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February 15 |
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Prelude |
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In the hours after the explosion aboard the Maine, the small gigs from the American passenger steamer and the Spanish warship Alphonso XII had given good account of themselves in braving the darkness, fires and secondary explosions of the sinking American battleship in search of survivors. Having witnessed this first-hand, Captain Sigsbee was reluctant to immediately blame the Spanish. In his first telegram to Washington he reported details of the event, then closed with the observation that "Public opinion should be suspended until further report."
There would indeed be further reports, both officially and unofficially. Two days after the explosion the Navy created the "Sampson Board", an official inquiry into the cause of the disaster. On February 21 the Naval Court of Inquiry began their 4-week investigation in Havana. Simultaneously, the Spanish began their own inquiry into the matter.
It would not be an easy process. Captain Sigsbee remembered "a bursting, rending, and crashing roar of immense volume... followed by heavy, ominous metallic sounds."
Lieutenant Blandon remembered a single explosion on the port side, followed by "a perfect rain of missiles of all descriptions." Lieutenant Hood, who had been next to Blandon to witness the explosion first hand remember the explosion on the starboard side.
Marine Lieutenant Catlin reported what he thought to be TWO explosions, the first sounding like the "crack of a pistol and the second a roar that engulfed the ship's entire forward section." Some survivors heard one explosion, others a deep rumble followed by one loud explosion, still others a series of explosions. Reaching any kind of reasonable determination as to what caused the destruction of the Maine would be a challenge not only to the official Board of Inquiry, but to historians for the following century.
Back in the United States there were few questions about what had caused the Maine to suddenly explode in the darkness of night, killing 260 American men. Two days after the indicent the headline in the New Your World read: "MAINE EXPLOSION CAUSED BY BOMB OR TORPEDO?"
The New York Journal was more specific: "THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WAR SHIP MAINE WAS THE WORK OF AN ENEMY." Artists created renditions showing how Spanish saboteurs had fastened an underwater mine to the hull of the Maine, then detonated it from shore. Randolph Hearst offered a $50,000 reward for "Conviction of the Criminals" and announced that "Naval Officers (were) Unanimous That the Ship Was Destroyed on Purpose".
On March 6th the Spanish government requested the recall of U.S. Cuban Consul Fitzhugh Lee. In the United States citizens gathered solemnly at Capitol Hill and outside the White House to mourn the loss of 260 lives. Tensions continued to mount while the Navy conducted its official inquiry. In a Broadway bar in New York City a patron lifted his glass and said, "Gentlemen, remember the Maine!" A reporter from the Journal happened to be in the bar and wrote about the incident. When it was published America had a new slogan..."Remember The Main". Spaniards were burned in effigy in cities and town across America and soon the slogan became a war cry:
"Remember the Maine, and To Hell with Spain!"
To be sure there were cooler heads, even as the tensions mounted. Amid the cries of the firebrands and the warhawks, U.S. Speaker of the House Thomas B. Reed said, "A war will make a large market for gravestones." Popular author Samuel Clemmens (Mark Twain) continued to speak out against any possible war, urging the United States not to become embroiled in the affairs of distant nations.
Ten days after the explosion, Under Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt cabled Commodore George Dewey with the U.S. Pacific fleet in Hong Kong. "Keep in full coal," the communiqué stated. "In the event of declaration of war with Spain, your duty will be to see that the Spanish squadron does not leave the Asiatic coast and then offensive operations in Philippine Islands." Itching for a fight and convinced of the truth of his earlier remarks about the glory of war to the Naval War College, Roosevelt went so far as to refer to President McKinley as a "milquetoast".
McKinley, who had served in the Civil War and participated at the tragic battle at Antietam in the earliest days of that war, told one visitor to the White House: "I have been through one war; I have seen the dead piled up; and I do not want to see another."
But the makings of war could not be avoided. As a matter of preparedness, President McKinley requested a $50 million dollar war fund. On March 8th the U.S. Congress stunned Spanish observers when it unanimously approved the request. In San Francisco on the western coast, the battleship Oregon was dispatched for the Caribbean. On March 14 the Spanish fleet under Admiral Cervera began steaming for the Cape Verde Islands. Throughout the period the yellow journalism of competing newspapers inflamed the public with more and more stories. (During the period the New York Journal printed an unprecedented 8 pages each day related to the U.S.S. Maine disaster.)
Late in March the Spanish concluded its official inquiry and delivered the findings to the U.S. government on March 25. On the same day the Spanish government informed Washington that their investigators had determined the Maine had been destroyed by "internal combustion", the President announced the results of his recently received Sampson Inquiry. When he announced to the American public that the Naval Board of Inquiry had determined that the Maine was destroyed "by an external explosion (presumably a mine)", the war cries hit a feverish pitch.
Two days later President McKinley sent these findings to Spain. He also issued Spain his final terms:
Declare an armistice
End the reconcentration policy in Cuba initiated by General Weyler
Begin the process of granting Cuba independence
Meanwhile, Navy Secretary John Davis Long ordered the peacetime white hulls of American warships to be painted with a dull battle gray. A song titled "My Sweetheart Went Down With the Maine" became the tune-of-the-day. Marine Private William Anthony, who had braved the explosions and fire of the Maine to seek out his captain was brought home to a hero's welcome. Honored by both the Navy and Marines, he was promoted to sergeant and hailed as the first true hero of the war that was still looking for an excuse to happen.
