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From history.state.gov: The Spanish-American War of 1898 ended Spain’s colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere and secured the position of the United States as a Pacific power. U.S. victory in the war produced a peace treaty that compelled the Spanish to relinquish claims on Cuba, and to cede sovereignty over Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to the United States. The United States also annexed the independent state of Hawaii during the conflict. Thus, the war enabled the United States to establish its predominance in the Caribbean region and to pursue its strategic and economic interests in Asia.

The war that erupted in 1898 between the United States and Spain was preceded by three years of fighting by Cuban revolutionaries to gain independence from Spanish colonial rule. From 1895–1898, the violent conflict in Cuba captured the attention of Americans because of the economic and political instability that it produced in a region within such close geographical proximity to the United States. The long-held U.S. interest in ridding the Western Hemisphere of European colonial powers and American public outrage over brutal Spanish tactics created much sympathy for the Cuban revolutionaries. By early 1898, tensions between the United States and Spain had been mounting for months. After the U.S. battleship Maine exploded and sank in Havana harbor under mysterious circumstances on February 15, 1898, U.S. military intervention in Cuba became likely.

On April 11, 1898, President William McKinley asked Congress for authorization to end the fighting in Cuba between the rebels and Spanish forces, and to establish a “stable government” that would “maintain order” and ensure the “peace and tranquility and the security” of Cuban and U.S. citizens on the island. On April 20, the U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution that acknowledged Cuban independence, demanded that the Spanish government give up control of the island, foreswore any intention on the part of the United States to annex Cuba, and authorized McKinley to use whatever military measures he deemed necessary to guarantee Cuba’s independence.

The Spanish government rejected the U.S. ultimatum and immediately severed diplomatic relations with the United States. McKinley responded by implementing a naval blockade of Cuba on April 22 and issued a call for 125,000 military volunteers the following day. That same day, Spain declared war on the United States, and the U.S. Congress voted to go to war against Spain on April 25.

The first battle was fought on May 1, in Manila Bay, where Commodore George Dewey’s Asiatic Squadron defeated the Spanish naval force defending the Philippines. On June 10, U.S. troops landed at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and additional forces landed near the harbor city of Santiago on June 22 and 24. After isolating and defeating the Spanish Army garrisons in Cuba, the U.S. Navy destroyed the Spanish Caribbean squadron on July 3 as it attempted to escape the U.S. naval blockade of Santiago.

On July 26, at the behest of the Spanish government, the French ambassador in Washington, Jules Cambon, approached the McKinley Administration to discuss peace terms, and a cease-fire was signed on August 12. The war officially ended four months later, when the U.S. and Spanish governments signed the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. Apart from guaranteeing the independence of Cuba, the treaty also forced Spain to cede Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States. Spain also agreed to sell the Philippines to the United States for the sum of $20 million. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty on February 6, 1899, by a margin of only one vote.

Name	Date of Death	Unit	Cemetery	Additonal Info
Butcher, Clyde	12/29/1937	Co G, 1st So Dak Inf	Oak Hill	Obituary
Cheever, Frederick	11/18/1950	Co D, 49th Iowa Inf	Armstrong Grove	Biography
Hawk, Charles	07/18/1940	Co K, 52nd Iowa Inf	East Side	Obituary
Hays, Sydney	03/25/1946	Co I, 2nd US Vol Cavalry	Armstrong Grove	Obituary
Heyer, Ernest	11/14/1921	Co F, 52nd Iowa Inf	Oak Hill	Obituary
Oelkers, Aaron F.	04/25/1943	Co C, 4th Wis Inf	Oak Hill	Obituary
Pullen, Thomas	05/21/1929	Co K, 52nd Iowa Inf	Oak Hill	Obituary
Rose, Charles	04/13/1920	Co K, 52nd Iowa Inf	Oak Hill	Obituary
Story, Frederick	10/30/1961	Co E, 52nd Iowa Inf	East Side	Obituary
Torrence, Charles A.	01/30/1938	Co E, 1st North Carolina Inf	Oak Hill	Obituary
Willey, Charles	05/01/1943	Co L, 50th Iowa Inf OR 51st Iowa Inf	East Side	Obituary

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