Overview

This story is an account of the Santiago, Cuba, land campaign of the Spanish-American War, as conducted by General William R. Shafter's Fifth Army Corps. The narrative is based on firsthand information gathered from handwritten diaries, memoirs, and regimental and company histories of the men who participated in the campaign. These chronicles of frontline action paint an entirely different picture of what has been called The Splendid Little War. The opponent, far from being the cowardly Spanish soldier of myth, is revealed to be a courageous, resourceful foe. Furthermore, the attack on the outer defenses of Santiago was totally mismanaged by William Shafter, the American General in command, and his incompetent staff. Only the U.S. Navy's victory over the Spanish squadron on July 3, 1898, rescued the army from disaster.

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This is vintage A.B. Feuer. Once again he transports his readers back to one of America's foreign wars. This time it's the shortest. The carefully selected words from the diaries and memoirs of soldiers who experienced it first-hand are his conveyances. Thanks to Feuer, we are better able to appreciate the fighting war from the perspective of the lowly, eleven-dollars-a-month privates in particular. Theirs involved enemies and self-imposed obstacles more formidable than usually believed, as well as an ending even more shameful. Some interesting surprises are in store for students of this not-so-splendid war. Not surprisingly, warfare's Siamese twins, Heroism and Folly, saw service in the Santiago Campaign of 1898. -Barry Machado Professor of History Washington and Lee University

"""This is vintage A.B. Feuer. Once again he transports his readers back to one of America's foreign wars. This time it's the shortest. The carefully selected words from the diaries and memoirs of soldiers who experienced it first-hand are his conveyances. Thanks to Feuer, we are better able to appreciate the fighting war from the perspective of the lowly, eleven-dollars-a-month privates in particular. Theirs involved enemies and self-imposed obstacles more formidable than usually believed, as well as an ending even more shameful. Some interesting surprises are in store for students of this not-so-splendid war. Not surprisingly, warfare's Siamese twins, Heroism and Folly, saw service in the Santiago Campaign of 1898.""-Barry Machado Professor of History Washington and Lee University .,.""Feuer skillfully combines a scholarly overview of the war with firsthand accounts by participants from both sides. The latter are particularly useful in transporting the reader from his present-day vantage point to the combatants' time, so that he can see the war through their eyes.""-Military History ?...Feuer skillfully combines a scholarly overview of the war with firsthand accounts by participants from both sides. The latter are particularly useful in transporting the reader from his present-day vantage point to the combatants' time, so that he can see the war through their eyes.?-Military History ?In The Santiago Campaign of 1898: A Soldier's View of the Spanish-American War, A.B. Feurer has collected soldiers' letter and re-created that campaign from the vantage point of the men who fought in it. He has thus rescued the Spanish American War from the myth perpetrated by the yellow press and politicans anious to convice fellow citizens that the Untied States Was indeed a major nation boasting a powerful military.?-Latin American Rearch Review ...""Feuer skillfully combines a scholarly overview of the war with firsthand accounts by participants from both sides. The latter are particularly useful in transporting the reader from his present-day vantage point to the combatants' time, so that he can see the war through their eyes.""-Military History ""In The Santiago Campaign of 1898: A Soldier's View of the Spanish-American War, A.B. Feurer has collected soldiers' letter and re-created that campaign from the vantage point of the men who fought in it. He has thus rescued the Spanish American War from the myth perpetrated by the yellow press and politicans anious to convice fellow citizens that the Untied States Was indeed a major nation boasting a powerful military.""-Latin American Rearch Review"

""This is vintage A.B. Feuer. Once again he transports his readers back to one of America's foreign wars. This time it's the shortest. The carefully selected words from the diaries and memoirs of soldiers who experienced it first-hand are his conveyances. Thanks to Feuer, we are better able to appreciate the fighting war from the perspective of the lowly, eleven-dollars-a-month privates in particular. Theirs involved enemies and self-imposed obstacles more formidable than usually believed, as well as an ending even more shameful. Some interesting surprises are in store for students of this not-so-splendid war. Not surprisingly, warfare's Siamese twins, Heroism and Folly, saw service in the Santiago Campaign of 1898.""-Barry Machado Professor of History Washington and Lee University .,.""Feuer skillfully combines a scholarly overview of the war with firsthand accounts by participants from both sides. The latter are particularly useful in transporting the reader from his present-day vantage point to the combatants' time, so that he can see the war through their eyes.""-Military History ?...Feuer skillfully combines a scholarly overview of the war with firsthand accounts by participants from both sides. The latter are particularly useful in transporting the reader from his present-day vantage point to the combatants' time, so that he can see the war through their eyes.?-Military History ?In The Santiago Campaign of 1898: A Soldier's View of the Spanish-American War, A.B. Feurer has collected soldiers' letter and re-created that campaign from the vantage point of the men who fought in it. He has thus rescued the Spanish American War from the myth perpetrated by the yellow press and politicans anious to convice fellow citizens that the Untied States Was indeed a major nation boasting a powerful military.?-Latin American Rearch Review ...""Feuer skillfully combines a scholarly overview of the war with firsthand accounts by participants from both sides. The latter are particularly useful in transporting the reader from his present-day vantage point to the combatants' time, so that he can see the war through their eyes.""-Military History ""In The Santiago Campaign of 1898: A Soldier's View of the Spanish-American War, A.B. Feurer has collected soldiers' letter and re-created that campaign from the vantage point of the men who fought in it. He has thus rescued the Spanish American War from the myth perpetrated by the yellow press and politicans anious to convice fellow citizens that the Untied States Was indeed a major nation boasting a powerful military.""-Latin American Rearch Review

Author Information

A. B. FEUER is a military historian and freelance newspaper and magazine journalist. The author of Bilibid Diary: The Secret Notebooks of Commander Thomas Hayes, Combat Diary: Episodes from the History of the Twenty-Second Regiment, 1866-1905 (Praeger, 1991), and General Chennault's Secret Weapon: The B-24 in China (Praeger, 1992) and the editor of Coast Watching in the Solomon Islands: The Bougainville Reports (Praeger, 1992), he has also published articles in numerous journals, including Military History Magazine, Sea Classics, Civil War Quarterly and World War II. He is a book reviewer for Military Review and Military History.

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