Henry Ware Lawton by Michael E. Shay

Author:Michael E. Shay [Shay, Michael E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Military, United States, Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780826273659
Google: JBSkDgAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
Published: 2017-06-01T00:29:24+00:00

8

Cuba

War with Spain

Tampa, Florida, was chosen as the point of embarkation for Cuba, and a more inefficient venue would be hard to imagine. Officers and men assigned to the 4th and 5th Army Corps arrived daily, with no apparent plan of action, inevitably leading to chaos. For one thing, Tampa itself lay nine miles inland from Port Tampa, which was reached via a single track, which, in turn, served a single wharf. With one exception, the city was composed of nondescript wooden structures and unpaved streets, ankle deep with sand.

When Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt arrived there with the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment (“Rough Riders”), he observed: “Tampa lay in the pine-covered sand flats at the end of a one-track railroad, and everything connected with both military and railroad matters was in an almost inextricable tangle.” Rail cars were backed up for miles, well into the hinterland, and there was no way of knowing just what matériel each contained without literally opening each and every car at random, with the hope that, sooner or later, one would contain the object of the search. In short, in the words of historian Ivan Musicant, Port Tampa was “the worst of all possible worlds.” Secretary Alger would eventually be blamed for the confusion and inefficiency.1

The notable exception to all the chaos was a large, modern, brick hotel, built in the Moorish style seven years earlier by developer and entrepreneur Henry Plant, who also owned the rail and shipping line. The Tampa Bay Hotel served as army headquarters, providing comfortable billets for the officers as well, while most of the troops established tent camps in the pine woods at nearby Tampa Heights, where the enemy was gnats and mosquitoes. One cavalry officer, no doubt a guest, quipped: “Only God knows why Plant built an hotel here; but thank God he did.” The hotel’s long, broad front porch was a natural gathering place for the officers, who had a chance to renew old acquaintances and swap stories while sitting in rocking chairs awaiting orders. Correspondent Richard Harding Davis referred to this time as “the rocking-chair period of the war.” Elsewhere, all was not serene. For the enlisted men, heat and boredom inevitably led to unruly behavior, which spread fear among the populace and generated many complaints. Dockside, “Last Chance Street,” a ramshackle row of false fronts, offered the usual soldierly diversions until it accidently burned to the ground after most of the troops had already boarded ship.2

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