Battle of Coamo, if indeed, it can be so called, for it was nothing more than a lively skirmish, has been thus described: "Just as darkness fell, the regiment left the military road and struck at a right angle for the hills to the northward. Porto Rican guides led the way over paths so rough and narrow that the men could move only in single file. It was toilsome progress.
Troop C, of New York, pursued a party of fleeing Spanish engineers, after the capture of Coamo, a distance of four miles along the road to Aibonito. The Americans were checked at the Cuyon River, where the Spaniards had blown up the bridge, and were shelled from a Spanish battery on the crest of Asoniante Mountain.
For his own protection and to remove any false impression there might be in the public mind, General Ernst issued the following proclamation, which was printed in both English and Spanish: "Headquarters 1st Brigade, 1st Div., 1st Army Corps, Camp Near Coamo, Porto Rico, September 3, 1898.
Arecibo and Coámo had recently been founded. Scarcely any progress in the settlement of the country was made during the remaining years of the seventeenth century. Toward the middle of the eighteenth century great steps in this direction had been made.
The men dripped with perspiration, although the night air was chilly. "At dawn both General Wilson and General Ernest were in the saddle, and long before the shadows lifted from the valleys the main body of the army was in motion to drive the enemy out of the town and into Hulling's net. Nearer than the village and off to the right was the blockhouse of Llamo de Coamo.
As I tugged helplessly at my Mexican bit, I saw how I had made my mistake. The volunteers, on finding the bridge destroyed, instead of marching upon Coamo had turned to the ford, the same ford which we had crossed half an hour before they reached it. They now were behind us.
There I encountered two "boy officers," Captain John C. Breckenridge and Lieutenant Fred. S. Titus, who had temporarily abandoned their thankless duties in the Commissariat Department in order to seek death or glory in the skirmish-line. They wanted to know where I was going, and when I explained, they declared that when Coamo surrendered they also were going to be among those present.
From San Juan to Ponce the central road is exactly 134 kilometers. Distances along the line are: Rio Piedras, 11 Caguas, 25; to Cayei, 21; Aybonito, 20; Coamo, 18; Juana Diaz, 20; to Ponce, 13; and to the shore, 3. Exact. San Juan to Bayamon. By ferry fifteen minutes to Catano, and from there by road to Bayamon 10 kilometers. This passes alongside the railway.
It was General Wilson's plan that by this flanking night march the Sixteenth Pennsylvania would reach the road leading from Coamo to San Juan in time to cut off the retreat of the Spanish garrison, when General Wilson, with the main body, attacked it from the opposite side.
I know that in time the glorious deed of the seven heroes of Coamo, or eight, if you include "Jimmy," will be told in song and story. Some one else will write the song. This is the story. When I was a boy I thought battles were fought in waste places selected for the purpose.
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