My men conducted themselves splendidly and behaved like veterans, going up against the heavy Spanish lines as though they had the greatest contempt for them.  Yours sincerely, Leonard wood.

To General B. A. Alger, Secretary of War.

Wirt W. Young of Chicago tells of the destruction of Cervera’s
fleet July 3.

We have seen some hot times since the Harvard left Newport News with the Ninth Massachusetts and the Thirty-fourth Michigan on board.  We landed them about six miles from Santiago at a little town called Siboney, or Altares, and laid there four days unloading stores.  On the morning of the 3d I was lucky enough to row in the boat that the officers took to the shore.  The ship was lying about one and a half miles from shore, and you can bet it is no Sunday-school picnic affair to pull a twenty-foot oar back and forth all day.  When we landed the officers one of them said:  “Wait for me.”  We waited three hours.  Then we saw the New York come on the line.  We made for the boat, so as to reach it before the lieutenant.  Just as he got in the Harvard flew the recall signal.  When we reached her we heard that the New York had said that the Spanish ships had left the harbor and that the Harvard was to join the Iowa.  We cleared for action and went up past Morro castle.

Away up on the coast we could see great columns of smoke.  The Spaniards had come out and started to run, but the Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Gloucester and the rest of the fleet were waiting, and in an hour the two Spanish torpedo-boats were blown out of the water.  The Infanta Maria Theresa and Oquendo were beached and on fire close together, and the Vizcaya the same about a mile farther down.  It was about 3 o’clock when the Iowa signaled the Harvard to take the Spanish sailors from the burning ships and from the shore.  Before the first boat was lowered it had grown quite dark and the sea was running high.

The sight of A lifetime.

The sight of those magnificent battleships burning and the magazines exploding one by one as the flames reached them, made an impression upon me I will never forget.  They called for volunteers to man the boats, as it was dangerous work.  We did not know whether the Spanish sailors on shore would show fight or not.  There is a cadet on board named Hannigan, from Chicago, who will always show his boat’s crew any fun there is going on.  Arling Hanson and I determined to get in his boat, and we did.

We made for the Vizcaya, and as we neared her we could see men hanging to ropes down the sides.  The ship was on fire from stem to stern, and any moment the magazines were likely to explode.  If they had while we were pulling the Spaniards off, there would have been several Chicago naval recruits missing.  The surf was running high and made the work dangerous and difficult, but we made connections and brought off over 600 men.  They were all naked and almost dead.