Without reenforcements he could not attack, and he proposed to allow the Spaniards to evacuate.

The War Department forbade this alternative and, on the 10th of July, he began the bombardment of Santiago.
The Secretary of War then hit upon the really happy though quite unmilitary device of offering, in return for unconditional surrender, to transport the Spanish troops, at once and without parole, back to their own country.

Secretary Alger was no unskillful politician, and he was right in believing that this device, though unconventional, would make a strong appeal to an army three years away from home and with dwindling hopes of ever seeing Spain again.

On the 15th of July a capitulation was agreed upon, and the terms of surrender included not only the troops in Santiago but all those in that military district--about twenty-four thousand men, with cannon, rifles, ammunition, rations, and other military supplies.

Shafter's recommendation that the troops be allowed to carry their arms back to Spain with them was properly refused by the War Department.