ee thousand and four thousand men, who will be brought from west of
Santiago by ships of the navy to Juragua, and there disembarked.

"This will give me between four thousand and five thousand Cubans, and
leave one thousand under General Rabi to threaten Santiago from the west.

"General Kent's division is being disembarked this afternoon at Juragua,
and this will be continued during the night. The assistance of the navy
has been of the greatest benefit and enthusiastically given; without them
I could not have landed in ten days, and perhaps not at all, as I believe
I should have lost so many boats in the surf.

"At present want nothing; weather has been good, no rain on land, and
prospects of fair weather.

"SHAFTER,
"_Major-General U. S. Commanding._"

The boys of '98 occupied the town of Aguadores before nightfall on the
twenty-third of June, the Spaniards having applied the torch to many
buildings before they fled. The enemy was driven back on to Santiago,
General Linares commanding in person, and close to his heels hung General
Lawton and the advance of the American forces.

_June 24._ It was evident that the Spanish intended to make a stand at
Sevilla, six miles from Juragua, and five miles from Santiago. The
Americans were pressing them hotly to prevent General Linares from gaining
time to make preparations for an encounter, when the Rough Riders, as
Colonel Wood's regiment was termed, and the First and Tenth Cavalry fell
into an ambuscade. Then what will probably be known as the battle of La
Quasina was fought.

It is thus described by a correspondent of the Associated Press:

That the Spaniards were thoroughly posted as to the route to be taken by
the Americans in their movement toward Sevilla was evident, as shown by
the careful preparations they had made.

The main body of the Spaniards was posted on a hill, on the heavily wooded
slopes of which had been erected two blockhouses flanked by irregular
intrenchments of stone and fallen trees. At the bottom of these hills run
two roads, along which Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt's men, and eight
troops of the First and Tenth Cavalry, with a battery of four howitzers,
advanced. These roads are but little more than gullies, rough and narrow,
and at places almost impassable.

In these trails the fight occurred. Nearly half a mile separated
Rooseve