The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Charge at San Juan Hill

I think this article is interesting. You often wonder if it is a matter of the truth finally emerging or an attempt to rewrite history:

Buffalo Soldiers at San Juan Hill

by

Frank N. Schubert

The following article derives from a paper the author delivered at the 1998 Conference of Army Historians in Bethesda, Maryland. Finding the middle, where the truth sometimes rests, requires you to know the edges. When it comes to responsibility for the victory of the United States Army on San Juan Heights, Cuba, on 1 July 1898, the edges are easy to find. On one side, there is the Teddy-centric view, first and most clearly expressed in the writings of Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt of the 1st Volunteer Cavalry Regiment—the legendary Rough Riders. Roosevelt’s memoir of Cuba so emphasized his own role that Mr. Dooley, the barroom pundit created by humorist Peter Finley Dunne, said the book should have been called "Alone in Cuba."

Roosevelt augmented his campaign of self-promotion by carrying along his personal publicist. Richard Harding Davis’ dispatches from the front, picked up by many newspapers and magazines, spread the word of TR’s heroics. They also followed a time-honored tradition. George Custer had taken a reporter on the 1874 expedition that discovered gold in the Black Hills, and Nelson Miles had had one along to record his exploits against the tribes of the southern plains.1 Now Davis, of the New York Herald, did the same—essentially providing TR with PR.2

The view that Teddy Roosevelt dominated the battle at San Juan Heights still has adherents. I saw first-hand evidence last February, when I made a presentation for African-American History Month at Oyster Bay, New York, the great man’s home. The draft press release announced that I would be talking about Medal of Honor heroes among Buffalo Soldiers, the black regulars who had served on the frontier and who also fought in Cuba. The notice went on to assert that these soldiers had "assisted" TR in achieving victory at San Juan Hill. Clearly the text implied that the more than 2,000 black troopers dodging bullets and pushing their way resolutely forward in the Cuban sun were supporting players. TR still got top billing.

Lately, a competing view has emerged to challenge Teddy-centric claims. This new assertion puts the Buffalo Soldiers at the center of the Cuban fighting, relegating Roosevelt to a supporting role. Most recently this view was stated by Edward Van Zile Scott in his 1996 book, The Unwept. According to Scott, "in the Spanish-American War of 1898, veteran black troops . . . were more responsible than any other group for the United States’ victory."3

The new interpretation replaces one extreme position, represented by the emphasis on TR, with another, focusing on the contributions of African-American soldiers. These competing viewpoints represent the edges but don’t help us understand what happened on the battlefield.

For that, we have to look at the order of battle, read the reports of the commanders, and follow the movements of all units on maps of the campaign. The record shows that about 15,000 American troops of Maj. Gen. William R. Shafter’s Fifth Army Corps participated in the battles on the high ground near Santiago, Cuba, on 1 July 1898. About 13,000 of them were white; 2,000 or so were black. Of the twenty-six regiments in this force, three were volunteer organizations; the vast majority were regulars. More than 200 soldiers were killed in action, and nearly 30 of those who fell were from the four black Regular Army regiments, the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry.4

There were two major battles that day, one at El Caney and one on San Juan Heights. Both objectives were east of the city, with El Caney the more northerly of the two. Brig. Gen. Henry W. Lawton commanded his own 2d Division and the Independent Brigade, a force of about 6,500, which took El Caney. Lawton’s troops included more than 500 men of the black 25th Infantry. This regiment was in the thick of the four-hour fight, and one of its members, Pvt. Thomas Butler of Baltimore, was among the first to enter the blockhouse on the hill.5

The other key objective, San Juan Heights, was closer to the city, about one mile directly east of it. San Juan has historically received more attention than El Caney, and for good reason. It was the main objective, after all, and was attacked by 8,000 troops of Brig. Gen. Jacob F. Kent’s 1st Division and the dismounted Cavalry Division, commanded on this day by Brig. Gen. Samuel S. Sumner. San Juan Heights had two high spots along its north-south axis, one called San Juan Hill and the other later named Kettle Hill by the troops. Both were part of the same objective.

