SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 



5480 



SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 



archy on the other, culminating in 1895 in an 

 insurrection of formidable proportions. 



Extreme measures were adopted by General 

 Weyler, the Spanish governor, against Maximo 

 Gomez and other Cuban chiefs, who were 

 penned in narrow parts cf the island by lines 

 of intrenchments, barbed-wire entanglements 

 and forts, called trochas. Women and children 

 and non-combatants generally were treated 

 with great cruelty, being herded into camps 

 and surrounded by armed guards. They were 

 insufficiently supplied with food and were kept 

 alive largely by assistance from the wretched 



delivered the American ambassador at Madrid 

 was dismissed, and the Spanish government de- 

 clared war. 



On April 22 Commodore Sampson, with the 

 North Atlantic naval squadron, began a block- 

 ade of Havana and the north coast ; while Com- 

 modore Dewey was ordered from his station at 

 Hong-Kong to the Philippines, a Spanish pos- 

 session. Dewey's Asiatic squadron fought the 

 first important engagement of the war at Ma- 

 nila Bay, destroyed the Spanish fleet, seized 

 Cavite and awaited the arrival of land forces 

 to reduce Manila. 



1: Gen Shatter's Headquarters 

 2: Gen. Wheeler's Headquarters 

 3:Gen. Lawton's Headquarters 

 4:Gen. Garcia's Headquarters 

 + : Spanish Forts 

 -: Wagon Roads 



CARIBBEAN 



SCENE OF THE PRINCIPAL, CAMPAIGN 

 The small corner insert shows, in its black area, the part of Cuba pictured in the large "map. 



people among whom they lived and by supplies 

 sent from the United States. Reports of atroci- 

 ties committed by Spanish soldiers had been 

 frequent and had inflamed the feelings of peo- 

 ple in the United States, already exasperated 

 by years of misrule and anarchy almost at their 

 doors. 



President McKinley had steadily opposed 

 recognition of the rebellion; at the same time 

 he had affirmed the possibility of intervention, 

 and the American attitude was naturally re- 

 sented by Spain. On the night of February 15, 

 1898, the American battleship Maine was blown 

 up in Havana harbor. Responsibility for the 

 disaster will doubtless never be fixed, but 

 American public sentiment accused Spanish 

 agents, and war became inevitable. Congress 

 formally demanded the withdrawal of Spain 

 from Cuba, but before the message could be 



Meanwhile a Spanish squadron under Ad- 

 miral Cervera had reached Santiago from the 

 Cape Verde Islands and anchored under the 

 protection of the forts in Santiago harbor. 

 The American forces attempted to close the 

 channel by sinking the collier Merrimac, the 

 feat of Captain Hobson, but in this they were 

 not completely successful. Acting on orders 

 from Madrid, Cervera attempted to run the 

 blockade, steaming out under forced draft on 

 the third of July. The gunfire of the Ameri- 

 cans proved to be vastly superior to that of 

 the enemy, and after a brief but hot running 

 fight, the entire Spanish squadron was sunk or 

 beached. Commodore Schley, in Sampson's ab- 

 sence, directed the battle. Cervera himself was 

 wounded. A land force under Maj or-General 

 Shafter had reached the island on June 21 and 

 after defeating the Spanish at San Juan and 



