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The British and Provincial Conquest of Cuba: Moro
The siege of the Moro was one of the severest struggles in modern warfare-the Spaniards fought in first-class style, and gave the British gun for gun. When the work was hardest and the fight hottest, there arrived a reinforcement, white and black, gratefully received from Jamaica; but we quote the English historian:
A much more useful fleet was expected from North America with a reinforcement of men and stores; and accordingly a thousand impatient and languishing looks were cast out for it; but all in vain; not one ship of it yet appeared. Notwithstanding, such was the spirit of the men and the ardor of the officers, that twenty guns were mounted by the 16th. But in order to account for the rapid erection of these works, we must inform the reader that all the artillery, ammunition, and stores, being ready on shore, were now carried by a reinforcement of fifteen hundred negroes, which had arrived from Jamaica, whose legislature behaved on this occasion in a manner that does them infinite honor. Though the ordinary price of labor there was fifteen pence sterling a day, these negroes were furnished for the use of government, at the moderate rate of five pence sterling.
The Spaniards made a brave sally for the relief of the Moro and failed, and the English had new hopes, and these hopes "became more lively by the arrival, on the 27th of July, of part of the long expected reinforcement from North America, under Brigadier Burton, which had sailed from New York on the 11th of June." The fall of Havana was on the 13th of August, and the Spanish fleet surrendered by the capitulation comprised the following ships of war: El Tigre of 70 guns commanded by the Marquis del Real Transporte, Admiral and Commander-in-chief. L'America, 60 El Infanta 70 El Soverano 70 La Reyna 70 El Aquilon 70 El Conquestador 60 El Santo Antonio 60} Both newly launched and fitted out. El Santo Geniare 60 La Thetis 18} Taken by the Alarm. La Vanganza 22 El Marte 18 Taken at Mariel by the Defiance. El Neptuno 70 El Asia 60} Sunk in the entrance of the harbor. La Europa 60 One of 80 One Of 60} On the stocks.
And besides, one royal company's ship was taken, one sunk, and a third burnt. Mante remarks:
In the acquisition of the Havana were combined all the advantages that could be procured in war. It was a military victory of the first magnitude; it was equal to the greatest naval victory by its effects on the marine of the Spaniards, who lost on that occasion a whole fleet. The vast quantity of tobacco and sugar collected at the Havana on the Spanish monarch's account, sold on the spot, exclusive of the ships and merchandise sent to, and sold in England, for seven hundred thousand pounds, which was divided amongst the conquerors.
Though a great part of the provisions brought from England had been spoiled by the heat of the climate, the most distressing circumstances of the campaign was the scarcity of water. Of the vast catalogue of human ills, thirst is the most intolerable. On this occasion it soon caused the tongue to swell, extend itself without the lips, and become black as in a state of mortification; then the whole frame became a prey to the most excruciating agonies, till death at length intervened and gave the unhappy sufferer relief. In this way hundreds resigned themselves to eternity. A greater number fell victims to a putrid fever. From the appearance of perfect health, three of four short hours robbed them of existence. Many there were who endured a loathsome disease for days, nay weeks together, living in a state of putrefaction, their bodies full of vermin, and almost eaten away before the spark of life was extinguished. The carrion crows of the country kept constantly hovering over the graves which rather hid than buried the dead, and frequently scratched away the scanty earth, leaving in every mangled corpse a spectacle of unspeakable loathsomeness and terror to those who, by being engaged in the same enterprise, were exposed to the same fate. Hundred of carcases were seen floating on the ocean.
The Earl of Albemarle being expressly ordered when the Havana service should be over to return the same number of troops to North America that he might receive from thence, he embarked the fifth brigade for that continent; but most of them died in the passage or in the hospitals immediately on their arrival; and the artillery sent with them was entirely lost at sea. The troops which remained were not much more fortunate, being by this time so reduced by sickness that even seven hundred could not be mustered in a condition to do duty.