In addition to being more important than El Caney as an objective, San Juan was also Theodore Roosevelt’s stage. Roosevelt, of whom it was said that he never attended a wedding without wishing he was the bride or a funeral without wishing he was the corpse, was the unquestioned star of San Juan and by extension of the entire Cuban campaign. The commander of his regiment, Col. Leonard Wood, had been conveniently promoted out of the way, so Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt had the Rough Riders all to himself.

But he did not have the battle for San Juan Heights all to himself. There were after all 8,000 men in the operation, a total of thirteen Regular Army regiments and two regiments of volunteers, including TR’s Rough Riders. The force included about 1,250 black troopers of the 9th and 10th Cavalry in Sumner’s Cavalry Division and the 24th Infantry in Kent’s 1st Division.

Critics have complained that Roosevelt erroneously and undeservedly claimed credit for the victory at San Juan Hill, when he actually was involved in the assault on Kettle Hill. In fact, he did play a prominent role in the fight for Kettle Hill. His volunteers, part of Sumner’s dismounted cavalry force, reached the top of Kettle Hill alongside black and white regulars. The actions of Color Sgt. George Berry of the 10th Cavalry, who carried the colors of the white 3d Cavalry up that hill along with his own regiment’s standard, reflected the shared nature of the operation, with black and white regulars and Rough Riders fighting side by side and with one group sometimes indistinguishable from the others.

Once Roosevelt reached the top of Kettle Hill, he watched Kent’s troops begin to overrun their objective on San Juan Hill. Still eager for a fight, he urged the men around him to follow him into the fray on San Juan. That’s when he found out what happens when you sound a charge and nobody comes. Only a handful of soldiers heard the great man, and he found himself at the head of an assault that consisted of five soldiers. Roosevelt retreated, regrouped, and assembled a more respectable force that reached the Spanish trenches in time to participate in the last of the fight. "There was," he said, "very great confusion at this time, the different regiments being completely intermingled—white regulars, colored regulars, and Rough Riders."6

Roosevelt’s observation accurately characterized the mix of troops in the battle for the heights. Overall, the great majority of these soldiers were regulars; the rest were volunteers. "Their battles," Timothy Egan wrote in an article entitled "The American Century’s Opening Shot," in the New York Times of Saturday, 6 June 1998, "were sharp, vicious crawls through jungle terrain in killing heat."7 Regulars and volunteers, blacks and whites, fought side by side, endured the blistering heat and driving rain, and shared food and drink as well as peril and discomfort. They forged a victory that did not belong primarily to TR, nor did it belong mainly to the Buffalo Soldiers. It belonged to all of them.

Despite the fact that these groups shared the victory and despite the attention that gravitated toward TR, the post-battle spotlight shone brightly on the Buffalo Soldiers. Since the Reorganization Act of 1866, their regiments had mainly served in the remotest corners of the West. They had fought against the Comanches and Kiowa in the 1860s and 1870s and the Apaches between 1877 and 1886, and they had seen service in the Pine Ridge campaign of 1890–1891. Most of this duty had been performed in obscurity.8

But Cuba was different. All eyes that were not on TR seemed to focus on the Buffalo Soldiers. For the first time they stood front and center on the national stage. A number of mainstream (that is, white) periodicals recounted their exploits, as nurses in the yellow fever hospital at Siboney as well as on the battlefield, and reviewed their history, mostly favorably.9 Books by black authors recounted the regiments’ service in Cuba and in previous wars and reminded those who cared to pay attention that the war with Spain did not represent the first instance in which black soldiers answered the nation’s call to arms.10 In an age of increasing racism that was hardening into institutionalized segregation throughout the South and affecting the lives of black Americans everywhere, the Buffalo Soldiers were race heroes. Black newspapers and magazines tracked their movements and reported their activities. Poetry, dramas, and songs all celebrated their service and valor.11 As Rayford Logan, dean of a generation of black historians—and my undergraduate adviser—later wrote, "Negroes had little, at the turn of the century, to help sustain our faith in ourselves except the pride that we took in the 9th and 10th Cavalry, the 24th and 25th Infantry. Many Negro homes had prints of the famous charge of the colored troops up San Juan Hill. They were our Ralph Bunche, Marian Anderson, Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson."12

