The first, under General Miles,
reached Guanica at daylight on July 25th, where a Spanish force
attempted to resist their landing, but a few well-directed shells from
the _Massachusetts_, _Gloucester_, and _Columbia_ soon put the enemy to
flight. A party then went ashore and pulled down the Spanish flag from
the blockhouse--the first trophy of war from Porto Rican soil. As the
troops began to land the Spaniards opened fire upon them. The Americans
replied with their rifles and machine guns, and the ships also shelled
the enemy from the harbor. Five dead Spaniards were found after the
firing had ceased. Not an American was touched.

Before nightfall all the troops were landed. The next day General Miles
marched toward Ponce. Four men were wounded in a skirmish at Yauco on
the way, but at Ponce, where General Ernst's expedition from Charleston
met them and disembarked on July 28th, the Spaniards fled on the
approach of the Americans, whom the mayor of the city and the people
welcomed with joy, making many demonstrations in their honor and
offering their services to hunt and fight the Spaniards. General Miles
issued a proclamation to the people declaring clearly the United States'
purpose of annexing them. The mayor of Ponce published this
proclamation, with an appeal from himself to the people to salute and
hail the American flag as their own, and to welcome and aid the American
soldiers as their deliverers and brothers.

On August 4th General Brooke arrived, and the fleet commander, Captain
Higginson, with little resistance opened the port of Arroyo, where they
were successfully landed the next day, and General Haines' brigade
captured the place with a few prisoners.

The Americans were then in possession of all the principal ports on the
south coast, covering between fifty and sixty miles of that shore. A
forward movement was inaugurated in three divisions--all of which we
will consider together--the object of General Miles being to occupy the
island and drive the Spanish forces before him into San Juan, and by the
aid of the fleet capture them there in a body, though the Spanish forces
numbered 8,000 regulars and 9,000 volunteers, against which were the
11,000 land forces of the Americans and also their fleet.

The town of Coamo was captured August 9th after half an hour of fighting
by Generals Ernst and Wilson, the Americans driving the Spaniards from
their trenches, and sustaining a loss of six wounded. On the 10