War & Response: A Spanish-American War Centennial

	The U.S. battleship Maine was sent to Havana, with Spain’s approval, in late January 1898 to protect American lives and property during the Cuban uprising. On the evening of February 15, the ship inexplicably exploded, killing 266 American servicemen. After twenty-three days of investigation by both American and Spanish teams, the American board of investigation concluded that the explosion was external in origin (the Spanish investigators adamantly disagreed). The report naturally fanned the flames of war in the U.S. The final report submitted to Congress, however, cleared Spain of any responsibility. Nevertheless, Congress and the American public, spurred on by a truculent yellow press, refused to accept this interpretation, and demanded intervention to free Cuba. President McKinley capitulated, and Congress approved a war resolution on April 25. After the war, a series of later investigations on the wrecked Maine favored the conclusion that the ship’s destruction was caused by an accidental internal explosion.
The American Navy: with Introduction and Descriptive Text, [and] Reproductions of Photographs. Chicago: Belford, Middlebrook & Co., 1898. (SPL) VA 59 .A66x 1898b

The American Navy: with Introduction and Descriptive Text . . . Cuba and the Wrecked Maine. . . . Chicago: G.M. Hill, 1898. (SPL) VA 59 .A66x 1898

“Keeping the Blockade.”
Chromolithographic print of a painting by Henry Reuterdahl, from W. Nephew King, The Story of the Spanish-American War and the Revolt in the Philippines. New York: P. F. Collier, 1898. [(SPL) E 715 .K56x 1898]

“Battle of Manila, May 1.”
Chromolithographic print of a painting by J. G. Tyler, from W. Nephew King, The Story of the Spanish-American War and the Revolt in the Philippines. New York: P. F. Collier, 1898. [(SPL) E 715 .K56x 1898]

W. Nephew King.
The Story of the Spanish-American War and the Revolt
in the Philippines. New York: P. F. Collier, 1898.
(SPL) E 715 .K56x 1898

In early 1898, a Cuban victory seemed at hand. By April, Calixto García was ready to attack Santiago, Spanish troops were retreating to more protected areas, and rebel leader Máximo Gómez was confident that the end was at hand. U.S. intervention at this crucial moment altered everything, and ended the rebels’ war, many have pointed out, for calculated political and economic reasons. The United States declared that the rebellion had “stalled” and disparaged Cuban rebel achievements. The Cuban Liberation Army was removed from the front line, and U.S. commanders showed ill-disguised disdain for the Cuban revolutionary leadership, especially its men of color, and denied the rebel army access to the cities, to positions of authority, and even to the Paris Peace Conference.

Nelson Appleton Miles, 1839-1925.
Serving the Republic; Memoirs of the Civil and Military Life of Nelson A.
Miles . . . . New York, London: Harper & Brothers, 1911.
(SPL) E 83.866 .M65

As commanding general of the United States Army in 1898, Nelson Applegate Miles was one of the key U.S. military leaders during the Spanish-American War. Effective as a leader in both the Civil War and the Indian wars, Nelson was also successful in the Cuban and Puerto Rican campaigns, despite his alienation from both the President and the Secretary of War, and the decimation of his troops by disease and poor supplies. Nelson was vocal in his criticism of the U.S. Army administration. After the war, in hearings before congressional committees, General Miles condemned the supply departments, which he accused of issuing canned beef to the troops that was not only spoiled, but “embalmed.”

Steward, Theophilus Gould, 1843-1924.
The Colored Regulars in the United States Army with a Sketch of the History of the Colored American, and an Account of His Services in the Wars of the Country, from the Period of the Revolutionary War to 1899. Philadelphia: A. M. E. Book Concern, 1904.

The UWM Libraries hold the 1969 Arno Press facsimile reprint of the 1904 publication. Call number E725.5 .N3 S8 1969.

From the collection of the Collins Library at Baker University in Kansas.

James Harrison Wilson, 1837-1925.
Under the Old Flag; Recollections of Military Operations in the War for the Union, the Spanish War, the Boxer Rebellion, etc. New York, London: D. Appleton and Company, 1912.
2 volumes.
(SPL) E 470 .W75 1912

General James Harrison Wilson, who had served in the Civil War, the Boxer Rebellion, and the Puerto Rican campaign of the Spanish-American War, was sent to Cuba after the armistice as military governor of Matanzas and Santa Clara provinces. Although African-American troops had fought in the war, Wilson persuaded our government to exclude them from the army of occupation. It may have been a wise decision, but not for the reasons he gives in his memoirs, which manifest racial prejudice but might have been a pretext. Indeed, these memoirs exhibit cultural ambivalence regarding most of the issues Wilson discusses, which allowed him to put forward the most convenient justification for advocating any particular policy espoused by him. Although he gives a good accounting of the racial prejudices of those who sought to justify an imperialist course with respect to Cuba, he also evinces the bias current at the time in the United States against Spanish civilization. On the whole, however, it appears that Wilson’s influence was beneficial to the Cuban people.

Harper's Pictorial History of the War with Spain. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1899.
(SPL) E 715 .H27 1899

Women have played integral roles in all American wars, and the Spanish-American War was no exception, although this section on women’s war efforts in Harper’s Pictorial History, relegated to the last few pages of this massive tome, may indicate something of the value placed on that effort by the editors at Harper’s, and by the American reading public. Women’s war work ranged from individual volunteer efforts to the enormous organized initiatives of the American Red Cross, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Woman’s National Relief Association, and the Women’s Relief Corps, to name some of the larger organizations. Despite these avenues of participation, and the many heroic acts performed by women during the war, Clara Bewick Colby, in her lead article on “Woman’s Part in the War” for Harper’s Pictorial History, laments: “When the Spanish-American War broke out there were a million women trained to work in organization, and just as zealous to serve their country as were the men. . . . It is one of the most pitiful things in all history that American women, with all their equipment for good service, have been forced to be idle or allowed only after the harm had been done to ameliorate suffering. . . .”


Henry Watterson, 1840-1921. History of the Spanish-American War: Embracing a Complete Review of Our Relations with Spain. New York: Werner Co., 1898. (SPL) E 715 .W34 1898c	The Spanish-American War: the Events of the War Described by Eye Witnesses. Chicago: H.S. Stone, 1898. (SPL) E 715 .S78 1898


Trumbull White, 1868-1941. Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom: a Thrilling Account of the Land and Naval Operations of American Soldiers and Sailors in Our War with Spainand the Heroic Struggles of Cuban Patriots. . . .[S.l.]: Freedom Pub. Co., 1898. (SPL) E 715 .W437x 1898	Trumbull White, 1868-1941. Pictorial History of Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom. . . . [S.l.]: Freedom Pub. Co., 1898. (SPL) E 715 .W44x 1898


Marshall Everett (ed.). Exciting Experiences in Our Wars with Spain and the Filipinos. Chicago: The Educational Co., 1900. (SPL) E 715 .E92x 1900	James RankinYoung, 1847-1924. Spanish-American War and Battles in the Philippines. [s.l.: s.n.] 1899. (SPL) E 715 .Y75 1899


Charles Morris, 1833-1922. The War with Spain: a Complete History of the War of 1898 Between the United States and Spain. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1899. (SPL) E 715 .M87x 1899	Henry Watterson, 1840-1921. History of the Spanish-American War: Embracing a Complete Review of Our Relations with Spain. Chicago: John Gately & Co., 1898. (SPL) E 715 .W34 1898b