Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 101, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1898 — LOSSES IN THE WAR. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LOSSES IN THE WAR.

SMALL NUMBER OF AMERICANS WERE KILLED. Spain’s Loss of Men Was Many Times What Ours Was, and She Has Parted with Much Valuable Property—Estimate of Losses in Both Armies. Casualties Were Few. Igp.hlnirton correspondence- ■ u T? A „_.l

TH E Army and Navy Departments are in possession >of nearly complete A lists of casualties TSffl on the American ZeLj side, and of more of less accurate es©O timates of losses I’ll inflicted upon the Spaniards during the war. which lasted only 114 days. The double total is probably less than that of

,single battles in our civil war. The Spanish casualties are, of course, far greater than ours, but are difficult to estimate because of conflicting reports. The first defenders of Spanish honor to fall in the war were undoubtedly killed at the bombardment of Matanzas, on April 27, the war having beer, declared by Congress to have commenced April 21. Shortly after this the cruiser New York fought some Spanish cavalry at Cabanas, thirtyeight miles west of Havana, without sustaining loss, and on May 1 Dewey won his world-famous victory off Manila, after stopping for breakfast when half way through. The loss on the Spanish side footed up 400 killed and over GOO wounded. The American casualties consisted •f the wounding of six seamen. ’ The Vicksburg and the cutter Morrill engaged the Santa Clara batteries off Ha-

vana on May 7 without sustaining injury. Four days later came the fight in Cardenas harbor, in which the only American ■aval officer to be killed in the war met his death. The cruiser Wilmington, torpedo boat Winslow and gunboat Hudson had entered the harbor to attack some Spanish gunboats. In the fight a shell burst aboard the Winslow, killing Ensign Worth Bagley and four others. The Spanish losses in Cardenas included one medical officer, three sailors, two women, three children killed; wounded unknown. The day of this skirmish was also the day on which the cruiser Marblehead, the gunboat Nashville and the auxiliary cruiser Windom attacked some Spanish

troops behind improvised breastworks at! Cienfuegos. One seaman was killed and ; another wns so badly hurt that he died j later. Captain Maynard and Lieut. Cam•ron Winslow, both of the Nashville, were slightly, and Robert Volts of the Nashville, Herman W. Kuchneisted. John Davis and John T. Doran of the Marblehead, and William Levcry were seriously wounded. Many other Americans received trifling wounds. The Spaniards lost 800 killed and ninny hundred wounded. Sampson’s bombardment of San Juan de Porto Rico, an engagement satisfactory in its results, took place the next dny, the lowa. Indiana, New York, Terror, Amphitrite. Detroit, Montgomery, Watnpatuek and Porter joining in the attack. The enemy responded with a heavy fire, killing Frank Widemark. a seaman on the New York, and the gunner's mate on the Amphitrite, and wounding seven. The ships were uninjured. The Spanish governor general reported the casualties 1 In the town an eight killed and 34 wounded. A second minor attack on Cardenas took place. In which seven Spaniards were reported wounded, and on May 31 Commodore Schley liombnrded the Santiago fortifications, firing on Morro Castle. La Zoea pa and Puntn Gorda. Our forces were unscathed and the Spanish loss was reported heavy. On June 6 Sampson took * turn nt the forts, silencing them without sista ining loss. On the Spanish side Col. Ordonez, Capt. Sanchez, Lieut. I’rizar and Officers Perez and Garcia were wounded, An ensign nod five sailors were killed und twenty wounded. Five American ships bombarded Uabtnnnern. In the bay of Guantanamo, on June 7. and forty marines went ashore there from the Oregon three days later. Then they were joined by 600 more marines from the troopship Panther, under Lieut. Col. Huntington, and the Marblehead. Vixen and Dolphin ran up the bay to fire on the Spanish earthworks. The first battle of the marines took place Juno 11, when Assistant Surgeon John Blnir Gibbs of Richmond. Va., Sergt. Charles H. Smith and two privates were killed. The Spanish loss is unknown, lit the

