The Rough Riders was a nickname given to the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish–American War and the only one to see combat. The United States Army was small, understaffed, and disorganized in comparison to its status during the American Civil War roughly thirty years prior. Following the sinking of USS Maine, President William McKinley needed to muster a strong ground force swiftly, which he did by calling for 125,000 volunteers to assist in the war. The U.S. had gone to war in opposition to Spanish colonial policies in Cuba, which was then torn by a rebellion. The regiment was also nicknamed "Wood's Weary Walkers" for its first commander, Colonel Leonard Wood. This reflected their dissatisfaction that despite being cavalry, they ended up fighting in Cuba as infantry, since their horses were not sent there with them.
Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler was a Confederate military commander and politician. He was a cavalry general in the Confederate States Army in the 1860s during the American Civil War, and then a general in the United States Army during both the Spanish-American and Philippine–American Wars near the turn of the twentieth century. For much of the Civil War, he was the senior cavalry general in the Army of Tennessee and fought in most of its battles in the Western Theater.
The Battle of San Juan Hill, also known as the Battle for the San Juan Heights, was a major battle of the Spanish–American War fought between an American force under the command of William Rufus Shafter and Joseph Wheeler against a Spanish force led by Arsenio Linares y Pombo. The battle proved to be one of the most significant battles of the war and, along with the Siege of Santiago, a decisive battle in deciding the fate of the United States Army campaign in Cuba. The American forces, outnumbering the Spanish defenders 16-to-one, charged upon the heights and dispersed the Spanish after suffering heavy casualties.
James Harrison Wilson was a United States Army topographic engineer and a Union Army Major General in the American Civil War. He served as an aide to Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan during the Maryland Campaign before joining Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's army in the Western Theater, where he was promoted to brigadier general. In 1864, he transferred from engineering to the cavalry, where he displayed notable leadership in many engagements of the Overland Campaign, though his attempt to destroy Lee’s supply lines failed when he was routed by a much smaller force of Confederate irregulars.
Adna Romanza Chaffee was a lieutenant general in the United States Army. Chaffee took part in the American Civil War and Indian Wars, played a key role in the Spanish–American War, and fought in the Boxer Rebellion in China. He was the Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1904 to 1906, overseeing far-reaching transformation of organization and doctrine in the army.
Henry Ware Lawton was a U.S. Army officer who served with distinction in the Civil War, the Apache Wars, and the Spanish–American War. He received the Medal of Honor for heroism during the American Civil War. He was the only U.S. general officer to be killed during the Philippine–American War and the first general officer of the United States killed in overseas action. The city of Lawton, Oklahoma, takes its name from General Lawton, as does a borough in the city of Havana, Cuba. Liwasang Bonifacio in downtown Manila was formerly named Plaza Lawton in his honor.
The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS), or simply the Loyal Legion is a United States patriotic order, organized April 15, 1865, by three veteran officers of the Army. The original membership was composed of members of the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps of the United States, who had served during the American Civil War as commissioned officers in Federal service, or who had served and thereafter been commissioned, and who thereby "had aided in maintaining the honor, integrity, and supremacy of the national movement" during the Civil War.
The Cuban War of Independence, also known in Cuba as The Necessary War, fought from 1895 to 1898, was the last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Ten Years' War (1868–1878) and the Little War (1879–1880). The final three months of the conflict escalated to become the Spanish–American War, with United States forces being deployed in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippine Islands against Spain. Historians disagree as to the extent that United States officials were motivated to intervene for humanitarian reasons but agree that yellow journalism exaggerated atrocities attributed to Spanish forces against Cuban civilians.
Sons of the Revolution is a hereditary society which was founded in 1876 and educates the public about the American Revolution. The General Society Sons of the Revolution headquarters is a Pennsylvania non-profit corporation located at Williamsburg, Virginia. The Society is governed by a board of managers, an executive committee, officers, standing committees and their members, and staff. The General Society includes 28 State Societies and chapters in the United States, as well as Europe.
