NEGenWeb Project
Spanish American War
Compiled by Fred Greguras
Camp Reynolds, Jacksonville, FL (See Camp Cuba Libre)
Camp Richards, Cheyenne, WY
| • | Named after the Wyoming wartime governor, William A. Richards. |
| • | Muster in camp in May, 1898 for the 1st Wyo. Vol. Inf. The camp was located at the fairgrounds according to the state adjutant general’s report for the year ending December 15, 1898. At that time, the fairgrounds were located northwest of Cheyenne where Frontier Park is today near Fort D.A. Russell (presently Francis E. Warren Air Force Base). |
| • | The 2nd U.S. Vol. Cav. was organized and mustered in at Fort D.A. Russell at Cheyenne from about May 17, 1898 until June 22, 1898. According to source (12), most of the troops used barracks as quarters but some troops were housed in tents. |
Camp Riche, Galveston, TX (See Camp Hawley)
| • | Named for Col. Charles Swift Riche, an 1886 graduate of West Point who was the engineer in charge of fortifications in Galveston just prior to the Spanish American War. He was also Colonel of the Galveston volunteer “immune” regiment (1st U.S. Vol. Inf.). |
| • | According to Shelley Henley Kent, Assistant Archivist of Galveston’s Rosenberg Library: “ . . . it seems that incoming troops were temporarily camped at the beach park located south of Avenue Q at the beach between 23rd and 24th Streets which is referred to as “Camp Riche.” The June 2, 1898 Galveston Daily News identifies Camp Riche as being at the ballpark. |
| • | This was the camp of the 1st U.S. Vol. Inf. at the New Orleans fairgrounds from about July 23, 1898 to August 18, 1898 when the regiment returned to Galveston where it had been assembled and mustered in. |
| • | This camp was renamed Camp Houston on August 4, 1898 in honor of Sam Houston of Texas. |
Camp Roe, Macon, GA (See Camp Price)
| • | This was the muster out camp of the 1st Georgia according to articles in the early November, 1898 editions of the Atlanta Constitution. Articles in the Constitution and other newspapers in late September, 1898 and October 1, 1898 identify the 1st Georgia as being at Camp Price, the camp of the 3rd U.S. Vol. Camp Price was the name of the camp at Central Park until August 6, 1898 so when the 1st Georgia arrived the old name would likely have been used. The 1st Georgia was in Macon from about September 23, 1898 until muster out on November 18-19, 1898. Most of the troops were on leave for the month of October. The 1st Georgia moved out to the Ocmulgee Lands according to the October 10, 1898 Knoxville Sentinel because of Camp Price being on low ground and having poor drainage. The 1st Georgia reported for duty at the “new” camp about November 1, 1898 according to the November 1, 1898 Atlanta Constitution. The November 7 edition identifies the camp location as Ocmulgee Park. This new camp was Camp Roe. |
| • | Named for General John I. Rogers, Chief of Artillery of the U.S. Army, according to the May 26, 1898 Tampa Tribune. According to the article, the camp was to be the headquarters of the artillery batteries to be sent to Cuba. |
| • | According to the May 26 article, the camp was located on the banks of the Hillsborough River, but a Fourth Corps map places the camp east of the river. Further, in Herbert O. Hicks and Fred A. Simmons, Company M and Adams with the War with Spain, published by Adams Freeman Paris, 1899, the 2nd Mass established camp at Ybor City on May 30, 1898 which according to page 30, was “near the heavy artillery.” Another reference in the Tampa Tribune places the camp northeast of Tampa which is consistent with the Ybor City location. |
| • | A battalion of the 1st Florida was moved from Camp Desoto to this camp on June 30, 1898. The July 2, 1898
Florida Times-Union and Citizen described this camp as follows: “Formidable Artillery
Camp. From the camp at Palmetto Beach to the new home of the battalion attached to General Rogers’ command of heavy artillery is nearly two miles. Just about due north. This distance was accomplished in quick time, and by noon the boys had their tents pitched and were quite in camp shape again. As they marched up to their new quarters an ocular survey was made of the surroundings, and as all of the boys “took the surrounds in” they became thoroughly satisfied with the location. The camp of the heavy artillery is situated on that part of Tampa Heights lying northeast of Ybor City, and is the beginning of what is locally known as College Hill. The street car line between the city and the dam runs within a few yards of the camp: in fact, a number of the big guns connected with the camp are on flat cars standing on switches on either side of the main track. The large pyramids of feed for the draught animals attached to the camp are built near the track, and it is an occurrence of every trip that the motormen have to clear the track of some of the feed, which has slipped down on the rails. This camp is the most formidable of all in this vicinity—it is a whole fort in itself. Through the camp streets are drawn up lines of long, keen-looking guns. Around the outer line of tents are big guns, mortars, and howitzers. These latter are of seven-inch caliber, and are terrors, even while silent, their short, stubby bodies and large yawning mussies giving one and idea of the fearful havoc they could visit upon the enemy. Long rows of flat cars hold guns mounted for action, and unmounted monsters which glitter in the sunlight. An enemy who could look upon this camp would be very reluctant to make an attack upon it.” |