The Spanish responded with some concessions, but stopped far short of granting Cuban Independence. From without, the President received pressure from the Ambassadors of England, Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Russia to avoid war with Spain. On April 6th the Pope indicated to the President that he would enter negotiations with Spain, requesting that the President delay any actions pending the outcome. The the cry from within for retaliation and U.S. support for the "freedom fighters" of Cuba continued to push the United States towards war. On April 4th the New York Journal dedicated an edition to the war brewing in Cuba and called upon the U.S. to intervene. The press-run was one million copies.
Finally, bowing to the rapidly deteriorating events in Cuba and the overwhelming cries for war at home, President McKinley asked Congress on April 11th to authorize American intervention to end the revolution in Cuba. Five days later the road to war was cleared in Congress when an amendment offered by Colorado Congressman Henry Teller was ratified. Designed to quiet the fears of those who opposed a war based upon an American imperialistic effort to annex Cuba, the Teller Amendment stated that the United States:
"Hereby disclaims any disposition of intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island (Cuba) except for pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people."
On April 20th, while Congress still debated the request for war, President McKinley signed a Joint Resolution for war with Spain, an ultimatum that was promptly forwarded to Madrid with a call for Cuban independence. The Spanish Minister to the United States promptly demanded his passport and, with his Legation, left Washington for Canada.
The following day McKinley received his answer from Madrid...General Steward Woodford, the U.S. Minister to Spain was handed his passport and told to leave the country. The Spanish government considered McKinley's ultimatum a declaration of war. With diplomatic relations suspended, President McKinley ordered a blockade of Cuba while the Spanish forces in Santiago began mining Guantanamo Bay.
The U.S. Naval fleet departed Key West, Florida on April 22nd to carry out the President's order for a blockade of Cuba. The American Navy was well prepared for war, especially against the aging Spanish fleet. But the Spanish had at least 80,000 soldiers stationed in Cuba that would require a ground war. The U.S. Army, with only 25,706 enlisted men and 2,116 officers, was not prepared for war. On April 23 the U.S. President issued a call for 125,000 volunteers. After months of patriotic fervor generated by tales of Spanish sabotage and atrocity, the recruiting stations were immediately swamped with eager young American would-be soldiers.
On April 25, 1898 the war that had been looking for an excuse to happen, finally became official. The U.S. Congress passed a resolution declaring the United States to be at war with Spain. The Naval blockade of Cuba already underway, Congress made the declaration of war effective as of April 21, thereby legitimizing military actions undertaken in the previous four days.
Under Admiral William Sampson, who had earlier headed up the inquiry into the cause of the explosion on the U.S.S. Maine, the blockade of Cuba was already successfully underway. On the same day that war was declared, American ships bombarded the Spanish at Matanzaras, Cuba.
On the other side of the globe, the U.S. Pacific fleet under Admiral George Dewey was already prepared for war as per the February 25th communiqué from Navy Undersecretary Roosevelt. Cuba in the Caribbean was not the only vestige remaining of the old Spanish Empire...Spain also held much of the series of 700 islands in the Pacific known as the Philippine Islands...which had been under the rule of Madrid since Ferdinand Magellan discovered the vast Archipelago in 1521.
While few Americans gave little notice or concern to events in the Pacific Islands, and even President McKinley confessed that he could not locate the Philippine Islands "within 2000 miles", American Naval planners had long considered the value of the natural port at Manila on Luzon, the largest of the islands. War with Spain was destined to become a global conflict, and while Admiral Sampson's ships conducted their blockade in the Caribbean, on April 27th Admiral Dewey sailed his ships out of Mirs Bay, China and set their course for Manila. The Spanish-American war would become a battlefield on two, widely separated fronts.
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President McKinley could have
selected
no finer ship from the US Naval fleet to display the colors in Havana
than the vessel he dispatched from Key West on January
25th. The U.S.S. Maine was an impressive battleship, at 319
feet long and displacing 6,682 tons it was the largest ship ever to enter the
harbor at Havana. Though only a second class battleship, the nine-year-old vessel was among the most impressive of the U.S. Naval
fleet. One of our country's first steel warships, the Maine
was unique in the fleet due the fact that it had been totally designed
and built by Americans. It was the largest ship ever actually
constructed in a U.S. Navy yard. Painted the bright white of a
peace-time US Naval Vessel, the impressive battleship boasted four of
the huge 10-inch breech-loading rifles in additional to its smaller
battery armaments.
A
40-man Marine guard brought the ship's total strength to 355 American
servicemen. The leathernecks, under the leadership of five non-coms,
were commanded by First Lieutenant Albertus W. Catlin who had graduated
from the US Naval Academy with the class of 1890. (Sixteen years
later as a major, Catlin would earn the Medal of Honor in the engagement
at Vera Cruz, Mexico.) Nearly a fourth of the Marines were
foreign-born, American immigrants.
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