Mr. Loomis to Mr. Hay.
Caracas, November 20, 1899.
Sir: Referring to my cablegram of November 12, I have to say that Puerto Cabello was taken by the forces of General Castro, numbering about 2,000, on Saturday evening, November 11. It was a fierce and bloody battle. The attack commenced shortly after midnight on the morning of the 11th, and was continued until 5 o’clock in the afternoon. The heaviest firing was between 4 and 7 in the morning. The rifle fire was very intense, and there was some artillery fire from the fort on the hill back of the town and from the fieldpieces of the attacking party, and from Castro’s gunboats in the harbor. One of the gunboats fired a shell which struck the United States consulate, but did no damage.
The defenders of the city, commanded by Gen. Antonio Paredes, did most of their fighting from behind barricades and from towers so erected as to enable them to fire over the tops of the houses.
The mortality was great. The killed and wounded probably numbered 300, and the sights about the streets the day of and the day after the fight were extremely grewsome. Many of the dead were burned or partially burned where they fell.
There was no provision for hospital service and medical attendance until the surgeon of the Detroit went ashore with his corps and commenced the work of caring for the wounded. He was followed by surgeons from all of the other foreign men-of-war in the harbor save the French cruiser.
The surgeons who went ashore were compelled to furnish all of the medicines, bandages, appliances, and supplies of every sort of which they made use.
Dr. Braisted, of the U. S. S. Detroit, has been most highly recommended by all who saw or heard of his prompt, excellent, and highly efficient work in the cause of humanity at Puerto Cabello.
Puerto Cabello was held by General Paredes, an officer appointed by General Andrade when he was President of Venezuela. Paredes continued to hold the city and its two forts after Andrade left the country, though he was directed to give up his command by Andrade’s successor, acting President Gen. Victor Rodriguez, and later received a letter from General Andrade himself, urging him to turn the post over to the Castro government. Paredes declined to withdraw and announced that he would defend the city and “die in the last ditch.”
His position was a hopeless one, and he caused, quite needlessly, in the opinion of intelligent persons here, a very great loss of life, besides [Page 811] destroying the business of Puerto Cabello for weeks, and putting in jeopardy the lives of thousands of innocent people.
As Paredes represented no party, no faction, no government, and no flag, he was practically an outlaw, and it seems to me his action in forcing the Castro government to storm the city could probably have been prevented by the commanders of the naval vessels representing those countries which had many citizens and much valuable property in Puerto Cabello.
I have, etc.,