Spain declared war on the United States on 23 April 1898– after a pretty intolerable ultimatum from Washington that included a call for 125,000 volunteers and orders for a naval blockade of Cuba– and the U.S. Congress eagerly reciprocated and voted to go to war against Spain two days later.
“The man behind the gun will settle this war,” Puck cover, published by Keppler & Schwarzmann, 1898 July 13. LOC LC-DIG-ppmsca-28717
The future Secretary of State John Hay described the ensuing conflict as a “splendid little war” and for good reason, as it was a fairly lopsided string of victories (with Spanish wins at Tayacoba, Manzanillo, and Mani-Mani forgotten to history) and, after much bloodletting, a cease-fire was announced on 12 August, closing the very modern ten-week war fought across the Caribbean and the Pacific.
While the Navy folded several captured Spanish ships into the U.S. fleet— some of which remained in service until the 1950s!— other more enduring relics and monuments dot the country.
One gun, an M1860 Trubia 6.3-inch MLR that sat at the U.S. Naval Magazine at Subic until it closed in 1992, was subsequently removed by Seabees and brought to Gulfport, then donated to the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum at Camp Shelby in 2006, where it remains today.
The circa 1862 M1860 Trubia gun, formerly a gate guard at the U.S. Navy Magazine, Subic Bay, now at Camp Shelby.
How it looked back prior to 1992
Nowhere has more SpanAm War markers and monuments than Arlington.
These include the USS Maine Mast Memorial (Section 24), the Spanish-American War Memorial (Section 22), the Spanish-American War Nurses Memorial (Section 21), the Rough Riders Monument (Section 22), and the Buffalo Soldiers Memorial (Section 22) as well as hundreds of graves of servicemembers who served during the conflict.