THe STORY OF OUR WARw'thSPAIM ELBRID6E S. BROOKS w/ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY DATE DUE -* M^±m#¥- PRINTED IN US A. / Library Cornell University E 715.B87 1899 war The story of our "''!;] SPfj"' Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924020381491 SIGSBEE LEAVING THE MAINE. ("I suggested the propriety of my being the last to leave.") (See page 34,) THE STORY OUR WAR WITH SPAIN BT ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS AtJTHOR OF "THE AMERICAN SOLDIER," "THE AMERICAN SAILOR," "THE TRUE STORY OF THE UNITED STATES," "THE TRUE STORY OF WASHINGTON," " LINCOLN," " GRANT," "FRANKLIN," "LAFAYETTE," ETC., ETC. ILLUSTRATIONS BY C. CHASE EMERSON AND FROM PHOTOGRAPHS SIXTH EDITION BOSTON: LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. Copyright, 1899, BY LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY. a'P J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Why the Maine was in Havana Harbor .... 9 II. Why Congress gave the President Fifty Millions . 27 III. How the War began 49 IV. How Admiral Dewey spent his May-day 66 V. Why the United States Navy played at Hide-and-seek 90 VI.' How they bottled up the Spanish Fleet at Santiago III VII. How the Marines held the Beach at Guantanamo . 130 VIII. Why the Boys cheered at Daiquiri .... 150 IX. How they cleared the Jungle at Guasimas i6s X. How they brolce the Line at El Caney and stormed the Hill of San Juan 181 XI. How they surprised the Governor of Guam . 201 XII. How the Spanish Admiral made a Dash for Liberty 221 XIII. Why they cheered in the Trenches 245 XIV. How the Flag floated over Porto Rico . 262 XV. Why General Merritt played Jackson at Manila 280 XVI. The Things that helped 296 XVII. How the War ended 317 The Story of our War with Spain chronologically told 337 1 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Sigsbee leaving the Afa/«« Frontispiece A Bit of Old Havana „ The Landing-place of Columbus 1 of the Arms Conquistadores 14 the Plaza On de Armas, Havana 17 The Wall at Santiago 20 The Morro, Havana 23 President McKinley 27 The U.S. Battleship Maine 31 A Cuban Farm-house 36 Spanish Troopers ••....... 41 The Home of a Sugar Planter 44 Near Matanzas . ci A Cuban Soldier eg A Typical Farm-house . 61 View from the Yumuri Valley, near Matanzas .... 64 Admiral Dewey 66 On Corregidor Island ......... 69 Dewey at Manila yg Rear Admiral Sampson 1 . 90 The Transports en route to Cuba 92 The City of Cadiz in Spain 95 The Diamond Rock, off Martinique loi The Harbor of San Juan in Porto Rico 105 The ATeiv York 107 ix X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PACE Lieutenant Hobson • • .m In the Harbor of Santiago . • -US .no Cabanas . • • • • Hobson on the Bridge of tiie /1/^r/-z»/ai: 125 Where the ^^rr/wzac lies 129 Hobson's Interpreter 132 I39 The Marines at Guantanamo . • • Morro Castle, Santiago I4S General Shaffer • • . ijo At the Dock at Tampa 154 The Heights of Jibara 157 Baracoa, near Cape Maisi 159 Colonel Roosevelt . .165 Spanish "Fortine," or Fort No. I, outside of Santiago . .167 The Jungle Path at Guasimas . .172 Camp of the Rough Riders . .176 The Road to El Caney ........ 183 Where the Right Wing marched 185 " Capron's Pet " 187 After the Battle 190 The San Juan River 192 The Charge up San Juan Hill 195 The Reserves waiting for Orders 199 Where Guam is . 203 " The Silent Gun " 208 Tht U.S. Cruiser Charleston . .211 In Philippine Waters 214 Admiral Schley .......... 221 Trench-making before Santiago 222 Camp of the American Advance 224 The Inner Harbor of Santiago 227 Where Cervera ran out . .231 5 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi PAGE Wainwright on the Gloucester 237 U.S. Cruiser Brooklyn 24T Bamboo Bridge over the San Juan River ..... 246 In the Trenches 248 A Silk-cotton Tree 251 Mule Train on the Way to relieve the Santiago Refugees . 252 The Church at El Caney ........ 253 Railway Station on the Road from El Caney to Santiago . 256 " No Cheering ! " 259 General Miles 262 A Bullock Cart in Porto Rico 264 The Casa Blanca . 267 A Porto Rican Garden 271 A Mountain Battery 274 ! " Cease firing ! Peace has been declared " . 