“I know we destroyed a large part of their town near the wharves, burned one of their gunboats, and I think destroyed two other torpedo destroyers.  We were in a vortex of shot, shell and smoke, and could not tell accurately, but we saw one of their boats on fire and sinking soon after the action began.  Then a large building near the wharf, I think the barracks, took fire, and many other buildings were soon burning.  The Spanish had masked batteries on all sides of us, hidden in bushes and behind houses.  They set a trap for us.  As soon as we got within range of their batteries they would move them.  I think their guns were field pieces.  Our large boats could not get into the harbor to help us on account of the shallow water.”

Amid a perfect storm of shot from Spanish rifles and batteries the American forces made an attempt to cut the cables at Cienfuegos, on the 11th of May.  Four determined boat crews, under command of Lieutenant Winslow and Ensign Magruder, from the cruiser Marblehead and gunboat Nashville, put out from the ships, the coast having previously been shelled, and began their perilous work.  The cruiser Marblehead, the gunboat Nashville and the auxiliary cruiser Windom drew up a thousand yards from shore with their guns manned for desperate duty.

One cable was quickly severed and the work was in progress on the other when the Spaniards in rifle pits and a battery in an old lighthouse standing out in the bay opened fire.  The warships poured in a thunderous volley, their great guns belching forth massive shells into the swarms of the enemy.  The crews of the boats proceeded with their desperate work, notwithstanding the fact that a number of men had fallen, and, after finishing their task, returned to the ships through a blinding smoke and a heavy fire.  Two men were killed, and seven wounded by the fire of the enemy.  Captain Maynard had a narrow escape from death.  A rifle shot hit his side close to the heart, but caused only a flesh wound and he kept at his post to the end.  The officers of the Windom were enthusiastic over the work of the men in the launches.  They fired in regular order and shot well.  The Windom demolished the lighthouse, which was in reality a fort, and not one stone was left standing upon another.

On May 14 Admiral Sampson ordered Captain Goodrich to cut the French cable running from Mole St. Nicholas, Hayti, to Guantanamo, Cuba, about thirty miles to the eastward of Santiago.  In compliance with this order the St. Louis and the Wampatuck appeared off Guantanamo about daylight, and the Wampatuck, with Lieutenant Jungen in command and Chief Officer Seagrave, Ensign Payne, Lieutenant Catlin and eight marines and four seamen on board, steamed into the mouth of the harbor, and, dropping a grapnel in eight fathoms of water, proceeded to drag across the mouth of the harbor for the cable.

About 150 fathoms of line were run out when the cable was hooked in fifty fathoms of water.  This time the lookout reported a Spanish gun-boat coming down the harbor and a signal was sent to the St. Louis, lying half a mile outside.  She had already discovered it, and immediately opened fire with her two port six-pounders.  The Wampatuck then commenced firing with her one three-pounder.  The gunboat, however, was out of range of these small guns and, the shells fell short.