blockade Havana. On
the 24th Spain declared war, and the United States Congress followed
with a similar declaration on the 25th. The call for 75,000 volunteer
troops was increased to 125,000 and subsequently to 200,000. The massing
of men and stores was rapidly begun throughout the country. Within a
month expeditions were organized for various points of attack,
war-vessels were bought, and ocean passenger steamers were converted
into auxiliary cruisers and transports. By the first of July about
40,000 soldiers had been sent to Cuba and the Philippine Islands. The
rapidity with which preparations were made and the victories gained and
the progress shown by the Americans at once astonished and challenged
the admiration of foreign nations, who had regarded America as a country
unprepared for war by land or sea. On April 27th, following the
declaration of war on the 25th, Admiral Sampson, having previously
blockaded the harbor of Havana, was reconnoitering with three vessels in
the vicinity of Matanzas, Cuba, when he discovered the Spanish forces
building earthworks, and ventured so close in his efforts to investigate
the same that a challenge shot was fired from the fortification, Rubal
Cava. Admiral Sampson quickly formed the _New York, Cincinnati_, and
_Puritan_ into a triangle and opened fire with their eight-inch guns.
The action was very spirited on both sides for the space of eighteen
minutes, at the expiration of which time the Spanish batteries were
silenced and the earthworks destroyed, without casualty on the American
side, though two shells burst dangerously near the _New York_. The last
shot fired by the Americans was from one of the _Puritan's_
thirteen-inch guns, which landed with deadly accuracy in the very centre
of Rubal Cava, and, exploding, completely destroyed the earthworks. This
was the first action of the war, though it could hardly be dignified by
the name of a battle.

[Illustration: ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY.]

THE BATTLE OF MANILA.

It was expected that the next engagement would be the bombardment of
Morro Castle, at Havana. But it is the unexpected that often happens in
war. In the Philippine Islands, on the other side of the world, the
first real battle--one of the most remarkable in history--was next to
occur.

On April 25th the following dispatch of eight potent words was cabled to
Commodore Dewey on the coast of China: "Capture or destroy the Spanish
squadron at Manila." "Never," says Jam