Page:From Yauco to Las Marias.djvu/20

14 On August 1st he was re-enforced by General Schwan's brigade of the Fourth Army Corps and part of General Wilson's division of the First Corps, raising his numerical strength to 9,641 officers and men. The Spanish forces in Puerto Rico at that time numbered some 18,000, about evenly divided between regulars and volunteers, and scattered advantageously over 3,700 square miles of territory. By the end of August the American strength had nearly doubled.

In the brief campaign that followed, a large part of the island was captured by the United States forces, and the positions of all the Spanish garrisons, except that at San Juan, were made untenable. There were altogether six engagements, — at Guanica Road, Guayamo (2), Coamo, Hormigueros, Aibonito, and Las Marias, — with a total loss to the Spaniards of about 450 killed and wounded, while the American casualties of the same nature amounted to 43.

General Miles, in his scheme of operations, intended that three columns of our troops — each composed of infantry, cavalry,