Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1898 — LAND NEAR SANTIAGO [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LAND NEAR SANTIAGO

FIVE THOUSAND TROOPS PREPARE TO ATTACK. • Regulars Placed on Shore at Punta Cabrera, Where They Make a Junction with the Insurgents Under Gen. Garcia-Defenses to Be Assaulted. Warships Aided Them. A special from Kingston, Jamaica, reports that 5,C00 United States troops have landed .near Punta Cabrera, a little to the west of Santiago de Cuba, where a junction was effected with Gen. Calixto Garcia's army of 8,000 insurgents. It is added that the landing was effected under cover of a fire from Admiral Sampson’s fleet. With the troops were several heavy siege guns. The normal force of the Spaniards in the City of Santiago de Cuba is 25,000 men. Of these only 9,000 are regulars. Five thousand ere volunteers, like our National Guard, and the rest are the Spaniards of the city given arms and pressed into service. Admiral Cervera’s fleet brought over 18,000 Mauser rifles to arm these raw levies. Other Spanish troops are being hurried from Guantanamo, Holguin and Manzanillo to re-enforce Linare’s army. The re-enforcements will be harassed by the Cubans, who have been marching into Oriente as fast as they can be armed with the rifles furnished them by the United States Government. More United States soldiers are coming daily. Their landing is perfectly protected by the guns of the American fleet. Among Garcia’s Cubans are the 400 men under Gen. Laeret, recently sent over in the Florida. There are no roads in eastern Cuba, but there is a good horse trail from Punta Cabrera through a pass in the mountains to a vailey, by which access may be gained to Mount San Pablo, that overlooks the city of Santiago, and other heights that command the harbor forts.- The Cubans have accomplished wonders in the way of buildiing a road for the American artillery. The Santiago forts were built with reference to tea attack alone, so the heights that command them fronft the landside were left entirely unguarded. The guns of Morro and Socapa only point out to sea. If the Americans can only seize these lulls and plant batteries there the forts can be made untenable. With the fleet at the same time pounding away from the sea they will not last any time. Gen. Linares sent troops to Punta Ctfbrera to oppose the landing of the Americans, but the fleet shelled the woods and the Spaniards feCl back to make their defense out of the range of Sampson’s guns. GRIDLEY IS DEAD. Commander of Tlewey’s Flagship at Battle of Manila ,Passes Away. Captain Charles’ V. Gridley, who commanded Admiral Dewey’s flagship, the cruiser Olympia, in the kittle of Manila Isay, died Saturday at Kobe, Japan. A dispatch reporting htis death was received at the Navy Department from Paymaster William W. Galt of the cruiser Raleigh, who is on his way to the United States. Captain Gridley was not wounded at the battle of Manila bay, as far as the Navy Department knows. The first intl-

mation that the department had of his illness was given in an official dispatch from Admiral Dewey, received on May 27, saying that the Olympia's commander had been “condemned,” to use the technical naval expression, by a board of medical survey, “and invalided home.” Captain Gridley and Paymaster Galt, the latter fa good health and returning after the expiration of his regular tour of duty, left Hong Kong on the Occidental and Orien-

tal steamship Coptic on May 28 for Saa Francisco, by wake of Kobe. It is believed by his family that he sustained some injury while in the conning tower of his vessel during the fight. This is based on the ground that while the Olympia led the first attack the second was led by another vessel. Captain Gridley leaves a wife, two daughters, and a son. The son is 18 years of age, the daughters being older. All reside in Erie, Pa.

CAPTAIN CHARLES V. GRIDLEY.