277 The Approach to Manila .285 A Street in Manila 291 "Capron's Pet" 298 A Noble Helper 302 The St. Paul and The Terror 30S " Taking his Quinine " 3'° Supplies for the Camp 3' Santiago Harbor and the Morro S'S Bridge on the El Caney Road . • • -321 In Santiago 324 At Montauk 327 THE STORY OF OUR WAR WITH SPAIN CHAPTER I WHY THE MAINE WAS IN HAVANA HARBOR T midday on Tuesday, the twenty-fifth of January, 1898, the United States battleship Maine steamed into the harbor of Havana, the chief city of the Spanish island of Cuba. Spotless and speckless from keel to fighting-top, with the Stars and Stripes at the peak and the at A BIT OF OLD Jack HAVANA. the foremast head, the great white war-ship guided by a Spanish pilot, threaded the narrow entrance to the harbor, and just abreast the Admiral's Palace, on the water-front of the Cuban metropolis, ran out her chains and made fast to the mooring-buoy selected by the Spanish pilot. Then her guns thundered their salute to 9 " lO OUR WAR WITH SPAIN the Spanish flag, the naval cadet reported to the American consul, and Yankee commander and Spanish admiral exchanged visits of courtesy. At forty minutes past nine on the night of Friday, the fifteenth of February, 1898, without warning and apparently without reason, while lying peacefully in the same mooring-berth to which the Spanish pilot had conducted her, the United States battleship Maine blew up with a bursting, rend- ing, crashing roar, and two hundred and fifty-four Yankee blue-jackets went down in the blackness and smoke of the ruined battleship to swift and sudden death in the harbor of Havana. " Well, what business had she there, anyhow 1 certain faultfinding and unpatriotic Americans demanded, when the world fell to discussing this baffling and awful disaster. What business had that armed battleship of the United States in the unfriendly but not openly hostile waters of Havana? Let us first discover this before we chronicle the results of that terrible catastrophe which precipitated a peaceful, home- loving people into a foreign and aggressive war, and wrung from American lips, from ocean to ocean and from Lakes to Gulf, the stern and deter- " " mined watchword : Remember the Maine / WHY THE MAINE WAS IN HAVANA HARBOR il The reason for the presence of the Maine in Span- ish waters dates far back in the history of America. From the days of Columbus, the admiral, who first planted upon American soil the yellow banner of Spain, that emblem of discovery, occupation, THE LANDING-PLACE OF COLUMBUS. (At the north end of Watling's Island, one of the Bahama group.) colonization, and conquest had been also the^ symbol of inhumanity, selfishness, and greed. There had been notable exceptions to this record of tyranny, from the noble Las Casas, " protector of the Indians," to the gentle Fray 12 OUR WAR WITH SPAIN tribes but Junipero Serro, friend of the California ; the exceptions only helped to prove the rule. The methods of Spain in America were those of medi- aeval times, and the customs of Spain in her colonies were, in 1800, not a day advanced beyond the Middle Ages — the times of Alva and the Inquisition, of Pizarro and Cortes and De Soto. From the very beginning of Spanish occupation, therefore, the hand of Spain lay heavy upon the vast American empire that Columbus and his successors had delivered into her keeping. This " empire " embraced the greater part of Central and South America, the fertile islands known as the West Indies, and all that section of what is now the United States of America lying west of the Mississippi. This portion of North America, of especial interest to us, Spain took to herself through those unjust and unwritten laws of discovery, exploration, and conquest that were a part of the law of nations four centuries ago, as they are to- day to an only slightly modified extent. By the right of discovery and exploration Spain claimed North as well as South America. For her ships and sailors had carried into northern as well as southern waters the proud banner of WHY THE MAINE WAS IN HAVANA HARBOR 13 Castile ; it had floated on the St. Lawrence and the Hudson, in the harbor of Plymouth and above the long reaches of Chesapeake Bay, while traces of Spanish occupancy exist in Maryland and Virginia and reach far into the interior of New York state. De Soto and his men zigzagged across the Southern states from Pensacola in Florida to New Orleans, now wandering as far north as the James River and now as far south as Mobile Bay, ending finally at Vicksburg, from which they drifted dismally down the Mississippi to disaster and death. Coronado and his glittering train of armored men wandered from Mexico to Kansas, and, on a fruitless hunt for storied cities, walled in gold and gems, doomed to disappointment, left their traces in the conquered pueblo of Santa Fe in New Mexico, which divides with St. Augustine in Florida (both Spanish settlements) the honor of being the oldest city in the United States. By virtue of Spanish discoveries before the days of Sebastian Cabot, Spain disputed with England the right of possession, and that dis- pute, inherited by the United States from Eng- land, has rankled and smouldered through all the years since first England and Spain struggled for the mastery of the western world.