text: On the evening of 12 June, enemy forces came within fifty yards of Camp McCalla, and a desperate firefight began.  Marines responded with their Lee straight-pull rifles, along with machine gun and artillery fire from the Marine 3-inch field pieces.  Perhaps deterred by the intense artillery and machine gun fire, the Spanish did not attempt to overrun the camp. Acting Assistant Surgeon John Blair Gibbs and Sergeant Charles H. Smith were both killed in this exchange of fire.  Marines later found several blood trails, but no bodies, as the guerrillas removed their wounded and dead to conceal their casualty figures.
  The next day, the Marines were reinforced by about 60 Cubans under Lieutenant Colonel Enrique Thomas.  The Cubans had been equipped with rifles and white duck sailor uniforms by Commander McCalla from the USS Marblehead.  Familiar with guerrilla tactics, the Cuban insurgents deployed in pairs in front of the camp, burning the brush and undergrowth as they advanced, thus denying to the enemy of cover. The Marblehead, which had provided shore bombardment on several occasions, steamed down the coast and shelled the well at Cuzco. Nevertheless, the Spanish attack was resumed at dusk, and two more Marines—acting Sergeant Major Henry Good and Private Goode Taurman—were killed.
  By nightfall on 13 June, the Marines were exhausted. They had not slept nor rested for 100 hours. Relief or reinforcements was impossible, since U.S. Army troops had yet to leave the U.S. The fighting continued for two more days.