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“It has been a splendid little war.”
—Secretary of State John Hay to Col. Theodore Roosevelt, 27 July 1898 (the day after Santiago fell)
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Cubans seeking independence from Spain launched a guerrilla war in 1895. The Spanish crackdown alienated
American public opinion, making war all but inevitable after the battleship Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor.
The United States declared war on 25 April 1898, and West Point hurriedly graduated that year’s class the next day.
A huge influx of volunteers, including such former Confederates as Fitzhugh Lee (Class of 1856)
and Joseph Wheeler (1859), multiplied an army of 26,000 by more than ten. West Point graduates served
at every level from lieutenant to general, not only in fighting but in postwar administration of Cuba and Puerto Rico.
The war also removed Spain from the Philippines, but Filipinos fighting for
independence since 1896 saw Americans only as new masters. Although war with Spain ended in 1899,
the Philippine War lasted until 1902 and sporadic violence continued for years. Again, West Pointers
played large roles both as fighters and administrators.
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