The Battle of Tayacoba, June 30, 1898,[2] (also spelled Tayabacao)[2] was an American special operations effort to land supplies and reinforcements to Cuban rebels fighting for their independence in the Spanish–American War.

Four miles west of the town, at the mouth of the river, stood a large fort built of railroad iron, surrounded by earthworks and defended by about 100 Spanish regulars.

The party took cover in a mangrove swamp and one of them, a Danish surgeon named Dr. Maximilian Lund[11] swam out to the Peoria (naked and armed only with a knife to fend off sharks) to report that survivors on the beach were in need of assistance.

The first four were dispersed by heavy enemy fire and forced to retreat, but the fifth, operating under cover of darkness and crewed by four men of the U.S. 10th Cavalry under the command of Lieutenant Ahern, successfully located the Cuban survivors.

[14] On the afternoon of July 2 the Peoria returned to the mouth of the Tallacaboa River accompanied by the USS Helena and shelled the fort for 30 minutes, damaging it and the earthworks and setting fire to the Spanish quarter in the nearby town of Tunas de Zaza.