Battle of San Juan Hill

Battle of San Juan Hill
Part of the Spanish–American War
Detail from Charge of the 24th and 25th Colored Infantry at San Juan Hill, July 1, 1898.
Date 1 July 1898 Location Near Santiago, Cuba 20°01′15″N 75°47′46″W / 20.0209106°N 75.7961154°W / 20.0209106; -75.7961154 Result U. S./Cuban victory
Belligerents
United States Republic of Cuba	Kingdom of Spain
Commanders and leaders
William R. Shafter Joseph Wheeler	Arsenio Linares y Pombo
Strength
8,412 Americans ~3,000 Cubans	521-800 120-600 (counterattack)
Casualties and losses
144 or 2,000 according to Spanish sourceskilled in action, 951-1,024 wounded and 72 missing Americans	114 or 658 according to Spanish sources other killed, 366 wounded and 2 captured (official Spanish Army records)

The Battle of San Juan Hill (1 July 1898), also known as the battle for the San Juan Heights, was a decisive battle of the Spanish–American War. The San Juan heights was a north-south running elevation about 2 kilometres (2,200 yd) east of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. The names San Juan Hill and Kettle Hill were given to the location by the Americans. This fight for the heights was the bloodiest and most famous battle of the war. It was also the location of the greatest victory for the Rough Riders, as claimed by the press and its new commander, Theodore Roosevelt, who was to eventually become first vice-president and then president, and who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2001 for his actions in Cuba. The American press at the time overlooked the fact that the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry and 24th Infantry Regiments had actually done much of the heaviest fighting.

Spanish General Arsenio Linares ordered 760 Spanish Army regular troops to hold the San Juan heights against an American offensive on July 1, 1898. For unclear reasons, Linares failed to reinforce this position, choosing to hold nearly 10,000 Spanish reserves in the city of Santiago de Cuba.

Spanish hilltop entrenchments, while typically well-concealed, were not all correctly positioned for plunging fire, which made return fire at the advancing Americans more difficult. Most of the Spanish fortifications and trench lines were laid out along the geographic crest of the heights instead of the military crest. This meant that the fire from the Spanish troops would have difficulty hitting the advancing enemy when the attacking Americans reached the defilade at the foot of the heights. Once they began scaling the hill, however, the attackers would be in full view of the defenders, who could engage the Americans with both rifle and artillery fire.

Most Spanish troops were recently arrived conscripts, but their officers were skilled in fighting Cuban insurgents. The Spanish were well equipped with supporting artillery, and all Spanish soldiers were armed with 7 mm Mauser M1893 rifles, a modern repeating bolt-action weapon with a high rate of fire that used high-velocity cartridges and smokeless powder. Spanish artillery units were armed mainly with modern rapid-fire breech-loading cannon, again using smokeless powder.

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Wikipedia