The thrust to the West and the first engagement

August 6th – General Schwan, having been on the island since July 31st, receives orders from Brigadier General Gilmore to take part of the brigade and prepare to take control of the Western end of the island. The mission was to take the towns of Sabana Grande, San German, Hormigueros, Mayaguez, Lares and Arecibo. In Arecibo, they would link up with units that came North through the mountains.



General Schwan

August 9th - The Western Campaign begins. Schwan’s forces leave Yauco and head towards Sabana Grande. His troops consist of:

The 11th Infantry Regiment with 26 officers, 1,110 soldiers and 4 Gatling guns under the command of Colonel Russy.

Artillery Battery C from the 3rd Regiment and Artillery Battery D of the 5th with 6 officer and 200 men commanded by Captain Frank Thorp.

An Engineering Corp, Signal Corp and Medical Corp, consisting of 23 men.

11 Puertorican Scouts headed by Colonel Luis Vina. (This force was called the "Independent Regular Brigade" because it was the only force of the campaign in Puerto Rico that was made up of Regular Army troops and not volunteers.)

Afternoon of August 9th - The American troops arrive at Sabana Grande and camp along the Rio Grande.

2300 – The 5th Cavalry arrives at the camp under the command on Captain Macomb. They have 1 officer and 78 soldiers.

August 10th, 0800 – Having heard that a contingent of the US Army was on its way towards Mayaguez, 125 soldiers from the Alfoso XIII Battalion under the command of Captain Jose Torrecillos and 26 volunteer guerillas under the command of Captain Juancho Bascaran head towards Hormigueros.




Capitan Jose Torrecillas



Capitan Juancho Bascaran

0800 – General Schwan’s expeditionary force departs Sabana Grande and marches towards San German. The column is arranged as follows:

At the front, the Puertorican scouts. Next is the cavalry. Two infantry companies, a platoon with the machine guns and a detachment of 8 combat engineers and one cart with trench digging equipment follow 2 miles behind.

A little further back was the main body of 9 Companies of the 11th Regiment, the artillery units and another detachment of Gattling guns. At the rear were the ammunition wagons, the medical equipment, the ambulances, one company of Infantry, an artillery piece, General Schwan and his staff and Puertorican Scout Mateo Fajardo. The entire column stretched 3 to 4 miles along the road.

0900 – The Spanish troops arrive at Hormigueros and form up near the Pilgrim’s House (A). Torrecillos orders Bascaran’s Guerillas to march towards San German via Highway 14 (B) to search for the American force.

1000 – The American forces enter San German. They eat lunch and rest for 2 hours. General Schwan is invited to a prominent citizen’s home for lunch and, in appreciation, orders the band to play military marches as the column leaves the town. While the Americans rested in San German, the Puertorican Scouts advanced towards Hormigueros to look for the Spanish.



The American 5th Cavalry entering San German



1300 to 1400 - Basacran’s units hide alongside the road to San German near the Guanajibo River bridge (C) and fires on the advancing scouts. The American troops vanguard had reached a small pulp mill (D) , dispersed and began to fire on Bascaaran’s position. After a brief exchange, Bascaran’s troops retreat to Hormigueros via (E) the road, followed by Macomb’s cavalry. (The blue line indicates the cavalry route.)

1400 – Torrecillos is notified of the American advance and moves his forces from the Pilgrim House to the Silva Hills (F) and orders his soldiers to lie down and take cover. (The yellow line shows the Spanish positions.)
The main American column continues marching, aware that there are Spanish troops ahead. (The blue line shows the American troop movement along the road.)

1430 – The two advanced companies under Captain Hoyt continue along the road to Mayaguez (B).

1500 – Torrecillos, seeing the Americans are just 400 yards short of the wood bridge (G) before the iron Silva Bridge (H), order repeated rifle volleys using smokeless powder. (They later changed to black powder)

Upon hearing the first volley, Schwan orders the different sections of the main column to advanced swiftly and close ranks.

1500 to 1700 – Under a rain of bullets, the 2 advanced companies reach the wood bridge (G) while the rest of the 11th Regiment crosses the bridge at (C).

One of the artillery units that had already passed the bridge was obliged to pull back (It was too close to fire) and install itself on a nearby hill (I) to the left of the road. They began to fire on the Spanish position (F). (American positions are in blue.)

The cavalry, moving down from Hormigueros and following the train tracks (J), arrives at the extreme northeast of the Silva Hills (K) and joins in the battle. At one point they attempt to flank the Spanish position and attack Torrecillo’s rear but they cannot complete the maneuver.

At first confused, the 11th Regiment troops disperse in the fields between the wood bridge (G) and the Guanajibo River bridge (C). The 2 forward companies cross the wood bridge and one of them, under the command of Captain Penrose, takes a position on a hill (L) near the Silva bridge (H). The other company crosses the Silva bridge (H) and digs in along the side of the road.

From these positions, the 2 companies fire on the Spanish hill positions (F).
The machine guns take up position along the banks of the river (M).