| • | The College Hill area is northeast of downtown Tampa beginning at about 22nd Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. |
| • | According to source (8), the camp established on May 21, 1898 as a camp of the battalion of siege artillery and was abandoned about August 20, 1898. The location given is Ybor City. Source (4) also identifies the site as Ybor City. |
| • | Muster in site for 1st and 2nd Wash. Vol. Inf. during May and July 1898, respectively. The camp was named Camp John R. Rogers in honor of the Washington governor. The Camp Murray Story, published by the Washington National Guard, 1959, indicates the 1st Washington assembled there. James B. Dahlquist in “Our Splendid Little War”, 14 Columbia, No. 1 (Spring 2000) indicates Camp Rogers was south of Tacoma where Pierce County Transit bus barns are located. The bus barn site is several miles north of Camp Murray. Mr. Dahlquist’s location appears to be the correct site. |
| • | Camp Murray, adjacent to the Fort Lewis Military Reservation, was named after an early pioneer family. The nearby railroad station was “Murray Station” named after “Murray Creek” which was named after a pioneer family according to The Camp Murray Story. It was the Washington National Guard annual campsite in 1890 and 1892 and became a permanent campsite for the guard about 1903. |
Camp Dan Russell, Raleigh, NC (See Camp at Fort Macon and Camp Bryan Grimes)
| • | Named after Daniel L. Russell, the wartime governor of North Carolina. |
| • | Muster in site for 2nd N.C. Vol. Inf. regiment according to Steelman, North Carolina’s Role in the Spanish-American War, North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1975. The regiment was mustered out in mid-September, 1898. |
| • | The 2nd’s camp was located at the fairgrounds according to Annual Report of the Adjutant-General of North Carolina for 1898, 1899. The Report does not mention the name of the camp, Camp Dan Russell, but source (4) does as does the Steelman booklet. The fairgrounds were then located at what is now a residential and business district across from the North Carolina State University campus. The Raleigh Little Theater at 301 Pogue Street now occupies part of the site. |
Camp Sadler, Carson City, NV (See Camp Clark, NV)
| • | Reinhold Sadler was acting governor of Nevada when the Spanish American War began and was elected governor in the 1898 election. |
| • | Camp Sadler was established in June, 1898 at the racetrack, east of the capital building, at the southeast edge of Carson City. The track was east of Robb Street, south of Palo Verde Drive and north of 5th street. The site was reportedly crowded, had no shade and the racetrack’s owner wanted the camp moved so the track could be prepared for the fall racing season. In mid-August, the troops were moved to Treadway Park to the northwest of Carson City. This second camp was named Camp Clark. The troops were mustered out by late October, 1898. |
| • | See, generally, Philip Earl’s unpublished masters thesis, Sagebrush Volunteers: Nevadans in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection, 1896-1900. |
Camp Sague, Hawaii, HI (See Camp McKinley, Honolulu, HI)
| • | Named after Major John Sague of the 1st N.Y. who was in command of the detachments primarily of Companies K and M that visited the volcano of Kilauea on the island of Hawaii in late November, 1898. |
| • | A November 24, 1898 letter from a member of Company I of the 1st N.Y. indicates the camp was near the crater of the volcano about two miles from the volcano house “in a large [koa] grove with lots of dead wood on the ground.” The troops were there for only three days. |
Camp Sampson, Key West, FL (See J.B. Gibbs General Hospital and Camp Haywood)
| • | Named after Admiral William T. Sampson, commanding the North Atlantic naval squadron. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. |
| • | Camp of the 1st Battalion, U.S. Marines until the unit departed for Cuba. The 1st Marine Battalion assembled at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It arrived at Key West on May 24 and left Key West for Cuba on June 7, 1898. The battalion’s acting assistant surgeon was John Blair Gibbs. |