Almost one hundred years passed before the nation rediscovered the Buffalo Soldiers. The process started with the 1967 publication of William Leckie’s The Buffalo Soldiers and culminated in 1992, with the dedication by General Colin Powell of the Buffalo Soldier statue at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. For the Buffalo Soldiers, "the American century" is ending the way it had started. In a period of increasing informal segregation, growing dissatisfaction with affirmative action, and the spreading emphasis on a separate African-American minority culture, books, plays, movies, and even phone cards celebrate the service of these troopers. In what appears to be a disconcertingly similar setting of deteriorating race relations, the Buffalo Soldiers have returned to take their place among America’s heroes.

The process of landing some 16,000 troops on the shores of Cuba was an ambitious effort that was poorly accomplished due to poor prior planning and lack of suitable landing craft. The landings at Daiquiri that began on June 22nd stretched into days. As the first troops under Generals Lawton and Wheeler moved westward to secure Siboney, naval transport ships moved along the coast waiting to unload additional troops. Even as the American soldiers tasted first blood at Las Guasimas, the men of the all-Black 9th US Cavalry were finally leaving the cramped and stuffy quarters of their transport on the beaches just south of Siboney.

As these and other arriving troops from Daiquiri began moving inland, the dismounted cavalry under General Wheeler and the infantry under General Lawton moved ahead of them, following the main routes to Santiago. General Wheeler's two brigades of dismounted cavalry made camp at El Pozo, to the northwest of Siboney and less than five miles from Santiago. This force included Colonel Henry Carroll's three regiments (3d, 6th and 9th US Cavalries) and the newly promoted Brigadier General Leonard Wood's brigade consisting of the 1st US Cavalry, the all-Black 10th US Cavalry, and Colonel Roosevelt's Rough Riders (1st US Volunteer Cavalry). Strung out along the Santiago road from El Pozo to Siboney and east to Daiquiri were the men of Brigadier General J. Ford Kent's 1st Infantry Division.

By the last day of June, the first soldiers to land on Cuban shores had already endured more than a week of the temperamental tropical climate, and several had become ill. More than a century earlier Yellow Fever and other tropical ailments had thwarted the British forces in Cuba, and General Shafter was eager to press his attack before it could take a greater toll on his on men.

On June 30th General Shafter rode his horse to El Pozo to plan his attack. Joined by most of his command staff, he made a personal reconnaissance while his chief engineer officer Lieutenant Colonel George McClellan Derby surveyed the Spanish positions from a large balloon. Most of the enemy soldiers were stationed in and immediately around the city of Santiago, a force of some 10,000 well entrenched Spanish soldiers and marines under General Arsenio Linares y Pombo. To the west of the city, Cuban General Calixto Garcia Iniguez blocked any reinforcement of the Spaniards from the inland which, when coupled with the US Naval blockade of the harbor entrance, virtually isolated the Spanish ground forces as well as Admiral Cervera's squadron of ships.

General Shafter concluded that the key to taking Santiago lay first in taking the heights overlooking the city from the east. The high ridgeline, just north of the small city of San Juan and west of the San Juan River, was known as San Juan Hill. Rising up from the jungle below, the hill was well defended by 750 Spanish soldiers in heavily fortified positions, and dominated by large blockhouses. Two modern howitzers provided artillery support as well. If the Americans could take and hold this position, they would have a commanding view and a tactical advantage over the 10,000 enemy in the city below.

His reconnaissance completed, General Shafter met with General Kent of the 1st Division and Brigadier General Samuel Sumner, who had taken command of the cavalry after General Wheeler had fallen ill, to outline his battle plan. On the following morning Kent would move his forces to storm and capture San Juan Hill, flanked on the right by Sumner's cavalry. To prevent the enemy from sending reinforcements to San Juan Hill from their garrison at El Caney to the North, General Lawton would march his infantry to capture the city, then pull back to reinforce General Sumner's cavalry on the north end of the heights. General Lawton predicted that it would take about two hours to accomplish his first mission, thus his soldiers would engage the enemy first while the attack at San Juan was held back until he had taken the city.

