Immediately, the British raised the Union flag above El Morro. The Spanish warships began to bombard the castle, with the guns of Havana joining in. Fully aware of the British lack of water, the Spanish aimed at the castle’s water cistern.
“If they can’t beat us in the field,” Butler said, ducking as a cannonball crashed into the wall a few yards from where he stood, “they’ll try to kill us by thirst.”
The British retaliated, with the artillery on La Cabana altering their aim from El Morro to Havana, while the force on the western side of the city also fired. Forty cannon, plus five howitzers and ten mortars on the west, joined the La Cabana artillery in pounding Havana.
“Who’s the black man?” MacKim heard the Royal Scots wonder as they buried their dead amidst the thunder and fury of t
