No. 300.
Mr. Adee
to Mr. Evarts.
Madrid, July 22, 1877. (Received August 6.)
Sir: The Gaceta of the 20th instant published a royal decree authorizing the minister of ultramar to contract, without the formalities of public bids, for the transportation to Cuba of 12,000 soldiers, more or less, in accordance with a recent order of the 6th directing a draft to be made from the new levies for service in that island.
The president of the council has been for some days past in active conference with the ministers of war and ultramar, settling the details of this re-enforcement. The troops are to be taken by the Lopez company’s line of steamers. The first detachment is to sail on the 15th of next month, and each mail steamer thereafter will carry a full load of recruits until the intended total is completed. It is understood that 15,000 men will in reality be sent out. The first detachments will be sent immediately on arrival to depots of acclimation, while the latter contingents, arriving as they will at the close of the sickly season, will be prepared to take the field at once. It is announced that the first re-enforcements will probably go to Santiago and Nuevitas, and the last to Havana.
In this connection it seems not out of place to communicate to you a recently-published statement of the forces now in Cuba.
According to official data the army of operations in that island is composed as follows: 16 battalions of infantry, forming eight regiments of the line; 50 battalions of cazadores (chasseurs à pied); 2 battalions [Page 517] of unmounted artillery; 1 battalion of engineers; 4 battalions of gardes-mobiles; 2 battalions of Havana militia; 1 battalion of freedmen; 3 battalions of disciplined colored militia, and 4 battalions of civil guards. This gives a total of 83 battalions, without counting militia forces employed on garrison duty, rangers (contraguerrillas) and irregular forces.
The strength of the battalions of cazadores is 1,200 men each, and those of the line are 750 strong—giving 72,000 men as the nominal force in those two arms of the service.
Underestimating the numbers of the remaining organized battalions at 600 men each, we have in addition 10,200 regulars and militia. The irregular troops may be roughly estimated at 4,000 more, giving a total of at least 86,200 men. * * *
Public feeling continues hopefully disposed here, and the termination of the war in the coming season of operations is popularly regarded here as a matter of course. General Martinez Campos has not only the advantage of prestige and of the full confidence of the government, but he further enjoys the privilege, withheld from so many of those who have preceded him, of having his calls for men, supplies, and money promptly and generously responded to.
I have, &c.,