The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 1, 1898, Page 21

YCISCO CALL, SUNDA MAY 1, 1898. 21 OOGO090000000000000000000000000000000 FAMOUS BOMBARDMENTS &'{OOOOOCJOC‘OOO tuation mbar urrender. el AND The Story of How HAmericans Helped Capture Havana Once Before. before. For three years and seven months the stronghold was invested by a large force of all arms, and tically uninterrupted fire from 1 including some 50 mortars of 13-i caliber. 00000000C0000C00000 C000000D000 G'.}Qv'.‘000000000000000000000000000000000000000060000 ing batteries, which consisted of large their sides protected by a of timber seven feet thick and ks and guns screened with a roof of shot proof material. gantic armament the defense f\@g},’,’fi"oooo oDoop g circumstances junted for the test short the Seymour, v silenced every gun on p ell and on the thor- gt hter and a . 1 was =xecution s ail of iron, pets of sand, which rendered harm- inch projectiles, because of the havo ments of shells here and ac- hter among 1 to a knowledge that their want accuracy in aiming left —the fleet tically unharmed, that. the e s were so speedily relinquished t ish admiral. knows, the guns or blown to piece: £ ines, but ou the destruction presence of s foes in the city for- helling of any but tive quarter, yet suf- e done by the incen- to start a fi that almost the entire town. In this en- : the enormous power of the cighty-one ton guns, the projectiles of v h weigh over 1700 pound mply smonstrated; but it was made th dent that the quickly up and expen € ainkments of 8 « an invulne ble defens even these terrible weapon « be little doubt that, in f experienced gunners, the harbor - batter would a much better account of It is even an open ques- ¥ the fleet would not have T 1 under such circum- 2. rdment of Paris, though d with a pos- is yet worthy hat measures > an unwilling z the month ssian guns on the fortifications of iful capjtal the seemingly im- imber 10,000 oL thesemore than to the city proper: d by the latter in litful, and the fires en threatened tc -~ War. there were in faet: the wonde y te-in all these- operations during Y " 6 is pleténess s adopted to pro- tect the d rom the dangerous siles:. ihe More noteworthy since, i , the forts in quet 1y handled and many most interesting rardment in the cannon were s that of the unsuc ful attempt of Spain to regain in 1779 :ss of Gibraltar, which Eng- land had taken by storm a few years nece COLONEL EVAN MILES. Miles marched out of the city last week for the front at the head of the First Regiment. et -~ *cx0d @00 =0 O ©0 cacooocogooacocooau o o turned out to be very effective agai the wooden sides of the battle ships and gun boats; in fact within a very few hours every one of the floating batteries lay perfectly quiescent on the water, a seless mass of burning hulks. The endeavors and energy of the de- fenders finally prevailed over the vast numerical superiority of their oppon- ents, and on the 14th of the month the desperately conducted attack was given up and the Spanish troops re- fired to their lines, severely crippled by the enormous losses they had suf- fered, winter quarters were taken up, the bombardment practically aban- dcned and peace was declared on the 2d of February following. Thus ended the most memorable siege that can be found in the pages of history; remark- able for many reasons but most of all for the small loss of life among the de- fenders, who, during the three years and a half that the investment lasted lost in all but 500 men, whilst they in- flicted on the enemy a total loss of several thousands of lives: To return to our story, it is evident that Havana, not enjoying the admit- ted impregnability of Gibraltar, nor yet < ng the magnificent defenses that were the boast of Paris, is more comparable to Alexandria, which simi- larity is indeed further borne out by the resemblance between the climates and rategical positions of the two cities; and, though Havana is lacking in quantity to equal the Egyptian bat- teries, the deficiency may perhaps be compensated for by the more modern quality of the guns and a superior class of gunners. This last desideratum is a most important one, for it is indisput- able that with good guns and well- trained men behind them, even though the number of both leave much to be desired, and the fortifications be any- thing but invulnerable, any fort ought to give a good account of itself against even greatly superior odds, for a short time \With the improvements of late years in range-finding instrumen and the ~d destructive range guns. the advantage is - of a stationary fort, from ire merely a matter ry ion and direc- observed, as opposed to snip, on board rvations are prac- tically a m 1, while the roll- ing of th sea constantly interferes rrect laving? ; is this the case in any kind ; sea; but once let the guns be properly trained on the a couple of good shots made; t powerful set annihilation, nitely obtain- sing of the ship pability of co both speed z of momer tions eas constantl which ¢ > of the Havan only be an important nt, but also one ez , except in the e 1 Spanish there=- »f acco A dren in B > vicinit the harbor N0 re; n to r with Spain in en the Bour- in France