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A Splendid Little War, Part 2 - The Course of
the War
By Toni Lee Robinson
The U.S. Navy had ably
handled the first battle of
the war with Spain. Now
the plan called for landing
troops in Cuba. The War
Department scrambled to
gather and train soldiers.
Streams of men responded
to the president's call for
volunteers. An army of
26,000 swelled to over
200,000. The U.S. military machine began to move again after the
long peace. The machine, however, was a little rusty.
The American goal was to capture the port of Santiago. The Cuban
rebel troops under General Calixto García would join in the battle.
Before Santiago, however, the troops had to brave defenses at San
Juan Hill. The soldiers had a grueling march to even reach the
battlefield. They stumbled through the jungle heat in standard issue
wool uniforms.
Miscues and ineptitude at the official level made things even tougher.
Many of the soldiers had been issued spoiled rations and faulty
equipment. Thousands fell ill. Among them was Fifth Corps
commander General William Shafter. The general lay weakened by
fever at his headquarters away from the fighting. Staff officers on
horseback directed the action according to Shafter's plan.
It took a couple of skirmishes for U.S. troops to push through to
Santiago. Each one would be an uphill battle. U.S. forces had to make
head-on, uphill assaults on heavily defended positions. On July 1, the
second of Fifth Corps' three divisions was sent to take El Caney.
Estimates were that the operation would take two hours. Afterwards,
the division was to join the others in the attack on San Juan Hill.
Instead of a quick win, thousands of U.S. soldiers endured twelve
hours of shelling from 500 Spanish troops embedded on the heights of
El Caney. American losses were heavy.
Tampa, Florida, had been picked as the staging area for troops headed
to Cuba. Volunteer and militia units assembled and shipped to Florida.
Tampa was overrun by the new units. A quartermaster corps of 57
men struggled to equip the flood of soldiers. Some unit leaders,
frustrated with delays and errors, bought supplies for their men out of
their own pockets.
On San Juan Hill, a team in a hot air balloon had been sent up to look
for the best approach to the hilltop. The slow-moving balloon made an
easy target for Spanish rifles. It was shot down, but not before a new
route had been found. Units advanced up the path through the trees.
As they came into the clearing, three officers in turn fell to enemy
fire. The troops entrenched and waited for backup and the order to
charge.
The log jam in the army frustrated Teddy Roosevelt more than
anyone. He quit his job as the number two man in the Department of
the Navy. He formed his own cavalry regiment. The unit came to be
known as the Rough Riders. Along with the main body of U.S. ground
forces, they landed on Cuban soil on June 22, 1898.
It would be a long wait. The delay caused turmoil in the U.S. ranks.
Soldiers lay for hours at the bottom of the hill with the bullets of
Spanish troops raining down on their heads. They called the area
"Hell's Pocket." Soldiers were edgy, ready to do anything besides wait
and dodge bullets.
The Spanish had held positions above the landing site at the port of
Daiquiri. Before U.S. troops landed, the site was secured by a Cuban
rebel force. Still, the landing of some 16,000 U.S. troops was a mess.
Roosevelt himself described the scene: "Different parts of different
outfits were jumbled together . . . one transport had guns and another
had the locks for the guns. Soldiers went here, provisions went
there...," he wrote.
In typical fashion, Lt. Col. Teddy Roosevelt took it upon himself to
get things started. Having gotten hold of a horse, he rode back and
forth along the line, shouting encouragement to the troops. Finally, he
ordered a charge up the hill. His troops stormed up a small hill in front
of San Juan. The U.S. forces routed a Spanish position atop the rise
that came to be called Kettle Hill. Another volunteer unit, the
all-black 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers, charged up the hill.
2. Explain how Teddy Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the
Navy, ended up in Cuba as part of the ground assault on
Santiago.
Name
Roosevelt continued to urge all the troops forward. Regular army
officers refused to follow. They'd had no orders from their superiors,
they pointed out, to undertake the charge. Undaunted, Roosevelt led
his volunteers through the ranks of regulars and on up the hill. Other
units followed. After heavy losses, U.S. and Cuban forces captured
San Juan Hill. They were now able to bear down on Santiago.
Shafter sent a note to the Spanish commander, demanding his
surrender. The Spanish reply was to attack U.S. ships blockading the
city's harbor. U.S. and Cuban troops began a siege of the city. On July
3, the Spanish fleet tried to break through the stranglehold, making a
run for the open ocean. In the resulting battle, every ship in the
Spanish fleet was destroyed. Hundreds of crewmen died. American
losses included one dead and one wounded.
3. American allies in the fight against Spain were ______.
A. the British who had long been rivals with Spain for
colonies in the New World
B. Spanish citizens who had grown bitter over their nation's
high-handed treatment of its Cuban colony
C. Portuguese forces who wanted to weaken Spain and take
over the country
D. Cuban rebels fighting for the freedom of their country
Days later, the Spanish surrendered Santiago. Spain sued for peace.
Except for a few battles in the Philippines and Puerto Rico, the war
was over. It had taken four months. Fewer than 500 Americans were
lost in battle, though ten times that many died of disease. Compared to
the dreadful death tolls of the Civil War, it had been an easy victory.
Besides, the U.S. had gained the Spanish territories of Guam, the
Philippines, and Puerto Rico. One of Roosevelt's friends declared it "a
splendid little war."
4. The main goal of U.S. forces on the ground in Cuba was
______.
A. making sure Cuban political prisoners were freed
B. defeating the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay
C. the capture of Santiago
D. the capture of San Juan Hill
A Splendid Little War, Part 2 - The Course of the War
Questions
1. In 1898, what indications were there that the U.S. military
machine was a little rusty?
5. The largest source of casualties for U.S. troops in Cuba was
______.
A. the Battle of San Juan Hill
B. disease
C. hot air balloons shot down by Spanish troops
D. the Battle of El Caney
6. How did actual events at El Caney differ from the expectations
of planners?
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7. At the port of Santiago, the Spanish fleet ______.
A. was destroyed when it tried to escape to the ocean
B. successfully defeated the U.S. fleet
C. burned its own ships to keep them from falling into U.S.
hands
D. kept U.S. troops from taking the city
8. Why do you think one of Teddy Roosevelt's friends called the
Spanish American War "a splendid little war"?