3-086-478 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Spanish-American War: U.S. Mobilisation at Tampa: n*groes shipping the wagon train at night, 1898. 'From a Sketch by our Special Artist, Mr. H. C. Seppings Wright. The wheels and top of each wagon are removed for convenience of shipment. Hitherto, since this war began, all the startling achievements of the United States forces...seem to have been gained by their naval superiority...A wholly different series of warlike operations is about to be commenced by the landing of troops in Cuba at the worst season of the year, for the military campaign necessary to besiege, in the eastern part of that island, the fortified and strongly garrisoned town of Santiago, and subsequently, if the war be prolonged till autumn, the city of Havana, without which captures the American conquest of the island cannot be secured. The first portion of the army destined for the invasion of Cuba, embarked on board a large number of transports from Tampa, in Florida, under command of General Shafter, sailing with a naval convoy squadron from Key West to the eastward, passed on Saturday through the Windward Channel, between Cuba and Haiti, off Cape Maysi, round the eastern extremity of Cuba, and has reached the south coast...' From "Illustrated London News", 1898.