The Puerto Rico campaign was the American military sea and land operation in Puerto Rico during the Spanish–American War, which resulted in the invasion, occupation, and annexation of the archipelago and island by the United States, and the cession of said territory by Spain. The offensive began on May 12, 1898, when the United States Navy attacked the capital, San Juan. Though the damage inflicted on the city was minimal, the Americans were able to establish a blockade in the city's harbor, San Juan Bay. On June 22, the cruiser Isabel II and the destroyer Terror delivered a Spanish counterattack, but were unable to break the blockade and Terror was damaged.
The land offensive began on July 25, when 1,300 infantry soldiers led by Major General Nelson A. Miles disembarked off the coast of Guánica. After winning the first skirmish, the Americans advanced to Coamo, where they engaged Puerto Rican and Spanish troops in battle. With two defenders and four Americans dead, the defenders retreated. The United States forces were able to seize control of Fajardo on August 1, but were forced to withdraw on August 5 after a group of 200 Puerto Rican–Spanish soldiers led by Pedro del Pino counterattacked, while most civilian inhabitants fled to the nearby lighthouse. The Americans encountered more opposition as they advanced towards the main island's interior. They engaged in two crossfires in Guamaní River and Coamo, both of which were inconclusive as the allied soldiers retreated. A battle in San Germán concluded in a similar fashion with the Spanish retreating to Lares.
On August 9, 1898, American troops that were pursuing units retreating from Coamo and Asomante encountered heavy resistance in Aibonito and retreated after six of their soldiers were injured. They returned three days later, reinforced with artillery units and attempted a surprise attack. After about an hour of fighting, Spanish artillery batteries had been silenced. American guns advanced some 2,150 yards and set up positions, but soldiers reported seeing Spanish reinforcements nearby and the guns were withdrawn back to the main line. Shortly before the launch of a flanking movement on the Spanish, all military actions in Puerto Rico were suspended on August 13, after U.S. President William McKinley and French ambassador Jules Cambon, acting on behalf of the Spanish government, signed an armistice whereby Spain relinquished its sovereignty over the territories of Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Philippines and Guam.
Prelude
In 1890, Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, a member of the Navy War Board and leading U.S. strategic thinker, wrote a book titled The Influence of Sea Power upon History in which he argued for the creation of a large and powerful navy modeled after the Royal Navy. Part of his strategy called for the acquisition of colonies in the Caribbean Sea that would serve as coaling and naval stations, being strategic points of defense upon the construction of an isthmusian canal.
This idea was not new; William H. Seward, a former Secretary of State for various Presidents, among them Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant, had strongly advocated that a canal be built either in Honduras, Nicaragua or Panama, and that the United States annex the Dominican Republic and purchase Puerto Rico and Cuba. The idea of annexing the Dominican Republic failed to receive the approval of the U.S. Senate, and Spain did not accept the 160 million dollars which the U.S. offered for Puerto Rico and Cuba. Mahan made the following statement to the War Department: "Having therefore no foreign establishments either colonial or military, the ships of war of the United States, in war will be like land birds, unable to fly far from their own shores. To provide resting places for them where they can coal and repair, would be one of the first duties of a government proposing to itself the development of the power of the nation at sea."
Since 1894, the Naval War College had been formulating plans for war with Spain. By 1896, the Office of Naval Intelligence had prepared a plan which included military operations in Puerto Rican waters. Not only was Puerto Rico considered valuable as a naval station, Puerto Rico and Cuba were also abundant in a valuable commercial commodity which the United States lacked: cane sugar.
On February 15, 1898 USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor, Cuba. According to the Navy's leading weapons expert, Philip Alger, the explosion was due to a coal fire igniting a reserve magazine of six tons of gunpowder, much of which was already degrading due to the humid climate. However, the United States forwarded an ultimatum to Spain to withdraw from Cuba following the sinking of Maine. In response, Spain broke off diplomatic relations with the United States, and on April 23, 1898, Spain declared war. On April 25, the U.S. Congress declared that a state of war between the United States and Spain had existed since April 20. One of the United States' principal objectives in the Spanish–American War was to take control of Spanish possessions in the Atlantic—Puerto Rico and Cuba—and their possessions in the Pacific—the Philippines and Guam.
