Home › The Picturesque in the War › The Picturesque in the War: Cuba

The Picturesque in the War: Cuba

There has been general curiosity about the latest and, it is alleged, the most formidable of the trochas in Cuba, and the Heralds explanation of the meaning of the word that is so much in the air adds to the public information. The Spanish place a reliance upon the trocha that is not supported by their experience, and the only advantage it seems to be to them is it offers a suggestion that they are aggressive when they are at a standstill, and so magnifies the office of inertia. The Herald states the value of the Spanish military line from the standpoints of the combatants, and gives a sketch of its unreliability, saying that that particular military form of defense, known as a trocha, seems destined to play an extremely important part in the present rebellion in Cuba. The great length of the Island--700 miles from east to west--with an average width of only about sixty-five miles, undoubtedly suggested the idea of establishing military roads or trochas between points on the north and south coasts. The design of the trocha is to prevent the passage of the insurgent forces from one district to another. The strategic value of the line is doubted by many Spanish commanders. Among these is Captain General Valmaceda, who, after inspecting the work on the famous trocha between Jucara and Moron, remarked that for military purposes, even if it cost nothing to build and maintain, he would not accept it as a gift. Maximo Gomez, in the ten years' war, apparently demonstrated the soundness of Valmaceda's view by crossing the trocha seven times, once carrying with him his wife and children. The succeeding captain-generals of Cuba, however, including Campos and Weyler, have been wedded to the idea of a trocha as of great military utility. General Campos distributed nearly fifty thousand men along the Jucara and Moron trocha, hoping to keep Gomez from entering the province of Santa Clara. Forts were built along the line at every fifteen hundred yards, and communication was kept up between them. Trees and undergrowth were cleared away for two hundred yards, and every precaution was taken to intercept the insurgents. Nevertheless Gomez, with his compact column of twenty-two hundred men, not only safely crossed the trocha on October 29th last, but soon afterward recrossed it into Camaguery and met Antonio Maceo. Together they conducted their combined forces again across this supposedly dangerous line, and began the campaign of the "Occident." Still General Campos did not abandon the idea of the trocha.