next two or three days' fighting, in which the marines did gallant work. Sergt. Maj. Henry Goode and Private Tauman were killed and five privates wounded. There were also some Cuban casualties. Sampson’s next bombardment of Santiago resulted in the killing of an officer and three men a.nd the wounding of an officer and twenty men. On June 13 the Yankee fought a Spanish gunboat off Cienfuegos, and Solon P. Kennedy of New York was wounded. Three days later the Spanish general, Joval, was killed in a naval attack on Santiago. A gunner was killed at target practice on the Yankee by an exploding shell. Then Shafter effected a landing in Cuba and moved upon Siboney, and the army took up its share of suffering and danger. The daring and famous charge of the rough riders and the Tenth cavalry and Fifst cavalry on Sevilla Heights, near Slboney, when 1,000 Americans fought twice their number, took place on June 24. The killed included: Capt. Allyn K. Capron, Sergt. Hamilton Fish, Sergt. Marcus D. Russell, all of the rough riders; Capt. Maximiliano, Corp. White of the Tenth cavalry, Corp. Doherty and ten privatefl. Maj. Crow, Lieut. Col. Alexander O. Brodie, Capt. McClintock and Lieut. Thomas of the rough riders, and Maj. Bell, Capt. Knox and Lieut. Byram of the First cavalry were wounded, as were forty-six other soldiers. The Spaniards lost 285 killed and wounded. The Texas shelled the Santiago batteries on June 22, when a six-inch shell killed Apprentice Frank E. Blakely and wounded seven seamen. Shortly after-

ward Thomas Levalley of White Plains, N. Y.. died in the Key West hospital of appendicitis caused by o’vcrexertion while serving on the Yankee before Guantanamo and Santiago. Casualties at Santiago. In the advance on Santiago of July 1, 2 and 3, there were killed 21 officers, 205 enlisted men and 77 officers, and 1,197 enlisted men were wounded. At that time 84 enlisted men, of whom many have since been found, wore reported missing. In the destruction of Cervera's fleet on July 3. Chief Yeoman George H. Ellis of the Brooklyn was the only American killed. Three were slightly wounded on the Texas. The Spanish h*s has been estimated at 350 killed and 160 wounded. Including Admiral Cervera himself and Capt. Eulnte. Besides this, in the sinking of the Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes, Capt. Acosta, five seamen nnd 21 marines were killed, and a lieutenant and 11 men wounded. In the subsequent mutiny of Spanish prisoners on the Harvard six <>f them were killed and 15 wounded. The loss with the Spanish cruiser Alphonse Nil. is unknown. Winthrop Chanler of New York, a brother of Col. Win. Astor Chanler, was wounded in the right nnn on July 8, while landing with a force of 25 rough riders a fid some Cubans from the auxiliary gunboat I’eoria. at I‘alo Alto. Gen. Miles, after effecting his landing in Porto Rico, nt Gunn fin, hns had such a gfatifyitig time of it that there wer« practically no American casualties. Capt. Gihon Barrett nnd four men, all Sixth Massachusetts, wore wounded in a tight before Yauco, where four Spaniards were found dead and several wounded. On Aug. 6 eight privates wore wounded at Gniiynnin. One Spaniard wns killed and two wounded. Five men were wounded nt Asonmnta, Lieut. J. P. Haines, Fourth artillery, and two privates were wounded nnd a corporal killed. One man was killed and an officer nnd 15 men wounded near In the fight at Manila July 31, the Spanish loss wns estimated at 300 killed and 1,000 wounded, nnd we lost nine killed, nine seriously wounded, including Capt.

Reinholdt Richter, and 38 slightly wounded. The last casualty-in the navy was the death of Emanuel Konlouris, a coal passer on the gunboat Bancroft, who was killed during a recent engagement' with Spanish riflemen at a point of land jutting out into Cortes bay. Corporal Swanson was killed by a shell in Gen. Wilson’s advance in Porto Rico. Capt. Lee and Lieut. Maines and three privates were wounded. The Spanish loss has not been reported. Total Looses in Both Armies. Gen. Vara del Rey of the Spanish forces was one of those killed at El Caney. Gen. Toral declined to estimate the total Spanish losses there. It is safe to say that their loss in killed in battle on land and sea is several times our loss in dead. According to the estimate at hand the navy has lost: Killed, 1 officer and 18 pen (including Cadet Boardman, accidentally shot at Cape San Juan Aug. 10); ’wounded, 3 officers and 40 men. The army has lost: Killed, 23 officers and 213 men; wounded, 87 officers and 1,316 men. Total American loss, 24 officers and 249 men killed, 90 officers and 1,356 men wounded. The estimating of the number of American soldiers who lost their lives through sickness in the war is a more difficult matter, because of the lack of complete reports from all hospitals. At present the Navy Department has no sufficient data on the matter. As to the army, 250 deaths is a conservative estimate. The land that Spain must add to men and ships in her column of losses includes Cuba’s 43,319 square miles. Porto Rico contains 3,550 square miles, and is the healthiest of all the West Indies. Guam, or Guahan, is the southernmost and largest of the Ladrone group. If we select it as our perquisite in that locality we will get a fertile piece of ground 100 miles in circuit, thickly wooded, and provided with a couple of Spanish forts and a roadstead. The Philippines have an aggregate area of 114,400 square miles. We have taken thirty or forty transports in the course of the war.

INTERIOR OF HOSPITAL TENT.