s is true, also, of the investment of
fortified places by armies, where 'if the assault is made, no notice is
given, as surprise is essential to success.' In the same spirit Halleck
says that 'every besieged place is for a time a military garrison; its
inhabitants are converted into soldiers by the necessities of
self-defence.'

"Turning to the official report of Admiral Sampson, we find him saying
that, as soon as it was light enough, he began 'an attack upon the
batteries defending the city. This attack lasted about three hours, and
resulted in much damage to the batteries, and incidentally to a portion of
the city adjacent to the batteries.' It is, therefore, clear that this
latter damage was simply the result of the proximity of the defensive
works to some of the dwellings. The same thing would occur in bombarding
Havana. Can any one imagine that the Spaniards, if they suddenly appeared
in New York Bay, would be obliged to give notice before opening fire on
Fort Hamilton and Fort Wadsworth, for the reason that adjacent settlements
would suffer from the fire? The advantage of suddenness in the attack upon
a place, not only fortified, but forewarned by current events, cannot be
renounced. Civilians dwelling near defensive works know what they risk in
war.

"In the Franco-German war of 1870 there were repeated instances, according
to the authority already quoted, of deliberately firing on inhabited towns
instead of on their fortifications, and 'there were cases, like that of
Peronne, where the town was partially destroyed while the ramparts were
nearly intact.' The ground taken was that which a military writer, General
Le Blois, had advocated five years before, namely, that the pressure for
surrender exercised by the people becomes greater on subjecting them to
the loss of life and property. 'The governor is made responsible for all
the disasters that occur; the people rise against him, and his own troops
seek to compel him to an immediate capitulation.' At San Juan there was no
attempt of this sort, the fire being concentrated upon the batteries, with
the single view of destroying them. The likelihood that adjacent buildings
and streets would suffer did not require previous notice of the
bombardment, and, in fact, when the Germans opened fire on Paris without
notification, and a protest was made on behalf of neutrals, Bismarck
simply replied that no such notification was required by the laws of war."