tage of cover and position. It is certain that when the city surrendered they had more men in hospital than the Americans. The Spaniards stood their ground bravely, fired heavily in volleys, and bore their punishment unflinchingly, but nowhere did they face the American rush and onset when they came close upon them. It was a hard-fought battle, and both sides suffered severely, but the steady and irresistible American advance won.

After the victorious charge there was still no rest for the men who had climbed the steep sides of San Juan. Worn and weary as they were, they went to work to make intrenchments, and with scant foodColonel Roosevelt's men feeding on what the Spaniards had left behind-they all toiled on through the night. At daylight the Spaniards attacked, opening a fire which continued all day. Yet, despite the fire and the drenching rain, the men worked on, and the new intrenchments, now frowning down toward the city, grew and lengthened. At nine o'clock in the evening another attack by long range firing was made by the Spaniards, and repulsed. The losses on the American side during this fighting on the 2d were not severe, as they were protected by breastworks, and the Spaniards were utterly unable to take the hill they could not hold, from the men who had driven them from it when they had every advantage of position. Nevertheless, the situation was undoubtedly grave. With 3,000 men only on the extreme ridge at first, we were confronted by 9,000 Spaniards. Our men were exhausted by battle, marching, and digging. They were badly fed, transportation was slow, and supplies scarce, and they

were at first unsheltered. Under these conditions some officers thought about and urged withdrawal, while General Wheeler, backed strongly by many of the younger officers and later by Lawton and Sumner, opposed any such movement. The spirit which carried the heights of San Juan held them, but to General Shafter, away from the front and the firing-line, the voices of doubt and alarm came with effective force. During the day he fluctuated from doubt to confidence. He wanted Sampson to try at once and at all hazards to break in, and he proposed to General Wheeler to move against the entrance forts of the harbor, thus giving a tardy adhesion to the wise plan of Sampson and Miles, which he had abandoned. Early on the morning of July 3 there came a despatch from him, written under the first depressing influences, to the War Department, saying that he had Santiago well invested, but that our line was thin, the city strongly defended, and not to be taken without heavy loss; that he needed re-enforcements, and was considering withdrawal to a position which an examination of the map showed to mean a retreat to the coast. This newsthe first received in twenty-four hours-came upon those in authority at Washington with a depressing shock. General Shafter was urged to hold the San Juan heights, and in a confused hurry every effort was made to get together more transports-none having been brought back from Santiago-and to drive forward the departure of troops. It was the one really dark day of the war, and the long hot hours of that memorable Sunday were heavy with doubt, apprehension, and anxiety.

CHAPTER VII

SANTIAGO-THE SEA FIGHT

By one of the dramatic contrasts which fate delights to create in human history, at the very time when the Shafter despatch was filling Washington with gloom, the sea-power of Spain was being shot to death by American guns, and her ancient empire in the West Indies had passed away forever. It matters little now why Cervera pushed open the door of Santiago Harbor and rushed out to ruin and defeat. The admiral himself would have the world understand that he was forced to do so by ill-advised orders from Havana and Madrid. Very likely this is true, but if it is, Havana and Madrid must be admitted to have had good grounds for their decision. It did not occur to the Spaniards, either in Santiago or elsewhere, that the entire American army had been flung upon El Caney and San Juan, and that there were at the moment no reserves. Their own reports, moreover, from the coast were wild and exaggerated, so that, deceived by these as well as by the daring movements and confident attitude of the American army, they concluded that the city was menaced by not less than 50,000 men. Under these conditions Santiago would soon be surrounded, cut off, starved, and taken. It is true that Admiral Cervera had announced that if the Americans entered Santi