Home : Armed Forces : The Marine Corps :

Spanish-American War

Although the Marine Corps maintained a great deal of pride in its readiness and rapid deployment, even the reformers in its ranks were wary about abandoning the role of the Marine Corps as ships' guards. This role had been the traditional reason for the existence of the Corps, but now many Navy officers found the idea of a ships' guard to be anachronistic.

Back in 1889, Commandant McCawley had proposed that guard detachments be assigned to secondary batteries on Navy ships. But Commodore James Greer, the head of the Navy Board of Organization, Tactics, and Drill, rejected the proposal. Furthermore, Greer again recommended the removal of the Marines from the Navy's ships entirely and their use as a specialized expeditionary force only. Many other Navy officers supported Greer's suggestions, some demonstrating outright antipathy toward the Marines. Fortunately, Commandant Heywood retained the support of the Secretary of the Navy, and in the summer of 1896 Navy regulations were amended so that Marine Guards were to be assigned to man secondary batteries on Navy ships. Indeed, Heywood enjoyed such strong support from the Secretary and Congress both that an enlistment increase of 500 men was approved shortly after the naval regulations had been amended.

Other than the struggle for existence as an institution, operations remained relatively quiet under Heywood's leadership. Only 10 landings were made between 1891 and 1898, and for the most part they were fairly minor incidents. Five of the landings were in the Caribbean and Central America, one in South America, three in Asia, and one in the Pacific. Four had been to protect American diplomatic offices during war or revolution and the rest to protect American lives and property. For the most part the Marine Corps continued to do the same job it had done during periods of relative peace throughout the nineteenth century. In one instance, however, during April through October 1891, Captain Henry Clay Cochrane led 43 Marines to the Bering Sea to enforce international agreements limiting the hunting and killing of fur seals.

In 1895, Cuban patriots launched a revolution against Spanish rule. Although many Americans were sympathetic toward the Cubans, neither President Grover Cleveland, who was leaving office, nor President William McKinley, who had just been elected, believed that the United States should become involved in the revolution. McKinley even urged the Spanish to come to some kind of accommodation with their Cuban colony. But by 1898, "yellow" journalism, such as that published in William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal, had fired American national opinion.

On February 9, Hearst published in his Journal a letter written by the Spanish minister in Washington, Dupuy de Lome, which had been stolen from the U.S. mail. In the letter, de Lome depicted McKinley as a spineless, double-dealing politician. McKinley didn't take Hearst's bait, however, and in an effort to defuse increasing tensions and maintain good relations between the United States and Spain, he organized a series of naval exchanges between the two countries.

In 1898, the United States sent the battleship Maine to Havana, Cuba, while Spain sent the Vizcaya to New York City. The Vizcaya was still on its way to New York when disaster struck the Maine on the evening of February 15: There was a sudden explosion, and the ship's forward magazine exploded. The explosion punched a hole in the hull of the Maine and killed 266 of her crew, including 28 Marines. A fire in the adjacent coal storage caused the explosion, but that wasn't evident at the time, and Americans quickly jumped to the conclusion that the Maine had been sabotaged. A naval inquiry blamed the explosion on an underwater mine, and newspaper headlines proclaimed accusations about the "Spanish Mine."

The American temper flared, and cries of "Remember the Maine! To Hell with Spain!" were soon heard. President McKinley was genuinely anguished both by the tragedy and the prospect of war, but he wasn't willing to risk his popular support by opposing the American mood. On April 11, he asked Congress to declare war on Spain. On April 19, Congress passed a resolution recognizing Cuban independence and authorizing the use of force to expel Spanish forces from Cuba. Colorado Senator Henry Teller introduced an amendment to the resolution declaring that the United States had no interest in "sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control" of Cuba and that the United States would leave Cuba once independence was assured. Spain declared war on the United States on April 24. Congress reciprocated the following day.

The United States won an important early victory in the Spanish-American War when Commodore George Dewey's Asiatic Squadron struck the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines on May 1 and destroyed or captured all 10 Spanish ships. Dewey landed Marines at Cavite near Manila on May 3, the first to raise the American flag on Spanish territory, and shortly thereafter Marines occupied the pacific island of Guam unopposed. But the main theater of action for the Marine Corps would be on Cuba itself.

Rear Admiral William Simpson requested that two Marine battalions be assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron. Colonel Heywood mustered a battalion of 450 Marines at New York City by April 20. A second 200-man "battalion" was mustered and attached to the first battalion 2 days later. The battalion, which represented nearly a quarter of the Marine Corps in 1898, was organized into five companies, four infantry, and one artillery. It was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Huntington, a veteran of the Battle of Bull Run. Henry Clay C:ochrane, who had finally been promoted to major the previous February, was named second in command. "Huntington's Battalion" arrived in Key West, Florida, on April 29.

In an effort to isolate Cuba, Marines and sailors from the USS Marblebead set out in boats on May 11 to cut the transoceanic cable off the shore of Cienfuegos. Spaniards along the shore quickly opened fire, and the party was forced to withdraw with seven casualties. Despite this setback, Admiral Sampson hoped to intercept Spanish Admiral Pascual Cervera's fleet, which had left the Cape Verde Islands on April 29, after its long voyage across the Atlantic. Unfortunately, he missed the fleet, and by May 28, Cervera's fleet had made port in Santiago de Cuba.

