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Inside the Spanish-American War This page intentionally left blank Inside the Spanish-American War A History Based on First-Person Accounts JAMES M. MCCAFFREY McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA McCaffrey, James M., ¡946– Inside the Spanish-American War : a history based on first-person accounts / James M. McCaffrey. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-¡3: 978-0-7864-4150-1 (illustrated case binding: 50# alkaline paper) ¡. Spanish-American War, 1898. 2. Spanish-American War, 1898— Campaigns. I. Title. E715.M367 2009 973.8'9092273—dc22 2008045664 British Library cataloguing data are available ©2009 James M. McCaffrey. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cover image: Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Riders, Battle of San Juan, Library of Congress. Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com Table of Contents Preface 1 1. From Cuban Revolution to American War with Spain 3 2. Dewey’s Battle for Manila Bay 8 3. Mobilizing for War 20 4. Naval Blockade of Cuba 49 5. Fifth Corps’ Baptism of Fire 75 6. Heavy Fighting in Cuba 91 7. Naval Battle Forces Surrender 110 8. Eighth Corps to Manila 129 9. The Philippines Campaign 142 10. The Puerto Rico Campaign 158 11. Coming Home 174 12. Epilogue 186 Chapter Notes 193 Bibliography 209 Index 221 v This page intentionally left blank Preface THE UNITED STATES WENT TO WAR with Spain in 1898, and for the first time in more than fifty years American combat troops fought major campaigns outside the borders of their country. Many books have been written about this war in the century that has now elapsed. Both par- ticipants and historians have investigated such issues as whether the reasons for the war were justified and what the outcome of the war meant for the future of the country and the world. Did the United States altruistically enter into this conflict only to aid Cuban independence, or were other reasons more important? Did the situation in Cuba simply offer an excuse for the United States to join the European countries in establishing overseas dependencies—if not outright colonies? Was this war something to distract Americans from the economic dol- drums of the mid–1890s? Did victory over Spain give American political and military lead- ers an optimistically unrealistic view of their place in the new century? Were the acquisitions of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam from Spain as much of a boon to the American economy as pre-war businessmen might have predicted? Did victory ensure acceptance as a world power by the older nations of the world? Eminent scholars have debated these and many other questions, and it is not the aim of this book to plow the same ground. This work, like those above, also seeks answers to various questions. For example, how did America’s young men react to the call for volunteers to fight Spain? And what about those who chose to stay home? How did the new soldiers adapt to military regimentation? Did they, as most soldiers throughout time seemed to do, complain about army food, inexperienced officers, and countless other things? What were their opinions of their Spanish enemy, and how well did they get along with their Cuban and Filipino allies? This book presents a narrative look at the conflict from the points of view of the Amer- ican soldiers, sailors, and Marines who participated in it and the news correspondents in the field who witnessed and reported it. Many officers, from high-ranking generals to the lowli- est second lieutenants, along with a handful of enlisted men found diverse publishing out- lets anxious to give the reading public descriptions of the war from the men who fought it. Some men, such as Admiral George Dewey and Major General William Shafter, put down their thoughts in books, while other, lesser, lights found the pages of popular magazines like Harper’s and Century or hometown newspapers to be acceptable venues for their contribu- tions. And in an age of increasing telephonic, as well as telegraphic, capabilities, news correspondents traveled with the troops and were able to file eye-witness stories almost instantaneously. Thus there is a considerable amount of material available that allows one to look into the day-to-day existence of the American warrior of 1898. 1 This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER 1 From Cuban Revolution to American War with Spain THE CUBAN REVOLUTION WAS a long time coming. Cuba, the first important Spanish colony in the Western Hemisphere, was, by the 1890s, one of the last. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century Mexico and all of the other mainland colonies had gained their independence. Now only Cuba and nearby Puerto Rico were still bound by colonial ties to Spain. Cubans had grown more and more restive in recent years, and had in fact waged a ten-year struggle for independence that had ended in 1878 with unfulfilled promises of autonomy for their country. Late in February 1895, Havana-born lawyer-poet José Martí led a group of dis- sidents in the eastern part of the island colony to openly proclaim another revolution.1 When the new Spanish governor-general Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau stepped ashore at Havana on February 10, 1896, the Cuban populace did not have long to wait to see how he intended to fulfill his assignment to bring the revolution to a close. Recognizing that a guer- rilla movement is only successful if it has the support of the populace, Weyler determined to deny this support to Martí’s followers. He quickly issued orders that all of the people living in certain areas of eastern Cuba must leave their home villages and relocate to central reconcentration camps under Spanish military control. With the civilians thus under direct military observation they would not be able to provide the rebels with recruits, food, or even accurate information about Spanish military plans in the area. While this plan has much to recommend it on a purely strategic level its implementation was atrocious. The camps were overcrowded breeding grounds for all sorts of epidemic diseases. The rebels added to the misery of the inhabitants by not allowing food and other supplies to go into the camps. Tens of thousands of Cuban civilians—estimates range from 100,000 to an unlikely high of 400,000—died of disease and malnutrition in these camps. In Matanzas, for example, the normal mortality rate was six per day. By November 1897, however, this rate had skyrocketed to more than eighty. The situation was even more devastating elsewhere. The normal death rate of seventeen per month in Santa Clara shot up to 550 per month.2 These conditions began to be known to Americans in large part due to a circulation war between two New York newspapers. William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World led the way in what came to be known as “yellow journalism.” Their aim was to sell newspapers, and realizing that nothing sells papers like scandals or disasters of one sort or another, they quickly assigned reporters to cover the horrible reconcentration 3