Battle of Tayacoba

Battle of Tayacoba
Part of the Spanish–American War
Date June 30, 1898 Location near Trinidad, Cuba Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Spain	United States Republic of Cuba
Commanders and leaders
unknown	Lt. Carter P. Johnson General Emilio Núñez
Strength
100 Spanish infantry, Krupp field guns	30 infantry and 4 officers, 1 gunboat
Casualties and losses
unknown	1 dead, 7 wounded

Lt. Carter P. Johnson

The Battle of Tayacoba, June 30, 1898, was a disastrous American effort to land supplies and reinforcements to Cuban rebels fighting for their independence in the Spanish–American War.

On June 25 the American steamships Fanita and Florida accompanied by the gunboat USS Peoria left Key West carrying a cargo of troops, ammunition, supplies and arms (including two dynamite guns, 4,000 Springfield rifles and 200 Mauser rifles), to aid Cuban insurgents under the command of Máximo Gómez. On board were 650 Cubans under General Emilio Núñez, fifty troopers of the Tenth U.S. Cavalry under First Lieutenant Carter P. Johnson and Second Lieutenant George P. Ahern, and twenty-five Rough Riders under Captain Winthrop Astor Chanler, brother of Captain William Astor Chanler.

The first attempt to land took place on June 29 near the port of Cienfuegos, at the mouth of the San Juan River, however as a result of a prior assault on May 11, the position was too heavily defended to effect a landing. The American force then sailed about 40 miles east along the south coast of Cuba, to a point near the town of Trinidad. On June 30 a landing party went ashore on a beachhead just west of Tunas de Zaza, near the mouth of the Tallabacoa River (mispronounced 'Tayacoba' by the Americans).

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Wikipedia