Maine. . . . He seems to be thoroughly loyal, but the very devil seemed to possess him yesterday afternoon. "Having the authority for that time of Acting Secretary, he immediately began to launch peremptory orders; distributing ships, ordering ammunition, which there is no means to move, to places where there is no means to store it . . . and ordering guns from the Navy Yard at Washington to New York. . . The only effect of this last order would be to take guns which are now carefully stored, ready for shipment any moment, and which could be shipped in ample time to be put on any vessel, and dump them in the open weather in the New York Navy Yard, where they would be only in the way and under no proper care." When the war started Commodore Dewey, in command of the American vessels in the Far East, was in Hong Kong. Before the declaration the Navy Department supplied him with ammunition, and gave him definite orders regarding his movements in the event of war. On the night of April 30, his small squadron of six vessels moved into the channel leading to Manila Bay. The battle of Manila Bay lasted all the morning of May 1, with the casualties on the American side amounting only to seven men slightly wounded. By May 3, Dewey had captured the land batteries as well, thereby getting control of the harbor, though not of the city itself. In spite of his victory Dewey was in a dangerous position. He had only six vessels, with a force of 1,707 men. He was a full month's distance from his nearest home port, and no reinforcement came for over two months. Dewey established a blockade of Manila, in the course of which a number of war vessels of various nations appeared, to look after the rights of their respective nationals. The French, Japanese, British, and German governments all sent war vessels, and then the Germans reinforced their first detachment, giving RearAdmiral Diederichs a fleet more powerful than Dewey's. The German commander ignored the rules of blockade, attempted to land provisions, and violated both international law and international decency. Dewey sent his flag-lieutenant to inform him of his "extraordinary disregard of the usual courtesies of naval intercourse," and to make it plain to him that "if he wants a fight he can have it right now." Thereafter the German conducted himself with greater decorum. The naval forces in the Atlantic had two objects in their work, to WAR WITH SPAIN 685 cut Cuba off from Spain, and to protect the passage of the American army. One battleship, the Oregon, then in the Pacific, was ordered to make the trip around Cape Horn to Key West, and did so, in just thirty-six days. The Spanish fleet under command of Admiral Cervera finally put in at Santiago, Cuba, where it was closely watched by the American blockading squadron. The commander would have preferred Havana, or San Juan, Porto Rico, as a place of refuge or as a base of operation, if fortune favored him. Santiago is located at the eastern end of the island, without railroad connection to Havana. To make matters worse, the insurgent army was between Santiago and the rest of the island, so the Spanish fleet was cut off from supplies. In the course of the blockade the Americans made a spectacular, but fruitless attempt to sink the collier Merrimac in the mouth of Santiago channel, to make Cervera's escape impossible. The presence of the Spanish fleet in the harbor gave Santiago a military importance which otherwise it would never have achieved, and the capture of the town became the main objective of the American army. The navy had been ready for service the moment the War started, as Dewey's brilliant exploit in Manila Bay had shown; the War Department was not ready when hostilities commenced, and it was hardly ready when they came to an end. On April 1, 1898, the American army consisted of 28,183 officers and men. On April 26, a week after the declaration of War, Congress voted to double it in size, and to call for 267,000 volunteers. A million men offered their services. This response, as well as the general temper of the country, proved that the war was popular. It was more than that. It was a lark, an adventure, and a great entertainment, all rolled into one. For years the country had been compelled to concern itself with troublesome economic questions: prices, hard times, the currency, and the tariff. There was no romance in such matters, and the people were tired of them. They welcomed the war as a glorious reaction from the humdrum existence of the preceding ten years. "The atmosphere of the country was one of a great national picnic, where each one was expected to carry his own lunch." 1 As a further index to the prevailing state of mind, it may be recalled that the most popular song during the war was "There will be a Hot Time in the Old Town To-night." This particular song suggests dash and excite 1 C. R. Fish, The Path of Empire, 142. ment, and a certain kind of spirit, but not spiritual exaltation, or patriotism in its generally accepted sense. THE WAR DEPARTMENT The War Department was in the hands of General Alger, who had been too busy with problems of patronage to develop a fighting machine. Like many other incompetents, he was too stubborn to follow the advice of experts, and he was on notoriously bad terms with General Miles, the chief commander. In the words of "Mr. Dooley," "Th' ordhers fr'm Washington is perfectly comprehensible to a jackass, but they don't mane anything to a poor, foolish man." The War Department had a very small supply of munitions on hand and apparently few plans. Tampa Bay, Florida, selected as the port of embarkation for the army, was served by a single track railroad, devoid of adequate yard and storage facilities. Supplies piled up for miles outside the town, and even those who knew what to do with them had no facilities for work. The volunteers were placed under officers who had received no training, while the commanding officers were veterans of the Civil War. General Shafter, in charge of the campaign in Cuba, was sixty-three years old; he weighed three hundred pounds. General Wheeler, second in command, "Fighting Joe," was a Confederate veteran. In the campaign for Santiago both men were ill, Shafter entirely too ill to leave his quarters. The War Department planned an invasion of Cuba in mid-summer, with an army composed in part of green recruits, under green officers, or under officers in many cases too old for service. The medical corps knew nothing about safeguarding the men from tropical diseases. For clothing the troops had the regulation all-wool outfits, suitable for a winter campaign on the plains; for food they had, in part, Alger's "embalmed beef;" the artillery was provided with black powder, which revealed to the Spaniards the exact location of every battery using it. Curiously enough none of the newspapers thought of the comparison with Armstrong's record in the War of 1812. On June 20, General Shafter landed in Cuba with an army of seventeen thousand men, accompanied by eighty-nine newspaper correspondents. At that time the Spanish forces on the island numbered 196,280, but fortunately they were well scattered, and transportation was difficult. Ten days later the Americans were facing the Spanish troops defending Santiago. In the first battle both Shafter and THE WAR DEPARTMENT 687 Wheeler were sick. No telephone service had been installed, and before the battle was well under way the regiments became hopelessly confused. At that point the subordinate officers took charge, and began to get results. The most famous episode in the first real fighting was the capture of San Juan Hill, one of the keys to Santiago, a mile and a half away. The military records show that the Spanish block-house on the Hill was captured by an infantry detachment under Hawkins. JAMAICA Santiago Guantanamo Juan Hill dward Passag HAITI Ponce San Juan PORTO RICO ST.THOMAS After it was taken, Roosevelt-second in command of a cavalry regiment known as the Rough Riders-advanced from the neighboring Kettle Hill, and occupied the trenches north of the block-house. By July 3, the fighting at that point was over, but Shafter felt that he could not take Santiago by storm. He sent a cablegram to the War Department, announcing that he was "seriously considering withdrawing about five miles." Fortunately the War Department ordered him to stand his ground. On the same day, Sunday, the Spanish fleet made its ill-fated attempt to escape from Santiago Harbor. The Americans sighted the vessels at about nine thirty; by one fifteen Cervera's fleet was destroyed. This naval victory was followed by a prompt demand for the surrender of the Spanish forces in Santiago. This was refused, but after the city was bombarded, the commander announced his readiness to surrender. On the 17th of July the surrender took place. |