The Spanish American War

The history of the Spanish American War is very interesting. This war seems to be the first one which was actually started on false pretenses. We were told the Spanish blew up the Maine, an American battleship in Havana harbor. The Maine was the first battleship to be named after the state of Maine and was only three years old when it blew up. We built this ship because Brazil had built a battleship named the Riachuelo which with the recent increase in naval forces in Latin American made us feel threatened. The Maine had been sent to Cuba to protect our interests in that island nation. When the ship sank a board of inquiry was convened, but was unable to find the cause of the explosion. The papers of the time just kept hammering home the fact the Spanish sank the Maine and popular support for this theory swelled. Most likely the Maine blew up, because ships of that day had a defect in the way they stored their powder and just one spark was needed to set it off. It is believed today by most that this is what actually happened, but there are some who say a mine sunk the ship.

In the 1890s America was pushing for the so called liberation of Cuba from the “EVIL” Spanish government. Teddy Roosevelt was famous for pushing for this. America was so interested in liberating Cuba, the government readily accepted public opinion and went to war with Spain even though many in the government knew there was no proof for this move including Roosevelt himself. The stories of Roosevelt joining the Rough Riders and charging up San Juan Hill are known by just about every one of us. At the time Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy so when he constantly mentioned the evil and corrupt rule by the Spanish over Cuba, people listened and believed him as many do today when they hear what politicians and famous personalities today say.

Roosevelt resigned his naval post and petitioned the Secretary of War to allow him to form his own unit the Rough Riders. This petition was granted, but Roosevelt was not in charge of the unit instead Leonard Wood a war hero and friend of Roosevelt was made the commander. It is said Roosevelt deferred to this. Wood was eventually promoted in the field and Roosevelt then got command of the regiment. The Spanish American War not only drove the Spanish out of Cuba, but we also acquired Guam, The Philippines and Puerto Rico, all valuable territories. We had been full of ourselves by the start of this war, because we had taken over Hawaii just a few years before in 1893. Troops had been sent there without presidential approval and this was at the behest of growers like Dole.

The Spanish denied they ever attacked our battleship, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. We had completely destroyed the Spanish Empire. There were quite a few naval battles in the Spanish American War. Some battles were losers for us and others overwhelming victories.

The battle of the Aguadores was a complete failure. Our fleet consisted of only a few ships, one armored cruiser the USS New York and two smaller cruisers fired barrages onto the Spanish fortifications, but this had little or no effect and the land attack had to be halted due to too many casualties being sustained by our soldiers who were prevented from crossing a river because the bridge had been dismantled and riflemen stationed on the other shore. During a naval action on 13 June 1898 the American auxiliary cruiser the USS Yankee went to engage a Spanish gunboat which took off and joined with two other gunboats and then the Yankee broke off the engagement.

The battle of Santiago de Cuba was one of the most important naval battles of the war. The United States navy was more powerful than its Spanish counterpart. Half of their squadron of ships were said to be mostly obsolete, but the other half were modern ships. The obsolete ships were under the command of a commander named Montojo and the modern ships under the command of Cervera. Montojo’s ships were further hampered by not having the ability to launch torpedoes and not being armored. Cervera had the destroyers Pluton, Terror and Furor three of the most advanced torpedo launching ships in the world. There was also a commander named Vilaamil who commanded the destroyer flotilla and was well known as the originator of the destroyer concept. Some of the Spanish commanders wanted to attack New York, but the commands from Spain were not clear. The Americans were sending almost every warship in our navy toward Cuba. We had the North Atlantic Squadron and the Flying Squadron there.

When the battle first started Cervera’s ships were safe within Santiago Harbor which had been mined and they were also protected by torpedoes. His part of the Spanish fleet was no match for what we put against him. He stayed in the harbor for more than a month. He finally had to move, because our soldiers had made so many gains he was no longer safe in the harbor. Some of our ships left for a meeting and Cervera saw this as a chance to make a break. The ships we had left were the battleships Texas, Oregon, Iowa, Indians, the yachts Vixen, Gloucester and the Brooklyn which commanded the fleet. Some of the Spanish ships headed for the Brooklyn. Things didn’t work out for the Spanish and after this battle they were no longer a naval force to be reckoned with. As amazing as this sounds we suffered one man killed. Spain’s fleet of 6 ships was sunk. That was the end of Spanish power in the area.