A few companies, along with the rest of the machine guns and the second artillery battery, cross the over the river and the wood bridge. Marching along the train tracks (J), they arrive at the cavalry position (K) and join in the fight.

At one point, a group of Spanish soldiers or some of Bascaran’s guerillas attempt to attack the rear of the American column in an effort to capture the American ammunition and provision wagons but they are fought off.

1630 – About to run out of bullets and without the aid of reinforcements or replenishment of his supplies, Torrecillos orders his men to fix bayonets and prepare for a desperate charge on the nearby American lines.

1630 to 1700 – From a distance, the troops of Commandant Jasper and Captain Huertos arrive at the Spanish lines (F) and seek out Torrecillos to discuss the combat situation.

1700 – By a strange maneuver (See the Note"A" at the end.), Jaspe and Huertos help Torrecillos men retreat via the road to the Las Mesas hills (N).

The American supply wagons arrive and cross the Silva Bridge (H).

1700 to 1800 – The American troops, having taken the Silva Hills (F) now fire upon the retreating Spanish troops (N).

1800 – The firefight ends.

1800 to 1900 – Macomb and his cavalry chase a train (O) that was used to bring the Spanish troops to Hormigueros that morning and was waiting to take them back to Mayaguez. The train backs up as quickly as possible and, in spite of a couple American artillery shells landing near by, manages to elude being captured and returns to Mayaguez.

1900 – With the fighting over, the main body of the American troops camps to the south of the Silva Hills (F).
The next morning they will advance on to Mayaguez.

(See the Occupation of Mayaguez and the Disaster at Guasio River)


NOTES:

Upon receiving the news in Mayaguez of the fighting in Hormigueros, Colonel Soto, the head of the Spanish troops in the area, orders the rest of his garrison of approximately 1,500 troops to march to the Las Mesas hills. He had only sent 145 troops to defend Hormigueros and had kept his artillery in Mayaguez.

Many of the local militia troops had disappeared.

A – At some point in the afternoon, Colonel Soto had come down from the Las Mesas Hills and returned to Mayaguez to cable his superior officers in San Juan to advise them of his situation. When he returned to Las Mesas to the area where he had left troops under the command of Commandant Jaspe and Captain Huertos, he found they had all left.

When he catches up to them on the Las Mesas Hills, he rips into Jaspe for leaving his position and Jaspe claims he was following orders that Soto had sent via Colonel Suau. Soto and Suau get into an argument, Soto denying he ever gave any such order and Suau swearing that he had. As they argued, a messenger arrived from Torrecillos saying that he was running out of ammunition and thinking about a bayonet attack on the American lines.

The argument restarts and gets heated to the point of a break down in discipline when Captain Garcia Guyar shouts "This is a disgrace for the Spanish Army!"

Colonel Oses finally reestablishes order and sends Jaspe and Huertas to the Silva Hills to aid in Torecilla’s withdrawal from Hormigueros.

Jaspe and Huertas, believing that Torrecillos was capable of ordering a suicidal bayonet charge, decide on how to handle the situation. Jaspe takes Torrecillos away and out of sight of the line and engages him in a discussion about the military situation.

Meanwhile, Captian Huertas orders Torrecillo’s men to leave their positions and march towards Las Mesas.

There was some slight confusion at first because, while the Americans could hear the Spanish guns, they could not tell exactly where the Spanish were dug in because the Spanish used smokeless powder.

The Spanish soldier carried 50 bullets ad the American soldier carried 100.

It rained during part of the fighting.

The Americans lost 3 killed and 18 wounded, while the Spanish sustained 1 dead and 9 wounded.

The Americans took 3 prisoners. Colonel Soto, commanding officer of the Spanish troops spied an American officer (Rivero names Lieutenant-Colonel Burke, but it was actually Lieutenant J. C. Byron of the 8th Cavalry) mounted on a horse and had Lieutenant Vera to take a shot at him. Vera shot and Burke (Byron) fell wounded. Lt. Vera was wounded shortly after taking his shot. Vera ordered the 2 Spanish Medics attending to him, at gunpoint, to remain with him during the Spanish withdrawal. They were also capture along with Vera. In one of the strange ironies of the war, Burke (Byron) and Vera ended up side by side in the hospital at Mayaguez for a few days.

As the battle went on, the local peasants walked calmly through the battlefield, apparently thinking that if they did not fire on anyone, no one would fire on them!

Unfortunately, one peasant was wounded and taken to the American field hospital. He was heard to say that "if I die, I will die as a soldier". He passed away shortly after from his wounds.

There was even a crowd of on-lookers observing from a nearby hill. An American soldier later wrote: "There were no clouds of dust, no heaps of slain, no cheers, no desperate charges, and not even a glimpse of the Stars and Stripes. Away to our right we could see crowds of spectators on the elevated platform surrounding the Sanctuary of Montserrate; and I remember thinking it was well no admission fee had been charged for the spectacle upon which they gazed, else they would have murmured themselves defrauded."