by Wesley Harris
While the Spanish-American War was a pivotal moment in history that established the United States as a global power, its brevity (four months) and the timing (before the World Wars) contribute to its low profile in public knowledge today. In other words, most Americans do not know we fought a war with Spain.
It is barely, if ever, mentioned in history classes around the country. The memorial marker at the City Hall does not list the war among the conflicts in which Lincoln Parish men died.
The war, fought in 1898, stemmed mostly from American support for the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, fueled by sensationalist yellow journalism regarding Spanish atrocities. Following the mysterious sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in the Havana, Cuba harbor, the U. S. declared war. The short but decisive conflict resulted in swift American victories in Cuba and in the Pacific.
In the last week of April 1898, Captain Emmett Leroy Kidd of the Ruston Rifles visited Homer and possibly other local towns on a recruiting mission. A state guard unit, the Ruston infantry would soon be joining the rest of the First Louisiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment in New Orleans for shipment to Florida, the closest point in the United State to Cuba. Preparations would be made there to ready the men for the attack on Cuba.
The Ruston Rifles were organized as Company F of the state militia in 1887, just a few years after Ruston was formed. One writer reports formation of the company was a “patriotic movement. The younger men felt that some such organization was a part of their duty as young citizens; neither officers nor men received pay nor even uniforms for a number of years. The interest in the organization varied, of course, from year to year … when the war was declared in 1898, Company F came speedily into prominence. There was excitement, naturally, over the goodly number of youths and young men who were volunteering and the large number of younger youths who wanted to volunteer.”
Kidd, only twenty at the time of the war, needed more men, so just days before his regiment was scheduled to board a train that would carry them to Jackson, Mississippi and then to New Orleans, he was rushing to fill his ranks. In Homer, he signed up two men to join the thirty or so from Ruston. Telling his new recruits the company would be called the “North Louisiana Hill Company” with the inclusion of those outside Ruston, Kidd instructed them to join him in Ruston when notified.
Kidd left additional enlistment papers with Bridgeman who made the rounds to sign up others. At least one other Claiborne Parish man, Casper Morgan, joined the cause.
Kidd’s company left Ruston by train on May 1 to join the First Louisiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Organized and mustered into the service of the United States at New Orleans May 8-18, 1898, the regiment was composed of companies from various Louisiana communities with a total of 46 officers and 977 enlisted men. They left New Orleans on June 1, stayed briefly in Mobile, and arrived in Miami, Florida on June 26. The men were removed further north to Jacksonville on August 10.
Troops from across the nation flooded Florida ports like Tampa (main hub), Key West, and Jacksonville. The men concentrated in camps for training while awaiting transport the short distance to Cuba to launch the invasion to liberate the island from the Spanish. Tampa served as the primary staging area, especially for Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, with massive troop concentrations there. Jacksonville and Miami also hosted camps.
But a lack of transport vessels meant many of the units that traveled to Florida found themselves stuck there without a means to get to Cuba.
The Louisiana men suffered greatly in camp at Jacksonville. The food was awful, the climate debilitating, and disease was rampant.
Lieutenant William Marvin “Willie” Holland of Ruston and Quartermaster Sergeant James N. Goff of Bienville Parish but attending Louisiana Tech in Ruston, were part of the Ruston Rifles serving with the Claiborne men. Holland died of typhoid fever on August 31, 1898, and Goff of the same disease on October 2, just one day before his unit was relieved to be sent home.
The First Louisiana was mustered out of the service of the United States at Jacksonville on October 3, 1898, with 42 officers and 1,114 enlisted men. Despite never seeing combat and never even reaching Cuba, 17 Louisiana men died. Four officers died of disease. Among the enlisted men 10 died of disease, one was killed by accident, one drowned, and one was murdered. Ten men deserted.
Holland and Goff were the only Ruston Rifles to die during the deployment. Only Holland is buried in the Vienna Cemetery; Goff is interred at the Old Mount Calm Cemetery in Bienville Parish.
While the company never reached the battlefield, the men were ready to do their duty. Only the lack of transportation and the brevity of the war kept them from combat.
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 global power, especially in the Pacific. A peace treaty compelled the Spanish to relinquish claims on Cuba, and to cede 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 and to pursue its strategic and economic interests in Asia.
The Lincoln Parish Memorial at City Hall includes servicemen killed during wartime, whether by combat, illness, or accident. Space exists to add Holland and Goff as Spanish-American War casualties. Their addition would acknowledge the small group of men who volunteered to protect their community and their nation.
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Note: Kidd’s house at 609 N. Vienna now serves as the Lincoln Parish Museum.