As the early morning assault at El Caney turned into continued battled throughout the afternoon, the main force under Generals Sumner and King could wait no longer. Without the flanking support of General Lawton's Division, the order was given to advance towards San Juan Hill. And there this force would find a similarly stiff resistance.

Shortly after Captain Grimes battery concluded its 8:00 A.M. initial 45-minute barrage on San Juan Hill, General McClernand rode to the front to meet with General Kent. Pointing towards the blockhouse that dominated the heights of San Juan hill he told the commander of the 1st Infantry Division to prepare his men to take the position. Meanwhile, he ordered the Cavalry forward and to the right "to connect with Lawton"...unaware that Lawton's men would spend the entire day fighting for survival and victory at El Caney. While the infantry held its position, General Sumner's two brigades moved down the jungle trails, past the infantry and towards the San Juan valley and the river crossing. Along their route they were subjected to constant sniper fire from the surrounding jungles, and casualties mounted long before the anticipated assault could be ordered.

Behind General Wood's brigade, four men towed a large balloon from which Lieutenant Colonel Derby and Signal Corps Major Joseph Maxfield scanned the terrain. It was a bad mistake with significant consequences. While the observation balloon gave Derby and Maxfield a good sense of the friendly movements, the enemy positions, and the preferable routes to their objective, it also broadcast to the enemy the exact position and movement of the cavalry. The Spanish zeroed in on the balloon from the heights as well as from the jungle below, and released a torrent of leaden death; most of which fell on the soldiers below. As the balloon came under fire, it gradually descended; directly in the middle of the 1st and 10th Cavalry as they forded the river. Attracting enemy fire like a magnet, the result was immediate, devastating, and tragic.

Astride his pony Texas, Colonel Roosevelt hurried his regiment across the knee-deep ford of the San Juan River and into position below San Juan Hill. Slightly forward of the Rough Riders were the soldiers of Colonel Henry K. Carroll's 1st Brigade, lined up for assault with the 6th US Cavalry in the center, flanked on the right by the Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th Cavalry and on the left by the 3rd Cavalry. Coming up from behind to take a position to the left of the Rough Riders was the 1st US (Regular) Cavalry Regiment, followed by the 10th Cavalry.

The high ridge that was known as San Juan Hill was actually two hilltops, separated by a slight ravine. The southernmost point was most recognizable for the blockhouse that dominated the crest. Across the ravine to the north was another large blockhouse, and this hill would come to be known as KETTLE HILL. By 11 o'clock most of the 15 regiments tasked with wresting control of the two hills had crossed the San Juan River and were prepared for the assault. Below San Juan Hill the soldiers of General Kent's Division continued to return fire on the enemy as they awaited orders. To the Division's right the dismounted cavalry was poised to attack Kettle Hill. Despite his illness, the venerable General Fighting Joe Wheeler rode his horse to the front to watch his men, now under the leadership of General Sumner, fight their way through the blockhouses and enemy trenches to reach the top of Kettle Hill.

The Spanish-American War was a mess top to bottom -- in the Army. Supplies, strategies, leadership, soldiers... it was all a mess. Before the Army could prove itself, the War was won by the Navy. The best American Army commander, Gen. Nelson Miles, for example, planned a brilliant campaign in Porto Rico -- peace came before he could prove it.

The heroes of the War were Dewey in the Pacific, and Sampson and Schley in the Gulf.

For reference, as is missing in the above post, the Battle of San Juan Hill took place on July 1, 1898.

The battle at San Juan Hill was a crucial but unfinished victory. Shafter's advance forced the Spanish to huddle at Santiago. More importantly, it scared the Spanish fleet into the open. With American guns in the hills above, the Spanish Admiral, Cervera, decided to run the American Naval blockade that was set in May. On July 3, Cervera's fleet made its try.