On April 27, U.S. ships, the monitor USS Puritan, and the armored cruisers USS New York, and USS Cincinnati, bombarded the Spanish fortifications at Matanzas Bay in Cuba. By July 16, an armistice was signed at the Arbol de La Paz (a large ceiba tree) in Santiago de Cuba by U.S. and Spanish forces ending hostilities in Cuba and its waters. The United States then directed its undivided military resources to Puerto Rico. Two leaders of the Puerto Rican section of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, Julio J. Henna and Roberto H. Todd, had written to U.S. President McKinley asking that Puerto Rico be included in whatever intervention was planned for Cuba as early as March 10. They even provided the U.S. government with information about the Spanish military presence on the island.
On May 24, 1898, in a letter to Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge wrote, "Porto Rico is not forgotten and we mean to have it".
Spanish preparations
On April 21, 1898, the Gaceta de Puerto Rico published a decree of the Spanish-appointed governor of Puerto Rico, Manuel Macías y Casado, which proclaimed martial law for the island, suspending all constitutional rights in preparation for war., declared martial law, resolving to resist the American forces. Casado declared that "Providence will not permit that in these countries which were discovered by the Spanish nation the echo of our language should ever cease to be heard, nor that our flag should disappear before the eyes. ... Long live Puerto Rico, always Spanish. Long live Spain." Casado hoped that a grant of autonomy would ensure that Puerto Ricans would remain loyal to the Spanish Crown.
With the outbreak of war, the Spanish Crown sent the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Puerto Rican provisional battalions to defend Cuba against the Americans, depleting Puerto Rico's defenses. The 1st Puerto Rican Provisional Battalion, composed of the Talavera Cavalry and Krupp artillery, was sent to Santiago de Cuba where they battled the American forces in the Battle of San Juan Hill, and suffered a total of 70 casualties.
American preparations
In the months leading up to the Puerto Rico campaign of the Spanish–American War, the Spanish Crown remained largely unaware that the United States had already begun covert preparations on the island. American military intelligence had successfully inserted a network of spies to gather information on key ports, coastal defenses, and local terrain. Among these operatives were Henry Howard Whitney, Henry Ward, George Bronson Brea, William Freeman, James Dewel, Frederick Ober, and Edwin Emerson, Jr.. Their intelligence would play a crucial role in shaping the U.S. invasion strategy.
One particularly notable episode involved Emerson Jr., who, according to an article in Century magazine in September 1898, assumed the guise of a German journalist to gain access to sensitive information. Posing as a reporter, he approached the German consul in St. Thomas and requested the names of Puerto Ricans of German descent whom he could interview. Among the names provided was the Riefkohl family of Maunabo.
Upon arriving in Maunabo, Emerson met 14-year-old Rudolph W. Riefkohl and inquired, in German, whether he possessed a map of Puerto Rico, claiming that he had lost his own. Young Riefkohl confirmed that he had a map, though it was too large for Emerson's use. Unaware of Emerson's true purpose, Riefkohl returned home and quickly produced a new, smaller map highlighting the major ports and harbors of the island. This map was then handed to Emerson, who used it to assist U.S. military planning.
It is believed by some historians that Emerson later provided the map to the U.S. Army commanding general, Nelson A. Miles, potentially influencing the selection of landing points for the invasion. The significance of this act was later documented when a photostatic copy of Riefkohl's map appeared in the Century article, providing one of the earliest visual records of the intelligence work carried out by American spies in Puerto Rico.
This careful blend of espionage, local cooperation, and strategic reconnaissance ensured that when U.S. forces, including the 6th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, departed Camp Alger to join General Miles in Puerto Rico, they did so with an unprecedented level of intelligence about the island's geography and defensive positions.
