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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.

The whole force, as well as the ammunition and quartermaster’s stores, was landed, and the men were camping on the outskirts of the town. August 2. San Juan blockaded by the New Orleans, Puritan, Prairie, Dixie, and Gloucester, which kept out of range of the masked batteries ashore. The railroad from Ponce to Yauco in possession of U. S. troops.

Of this railroad the following parts have been completed: San Juan, along the coast through Rio Piedras, Bayamon, Dorado, Arecibo, and Hatillo, to Camuy; Aguadilla, through Aguado, Rincon, Anasco, and Mayaguez, to Hornigueros. A branch of this railroad from Anasco, through San Sebastian, to Lares. Ponce, through Guayanilla, to Yauco.

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.

Hail Porto Rico, always American! "Yauco, Porto Rico, United States of America. "El Alcalde, Francisco Megia." The alcalde is the judge who administers justice, and he also presides as mayor over the City Council. The citizens of the town hugged the Americans, and some fell upon their knees and embraced the legs of the soldiers. It was a most remarkable spectacle.

Near Yauco, while the Americans were pushing toward the mountains, the Spaniards ambushed eight companies of the Sixth Massachusetts and Sixth Illinois regiments, but the enemy was repulsed and driven back a mile to a ridge, where the Spanish cavalry charged and were routed by our infantry.

The mayor of Ponce issued a proclamation of the same tenor as that of the mayor of Yauco, although not quite so enthusiastic. General Wilson was made military governor of Ponce. A day or two after the taking of Ponce several local judges were sworn into office.

General Garretson led the fight with the men from Illinois and Massachusetts, and the enemy retreated to Yauco, leaving three dead on the field and thirteen wounded. None of our men were killed, and only three were slightly wounded. June 27. The port of Ponce, Porto Rico, surrendered to Commander C. H. Davis of the auxiliary gunboat Dixie.

The Duey, the Yauco, and the Oromico, or Hormigueros, on the south coast are supposed to be auriferous also, but do not seem to have been worked. The metal was and is still found in seed-shaped grains, sometimes of the weight of 2 or 3 pesos. Tradition speaks of a nugget found in the Fajardo river weighing 4 ounces, and of another found in an affluent of the Congo of 1 pound in weight. Silver.

Having learned from his scouts that Guaybána was camped with 5,000 to 6,000 men near the mouth of the river Coayúco in the territory between the Yauco and Jacágua rivers, somewhere in the neighborhood of the city which now bears the conqueror's name, he marched with great precaution through forest and jungle till he reached the river.