Wynne Nick - Florida in the Spanish-American War

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2011 by Joe Knetsch and Nick Wynne

All rights reserved

Cover image: The Sinking of the Maine, 1898. Courtesy of Arva Parks McCabe.

First published 2011

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.211.4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Knetsch, Joe.

Florida in the Spanish-American War / Joe Knetsch and Nick Wynne.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

print edition ISBN 978-1-60949-088-1

1. Spanish-American War, 1898--Florida. 2. Florida--History, Military--19th century. I. Wynne, Nick. II. Title.

E726.F6K64 2011

975.904--dc22

2010049063

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the authors or The History Press. The authors and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

For Linda Knetsch

and

Debra and Lisa Wynne

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Authors do not write books in isolation. Most books are the result of collaboration between the writers and scores of other people who provide information, point to new sources and offer critical suggestions. This book is certainly the result of collaborations that extend over many years. To all of those who helped us, we offer our sincere thanks.

Susan Carter and the staff at the Henry B. Plant Museum and Archives were very helpful. So, too, were Ross Lamoreaux and Jennifer Diehl at the Tampa Bay History Center. The same could be said for Alexander Buell and Teen Peterson at the Amelia Island Museum of History. Dr. James Cusick at the University of Floridas P.K. Yonge Library contributed photographs and advicethank you, Jim. Jennifer Amy, Barbara West, George L. Harrell and Robert Gross at the Florida Historical Society made collections available and gave encouragement. They are good folks. Debi Murray at the Historical Society of Palm Beach County also provided much-appreciated photographs and information. The assistance of the staff of the State Library of Floridaespecially Linda Pulliam, Cindy Chillingsworth, Deborah Mekeel and Laura Baas and their colleagues in the State Archives of Floridahas been invaluable. Arva Parks McCabe, a Miami historian, graciously allowed us to use photographs from her collection.

The following people also assisted us in obtaining information or acted as sounding boards to some of our ideas: Ed Keuchel, Bill Adams, Cecile Sastre, Cleve Powell, Tom Hambright, Pamela Gibson, Pamela Vojnovski, Rodney Dillon, Barbara Poleo, Tom Knowles, Joan Langley, Sam Watson, Alan Aimone, Nick Reynolds, Harold Raugh, Nick Hollar, Fred Holzbaur, Heidi Weber, Martin Gordon, Celeste and Clinch Kavanaugh, John and Mary Lou Missall, Charles Herner, Brian Rucker, Sarah Nell Gran, Larry Wiggins, Kevin Hooper, Claude Kennison, Consuelo Stebbins, Bill Crawford, Rodney Kite-Powell, Liz Dunham, Paul Camp, Jerry Casale, Bob Gross, Charlie Corbett, Jody Miller, Jorge Alonzo and Roger Cunningham. Last, but surely not least, we need to thank Debra Wynne, who, while serving as the archivist for the Florida Historical Societys Library of Florida History, provided much information and support.

Much of the information that appears in this book is the result of years of research and analysis. Some of the information challenges the prevailing interpretations of Americas involvement in the Spanish-American War, and portions of the material have been presented in academic papers at conferences and historical society meetings in order to provoke discussions and to elicit the opinions of other professional historians. With the vast amounts of previously unknown or unused sources/resources that are readily available, the time has come to reexamine the causes, costs and results of the war.

INTRODUCTION

The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.

Theodore Roosevelt

Florida has always had a strong connection with Spain and Cuba. Spanish authoritiesboth church and stategoverned the peninsula from Havana when Florida was a small, but very important, colony of the Spanish Empire. Its strategic location allowed Spain to control the Florida Straights, the gateway to Central and South America, and to protect its treasure galleons using the Gulf Stream to carry the plunder of the Americas to Spain. By the early 1700s, Spain considered Florida so important to its efforts to block French and English colonization of North America that it continued to commit men and money to maintain the small garrisons that manned Pensacola and St. Augustine, even though it got little in return. Unlike most of Spains colonial possessions, the Florida peninsula contributed almost nothing to the Spanish treasury. Still, its value as a military outpost forced Spain to continue occupation of Florida.

Even as the Spanish Empire began to shrink, Florida and Cuba remained important possessions. In 1819, Spain agreed to cede Florida to the United States in exchange for forgiveness of $5 million in debts. American annexation did not end Spanish influence on the peninsula, nor did it sever relations between Americans and Cubans. Throughout the nineteenth century, a constant flow of cattle and agricultural produce moved between the island and the peninsula. During the Civil War, both Confederate and Union forces used Cuban ports to replenish their ships, as an intelligence center and as a transit point for shipping.

When the Civil War ended in 1865, Americans set out to pacify the western Indians and to open the vast expanses between St. Louis and San Francisco to settlement. The massive Federal army of the war years was reduced to a small force of twenty-five thousand men, while the American navy, which had been strong enough to blockade much of the Atlantic coast, was allowed to shrink. Although the industrial might of the United States was unequaled by any other country, very few resources were dedicated to improving and upgrading the military forces of the nation. Supplies left over from the Civil War filled huge warehouses and continued to be the primary supply sources for the army and navy. Exhausted and scarred by the horrors of the Civil War, few military leaders and fewer civilians saw the need to invest in upgrading the nations forces.

By 1885, the western territories were largely pacified. Railroads spanned the continent, bringing a civilized veneer to faraway towns and villages. Immigrants from Europe poured into the United States, providing a growing labor force for industries and taking advantage of the cheap land available for settlement. Development of Americas natural resources and the expansion of factories to supply the demands of its burgeoning population focused the attention of the nation internally.

While Americans were preoccupied with their development, other countries were concerned about gaining a foothold as colonial powers. Recently united Germany and Italy looked to Africa as a good place to acquire colonies at a cheap price. In the Far East, Japan, which had been opened to the rest of the world in the 1850s, embraced the processes of industrial development, and Japanese military leaders, aware of the superiority of western arms, rushed to equip their forces with the latest technological developments in land and sea warfare. The aggressiveness of these newer nations provoked tensions and minor confrontations with the older colonial powersGreat Britain, Spain and Francedestabilizing the world situation.