US Army in 1898

 28K authorized strength

 missions – police frontier, harbor defense
 no reserve force
 limited reforms in 1890s
 new tactics, weps, more realistic training
 war dept designed to maintain a small army in peace
 functioned well in peacetime
 no war planning organization, no war plans
 no doctrine or concept for overseas expeditionary campaign

US Navy in 1898
 41 ships, 7 modern warships
 small bu efficient, excellent personnel
 war planning (naval war college)
 blockade of cuba
 prevent spain supplying garrison
 seize advance base for coaling (guantanamo)
 land expedition not necessary or desirable
 attack on spanish squadron in philippines
 diversion, perhaps trade PI for Cuba

William McKinley, Commander in chief

 Didnt want to go to war initially
 Military advisors incapable
 Gen. Nelson A. Miles
 not very competent
 SecWar Russel Alger
 Strategy of Opportunism
 war is chaotic
 CinC must seize opportunities
 give broad guidance in field commanders, let them do job
 strategic concepts
 limited war for cuba, no euro intervention
 cuba was naval war but....
 as recognized weakness of spain sought to rapidly end war before it expanded

the army goes to war

 planning for war with spain
 army planning is improvisational not based on McKinley's political objectives
 miles didnt like McKinley very much
 Assumed USN would defeat Spanish Fleet, blockade cuba
 USN and cuban rebels would force spain to surrender
 army needed 50K man expiditionary force to maintain order unti lCuban cov established
 Reg Army plan (Hull Bill)
 expand regs to 60K
  no role for national guard

mobilization
 army act 22 april 1898
 national guard basis of vols (civil war concept)
 men swore in with units if sufficient volunteers
 McKinley authorizes 125K
 double the war deptartment's estimate
 282K soldiers mobilized (1000% increase in a month
 war dept overwhelmed
 no camps, equipment, food, faciliteids, etc
 bureaucracy not able to shift to war footing

battle of manila bay, 1 may 1898

 prewar planning
 attack PI as means of pressuring spain
 commodore george dewey
 destruction of spanish flotilla
 141 of 5859 shots fired by USN hit target
 1 American has a heart attack LOL\

impact of battle of manila bay

 victory boosts war's popularity in US
 dewey claims can capture manila with 5K
 McKinley authroizes army expedition to Manila
 does not provide clear objectives ---- Manila or all PI?
 First troops arrive in June, buy august are 15K
 Filipino insurgency throughout PI
 emilio Auginalddo returns and declares PI independence
 authroity is not recognized outside of Centroal Luzon
 US Army and filipino nationalist forces besiege spanish garrison in Manila

OPS in cuba
 Spanish relief squadron evades USN's blockade and arrives in Santiago Harbor
 USMC seizes guantanamo as an advanced base
 USN blockades santiago but requires US Army expedition to take harbor fortifications

US Land ops in Cuba

 William shafter and V corps
 tampa chaos
 landing in Cuba 20 june
 logistic and health problmes
 squabbles with navy
 need to launch immideate attack …. or else they'd die of starvation

assault on san juan heights, 1 july 1898

  shafter does not coordinate with USN
 no supporting gunfire
 overly complicated plan
 two divisions moving through jungle
 henry lawton at el caney
 san juan heihts
 single line of approach
 final assault up SJ heights
 casualties – 243 KIA, 1445 WIA = 10% of force

problems of victory
 situation at santiago
 US troops demoralized, spanish defenses still intact
 V corps started collapsing from disease, exposure, lack of food
 santiago surrenders, 17 july
 provides port facilites to relieve Vth corps
 disease and “round robin”
 16 july, 75% of V corps sick
 2 aug shafter sends joint letter requesting evacuation
 spain seeks armistice, 18 july (peace protocol signed 12 august
 almost greatest mil disaster

Scandals
 disease in cuba and withdrawal
 training camp disease
 20,738 cases typhoid
 in 1898 all but 379 of the 5,462 US dead were due to disease
 embalmed beef and “beef trust”
 US troops given tainted food
 not true lol .. it was frozen, and Gen Miles hasnt learned of frozen beef yet

results of 1898
 US acquires Puerto Rico, Hawaii, PI, Guam
 US defense commitments expand from continental to carribean-pacific
 necessity for reform of War Department and US Army
 US Navy credited with victorym, public support for Mahan's navalism
 US now Great Power and perceived as both useful Ally and potential opponent
 teddy roosevelt, historian, actually....... rides the war to president
 .. the banana wars