Letters To Puerto Rico Summary

Nelson A. Miles was anxious to proceed as quickly to the island of Porto Rico. He started from Guantanamo on July 21, with 3,415 infantry and artillery, together with two companies of engineers and one company of Signals Corps, on nine transports, convoyed by Captain Higginson’s fleet, consisting of the battleship Massachusetts (flagship) and two smaller vessels. Nelson A. Miles moved to the island of Porto Rico with about 3,300 men, the other 115 soldiers were sick. At the time the island was occupied by 8,233 Spanish regulars and 9,107 volunteers.

The Miles’s troops arrived off Guanica, Porto Rico near daylight on July 25th, and the harbor was entered without opposition. The flag of the United States was raised on the island by staff officers, General Gilmore and Colonels Maus, Gaskill, Black and Whitney. The same day Commander Davis, of the Dixie, entered the port of Ponce and found that it was neither fortified nor mined. The following morning the troops were mobilized to the harbor of Ponce, where Miles’s troops took formal possession of the city and adjacent country. General Miles was aware that there was an existed considerable disaffection among the southerners, this because US troops were superior to the Spaniards.
The letter titled “To the Chief of the Operation of the Invading Army of the American Union.” included a powerful message: ~Here we wait with impatience American occupation that comes to break the chain that has been forged constantly during four centuries of infamous spoliation, of torpid despotism and shameful moral slavery.”~ (Miles 1898). This message was the voice of the entire people, a bearing of notice, and the way to express their discontent. It was clear that the sentiment of the people of Porto Rico, as well as the patriotism moved a man to write that