| • | The campsite was 2 miles from the docks. The May 24, 1898 Marion (OH) Daily Star reported that the camp was at “La Brisa, on the outskirts of the city.” The camp was likely near the La Brisa Villa which was on the south side of the key just west of the airport. |
Camp Sanger, Near Kansas City, MO (See Camp Jackson, MO)
Camp Sanger, Lexington, KY (See Camp Hamilton, KY)
| • | Possible early name for Camp Hamilton as Brig. Gen. Joseph P. Sanger was an officer in the First Corps, part of the troops moved from Chickamauga Park to Lexington at the end of the war. |
Sanger General Hospital, Camp Thomas, Chickamauga Park, GA
Camp Santa Mesa, Philippine Islands
| • | Near Manila. Inscription on a stereoview says “3 miles North East of Manila.” |
| • | The 1st Neb. Vol. Inf. was camped here. |
| • | Photo in Neely, Fighting in the Philippines, F. Tennyson Neely publisher, 1899, with the caption “Nebraska boys in camp at Santa Mesa” |
Camp Alvin Saunders, Lincoln, NE (See Camp Meiklejohn)
| • | Named after the Nebraska territorial governor in office during the Civil War. |
| • | This was the camp of the first brigade, Nebraska National Guard, consisting of the 1st and 2nd Neb. Vol. Inf. beginning April 26, 1898. The 3rd Neb. Vol. Inf. camped at Fort Omaha beginning about June 12, 1898. The 1st Neb. left Lincoln for San Francisco on May 16, 1898, and the 2nd Neb. left Lincoln for Camp Thomas on May 19, 1898. |
| • | From 1897-98 Report of the Adjutant General of Nebraska, pages 45-47: “The brigade encampment north of the city of Lincoln, near the city limits, on a plat of ground known as the Lancaster County Fairgrounds. The ground was of ample size and sloping gently affording good natural drainage, and were lighted by electricity connected with the city circuit. A line of water pipes had been laid and connected with the city mains affording an abundant supply of good water. Previous to the arrival of the troops, the camp was laid out so as to conform as nearly as possible to the form given in the United States Army drill regulations and staked off in the most convenient manner taking into consideration the lay of the ground and the buildings thereon. The First Regiment encamped on the south side of the encampment grounds and the Second Regiment on the east. The regiments were divided into battalions of four companies each and were assigned to places according to rank. … The regimental bands encamped on the right of their respective regiments. The line and field officers were encamped in their proper places with their respective regiments. The general headquarters was located in the secretary’s building on the Fairgrounds. . . . The camp had been designated Camp Alvin Saunders in honor of the Territorial War Governor, Honorable Alvin Saunders, and the only living [civil] war governor of the States today.” |
| • | At page 7 of the Report, it states that the two regiments were ordered to mobilize at the “old fairgrounds” in Lincoln. Although there are differences in references to the fairgrounds, the site of the camp was the state fairgrounds, then referred to as the Lancaster County Fairgrounds, according to Hartman, Nebraska Militia: The History of the Army and Air National Ground, 1854-1991, published by Donning, 1994, pages 52-53. The fairground is still located at 1800 State Fair Drive in Lincoln. There are no buildings at the fairgrounds remaining from the 1898 period. |
| • | Named for Lt. William E. Shipp of the 10th Cavalry who was KIA on July 1, 1898 near Santiago, Cuba. He is buried at Lincolnton, North Carolina. |
| • | The camp was established after the war on September 3, 1898 and existed through January, 1899. The 2nd Infantry was there until mid-March, 1899. There were five regiments of state volunteers there throughout much of the winter. A February 28, 1899 report published in the March 11, 1899 Army and Navy Journal stated “Camp Shipp is fast disintegrating” because of all the departures of troops. |
| • | From a photograph description of Camp Shipp in the Alabama Room collection of the Anniston Public Library: “Encampment formed at Blue Mountain after the Spanish American War. [Blue Mountain is in the north part of Anniston.] … At the end of the Spanish-American War in August, 1898, and with a final peace settlement still in the future, the U.S. Army deemed it unwise to muster out troops and needed a suitable site to quarter a large reserve force. Anniston was chosen. … Camp Shipp was located in the vicinity of Union Foundry in West Anniston.” |
