A few days later, Major Noguera, with a small band, attacked forty of the enemy on a road leading to Bayamo, and put them to rout, capturing a considerable stock of supplies. This same band of patriots a little later encountered a company of fifty Spaniards, who were driving a herd of cattle toward El Huinilladero. They opened fire, and dispersed the Spaniards, wounding an officer, and taking possession of the cattle, together with a supply of cartridges, horses with their equipment, blankets and provisions.
On July 30, several companies from the division of Bayamo and Manzanillo attacked a force of a hundred Spaniards who were strongly entrenched near La Caridad. After a fight which lasted not over half an hour, the Spanish were dislodged from their trenches, and fled into a nearby wood. The Cubans followed, forcing the Spaniards into the open, and, after a brief engagement, put them to rout. One Spaniard was captured, and he gave information that the Spanish forces had lost seventeen men killed, and that in their flight they had thrown away their rifles, which were afterward recovered by the Cubans, who also took possession of a large amount of supplies of all kinds.
The estate of La Indiana had been fortified by the Spaniards, and on August 4, General Gomez led an attack against it. The Spanish put up a strong resistance, but the Cubans were able to take the buildings, and capture thirty-five Spaniards. The entire district of Guantanamo was at this time practically controlled by the insurgents. They destroyed fourteen coffee plantations, and did other damage to the property of Spanish sympathizers. On August 8, the Spaniards made an attack at El Macio, but it was unsuccessful. For the next week there was one engagement after another, with victory first with the Spaniards and then with the Cubans, but the results were not of moment to either of the belligerents. The Cubans were not able to marshal a sufficiently large or well equipped force to venture a decisive battle, and so kept up an annoying guerrilla warfare. Late in the month they advanced to the outskirts of Santiago, destroying all plantations which lay along the line of march, and defeated the Volunteers in an unimportant engagement. Perhaps the most serious defeat that they inflicted on the Spanish at this time was the destruction of the fortified camp at Miguel, in the district of Sagua de Tanamo. Earlier in the month they had attacked and taken a fortified camp in the neighborhood of Santa Isabel. All the buildings were burned to the ground, twenty-six Volunteers were killed, and a large quantity of stores was taken. There followed other engagements in which the odds and the victory were with the Spaniards, and the Cuban patriots were put to rout with heavy losses. But for the most part in guerrilla warfare the Cubans had the advantage and made the most of it.