The American Commander, Sampson was meeting with Gen. Shafter at the time. His rival, Schley found himself in charge, and charge he did. From the "Brooklyn," Schley led the four American battleships and two cruisers in what turned into a turkey shoot. The American rapid-firing guns -- and expert handling of them -- achieved a complete victory in just about two hours. The Spanish flag ship went aflame within the first fifteen minutes and aground a half hour after that. At least two Spanish cruisers were blown up, another raised the flag, another was sunk, and the rest were beached. The Americans suffered two serious casualties, one dead, one wounded. The city of Santiago surrendered two weeks later.
-----

As ever, there was huge bickering among the players of the War, made worse by the shortness of the fight and the ease of the victory. There were more complaints than victories.

President McKinley was the real hero of the War. He went into it reluctantly, carefully, and skillfully. The last Civil War veteran President, McKinley used the War as a means to end the Civil War once and for all. He purposefully appointed former Confederates, and he empowered the South in general during the effort. Afterwards, he made the dramatic gesture of ordering the Government to tend to Confederate graves.

McKinley knew that the war changed the world. Shortly afterwards, he told a friend, "We are a world power now" (my paraphrase). This was bittersweet for him. He didn't want to be in the Philippines, but he knew he had to. He didn't want to keep Puerto Rico, but he knew he had to. He did his best to launch Cuba into self-government, a task, we all know too well, has yet to be achieved.

Among the casualties during this dangerous few hours before the famous assault that would captivate history books for decades to follow, was the popular and famous former sheriff and mayor of Prescott, Arizona, Bucky O'Neill. Roosevelt described it as the "most serious loss that I and the regiment could have suffered." O'Neill was instantly killed when a Spanish bullet struck him in the mouth and passed through to exit the back of his head. (A memorial to Bucky O'Neill is still prominently displayed in his hometown.)

William Owen "Buckey" O'Neill served as the captain of Troop A, First Territorial Volunteer Cavalry, known as the "Rough Riders." He lost his life in Cuba.

Biography:

Prescott, Arizona never had another hero like William Owen "Buckey" O'Neill. One-hundred years after his death, local businesses still adopt his name, from "Bucky's (sic) Casino," to "Bucky (sic) O'Neill Sporting Goods." Probably part of his long-lived popularity is due to the prominence of the "Captain William O'Neill Rough Rider Monument" on the Yavapai County Court House Plaza. This heroic-sized bronze by Solon H. Borglum was dedicated on July 3, 1907, and has become a Prescott landmark.

Buckey was born on February 2, 1860, either in St. Louis, Missouri, or Washington, D.C., although he sometimes listed Ireland as his birthplace (e.g. the Great Register of Yavapai County, 1894). This last is doubtful since his parents had been in the United States since the 1850's. During the Civil War, his father, John, served as a captain in the 116th Pennsylvania Volunteers of the "Irish Brigade," and was severely wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

William Owen O'Neill came to Arizona Territory in 1879, and arrived in Prescott in the spring of 1882 after stopovers in Tombstone and Phoenix. He rapidly progressed from court reporter to editor of the Prescott Journal Miner, then founded, edited, and published Hoof and Horn, a paper for the live stock industry. He was elected Yavapai County Probate Judge and School Superintendent, tax assessor-collector, Yavapai County Sheriff, and finally, Mayor of Prescott. He ran twice (1894 and 1896) for territorial delegate to Congress as a populist, losing both times to major party candidates.

Buckey grew prosperous from developing onyx mines near Mayer, Arizona, and promoted copper mining in the Grand Canyon as well as a railroad to its South Rim. In 1894, he led a Smithsonian expedition to explore the prehistoric Sinaguan ruin called "Montezuma's Castle" on Beaver Creek in the Verde Valley. He was Captain of the "Prescott's Grays" militia, and a volunteer fireman on the "Toughs" hosecart team. As Adjutant General of Arizona Territory, he helped to organize its National Guard.