Sampson decided to blockade the port and ordered Huntington's Battalion to secure Guantanarno Bay, 40 miles east of Santiago, as a coaling station for the North Atlantic Squadron. War correspondent Stephen Crane, author of The Red Badge of Courage, accompanied Huntington's Battalion to Guantanamo Bay. On June 7, the Marblehead, the Yankee, and the St. Louis steamed into Guantanamo Bay and drove the lone Spanish gunboat Sandoval away. The Marines cut the transatlantic cable at Playa del Este.

Three days later, "Billy Hell" McCalla landed unopposed on the western side of Guantanamo Bay and established a small camp that came to be called Camp McCalla. The following afternoon, however, two Marines were ambushed while on guard duty, and that evening the Spanish attacked Camp McCalla. The Spanish were never able to penetrate the camp's perimeter, but the battalion's surgeon and a sergeant were both killed and two more Marines were wounded. Huntington moved the camp to a more defensible position, but by then the strain was beginning to have an effect on many of the commanding officers, none of whom was under 50 years of age. Some of the aged commanders even suggested withdrawing altogether, though McCalla and Cochrane both argued for maintaining their position. The Spanish attacked again that night.

Huntington learned from Cuban patriots that there was a Spanish camp only two miles away at Cuzco Well, the area's only source of fresh water. On June 14, Huntington ordered Captain W E Spicer to attack Cuzco Well with Companies C and D supported by 50 Cuban patriots. En route to Cuzco Well, however, Captain Spicer succumbed to sunstroke, and 51-year-old Captain George Elliott took command.

Elliott ordered Lieutenant Louis Magill to lead his company around Cuzco Well and behind the enemy in order to cut off any retreat, and then arranged the remaining company along a ridgeline overlooking the Spanish camp. The ensuing firefight resulted in a stalemate, and when Captain Elliott wished to order fire support from the nearby Dolphin, he realized that he had forgotten his signal flag. One of his Marines, Private John Fitzgerald, tied his neckerchief to his rifle and bravely stood to give the signal to the Dolphin. The Dolphin complied but overshot the Spanish camp, and unfortunately bombarded Magill's Marines on the other side of the camp.

On three occasions Sergeant John Quick tied his own neckerchief to a stick and stood to signal corrections to the Dolphin. Stephen Crane, describing the scene for his readers in the States, wrote, "I watched his face, and it was grave and serene as that of a man writing in his own library .... There was not a single trace of nervousness or haste ...." The Dolphin's guns, brought on target by the heroic work of Fitzgerald and Quick, soon broke the Spanish who fled to the east. The Marines destroyed the camp and wrecked the well. Only one Marine had been hit; miraculously, neither Fitzgerald nor Quick were injured. Approximately 5 Spaniards were killed or wounded, and 18 were captured by Cuban patriots.

With a secure coaling station, Admiral Sampson set about attacking Santiago, only to find that the channel had been mined and that the minefield was protected by a series of artillery batteries along the shore. He requested assistance from the Army, which landed 17,000 men under the command of Major General William Shafter.

On July 1, American forces captured two important Spanish garrisons at El Caney Hill and San Juan Hill overlooking Santiago de Cuba, the latter of which was captured by Theodore Roosevelt's "Rough Riders." The governor-general of Cuba panicked and ordered Cervera to attack the American fleet. On July 3, Sampson's North Atlantic Squadron destroyed Cervera's fleet.

Santiago surrendered on July 17, and an armistice soon followed. The Marine Corps suffered 6 dead and 16 wounded during the whole of the Spanish-American War. Fifteen Marines, including Private Fitzgerald and Sergeant Quick, were awarded the Medal of Honor, and thirteen officers were awarded brevet promotions. Huntington's Battalion returned home as heroes. Stephen Crane's stories from Guantanamo Bay and the stories of other war correspondents had been printed in numerous newspapers, and the average American, probably for the first time, became aware that the United States had a Marine Corps and that it was filled with the likes of Private Fitzgerald and Sergeant Quick.

Four hundred years of Spanish colonial rule had come crashing down in just 114 days. Americans might be expected to learn a cautionary lesson from such events, but few held such somber reflections on July 4, 1898. It had been, John Hay commented in a letter to Theodore Roosevelt, "a splendid little war." It had not been really. Relatively few Americans were killed in action – 379 - but, more significantly, nearly 5,000 had died of food poisoning, malaria, and yellow fever.

But the United States had been victorious. In December, a treaty between the United States and Spain was signed in Paris officially ending the Spanish-American War. Spain recognized Cuba's independence and paid her $20 million. In addition, Spain ceded the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and the United States suddenly had an overseas empire. The Washington Post summarized the American mood when it observed that "[a] new consciousness seems to have come upon us - the consciousness of strength - and with it a new appetite ... [t]he taste of empire."

Walter J. Boyne, USAF (ret.) Series Editor, Clifton G. Ganyard. Semper Fidelis: Reinventing the Corps. Alpha Bravo Delta Guide to the U.S. Marine Corps. Alpha. June 3, 2003.

From Whaleboats to Amphibious Warfare: Lt. Gen. 'Howling Mad' Smith and the U.S. Marine Corps An examination of Holland Smith's career in the Marine Corps follows its evolution from an insular constabulary at the turn of the 20th century to a juggernaut, landing American troops island by island in vital amphibious engagements up to 1945, culminating in the epic operation at Iwo Jima. Venzon details the life of this quiet, modest man who, she contends, deliberately cultivated the persona of an irascible, unreasonable perfectionist, in an effort to do everything possible to protect the Marines under his command.

---

top of page

back a page