NEGenWeb Project
Spanish American War
Compiled by Fred Greguras
Camp Houston, New Orleans, LA (See Camp Riche, New Orleans, LA)
Camp Jackson, Jacksonville, FL (See Camp Cuba Libre)
Camp Jackson, Near Kansas City, MO
| • | Camps Jackson and Sanger were the camps of the 3rd and 5th Missouri Vol. Inf. regiments, respectively, when the regiments first returned to Kansas City in September, 1898. It was the 5th’s camp beginning about September 8 and the 3rd’s beginning about September 9. There was friction between the two regiments. The officers could not agree on who should command the camp or who it should be named after so two separate camps were created. |
| • | The camps were located at Fairmount Park which was at the east edge of Kansas City in what is now the Sugar Hill area. This once popular 50-acre park closed in the 1930s and the site is occupied by homes and the Sugar Creek ballpark. The main entrance to the park was at Highway 24 (Independence Ave.) and Willow Ave. The park extended north from Highway 24. The 3rd was camped to the west of the 5th regiment. |
| • | According to the Kansas City Times, Camp Jackson was named after Jackson County, Missouri where the camp was located and Camp Sanger was named after Brigadier General Joseph P. Sanger, commanding officer of the third division of the First Corps. |
| • | In late October, following return from furlough, cold and rain forced the troops to move inside. The 5th moved into the old Priests of Pallas Den at the southeast corner of 6th and Lydia Avenues in Kansas City on October 18. The 5th’s “camp” was named Camp Compton, after Brigadier General Charles E. Compton, U.S.V. Compton was the commanding officer of the second division of the Third Corps. The 5th Missouri was in the second brigade of the second division of the Third Corps for most of its time in active service. The 5th was at Camp Compton until its muster out on November 9, 1898. |
| • | The 3rd Missouri Vol. Inf. was camped at Camp Jackson from about September 9 to October 21, 1898 and then at “Graham Barracks” in Kansas City until muster out on November 7, 1898. This is also referred to as Camp Graham in the Kansas City Times. Graham Barracks was located in the five story Builders and Traders Exchange Building in the old garment district at the northwest corner of 7th and Central. This 1890 building still exists as part of the Historic Suites of America hotel. The Graham was very likely Major General William Graham who commanded the First Corps during the time the 3rd Missouri was assigned to it. |
Camp Jewett, Nyack-on-Hudson, NY (See Camp Walworth)
Camp Johnston, Mobile, AL (See Camps Clark and Coppinger, AL)
| • | Probably named after Joseph F. Johnston, who was governor of Alabama during Spanish American War. The other possibility is Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston. |
| • | This was the muster in camp “near” Mobile for the 2nd Ala. Vol. Inf. Abandoned about June 24, 1898. Muster in and recruiting camp established in the Mobile suburbs in May, 1898 according to source (8). This camp was adjacent to Camp Clark, the camp of the lst Ala. Vol. Inf. |
| • | The June 17, 1898 New Orleans Times-Democrat refers to Camp Johnston as the “beautiful camp on the side of Mobile Bay” and that the location is “near Monroe Park.” |
Camp Kaalawai, Honolulu, HI (See Camp McKinley, Honolulu, HI)
| • | Named after Colonel Jacob F. Kent, commanding officer of the 24th U.S. Infantry, the primary unit at Fort Douglas at the outset of the Spanish American War. Kent was appointed a Major General of Volunteers in May, 1898. He was the initial commanding officer of the first division of the Fifth Corps. |
| • | Arrington & Alexander, The U.S. Army Overlooks Salt Lake Valley 1862-1965, Utah Hist. Quarterly, Fall, 1963, page 326, indicates that most federal troops were withdrawn from Fort Douglas at the outbreak of the Spanish American War and when the Utah Light Artillery was mobilized, the state unit trained at Fort Douglas. |
| • | According to The History of the Utah Volunteers in the Spanish-American War and in the Philippine Islands, published by W.F. Ford, 1900, Fort Douglas was the mustering rendezvous for all Utah units. According to its regimental history Camp Kent was the camp of the Utah Light Artillery batteries: Charles R. Mabey, The Utah Batteries: A History, published by Daily Reporter Co., 1900. “On May 3, 1898 tents were pitched on the lower parade ground at Fort Douglas where the camp was located.” The First Troop, Utah Volunteer Cavalry was also at Camp Kent from about May 11, 1898 to May 24, 1898 when the troop departed for Camp Merritt in San Francisco. |
Camp at Fort Knox, Prospect, ME
