June 9 and 10 near Najasa General
Jiminez Castellanos was soundly beaten and forced to retreat to
Camaguey. Then, hoping to bar the Cubans from Santa Clara, the Spanish
reconstructed the eastern trocha, from Jucaro to Moron, and sent forces
inland from Santiago and other coast towns to create a back fire in
Oriente. Calixto Garcia turned upon these latter, and routed them on the
Cauto River, at Venta de Casanova, and near Bayamo, and captured great
stores of supplies. At Santa Ana several stubbornly contested battles
occurred between Garcia and General Linares, in which the latter was
finally worsted. At Loma del Gato on July 5 the Cubans under Jose Maceo
and Perequito Perez defeated the forces of General Albert and Colonel
Vara del Rey, but at the heavy cost of Maceo's death. Meanwhile Juan B.
Zayas, Lacret and others penetrated Havana Province at will, in
guerrilla warfare; but Zayas was finally killed in an engagement near
Gabriel.

During the rainy season there was comparatively little activity, but in
the fall the advance westward began in earnest. Garcia captured
Guaimaro, and Gomez pushed on to Camaguey, but left the place to be
dealt with by Garcia and hastened on, with Rodriguez, Rabi, Bandera and
Carrillo. He crossed the trocha with ease, penetrated Santa Clara, and
was soon in Matanzas, where Aguirre joined them with 3,200 men. He put
an end to sugar making throughout most of the province, and then
encamped in the Cienaga de Zapata, leaving a number of active guerrilla
bands to harass and menace Havana. In the latter province at the
beginning of December Raoul Arango and Nicolas Valencia attacked the
town of Guanabacoa, only five miles from Havana, and seized great
stores of supplies. Beyond the western trocha Ruiz Rivera succeeded
Antonio Maceo in command, and carried on his work with much success.
Thus the second year of the war drew to a close with the patriots
despite some heavy losses decidedly in the ascendant, and the Spanish
campaign of ruthless severity no more successful than that of moderation
and conciliation had been.

One other incident of the year 1896 was highly significant. At the
beginning of December the President of the United States, Mr. Cleveland,
in his annual message to Congress, discussed the Cuban problem very
fully and frankly. He practically reasserted the historic policy toward
that island first enunciated by John Quincy Adams, as quoted in a
preceding volume of this history. He