Tag: Spanish-American War

Immigrant ‘Concentration Camps’ on the Southern Border?

U.S. immigration policies are very much in the spotlight recently with reports on conditions at some of the southern border detention camps and fresh…

U.S. immigration policies are very much in the spotlight recently with reports on conditions at some of the southern border detention camps and fresh concerns about children being held apart from their parents.

Recently, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called these facilities “concentration camps” and was swiftly rebuked by people on the right and left. To be clear, the U.S. government holds immigrants — who have entered the country illegally — while they’re being processed. The question is: what do we call these places?  Are they Detention centers — as the government refers to them? Detainment camps? Is Ocasio-Cortez misinformed and perhaps, hyperbolic when she injects a loaded term like “concentration camp” into the discussion?

To get a better perspective on this, Trey thought it’d be a good time to check in with author Andrea Pitzer about her book, One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps.

Listen to an extended version of Trey’s interview with Andrea Pitzer:

June 14, 1898: Quick Earns MOH for Actions at Guantanamo Bay

For his actions on June 14, 1898, Charles Town native John Henry Quick earned the Medal of Honor. His heroism occurred during a joint American-Cuban attack on the Spanish garrison at Guantanamo Bay during the Spanish-American War.

On June 14, Quick’s Marine battalion and about 50 Cuban soldiers were trying to capture the well that supplied water to the Spanish. An American gunboat, the Dolphin, was providing cover for the mission, but due to visibility problems, the boat started shelling American Marines by accident.

Sergeant John Henry Quick ran forward, placed himself in clear sight of the gunboat, and used a blue polka-dot neckerchief as a signal flag. While Quick got the Dolphin to redirect its shelling, he also attracted intense gunfire from the Spanish garrison. Author Stephen Crane, who was working as a war correspondent, witnessed the entire event and wrote of Quick, “He was the very embodiment of tranquility in occupation.” Thanks to Quick, the Spanish were defeated that day. During his 26-year Marine career, Quick also fought in the Philippine-American War, at Veracruz in 1914, and in several key battles of World War I.

Quick Earns MOH for Actions at Guantanamo Bay: June 14, 1898

For his actions on June 14, 1898, Charles Town native John Henry Quick earned the Medal of Honor. His heroism occurred during a joint American-Cuban attack on the Spanish garrison at Guantanamo Bay during the Spanish-American War.

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On June 14, Quick’s Marine battalion and about 50 Cuban soldiers were trying to capture the well that supplied water to the Spanish. An American gunboat, the Dolphin, was providing cover for the mission, but due to visibility problems, the boat started shelling American Marines by accident.

Sergeant John Henry Quick ran forward, placed himself in clear sight of the gunboat, and used a blue polka-dot neckerchief as a signal flag. While Quick got the Dolphin to redirect its shelling, he also attracted intense gunfire from the Spanish garrison. Author Stephen Crane, who was working as a war correspondent, witnessed the entire event and wrote of Quick, “He was the very embodiment of tranquility in occupation.” Thanks to Quick, the Spanish were defeated that day. During his 26-year Marine career, Quick also fought in the Philippine-American War, at Veracruz in 1914, and in several key battles of World War I.

April 23, 1857: Spanish-American War Hero Andrew Rowan Born in Monroe County

  Andrew Rowan, made famous as the subject of a patriotic essay, was born in Monroe County on April 23, 1857. In 1898, the United States was on the verge of war with Spain over the island of Cuba. President William McKinley needed military intelligence from Cuban General Calixto Garcia. The Army chose Lieutenant Andrew Rowan to deliver the message.

He sailed in a small fishing boat from Jamaica across 100 miles of open sea. His men then hacked their way through a dense Cuban jungle to avoid Spanish patrols. After finding and delivering the message to Garcia, Rowan made a perilous trip back to the U.S. He was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Rowan would become one of the Spanish-American War’s most famous heroes because of a surprisingly popular essay. The year after the war, writer Elbert Hubbard detailed Rowan’s heroic act in a small pamphlet entitled Message to Garcia. Hubbard lauded Rowan as an example to young men who needed ‘‘a stiffening of the vertebrae.’’

Andrew Rowan died in 1943 at age 85 and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

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