The men who had
climbed San Juan Hill were clinging to it like sailors shipwrecked on
a reef unwilling to remain, but unable to depart. If they attacked
the city Cervera promised to send it crashing about their ears. They
would enter Santiago only to find it in ruins. If they abandoned the
hill, 2,000 killed and wounded would have been sacrificed in vain.
The war-critics of the press-boats and of the Twitchell House saw but
two courses left open. Either Sampson must force the harbor and
destroy the squadron, and so make it possible for the army to enter
the city, or the army must be reinforced with artillery and troops in
sufficient numbers to make it independent of Sampson and indifferent
to Cervera.
On the night of July 2d, a thousand lies, a thousand rumors, a
thousand prophecies rolled through the streets of Port Antonio, were
filed at the cable-office, and flashed to the bulletin-boards of New
York City.
That morning, so they told, the batteries on Morro Castle had sunk
three of Sampson's ships; the batteries on Morro Castle had
surrendered to Sampson; General Miles with 8,000 reinforcements had
sailed from Charleston; eighty guns had started from Tampa Bay, they
would occupy the mountains opposite Santiago and shell the Spanish
fleet; the authorities at Washington had at last consented to allow
Sampson to run the forts and mines, and attack the Spanish fleet; the
army had not been fed for two days, the Spaniards had cut it off from
its base at Siboney; the army would eat its Fourth of July dinner in
the Governor's Palace; the army was in full retreat; the army was to
attack at daybreak.
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