From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Battle of Yauco was a battle of the Spanish-American War, fought near Yauco, Puerto Rico just north of the port town of Guánica where United States forces had disembarked the previous day. On July 26, 1898, three Spanish companies under Colonel Francesco Puig attempted to halt the advance of United States General George A. Garretson's army in the darkness of the early morning. Repulsed by American counterattacks at dawn, Puig turned and retreated his forces far to the north.
Garretson, discovering that his Puerto Rican reserves had deserted overnight, nevertheless maintained a vigorous pursuit, opening most of southwestern Puerto Rico to American control.
[edit] External links
[edit] Quotation
- Guanica is about fifteen miles west of Ponce, the real objective of the expedition. The road connecting them runs over marshes for the first four or five miles and is bad in this, the rainy season. At Yauco it connects with a railroad to Ponce, and an advance was made toward Yauco so promptly that on the 26th we met the Spaniards in a sharp skirmish which cost us 4 wounded men, all in the Sixth Massachusetts Volunteers. The Spaniards are reported by General Miles to have lost 3 killed and 13 wounded. It was a decided success to gain possession of the railroad so promptly, but the occupation of Ponce was destined to proceed along very different lines. (Church, John A. (1898). The Occupation of Porto Rico. American Monthly Review of Reviews: an International Magazine, 18, 282-3.)
