the immediate outfitting of expeditions
from San Francisco under command of Major-General Wesley Merritt. The
first expedition consisted of between 2,500 and 3,000 troops, commanded
by Brigadier-General Anderson, carried on three ships, the _Charleston_,
the _City of Pekin_, and the _City of Sydney_. This was the longest
expedition (about 6,000 miles) on which American troops were ever sent,
and the men carried supplies to last a year. The _Charleston_ got away
on the 22d, and the other two vessels followed three days later. The
expedition went through safely, arriving at Manila July 1st. The
_Charleston_ had stopped on June 21st at the Ladrone Islands and
captured the island of Guam without resistance. The soldiers of the
garrison were taken on as prisoners to Manila and a garrison of American
soldiers left in charge, with the stars and stripes waving over the
fortifications.

[Illustration: IN THE WAR ROOM AT WASHINGTON.

The above illustration shows President McKinley, Secretary Long,
Secretary Alger, and Major-General Miles consulting map during the
progress of the Spanish-American War. It is in this room that the plans
of conducting the war by land and sea, are formulated, and the commands
for action are wired to the fleet and the army.]

The second expedition of 3,500 men sailed June 15th under General
Greene, who used the steamer _China_ as his flagship. This expedition
landed July 16th at Cavite in the midst of considerable excitement on
account of the aggressive movements of the insurgents and the daily
encounters and skirmishes between them and the Spanish forces.

On June 23d the monitor _Monadnoc_ sailed to further reinforce Admiral
Dewey, and four days later the third expedition of 4,000 troops under
General McArthur passed out of the Golden Gate amid the cheers of the
multitude, as the others had done; and on the 29th General Merritt
followed on the _Newport_. Nearly one month later, July 23d, General
H.G. Otis, with 900 men, sailed on the _City of Rio de Janeiro_ from San
Francisco, thus making a total of nearly 12,000 men, all told, sent to
the Philippine Islands.

General Merritt arrived at Cavite July 25th, and on July 29th the
American forces advanced from Cavite toward Manila. On the 31st, while
enroute, they were attacked at Malate by 3,000 Spaniards, whom they
repulsed, but sustained a loss of nine men killed and forty-seven
wounded, nine of them seriously. This was the first loss of life on