called the pport each at war near the tottering , and > Dons, e of given him when he had been Naples. The Spanish K made an attempt to keep the compact secret until the immense treasure col- le d at Havana could be transported to Spain, but the British Premier, Pitt, learned of the compact and planned an immediate war in order to intercept th richly laden Spanish fleet on i vi from the Indi Pitt was bal 7 ADMIRAL WILLIAM A KIRKLAND. is in charge of Mare Island Navy Yard and is the ranking admiral of the navy. in the Civil W and was one of the directors of the capture of Mobile. He earned & ral Kirkland t record for him brill! the loss of a man. The Spaniards had of the famous Revolutionary hero, fectual on the axons they only 4600 but | their entire Israel Putnam. The transport in which tur d rode back to Havana, be- force W . So, with the Colonel m with 500 of his men hind the shelter of their fortifications. they had very wrecked on a craggy There was such a deficiency of good sather was so tempe that many of the besiegers dticcl atpd il ve Mg e ORRL T 1 t the other vessels could 1y more fell R s but the wrecked men managed er; there was but three or 5 the fever to take a soldier manhood to death; hun- s floated on the ocean. four hours of from strong dreds of carc .t 'a line to shore, and by means of om the of colonial Phin caped £ . this and of rafts they thr the death that had so closely They men from u 3 ; 2 iy r At the time when the distress was Jerseys, 800 from New York and 1000 them. Put n entre s u from Connecticut, under the leadership Position‘as s ! janded, and most disheartening ‘the arrival of the » al troops in ’perfect health was provine a most important contribut toward and bore the comple n of the works and the reduction of Ha a, but these North America i turn. suffered so much from that very few ever found their-way home again. The incident of the siege that made the leaders of the expedition most trem- retching a strong 0 v o crer>r Mia uoouuovoauuooouaooovoc,ooouonoooooocpooowoov&aol' s s T s e S e — ON THE WAY TO THE FRONT—GETTING THE ARTILLERY ON BOARD THE TRAIN, SAN FRANCISCO. The most interesting and exciting episode during this long siege was the ferocious attempt made by the Span- jards toward the close, when they strained every nerve ,to dismay and overcome the alr ex ted but still unflinch More than 50,000 troops @ s of ordnance of large caliber were at the disposal of the Spanish general, and an-ingenious type of ficating batteries, strongly re- sembling the famous ‘“‘cheese-boxes on afts” of the late war had been de- vised by the dons, who expected great things of them in the meditated as- sault. ] The numbers of the opposing forces were ludicrously disproportionate; be- sides the above mentioned troops and suns the Spanish possessed nine line of battle ships, 15 gun or mortar boats, covered boats sufficient to land nearly 40,000 men, and in addition the 10 float- could only oppose some 7000 men, many of them sick or wounded, and all re- duced to scanty rations for many menths past, ammunition was limited and the cannon even then were anti- quated. On the 8th of September, 1782, was opened on the fortr at a pre- concerted signal, by the en strength of the Spanish artillery, both on land and afloat. The “floating batteries” were moored within ‘half range and proved indeed invulnerable to shot and shell, which lasted all night and day, until late on the 12th. On that day the garriscn, unable to make any impres- sion on the fleet, whose efforts were be- ginning to give the small force of de- fenders considerable trouble and in- convenience, conceived —the brilliant idea of loading their guns with red-hot shot and burning shells, which though of little or no penetrating power, this design by the coming to the throne of George III, who wished for peace. But later war was found inevitable, and Pitt’s plan of an armed expedition to Havana was adopted by the new Minister, Bute, though it was too late now to catch the treasure ships. The details of the expedition were suggested by Admiral the plan was submitted by the Duke of Cumberland to the Government, which allowed him to nominate the leader. He chose his friend and pupil, Lord Albemarle, who had fought by his side in many battles. The expedition con- sisted of 200.vessels, one-fifth of which were men-of-war, and 14,000 men, of which number 11,000 were classed as effective. They sailed on the 5th of March, 1762, and did not reach Havana until June 6. They landed the next day between the forts of Bocanao and Coximar, within an hour.and without Knowles and- - ble for the success of their undertak- ing was the setting afire of their bat- ter There W such a scarcity of both water and earth that the flames that the Spanish made a charge by 1500 cav- mounted dons rode down upen thednvagerd o h _formidable .,413 not be extinguished and one wing Airay that our men were for a while : > extinguish ¢ y that our men were for a while of their fortifications was destroyed. Tt e 8 vads Bram theics Nom(tne REniwiViss uneogpartig iy opponents their hearts failed them and finding that a bluff was utterly inef- (Continued on’ Page Twenty-six.) T SR TN D DO END) LAST FAREWELLS.