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Dewey Opens And Closes War

Dewey Opens And Closes War image
Parent Issue
Day
19
Month
August
Year
1898
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Washington, Aug. 16. - Never before has it fallen to the lot of any single ommander, either naval or military, n so brief a war to win so large a share f glory as that which belongs to Admlral Dewey by virtue of the part he has played in thls ration's war with Spain, or to be heralded as the victor in both the opening and closingr engagements of an epoeh-making conflict. For it was Dewey's tleet that fired the flrst shot and sank and burned a squadron tttat Spain had counted upon as one of its main reliances for the war, and it was Dewey's fleet that completed the work begun on the first day of May when on Saturday last, ignorant of the nignlng of the protocol, it took the city of Manila and made the grasp of the United States upon the Philippine islands secure. Though later events in their succession have almost crowded the memory of Dewey's first great achievement in the late war out of the public mind, his bombardment and capture of Manila recalls his earlier work as a most brilllant achievement of the war. For with boldness and dash that set the world agog with wonder, under cover of night he stole into the mined and fortified harbor of Manila, and on the morning of May 1, with a squadron of seven fighting ships, braved the land batteries and torpedoes at Cavite and dealt out destruction to a fleet of eleven ships under Admiral Montejo. Thus, within two weeks of the time when Spain became the declared enemy of the United States, Dewey had struck the flrst swift and decisive blow that gave the woríd a foretaste of what the steady nerves and dauntless hearts of American seamen should accomplish in battle with the Dons, a blow that at once proclaimed the American navy as one of the formidable factors in the empire of the seas. Three hundred Spanish sailors were killed, 400 wounded, and more taken prisoners in that first sea fight begun ín the gray of the early morning off Cavite.

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News