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Updated: June 23, 2025
Place of meeting Forces comprised by the command Why we were not like the Volunteers Characteristics of the professional soldier Sketches of the more important officers What we were ordered to do. Yauco, the place selected by General Miles as a rendezvous for the troops of the Independent Regular Brigade, is a town of about 15,000 inhabitants, and some six miles distant from Guanica.
General Miles had previously been assigned to organize an expedition for that purpose. Fortunately he was already at Santiago, where he had arrived on the 11th of July with reenforcements for General Shafter's army. The expedition landed at Guanica July 25, which port was entered with little opposition.
The mayor of Guanica also issued a proclamation, which was thus worded: "Citizens: God, who rules the destinies of nations, has decreed that the Eagle of the North, coming from the waters of a land where liberty first sprang forth to life, should extend to us his protecting wings. Under his plumage, sweetly reposing, the Pearl of the Antilles, called Porto Rico, will remain from July 25.
If you will take a map of Puerto Rico and cut off the western section by drawing a line from Guanica through Lares to Camuy, you will see at once the extent of the territory brought under American control by General Schwan.
Almost immediately after the Spaniards fired on the Americans the Gloucester opened fire on the enemy with all her three and six pounders which could be brought to bear, shelling the town and also dropping shells into the hills to the west of Guanica, where a number of Spanish cavalry were to be seen hastening toward the spot where the Americans had landed.
Presently a few of the Spanish cavalry joined those who were fighting in the street of Guanica, but the Colt killed four of them. By that time the Gloucester had the range of the town and of the blockhouse and all her guns were spitting fire, the doctor and the paymaster helping to serve the guns.
I have written several times to the folks and different ones, but have received no mail for twenty days. We landed at Guanica July 25 and were the first troops on the island. We had considerable music from our gunboat escorts there. You could see them going over the hills in droves. We stayed there three days, then Company H and one company from Massachusetts Regiment marched to Yauco.
Mayaguez Bay on the west coast admits vessels of any size and is the best anchorage on the island. Guanica is the best on the south coast, of which it is the most western port. It was here that the American troops first landed. Still Guanica is not visited by much shipping. The district immediately surrounding it is low and swampy, and the roads leading from it are not good.
Presently a few of the Spanish cavalry joined those who were fighting in the streets of Guanica, but the Colt barked to a purpose, killing four of them. Soon afterward white-coated galloping cavalrymen were seen climbing the hills to the westward, and the foot-soldiers were scurrying along the fences from the town.
A municipal council was installed, and the king granted the island a coat of arms which differed slightly from that used by the authorities till lately. The next settlement was made on the south shore, at a place named Guánica, "where there is a bay," says Oviedo, "which is one of the best in the world, but the mosquitoes were so numerous that they alone were sufficient to depopulate it."
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