| • | From Gates, The Model City of the New South, Strode Publishers, Inc., 1978, pages 140-143: “The well-drained hill just west of the American Pipe and Foundry Company was designated as the location for General Royal T. Frank’s headquarters and the first regiment. … As additional troops from the Third Tennessee and Fourteenth New York arrived, the camp spread to the hills north and east of the Hercules Pipe Company. Parades were held on the grounds of the old Anniston Inn, which was a college. … Noble Street was dotted with hastily erected tents used as restaurants for the thriving business of Camp Shipp soldiers. [Noble Street runs north and south almost through the entire city on present day maps.] … The medical facilities were the pride of the camp. In the first two months in Anniston, 636 patients were treated, with only 20 deaths reported. The hospital had been moved from Chickamauga, where an outbreak of illness was attributed to infected wells, flies, and unskilled nurses. A War Investigating Committee thoroughly inspected the hospital in October and noted considerable improvement since removal to Anniston. … By late October, several changes were made for the coming of winter. Each soldier was issued two blankets and a heavy overcoat. Every three tents were consolidated with added wooden floors and boxed sides. Wooden kitchens, mess halls, and a new division hospital were built. … Annistonians hoped that Camp Shipp would be permanent. By the end of January, however, troops began to move out. Some were discharged, some regiments were sent on to Cuba, and the 300 camp mules were ordered to Manila. … The last patient was discharged and the hospital closed in March. Even the building was removed.” |
| • | The Alabama winter was not pleasant. A February 14, 1899 report in the February 25, 1899 Army and Navy Journal indicates temperatures had reached 14 degrees below zero and that “life in tents is not what one might call comfortable.” |
Josiah Simpson General Hospital, Fort Monroe, VA
| • | Josiah Simpson was an army surgeon who served in the Second Seminole War, Mexican War and Civil War. He died in 1874. |
| • | The Fort Monroe post hospital became a general hospital during the war according to Weinert & Arthur, Defender of the Chesapeake: The Story of Fort Monroe, Leeward Publications, Inc., 1978, page 172. This hospital was at the northwest corner of the parade ground and was replaced by a barracks in 1902. War-time photographs show a large tent camp adjacent to the hospital, presumably additional hospital wards. |
| • | The 1st Maryland Vol. Inf. camped at various locations in the vicinity of Fort Monroe from late May until early September, 1898, as a guard for the post. |
| • | Named for the battalion commander, Captain W.H. Stayton. |
| • | Camp of the second battalion of the New York Naval Militia. The camp is shown in a two-page photo in Photographic History of the Spanish-American War, Pearson Publishing Co., 1898, pages 96-97. |
| • | Bath Beach is a Brooklyn neighborhood along lower New York Bay southeast of Fort Hamilton. The second battalion’s headquarters was at the foot of 56th Street in Brooklyn. |
Camp Robert B. Smith, Helena, MT
| • | Named after then Governor Smith of Montana. |
| • | This was the assembly and muster in camp in May, 1898 for the 1st Mont. Vol. Inf. prior to its departure on May 25 for San Francisco. The volunteers began arriving in Helena on May 4, 1898. |
| • | According to Lacey, The Montana Militia: A History of Montana’s Volunteer Forces, 1867-1976, 1976, the camp was located near the Broadwater Hotel, which was about 3 miles west of Helena along Mullan Road. This location became too muddy and was abandoned for another location closer to Helena. Camp Smith was first located near the Broadwater Hotel, three miles west of Helena along Mullan Road, according to Mills, “Brilliant and Faithful Service;” The 1st Montana Volunteer Infantry in the Philippines, Journal of America’s Military Past, Winter, 2002, page 13. The camp was relocated because of the soggy conditions to a location just east of Central Park in Helena according to the Mills article. |
Camp Snelling, Minneapolis, MN (See Camp Ramsey)
| • | Named for Colonel Simon Snyder, 19th Infantry (Brigadier General, U.S. Volunteers) according to the October 4, 1898 Gettysburg Compiler, who had commanded a West Virginia regiment during the Civil War. General Snyder was the initial commanding officer of the third division of the First Corps. He is buried in Charles Evans Cemetery in Reading, Pennsylvania. |
| • | This was the camp of the 2nd W.V. Vol. Inf. which was at Gettysburg from September 27 to October 3, 1898. The regiment marched there from Camp Meade for the dedication ceremonies of the West Virginia monuments on the battlefield. Camp Snyder was just west of Seminary Ridge and just south of Fairfield Road (Hagerstown Road; Route 116) “to the west of the residence of J.O. Blocher.” A National Park Service historian indicated the camp was adjacent to Schultz Woods at the intersection of West Confederate Avenue and Fairfield Road, which is consistent with the above location |
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©2005 Fred Greguras
