Battle of Tayacoba

The Battle of Tayacoba, June 30, 1898, (also spelled Tayabacao) was an American special operations effort to land supplies and reinforcements to Cuban rebels fighting for their independence in the Spanish–American War. On June 25 the American steamships Fanita and Florida accompanied by the gunboat left Key West carrying a cargo of troops, ammunition, supplies and arms (including two dynamite guns, 4,000 Springfield rifles and 200 Mauser rifles), to aid Cuban insurgents under the command of Máximo Gómez. On board were 650 Cubans under General Emilio Núñez, fifty troopers of the Tenth U.S. Cavalry under Carter P. Johnson and Second Lieutenant George P. Ahern, and twenty-five "Rough Riders" under Captain Winthrop Astor Chanler, brother of Captain William Astor Chanler. The first attempt to land took place on June 29 near the port of Cienfuegos, at the mouth of the San Juan River, however as a result of a prior assault on May 11, the position was too heavily defended to effect a landing. On June 30 a landing party went ashore on a beachhead just west of Tunas de Zaza, near the mouth of the Tallabacoa River (mispronounced 'Tayacoba' by the Americans). Four miles west of the town, at the mouth of the river, stood a large fort built of railroad iron, surrounded by earthworks and defended by about 100 Spanish regulars. The Peoria fired several shots with her three-pounders into the fort but there was no response. Before dropping off mules, men, and materiel, a party of 30 Cubans and Americans led by Captain Jose Manuel Núñez (brother of General Núñez) and including Winthrop Chanler and Dr. William Louis Abbott, went ashore to ensure the safety of the landing site, about 500 yards east of the fort. Rowing onto the beach, the force crept into the jungle but was discovered by Spanish scouts and came under heavy fire. Unable to retaliate or even protect themselves, the Americans retreated onto the beach only to find that their boats had been sunk by Spanish cannon fire.