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must not be supposed that matters were allowed to remain at a standstill in and around Cuba during the time that Dewey was preparing to find the Spanish fleet in Philippine waters and engage it. While our army was being placed on a war footing with all possible speed, the North Atlantic Squadron of the navy, under the command of Commodore Sampson, was ordered south, to blockade Havana and other important ports to the east and west of that capital city.

The squadron left Key West on the 22d of April, and before many days had elapsed the warships lay in a grand semicircle outside of Havana, Matanzas, Mariel, Cardenas, Bahia Honda, Cabanas, and other ports in that vicinity, thus cutting off this