The Spanish-American war, forgotten mostly today, was a very popularly received event among the American public.  The ongoing rebellion in Cuba was recurrent front-page news. Newspapers ever eager to entice readers with lurid tales of Spanish atrocities.  Forgotten by most now, the Spanish-American War is remembered by numerous monuments spread around the country.  Like the war they memorialize, those monuments tend to be overlooked and passed by today without much notice.

SILENT SENTINEL

The turn of the 19^th century was a frenzied period of monument erection around the US.  Civil War veterans were beginning to fade away at a rapid rate.  The memory of their exploits had been erected in stone and marble on some of the battlefields – Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Shiloh. But those monuments were expensive.  Enter the Monumental Bronze Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut.  They had bought a process for making white bronze statuary which proved much cheaper than the marble-stone sculptures. 

“White bronze” is actually zinc cast from a mold and blasted with sand to give a rough and stony appearance.  The company produced monuments, grave markers, and monuments from 1879 until 1914. In World War One, the company works, taken over by the Federal government, produced gun mounts and munitions.  In total, some 2,500 monuments spread across the Northern states and between 500 and 1,000 in the South.  As many as half of those are the Silent Sentinel version. Featured is a soldier – North version has a Union soldier with a caped greatcoat and the Southern version has a slouch hat and bedroll – standing at rest with his gun grounded.

THE HIKER

The Spanish-American War had its version of the Silent Sentinel, The Hiker. The Spanish-American War much smaller than the Civil War, the memorial also produced in scales much less. Still found wide enough across the country to be the representative memorial for the war.

Hiker was the term used for soldiers of the era – the Spanish-American War, the Philippine War, or the Boxer Rebellion.  The term referred to soldiers who took long hikes in Steaming jungles – Philippines or Cuba.

Much like World War One public monuments, there were two versions of The Hiker.  Both cast in bronze and not “white bronze”.  This makes them more expensive, another reason for the lesser number of Span-Am memorials.

kITSON’S HIKER

The first version comes from a sculpture done by Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson.  Kitson’s first version erected for the University of Minnesota in 1906, with a second version erected in Providence, Rhode Island in 1911. This may have been reason enough for the local Gorham Manufacturing Company to acquire the statue’s rights.  Gorham had originally – and still is – a silversmithing company.  They had branched out into monument statues in 1889 with The Skirmisher at Gettysburg.

With Kitson’s The Hiker, the company went on to sell some 50 other statues across the country in the following years from 1921 to the last version, a 1965 statue along Memorial Drive just outside Arlington National Cemetery.  Besides Providence and Minneapolis, there is a version of this statue on the State Capitol Grounds in Texas, California, and Michigan.

Kitson admitted into the National Sculpture Society in 1895 after winning an honorable mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais – was the youngest woman and the first American woman to receive such an award.  She created seventy-three of the sculptures at the Vicksburg National Military Park and the medallions depicting the corps commanders of Sherman on the Sherman Monument next to the White House.

NEWMAN’S HIKER

The other version of The Hiker came from Allen George Newman. originally displayed in 1907.  This statue’s rights bought by the John Williams foundry of New York though the sculptor provided advise as to a proper pedestal for free according to environment.  By Wikipedia count, 23 versions of the statue spread across the US from Seattle to Rhode Island.  Most of the statues are in New York. 

A cheaper yet version for Spanish-American War monuments are simple bronze reliefs. Seventeen versions covering a much more diverse part of the country.  The reliefs feature Newman’s Hiker set in front of the battleship Maine with the inscription Hiker of ’98 below and President McKinley’s quote “You triumphed over obstacles which would have overcome men less brave and determined.” 

Just north of the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs along Mill Creek a few blocks north of the Capitol is one of the reliefs.  The World War One Memorial Model D of Over the Top to Victory by John Paulding can be found nearby. 

MEMORIALS TO THE FIRST WASHINGTON

Another version of the statue is in the southwest corner of Woodland Park in Seattle, Washington in the War Garden Public Park. There are other Spanish-American War monuments in the park, too, including a plaque to the men lost on the Maine built from the wreckage of the ship. Cannons from the USS Concord, one of the ships at Manila Bay were here, but they have been removed.

Volunteer Park remembers the First Volunteers. The park designed by John Charles Olmsted, one of several he designed is just east and above Lake Union on the northeast edge of Capitol Hill.  The Washington First Volunteers reached Manila in early October 1898 after the conclusion of hostilities between the US and Spain.  Their service entirely centered on the 1899 Philippine War actions starting 4 February.  They returned to San Francisco November 1899 after losing 129 men dead and wounded – 14 from disease and accident.  Of the initial 1,126 men who went over – most from the Washington National Guard – 239 stayed on, including their commander Colonel John H. Wholly (previously a First Lieutenant serving as the Professor of Military Science at the University of Washington) in the Philippines.

The First Washington served for 18 months and were in combat almost daily for six.  In comparison, Theodore Roosevelt’s First US Volunteer Cavalry – the Rough Riders – served 133 days fighting in one skirmish and one battle.

PORTLAND MEMORIES

And then there Spanish-American War monuments found in Portland, Oregon. Battles fought long ago, now forgotten by most, though reverberations continue today.

If one Portland does not have enough memories, more are on the other side of the country in another Portland. Here is another of Kitson’s works.

THE FIRST CALIFORNIA VOLUNTEER MONUMENT

There are two larger monuments to the veterans of the Spanish-American War in California. The First California Volunteer Regiment signed up from San Francisco. The regiment shipped out to the Philippines on the first convoy along with the Second Oregon. Following the capture of Manila, the First California deployed to the island of Negros. From Negros, they were a little behind the Oregonians in returning to the US. They did not arrive back in San Francisco until August 24, 1899.

California raised two other volunteer regiments, but these men never left California. A small monument remembers the men who did serve with the Seventh California in Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles. The monument dates to 1900 – the oldest piece of public art in Los Angeles. The statue remembers the 21 men of the regiment who died of illness, mostly caused by the poor conditions the men incurred while camped outside in the Presidio.

A FEW MONUMENTS OF THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CONTINENT

Down south – tampa bay hotel

The fabulous Tampa Bay Hotel served as the Army headquarters during the run up to the invasion of Cuba during the war. Built by railway magnate Harry Plant, who was responsible for linking Tampa to the rest of the eastern American seaboard, the hotel continued serving guests until 1932. The following year, the hotel and 50 acres were leased for a hundred years to the University of Tampa for a dollar a year. The south wing of the building houses the Harry B. Plant Museum. The university has its administrative offices within the building, as well.

the gun

On the south side of the university along Kennedy Avenue, an artillery piece set on a base remembers the Maine and Dewey. The original gun was an eight inch disappearing gun taken from Fort Dade off St Petersburg. Disappearing guns were the vogue at the time for coastal artillery forts. The guns popped up to fire and then drop down below to be reloaded. The ‘disappearance’ making enemy observance of the guns position difficult.

Similar to the USS Oregon, the gun was given up during a scrap drive during the early part of World War Two. After the war, another eight inch gun was taken from Fort Morgan, Alabama. That gun had been mounted for use as a railway gun for action during World War One. The present gun still has the railway carriage set atop the original base.

further north

In Binghamton, New York, a statue dedicated to American veterans of the war stands in Confluence Park. The statue – The Skirmisher – was created by Robert Atkin, himself a veteran of the war. Originally the monument stood in a traffic circle in front of the War Memorial Bridge – built in honor of World War One – over the Chenango River. In 1996, the monument was moved to its present site on the north side of the South Washington Street Parabolic Bridge – closed to vehicular traffic.