| • | According to Kenneth Thompson of Portland, ME, there was an apparently unnamed camp located on the Fort Knox Reservation, across the river from Bucksport. “Special Order No. 122, dated 6 June, from HQ, Department of the East was received at Camp Haven, CT that the colonel, unassigned field officers, and six companies should proceed to and take station at Fort Knox. While two companies of the regiment (F, K) were already posted at Camp Burdett in Portland Harbor, Colonel Burdett and four companies (A, D, G, H) arrived at Fort Knox on 10 June. A formal camp was laid out in a clearing southwest of the old fort just below an old railroad embankment. Recruits left Hartford at different times later in the month, and brought those companies to full strength. The troops practiced on the old artillery guns, as well as at the new rifle range that was constructed. And, they marched in the fourth of July parade in Bangor. A newly recruited company (L) arrived on 10 July, just before the receipt of Special Order No. 152, dated 11 July, which ordered all elements of the 1st Conn Inf. to report back to Camp Haven, CT. On 14 July the regiment left the area.” |
Camp at Lakeland, FL (See Camp Morton)
Camp Langfitt, Honolulu, HI (See Camp McKinley, Honolulu, HI)
| • | Named after Major William Campbell Langfitt, commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd U.S. Volunteer Engineers. |
| • | This camp was established at Pearl City by the battalion during its survey of Pearl Harbor and was occupied from about September 26 to October 19, 1898. It was located at Remond Grove, an early picnic and recreation area. Remond Grove was south of Kamehameha Highway, east of Lehua Avenue and primarily north of the H1 highway in the vicinity of Sunset Memorial Cemetery. |
| • | Named after Major General Henry W. Lawton. From Hoosiers of Note web site: By the time of the Spanish-American War (1898) he was a colonel. In that same year, Lawton was brevetted a major general of volunteers for his gallantry on August 3, 1864, in the Civil War. He first saw duty as the second division commander of the Fifth Corps in Cuba and then was sent to the Philippines to command the defense of Manila. On December 13, 1899, Lawton was leading an attack at San Mateo. While walking along the firing line wearing a white helmet and a yellow raincoat, a sharpshooter’s bullet struck him in the chest. He fell into the arms of a staff officer. His last words were “I am shot.” |
| • | Lawton was awarded the Medal of Honor during the Civil War. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. |
| • | Occupation camp and probable assembly point for the first Puerto Rican Expedition which sailed from Guantanamo on July 21, 1898. |
Camp Fitzhugh Lee, Columbia, SC (See Camp Dewey, SC)
| • | Lee was the initial commanding officer of the Seventh Corps. |
| • | This was the camp of the 2nd S.C. Vol. Inf. from about May 24 to September 15, 1898. |
| • | The camp was at Shandon in the east central area of the city. Referred to as “Shandon Hill,” in “southeastern suburb” of Columbia in Floyd, Historical Roster and Itinerary of South Carolina Volunteer Troops Who Served in the Late War Between the United States and Spain, 1898, published by R.L. Bryan Company, 1901. |
| • | Named after Robert E. Lee. |
| • | All three regiments of Virginia volunteers responding to the first call for volunteers were camped at Richmond beginning in early May, 1898. The volunteers had all departed from Camp Lee by June 6, 1898. |
| • | This camp was located at the state fairgrounds, according to the Report of the Adjutant General of Virginia, 1898-1899, 1899, page 35. The fairgrounds were then located just north of where the Science Museum of Virginia (former Broad Street Railroad Station) is located at 2500 West Broad Street in Richmond. Virginia troops also assembled at Camp Lee at this same site at the beginning of the Civil War. |
Camp Lee, Charleston, WV (See Camp Atkinson)
| • | This was the assembly/muster in camp of the 1st W.V. Vol. Inf. |
| • | Eighteen companies of the West Virginia National Guard pitched their tents at Camp Lee in what is now Kanawha City, a part of Charleston. The 1st W.V. Vol. Inf. was formed from these companies. |
| • | From The West Virginia Heritage Encyclopedia, Vol. 9, The Soldiery of West Virginia, published by Jim Comstock, 1974, page 225: “[T]he Governor, on May 2nd ensuing, ordered the Brigade of our State, Brigadier General B.D. Spillman commanding, to mobilize at Kanawha City, on the south side of the Great Kanawha, about a mile above where the steel bridge spans that river, at Charleston, the capital of the State. There was a ready response to the order of the Commander-in-Chief, and in a few days, the eighteen companies composing the two regiments of the Brigade were at the place of rendezvous, and had spread their tents at Camp Lee. On May 20th, the regiment left Camp Lee for Chickamauga, Tennessee.” |
| • | Named for the Kansas governor, John W. Leedy, at the beginning of the Spanish American War |
| • | This was the muster in site for all Kansas regiments. The 20th Kansas Vol. Inf. spent about 3 weeks at Camp Leedy until departing for San Francisco on May 16, 1898 |
| • | The camp was in the south part of Topeka at the Topeka fairgrounds. According to source (8), the old fairgrounds were at 17th Street and Topeka Avenue. This site is currently the Kansas Expocenter. |
Leiter General Hospital, Camp Thomas, Chickamauga Park, GA
| • | Levi Zeigler Leiter was a wealthy Chicago department store pioneer and entrepreneur. He was an early partner of Marshall Field. |
| • | “Formerly the Park Hotel, at Camp Thomas, bought by Mrs. [L.Z.] Leiter, of Washington, and given to the government for use as a hospital. There were accommodations for 350 men in the hospital wards, which were fully equipped with all modern appliances,” according to the caption on a photo of the hospital. |