Naval campaign in Puerto Rico (May 8–August 13)
First actions
The first engagement between the belligerents occurred on May 8, 1898, when the converted liner USS Yale captured a Spanish freighter, Rita, in San Juan Bay. On May 9, Yale fought a brief battle with Alfonso XIII, a Spanish auxiliary cruiser, resulting in a Spanish victory. Around this time, Captain Ángel Rivero Méndez was assigned the command of the Spanish forces at the Fortress of San Cristóbal in San Juan. On May 10, when Yale returned to San Juan Bay, Rivero-Méndez ordered his men to open fire on the steamer with an Ordoñez 15-centimeter cannon, the first combat in Puerto Rico of the Spanish–American War. For his actions, Rivero-Mendez was awarded the Cruz de la Orden de Mérito Militar (the Cross of the Order of the Military Merit) first class.
Bombardment of San Juan
The Bombardment of San Juan, or the First Battle of San Juan (not to be confused with the Battle of San Juan Hill or the Battle for the Río San Juan de Nicaragua), refers to the first American naval attack on the fortifications of San Juan, during the Spanish–American War. The American naval commanders believed the bulk of the Spanish fleet under Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete was steaming from the Cape Verde Islands to the Antilles, and ultimately to Puerto Rico. With this understanding, Rear Admiral William T. Sampson and a squadron of ten American warships, the battleships USS Iowa, Indiana, New York, cruisers USS Montgomery and Detroit, monitors USS Amphitrite and Terror, torpedo boat USS Porter, two unidentified auxiliary cruisers, and an unarmed collier had stood out from Havana at noon on May 2 bound for Puerto Rico. Sampson intended to intercept and destroy the Spanish squadron and then move on to attack secondary shore targets: San Juan's castles, forts and batteries. He was unaware that Topete had already eluded them and slipped his squadron into the Bay of Santiago.
On May 12, Sampson's squadron arrived at San Juan, finding an empty harbor. Making the best of the situation and as an exercise for his untested gunners, Sampson ordered the bombardment of the city's citadels. Captains Ramón Acha Caamaño and José Antonio Iriarte were among those who defended the city from Castillo San Felipe del Morro. They had three batteries under their command, which were armed with at least three 15 cm Ordóñez cannons. The battle lasted three hours and resulted in the death of Justo Esquivies, the first Puerto Rican soldier to die in the Puerto Rico campaign. Caamaño was awarded the Cruz de la Orden de Merito Militar (the Cross of the Order of the Military Merit) first class for his actions.
After causing much damage to the Spanish defenses and receiving minor damage, low on coal and ammunition, Sampson ordered a cease fire and returned to Havana, Cuba, and then on to Key West, Florida, for repairs and supplies.
Second Battle of San Juan
On June 22, 1898, USS Saint Paul under the command of Captain Charles Sigsbee arrived at San Juan Bay from Cuba and joined the blockade. Shortly after midday the old Spanish cruiser Isabel II set off from San Juan to engage Saint Paul with support from shore batteries. Isabel II opened fire on Saint Paul at long range without success in an attempt to break the blockade. Terror, a Spanish destroyer docked in San Juan for repairs, attempted to cover the cruiser's escape with a torpedo attack but was thwarted when her rudder was damaged by a direct hit from Saint Paul. Losing steerage, Terror inadvertently turned broadside, allowing Saint Paul to score direct hits near Terror's waterline, disabling one of her engines and causing her to list. Terror abandoned the attack and returned to port, followed by Isabel II. On June 26, USS Saint Paul was relieved by USS Yosemite, which continued the blockade of San Juan Bay.
Third Battle of San Juan
On June 28, 1898, the American auxiliary cruiser USS Yosemite fought with a squadron of Spanish warships. This squadron consisted of one cruiser, two gunboats, and one blockade runner. During the engagement, SS Antonio López, a transoceanic steamer belonging to the Compañía Transatlántica Española carrying a cargo of needed military supplies, was pursued by Yosemite until the Spanish freighter ran aground at Ensenada Honda, Puerto Rico, with her valuable cargo. Captain Caamaño was in charge of retrieving the ship's cargo and the men under his command quickly removed as much of it as possible. The desperate efforts proved fruitful, and nearly the entire cargo was salvaged from the hulk with only minor articles and a cannon that had fallen overboard during salvage attempts being lost.