Greatest battles
Cuba, 1 July 1898
Explore the Rough Riders’ victory at San Juan Heights in-depth
The inky black sky over Havana harbour erupted with fire when the US battleship Maine blew up at 9.40pm on 15 February 1898. While not playing an active role in the Cuban independence movement, the ship had been sent to protect American interests on the island from the growing conflict between guerrilla fighters and the Spanish. The explosion ripped out the anchored ship’s bottom, sinking it and killing more than 260 sailors onboard; almost two-thirds of the crew. In the morning only the mangled wreckage of the colossal warship’s mast and bow could be seen poking out of the water.
Today we know the blast was most likely an unfortunate tragedy, caused by a fire in the ship’s coal bunker, which ignited gunpowder magazines. An inquiry by the US Navy at the time suspected an underwater mine, though they pointedly wouldn’t name the aggressor who had planted it, concluding they were “unable to obtain evidence fixing the responsibility for the destruction of the Maine upon any person or persons”.
However, by the time the report was published in March, most Americans had already blamed Spain. “Spanish Treachery,” declared William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal the day after the attack. Other newspapers followed suit, promoting the battle cry, “Remember the Maine. To Hell with Spain!”
Despite being part of President Mckinley’s government, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt joined hawkish Democrat senators in condemning Mckinley’s attempts to cool the burgeoning diplomatic crisis. However, in a move that is as shocking today as it was then, when the US eventually declared war on Spain in April, Roosevelt resigned his post to go off and fight. He formed the 1st Volunteer Cavalry, which quickly became known as the Rough Riders for its flamboyant mix of Western cowboys and adventurous east coast blue bloods.
On 22 June 1898, Roosevelt’s Rough Riders disembarked in Daiquirí on the southwest coast of Cuba, where they joined the US Army Fifth Corps. Led by Major General William Shafter, the aim was to capture Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second largest city, where Spanish General Arsenio Linares y Pombo commanded more than 10,000 troops and a naval squadron, which lay at anchor in the harbour. However, to do that they had to mount an expedition through the jungle and make their way up San Juan Heights, a high ground made up of San Juan Hill and Kettle Hill, which Linares had reinforced with 500 men.
The Battle of San Juan Heights was the bloodiest clash of the Spanish-american War, but the US victory sealed the fate of Santiago. This prompted the naval squadron resting there to flee, where they ran straight into a blockade of superior US battleships, denying Spain of much-needed gunboats. The “splendid little war” only lasted four months, but left the Spanish Empire devastated, forced to surrender Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the ascendant US.
While it could be argued the predominantly black Buffalo Soldier regiment actually did much of the heaviest fighting, media reports of San Juan Heights made the Rough Riders national heroes, setting Roosevelt on the path to becoming in the 26th US President in 1901.