Battle of Las Guasimas was a Indian Wars and Frontier Conflicts engagement fought in Cuba, 1898. It was a US Army victory.
The Battle of Las Guásimas of June 24, 1898 was a Spanish rearguard action by Major General Antero Rubín against advancing columns led by Major General "Fighting Joe" Wheeler and the first land engagement of the Spanish-American War. The battle unfolded from Wheeler's attempt to storm Spanish positions at Las Guásimas de Sevilla, in the jungles surrounding Santiago de Cuba, with the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry and the 10th Regular Cavalry.
Approaching on June 24, American reports suggested the Spaniards were digging in with a field gun; however, Cuban scouts contradicted these, revealing the Spaniards were preparing to abandon their position. In fact, the Spanish troops had received orders to fall back on Santiago. Wheeler requested the assistance of the attached Cuban forces in an immediate attack, but their commander, Col. Gonzales Clavel, refused. Wheeler decided to attack anyway, rushing his men forward with two field guns in tow.
During the excitement of the battle, Wheeler, a former Confederate officer, supposedly called out "Let's go, boys! We've got the damn Yankees on the run again!". Wheeler's forces moved to encircle the Spaniards' first battle line, assaulting its front and right flank, but were repulsed. During a pause in the fighting, both sides reinforced their positions. The Spaniards sent forward two companies of the San Fernando Battalion, along with artillery. After midday the U.S. attack was renewed, but the Spanish Provisional de Puerto Rico Battalion once again checked the American assault.
After halting the American advance, the Spanish resumed their withdrawal towards Santiago. The battle had cost U.S. forces seventeen dead and fifty-two wounded, while Spanish forces suffered seven dead and fourteen wounded. The American "yellow" press, unaware of the facts of the ground, described the battle as a rout of the Spaniards; later, historians severely faulted Wheeler for wasting the lives of his men in a frontal assault.
On June 23, the Spanish garrisons of Sigua, Siboney and Daiquirí, retiring before American landings in their vicinity, clashed with a Cuban advance guard column of 250 men under Colonel Carlos González Clavel near Sevilla, east of Santiago de Cuba. Having lost three dead and 10 wounded in the skirmish and inflicted roughly the same casualties, the Spaniards retired to a lightly entrenched position at Las Guásimas de Sevilla, on the road to Santiago (4 miles northwest of Siboney beach).
Brigadier-General Lawton, commander of the 2nd Infantry Division of the U.S. Volunteers V Corps, had been appointed chief of the landing operation by Major General William Rufus Shafter, Commander-in-Chief of American forces in Cuba. American reports suggested the Spaniards were digging in with a field gun; however, Cuban scouts contradicted these, revealing the Spaniards were preparing to abandon their position.
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