Joseph Cabell Breckinridge Sr. was a Union Army officer from Kentucky during the American Civil War. In later life, he became a brigadier general in the U.S. Regular Army and Inspector General of the Army as well as a major general of volunteers in the Spanish–American War.
Richard Bolles Paddock (1859–1901) was a United States Army officer, close friend and brother-in-law to John J. Pershing, and one of the few American officers who died while on duty in China during the Boxer Rebellion. Paddock served in the American Southwest during the Apache Wars, as well as the Pine Ridge Campaign (1890–91), the Battle of San Juan Hill (1898) in Cuba during the Spanish–American War, and finally the China Relief Expedition (1900–01). Paddock served as a lieutenant and captain in the 13th Infantry Regiment, the 4th Cavalry Regiment, and the 6th Cavalry Regiment.
Charles Austin Coolidge, Jr. was a United States Army soldier who served in the American Civil War, the American West, Spanish–American War, and in Asia before retiring in 1903 as a brigadier general.
The Military Order of the Dragon was an exclusive fraternal order founded in 1900 by members of the China Relief Expedition, a U.S. military force that participated in the Boxer Rebellion in Imperial China.
The Military Service Institution of the United States was "a voluntary organization of officers of the Army for mutual improvement, fostered by Generals Sherman and Sheridan while they commanded the Army, and presided over by the senior major-generals, has now for many years been the constant means of widespread increase in the most advanced studies of the Science and Art of War." In his Annual Report (1892), Major-General John Schofield, commanding the Army.
The Second Army Corps was a unit of the United States Army raised for the Spanish–American War. A defining event of the Spanish–American War was the typhoid fever epidemic of July to November 1898. The Army consequently undertook a series of mass-retreats and attempted evasions. The Typhoid Board concluded that only one of the five army corps stricken with epidemic typhoid succeeded in suppressing the disease actively, the 2nd Army Corps. In the wake of two fruitless relocations and months of casualties, commanders finally managed to impose an effective latrine-policy. A three-part strategy of draconian defecation-management, mass-disinfection, and flight received the Typhoid Board's imprimatur as the principal, recommended method for suppressing existing epidemics.
George Herbert Harries was an American businessman and newspaper editor. After leaving journalism for a business career, he served as president of the Metropolitan Railroad Corporation, Washington and a vice president of the Washington Railway and Electric Company. A longtime vice president of the H. M. Byllesby and Company engineering and management consulting firm, he served as president of several Byllesby affiliates while restoring them to profitability, including the Louisville Gas and Electric Company and the Fargo and Moorhead Street Railroad Company.
Hispanics in the American Civil War fought on both the Union and Confederate sides of the conflict. Not all the Hispanics who fought in the American Civil War were "Hispanic-Americans", in other words citizens of the United States. Many of them were Spanish subjects or nationals from countries in the Caribbean, Central and South America. Some were born in a US Territory and therefore did not have the right to US Citizenship. It is estimated that approximately 20,000 Hispanics, mostly Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans living in the United States joined the war: 2,500 for the Confederacy and 1,000 for the Union. This number increased to 10,000 by the end of the war.
Brigadier General John Henry Parker aka "Gatling Gun Parker" was a brigadier general in the United States Army. He is best known for his role as the commander of the Gatling Gun Detachment of the U.S. Army's Fifth Army Corps in Cuba during the Santiago campaign in the Spanish–American War.
The Rough Riders Memorial is a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States that commemorates those members of the "Rough Riders" who died in the Spanish–American War in 1898. The grey granite shaft was erected by surviving members of the Rough Riders and their friends and supporters. Although Arlington National Cemetery, a number of secondary sources, and even the bronze plaque on the memorial say the monument was dedicated in 1906 and one source says 1905, contemporary newspaper accounts show the memorial was dedicated on April 12, 1907.
The following units and commanders of the U.S. and Spanish armies fought at the Siege of Santiago during the Spanish–American War from July 3 to July 17, 1898.
