close to the shore and do som Bombarding By her self Just to break the Monotony and to let us believe we wer at war. we don a good Job all right, she silenced the east Battry and the west one too, and made them show up a water Battry which we did not know any thing about. havent herd how many got kild or wounded on the other side. But I know they never hert any one on this side. Got some news from Guantanamo to day. Col. Huntington and his Marines of 800 Had a Brush with the Spanish, it is reported that 6 marines wer kild and Doctor Gibbs was shot through the head by accident. there is at Guantanamo Bay the Texas, Marblehead and Porter and 800 Marines; they expect to have the cable work soon and the Harbor well under Hand. I forgot to say the Vesuvius landed 3 shots of dinomite in the Harbor on the night of the 13th at Santiago and did great damage to the Shore Batterys; the latest report is that the Cubans are flocking in to Huntingtons camp.

June 15. coaling ship and still retain our posision on the Blockade.

June 16. At 3.30 A.M. this morning all hands was called and the coffie was passed around with som hardtack and cand Beef at 4 A.M. Turn to, some 15 or 20 Minutes later Gen Quarters sounded. Then we went at it to try and see if we could not knock thoes Batterys off the earth. Bombarded untill 7.15 A.M. Nobody knows how much damage was don, except we silinced all the Batterys they had and made them show up a nother one inside of the harbor of which there seems to be lots of them. I will say right hear that if we take this place its going to be a hot old Job, and som of us will think we run up against a Hornets nest when we get in side. they have been talking of forsing the Chanell and Capt Clark signaled over to the flag ship and asked permishion to take the leed, and I am sure we will stay with him as long as the ship floats for we love him. The Vesuvius fired three more shots last night at about 12. dont know what damage was don But I know we are all tired of this fooling. if they would only send some soldiers down here from the regular army, say 6 Regiments of Infantry and 3 of Cavalry, I think, with what we could put up, that forse would more than be a match for them and take the place with all ease. The latest Bulitin of the day is that the Forses at Guantanamo have bin Joined by some Cubans and had a Brush with the Spanish, and the report is that 40 wer kild on the Spanish side and 17 taken prisoners of war, one Spanish Lut. 2 Corp and 14 Privates. On our side 3 Cubans Kild and 2 wounded, 3 Marines wounded and 17 overcome by the heat. But all recovered. Routed the Spanish and distroyed the water suply and Block House. The Dolphin held there posision from the water frount and the Texas sunk 2 small Gun boats.

June 17. come down to Guantanamo Bay this morning, put some 300 tons of coal on and throde some shells over in an old Fort and then puled out right away for Santiago.

June 20. Bully for the Soldiers, they are hear at last, "I thought they would com tomorrow," some of the papers say there is 20.000 of them, that is enough to eat the plase up for lunch. Well I hope we will soon crack this nut that is so hard to crack. I hear there is 15000 Spanish soldiers over hear.

June 22. the soldiers are landing all O.K. and doing well, and only a few horses and 2 men lost so far, so the Flag Ship says.

June 26. Started in this morning to see if we coulden knock down that Spanish old Morro or else knock somthing cruckit around it. Well we pelted away for an hour or more and the flag ship signaled over to the Iowa to close in and pump at the Smith Key Battry. The Iowa signaled Back that her forward Turet was out of order, so it fel to us, we went in to 700 yards of the shore Battry and did knock down the Spanish flag with an 8 inch shell and knocked over one of there Big Guns. I belive if the flag ship had not called us off Capt Clark would have went in along side of old Morro and give him a tutching up.

June 28. I am geting