U.S. Military History For Dummies by John C. McManus

Author:John C. McManus
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Published: 2010-03-08T16:00:00+00:00

Invading Cuba

The U.S. Navy held every advantage over the Spanish navy. The Americans had bigger ships, bigger guns with longer range, more-modern technology, and better sailors, too.

Starting in May 1898, the U.S. Navy blockaded Havana harbor, paralyzing Spanish sea movements. The remaining Spanish fleet holed up at Santiago to the southeast, on the opposite portion of the island. The Americans decided to

Destroy the Spanish fleet at Santiago

Defeat Spanish ground forces in the area

Capture Santiago harbor

These three objectives were the main focus of the American invasion of Cuba.

Hickory, dickory, landing at Daiquiri

Between June 22 and 24, an amphibious force of 17,000 American soldiers landed at Daiquiri, a few miles east of Santiago. The invasion was amateurish. Soldiers rowed to shore or were towed by Navy steam launches. Pack mules swam to shore. Fortunately, Spanish opposition was minimal; otherwise, the invasion force would have been slaughtered. Instead, Cuban guerilla fighters met up with the Americans, guided them through the jungle, and told them the location of Spanish defenders.

Gen. William Shafter, an old soldier who had won his laurels in the Indian Wars, commanded this force. The 300-pound Shafter had seen better days. He was not well suited to the heat and other unpleasant conditions of a Cuban summer. He planned to push west through the jungle and seize several key hills around Santiago.

In support of the Daiquiri invasion, a detachment of U.S. Marines invaded and seized Guantanamo Bay, about 50 miles to the east. In so doing, they established a long-term base for the United States in Cuba. Even today, the United States has a naval base and detention facility at Guantanamo.

Scandals and the Dodge Commission

The United States has rarely been well prepared for the wars it fights. The Spanish-American War was no different. Wartime mobilization was disorganized and haphazard. The United States, almost overnight, had to raise an army, train it, feed it, shelter it, and send it overseas.

By and large, the War Department met the challenge well, but not always. Disease, bad food, poor training, and outmoded equipment were persistent problems. In Cuba, American soldiers wore old wool uniforms in the heat of the Cuban summer. Unprepared for the tropical heat, they succumbed in droves to heat exhaustion, yellow fever, malaria, and typhus. In the recollection of one soldier, they ate “tasteless and nauseating” food. In the U.S., soldiers trained in squalid camps, eating lousy food, getting sick in large numbers. For every one soldier killed in combat, the Army lost almost ten others to disease.

Newspapers and magazines reported on these scandalous conditions, prompting action from the government. President McKinley appointed the Dodge Commission which, under the leadership of Maj. Gen. Grenville Dodge, thoroughly investigated the problems and began correcting them, mostly after the war though.

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