A black powder tale from Cuba, 1898: the death of General Vara del Ray

General Vara del Rey was in command at El Caney during the Spanish-American-Cuban War. The American plan was to neutralize the garrison at El Caney before the assault on the kills above Santiago. Lawton’s division was supposed to roll up El Caney and then join Kent’s division for the assault. It didn’t work out that way. The Spanish resistance at El Caney was especially fierce and kept Lawton occupied most of the day. Early on Vara del Rey took a rifle bullet through his legs and turned command over to Lt. Col Punet. When things finally went south, the General was being evacuated on a stretcher when he was hit by a single .43 cal. Remington bullet fired from long range. His escort and stretcher bearers were similarly killed, most likely by Cuban sharpshooters, as the Americans at El Caney, mostly armed with Krags, were occupied elsewhere.

http://www.spanamwar.com/delreydeath.htm

The assaults on San Juan and Kettle Hills went forward anyway, with a couple mid-grade officers asked their commanders for permission to attack. Col Parker’s four Gatling Guns may have been worth as much as Lawton’s Division at the point of attack.

jn

My impression from reading the reports is that the shot that killed Vara del Rey was fired from considerable distance. When I was young I could put all my shots from a Remington .43 long rifle with military sights into a head-sized target at 200+ yards, shooting from prone. The Cubans were north and east of El Caney which was mostly open country within range of the guns at el Viso. It's possible that a sharpshooter could have taken a position within, say 400 yards of the road south which led to Santiago. Either that was some really good shooting or there was a volley of aimed fire and the victims were caught in it.

jn