Serious War Ahead

Serious War Ahead

A Long and Hard Cuban Campaign is Promised

Army officers have given up the idea that a campaign in Cuba is to be of the short and sweet order. Scarcely one of them holds the opinion that the United States forces will land, march triumphantly and uninterruptedly to Havana, carry that city by storm in a day and all Cuba within two or three weeks. It is a fact that many army men came to Tampa with the idea that they were simply going to Cuba on a little tropical picnic, with just enough burned powder and camp life to make the affair interesting. In short, they looked upon the whole business much as the northern volunteers regarded the Civil War before the first battle of Bull Run. But the events of the last few days, the Cardenas and Cienfuegos affairs, The failure of the Gussie expedition and the growing conviction that the effective force of the insurgents has been largely overestimated, has served to change opinions and ideas.
It is dawning upon many that the Spaniards in Cuba are numerous enough, brave enough, reckless enough and strong enough to put up a series of good fights. Interviews with a score of commanding officers, all of them veterans in the secret service, show conclusively that the large majority of the officers in this provisional division of the United States forces realize that unless Spain backs down soon we are in for a Cuban campaign which may run until snow flies in Chicago.
There has been a great deal of the comic opera, grand stand, center of the stage business carried on and Tampa since the troops began coming in, much to the amusement and disgust of the army officers. Tampa is filling up with men generally wearing a semimilitary rig, who claim to be general or colonel of this or that volunteer organization. Who demand places in the army of invasion which will entitle them into a sword, spurs, shoulder straps and a “striker.” they besieged General Wade, General Schaefer, General Wheeler and other commanding officers. They are possessed of an abnormal appetite for printers ink, and they generally are “turned down” cold and flat. Sometimes they make their first plunge into the Cuban Camp, Shout “Cuba libre” wear Maximo Gomez sombreros, buy a $3 machete and ask for a brown canvas uniform and a commission on the staff of General Lacret or General Nunez.
it is useless for such self advertised Heroes to apply for jobs in Tampa. They are not in the regular army, and the Cuban contingent is limited to 750 men. The only way they can get the Cuba to shed their hot blood “for the cause of liberty and revenge the Maine” is to join the volunteer forces and take their chances with the boys who are ready and willing to fight as privates, simply because disinterested patriotism and a strong desire from end the whole Cuban business leads them to shoulder rifles in the ranks. All of this, comic style play has come to an end. Serious business has swept it aside, and there is a general compression of lips and furrowing of foreheads and squaring of shoulders which caused a brigadier-general to say the other day, “the boys are getting ready for work.”
Colonel A. L. Wagner, chief of the bureau of military information, regarded as one of the finest tacticians in the service, every inch of him a soldier and the representative of the army on the strategic board, and his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Edward Anderson, came to Tampa few days ago, Colonel Wagner has held continuous consultations with General (unreadable), General Schaefer and their aides. He brought with him the latest military map of Cuba and the advanced sheets of the book on Cuba, it's forts, defenses, cities, roads, ports, etc, which the government is about to issue to the authors of the army of invasion and the Navy.
Colonel Wagner and Lieutenant Rowan, who returned from his visit to General Gomez, met here, and Wagner soon was in full possession of all the valuable information the sunburned, modest lieutenant brought back with him. It seems to be pretty well established that the original plan of using the insurgents has been abandoned. This was to send to the eastern end of Cuba all the Cuban volunteers obtainable in the United States, with a strong force of American cavalry, there to join the insurgents. The combined forces, according to the plan, were to move west towards Havana, driving the Spaniards before them, and reach Havana about the time the American forces were ready to invest that city. Rowan said Gomez could easily give 12,000 effective men for this plan.
Several of the commanding officers believe in this plan but it seems that the forces in Tampa will establish a base of operations, and when the volunteers have been organized into an invading Army the regular volunteers will march on to Havana, where Blanco, according to the latest reports has about 65,000 Spanish soldiers and about the same number of civil guards, guerillas and volunteers. It is believed the roads will be passible for artillery and wagon trains up to September, and the Surgeons in yellow fever experts are telling the commanders that a sanitary discipline will reduce the danger from yellow fever to a minimum which will not embarrass the movements toops or the success of the expedition

uncredited (Reprint from the Chicago Record)

The Wilson Advance

June 02, 1898

Newspaper Article

http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn84026523/1898-06-02/ed-1/seq-1/