| • | Caption on another photo: “Formerly Park Hotel at Crawfish Springs, GA. A $10,000 gift to the Government by Mrs. Mary T. Leiter of Chicago, Ills., for the comfort of the Boys in Camp Thomas.” A Leiter Hospital sign is on the outside of the building in the photo. |
| • | The following is from Chapter 7, Disease and Death in the U.S. Camps, The Army Medical Department 1865-1917 by Mary C. Gillen: “When a number of patients exceeded the capacity of both regimental and division facilities, [Surgeon General] Sternberg had a general hospital set up in a converted modern hotel used by summer vacationers in Chickamauga Park, Georgia, near both the camp and the rail line to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Although “well managed,” the new Leiter General Hospital, too, was “sadly overcrowded” by August, with 255 beds in a space that should hold no more than 130…. A second general hospital, named after Sternberg and, like all general hospitals, under the surgeon general’s direct authority, was opened at Camp Thomas in August with a 750-bed capacity and a staff more than double that of Leiter’s. … When the 1st Division of the I Corps left for the ports from which they would sail for Puerto Rico in late July, its hospital had to remain behind because space could not be found for its 153 patients at Leiter. Another 500-bed division hospital that also remained behind at Chickamauga became the Sanger General Hospital (later renamed after Alexander H. Hoff)….” |
| • | The June 6, 1898 New Orleans Times–Democrat reported that the “Chickamauga Park Hotel” had been purchased by Mrs. Leiter and would be used as a general hospital. After remodeling, the hospital opened in mid-June. |
| • | The September 29, 1898 New Orleans Daily Picayune reported that Leiter Hospital, “the largest general hospital at Camp Thomas during the summer” would be closed within a week to 10 days. |
Camp Lincoln, Springfield, IL (See Camp Tanner)
| • | Named after Abraham Lincoln. |
| • | Was then and continues to be the Illinois National Guard Camp at the west edge of the city. |
| • | “In 1898, year of the Spanish-American War, the National Guard was sent to Cuba. Camp Lincoln, it has been noted, was too small for wartime maneuvers, so the state fairgrounds, dignified by the name of Camp Tanner, became the mobilization point.” Illinois Writers Project, Camp Lincoln, at page 284. The fairgrounds are only a short distance to the northeast of Camp Lincoln. |
| • | Camp Lincoln was the muster out camp for the 5th and 6th Ill. Vol. Inf. regiments. |
Camp Lindsay (Lindsey), Fort Leavenworth, KS
| • | Named after Henry C. Lindsey, regimental colonel of the 22nd Kansas. The Kansas City Times spells his name “Lindsay” and has the camp name as “Lindsay” but later unit rosters and other sources indicate the spelling to be “Lindsey.” |
| • | This was the muster out camp of the 22nd Kansas from September 12 to November 3, 1898. |
Camp Long, Kittery, ME (See Camp Haywood)
| • | State encampment site was named after the Adjutant General Woodford H. Mabry when the camp was established in 1892. Mabry died in Havana, Cuba of illness January 4, 1899 while commanding the 1st Texas Vol. Inf. |
| • | The camp continues at the same site and under the same name today northwest of Austin. |
| • | Muster in site in May, 1898, for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Texas Vol. Inf. and the 1st Texas Vol. Cav. |
| • | Named after Ranald S. MacKenzie, of Civil War and Indian Wars fame. |
| • | Initially informally named Camp Young after Major General Samuel B.M. Young, the second commanding officer of the Second Corps, headquartered at Augusta, according to Turner, Story of the Fifteenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, Lessand Printing Co., 1899, pages 92-93. |
| • | Stories in the Augusta Chronicle in late 1898 reported that Augusta, Athens and Americus were selected in Georgia for winter campsites along with the following South Carolina cities, Columbia, Greenville and Spartanburg. |
| • | In early November, 1898, the headquarters of the Second Corps and two brigades of its first division were camped at Augusta, Georgia. The camp remained there until March, 1899. |
| • | Camp MacKenzie was located at and just east of Daniel Field, the Augusta airport, located about 4 miles west of the city. This was also the site of World War I Camp Hancock. The camp’s location was near Wheless Station between Wrightsboro Road and Troupe Street. Streetcar lines were double-tracked around Monte Sano and Central Avenue. Troops continued to arrive in October and November and the list included the 8th Pennsylvania, 10th Ohio, 1st Maryland, 35th Maryland and 15th Minnesota Regiments. Several streets in the area today bear the names of these units. These streets (Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania) are south of Wrightsboro road and east of Highland. By November, the encampment had been named Camp MacKenzie. The camp was abandoned about February 6, 1899. |
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©2005 Fred Greguras
