[Menydh]

Expeditionary Regiment Antequera. Cuba.

Azcárraga signified the continuity of the Spanish policies in the war, but on October 4th he was succeeded by Sagasta in the Presidence of the Government.

While Cánovas defended Weyler against all odds, Sagasta was determined to relieve him from duty, despite the opinions favourable to the General which arrived from Havana. On October 9th, General Valeriano Weyler was ceased and a substitute, General Blanco, who in 1896 had been ceased in his duty as Commander-in-Chief in the Capitanía General of The Philippines for being excessively compliant and irresolute, was nominated to nominated.

Blanco had instructions from Madrid to renounce to all offensives. On November 25th, Calixto García razed Guisa. Obviously the insurrects had not received the same instructions as Blanco.

On November 26th it was released a royal decree which gave Cuba autonomy. It was too late, and the Cuban rebels would only depose their attitude with the independence.

The atmosphere was increasingly thickening in the capital. The autonomous government started functioning on January 1st, 1898. The media wasattacking the Army. On the streets, public demonstrations of one sign and the opposite were constant. On January 12th, as a consequence of the publication of some article, a group of military men irritated by these assaulted various newspapers offices.

The US consul asked Washington to send warships to Havana, to defend the interests of the US citizens. The Maine, a battleship, anchored in the harbour of Havana and, on Frebruary 15th, it sank after an explosion in which 266 crewmen died. The Americans accused the Spaniards. A US commision sent to investigate the event declared that an external explosion had provoked the catastrophe. The diplomatic tensions was in increase.

The United States wanted to control Cuba, among other reasons, for the strategical position of the Island in front of the Gulf of Mexico, and they were resolved to purchase it or to fight for it. But they were going to justify their military intervention, with much hypocrisy, on humanitarian grounds: they wanted to avoid sufferings to the Cuban people. On April 11th, the Senate and the Congress of the US resolved that Cuba was free and independent and that, if Spain does not renounce immediately to its sovereignty over the Island, the President of the US was authorized to use all military and naval means to enforce it. On April 21st all diplomatic relations were terminated. On the 25th, the US declared war on Spain and started a blockade on the Island.

The squadron of Admiral Cervera, which was in Cabo Verde, received orders to head to the Antilles even when the Admiral himself had insisted in that, given the superiority of their fleet, it was impossible to defeat the yankee fleet, and that it would be more convenient that his squadron protected the Canary Islands and the Peninsula in the event of an attack by the North Americans.

Once he had received the orders to weigh anchors, Admiral Cervera wrote to the Minister of the Navy: "With my conscience in peace I go to the sacrifice, without understanding the unanimous vote of the generals of the Navy, which means the disapproval and the censorship of my own opinions, and which implies the need that any of them had releaved me in my duty." Admiral Cervera was not the only one who had that pesimistic vision. Captain Villaamil, who was on command of the squadron wing of torpedos, sent a telegraph to his friend Sagasta: "Before the importance that the destination given to this squadron will have to the Nation, I believe it convenient that you know through the friend who doesn't fear to be censored in his words, that although the military men are all willing to die with honour attending their duties, I believe without a doubt that the sacrifice of this nucleus of naval forces will be so certain as sterile and counterproducing for the end of the war, unless the much repeated observations of your Admiral to the Minister of the Navy are not taken into consideration."

The Spanish Army had its forces scattered through the Island, although the main body was in Havana for its strategic importance. On May 19th arrived the squadron of Admiral Cervera to Santiago de Cuba, a city located in the easter part of the Island, where the Mambí Army was stronger and it was in control of the territory.

The attack of the US army to Cuba was left to Nelson A. Miles, Commander-in-Chief of the army. They chose Tampa as the point from where the expeditionary corps, named the Fifth Army, would depart. There, in a chaotic and defficient organisation, 18,000 men and the necessary material for the war was embarked. On June 14th the fleet set sails to Antilles. The orders were to seize Santiago within the shortest time possible, re-embarking and set sail to Banes and wait there for instructions.

The US fleet was in front of Santiago on the 20th. General Shafter, who was in command of the Fifth Army, attended a meeting with Admiral Sampson, chief of the squadron which was blocking Santiago's Bay, and with Calixto García. It was the Cuban leader who exposed his plans to take the city, which was accepted by the North Americans. These plans consisted in disembarking in Daiquiri and attacking from the east, while the Mambises surrounded the rest of the city.

A Cuban general, Castillo Dunay, took Daiquiri with a garrison which retreated without presenting a fight. The Fifth Army disembarked under the protection of the Mambises on June 22nd. On the next day, after taking Siboney, the division of General Lawton met the Spanish troops which were sheltered on the heights of Guásimas. These were the same forces which had abandoned Siboney and which General Linares, Governor of Santiago, had reinforced with 1,500 men under the command of General Rubín.

Shafter had decided that the division commanded by Lawton went on the vanguard, that the division of Kent took positions in the surroundings of Siboney, and that the division of Wheeler took positions in Daiquiri. On the 24th, Wheeler decided on his own account to attack the heights of Guásimas. He ordered the brigade commanded by Young an advance, but the fire of the Spanish soldiers stopped them. Wheeler asked for reinforcements to Lawtown, but General Rubín, obbeying some orders he had received, took his forces to Santiago. As a consequence, the North Americans took Guásimas, Sevilla and La Redonda. Santiago was now much closer.

FIFTH ARMY

Commander-in-Chief, General Shafter
Units	Officers	Troops	Total
1st Division General Kent	272	4.924	5.196
2nd Division General Lawton	242	5.145	5.387
Cavalry Division
General Wheeler	146	2.591	2.737
Independent Brigade General Bates	47	1.038	1.085
Brigade Duffield General Duffield	119	2.424	2.543
Artillery	14	431	445
Head Quarters	38	805	843
Total	878	17.358	18.236

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