On top of these accomplishments, O'Neill found the energy and time to write. He created much of the copy for Hoof and Horn, as well as pamphlets boosting Arizona including, "Resources of Arizona" (1887) and "Central Arizona For Homes For Health" (probably 1888). Perhaps Buckey's least known talent was fiction, which he is said to have written at night, as his wife Pauline played the piano. Apparently all of his stories (about ten are known) followed dark themes set in Arizona Territory, and appeared in the San Francisco Examiner or Argonaut magazine between 1891 and 1910.

At least one of Buckey's stories reflects an incident of his life. On February 5, 1886, the Prescott Grays, commanded by Captain O'Neill, stood as honor guard at the hanging of murderer Dennis Dilda. When the trap dropped, Buckey fainted. This must have been a tremendous loss of face for a Victorian gentleman and officer, and he probably took considerable kidding about it. An apparent effort to clear the air, "A Horse of the Hash-Knife Brand," appeared in the San Francisco Examiner on February 15, 1891. In it, a member of a cowboy posse admits to nearly fainting at the hanging of a horse thief.

In 1898, together with Alexander Brodie and James McClintock, O'Neill founded the First United States Volunteer Cavalry, later famed as Roosevelt's Rough Riders. Through the spring of 1898, as relations worsened between the United States and Spain, the three planned an entire regiment of Arizona cowboys. Eventually, two (later three) troops were authorized, and on May 29, 1898, Buckey became the first man to volunteer for the regiment. On July 1, 1898, Captain O'Neill was killed in combat below Kettle Hill while commanding Troop A of the Rough Riders.

Recently, Buckey O'Neill, lived and died again. Turner Network's "Rough Riders" featured Sam Elliott as Buckey. Only this time his name is B-u-c-k-y O'-N-e-i-l, his wife wears striped pants (no proper Victorian lady ever wore trousers), and he departs with his troops from a railway station called "Sidewinder" rather than the Prescott depot.

In general, the movie presents the story of the Rough Riders and the Cuban phase of the Spanish American war reasonably well, although the sequence and events of the battles are jumbled. But when it comes to people, and particularly our own Buckey O'Neill, historical accuracy takes a very rough ride.

Among T.N.T.'s many factual blunders: "Bucky" commands Rough Rider Troop G, and says, "The Governor put me in charge of all the Arizona men." In fact, he commanded only Rough Rider Troop A, while Major Alexander Brodie was in overall charge of the three Arizona troops. The real Troop G were New Mexico men, captained by William Llewellen of Las Cruces.

O'Neill, who earned his nickname "bucking the tiger" at faro games, was a restlessly energetic "black Irishman", and was only thirty-eight years old when he died. Gray-mustached Sam Elliott seems miscast as the dynamic O'Neill as he croaks out, "I'm getting too old for this sort of thing." "Bucky's" Chiricahua Apache drill instructor, who intimidates the new recruits, is completely fictitious. Similarly, the television "Bucky" claims to have killed over 30 men - there is no record of the real Buckey shooting anyone, although he did exchange shots with the Canyon Diablo train robbers in 1889.

An interesting side plot of the television special revolves around the stage coach robber called "Nash." Fleeing a posse, which includes both Sheriff "O'Neil" and his pistol-packing wife, "Nash" joins the Rough Riders. In Cuban combat, he panics at first gunfire, is wounded, but redeems himself by leaving hospital to rejoin the fighting. The true-life Sergeant Henry Nash was a school teacher from Strawberry, Arizona. Apparently, "Nash" is based upon William Sterin, one of the Canyon Diablo train robbers who Yavapai County Sheriff O'Neill captured in 1889. Legend claims Sterin joined the Rough Riders under a fictitious name, and was killed on San Juan Hill.

"Bucky's" television death perpetuates the myth that he said "The Spanish bullet is not molded that will kill me" just before the bullet struck. Private Arthur Tuttle (A Troop), interviewed by historian Charles Herner in the 1960s, denied that Buckey said this. The movie's dramatic ending has "Nash" visiting his captain's grave in a white picket-fenced grave yard on the prairie. The real Buckey O'Neill lies in Arlington National Cemetery where he was buried on May 1, 1899 after his body was returned from Cuba.

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