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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2009
The experiences and impressions of the officially accredited British military and naval observers in the war of 1898 between the United States and Spain have been recounted in an earlier number of this journal. However, in an era when it was still possible for the enthusiastic amateur to take a keen personal interest in such events, even to the point of direct participation, the activities of one such unofficial eye-witness of the campaign in Cuba are worthy of note.
1 Ranson, E., ‘British Military and Naval Observers in the Spanish-American War’, Journal of American Studies, 3 (07 1969), 33–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 The Wellington Journal and Shrewsbury News, 25 January 1919; Who's Who (London, 1898)Google Scholar; Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage (London, 1904)Google Scholar, and editions of the Army List during Sir Bryan's period of active service.
3 New York Times, 23 April 1898. Sir Bryan's departure from England was recorded in The Wellington Journal and Shrewsbury News, 30 April 1898, and it is worthy of note that this provincial weekly followed the developing situation closely, and carried news relating to the Spanish-American War in every issue from 9 April to 20 August 1898.
4 SirLeighton, Bryan, ‘Reminiscences of the Spanish America War’, The Household Brigade Magazine, 1 (11 1898), 833–4 and 841Google Scholar.
5 Ibid., p. 833.
6 Ibid., p. 834.
7 Ibid., pp. 834–6.
8 Ibid., p. 835.
9 Ibid., p. 836.
10 Ibid., pp. 836–7. To be strictly accurate General J. Ford Kent's report, dated 7 July 1898, actually said: ‘The head of Wikoff's brigade reached the forks at 12.20 p.m. and hurried to the left, stepping over prostrate forms of men of the Seventy-first.’ Annual Reports of the War Department, 1898 (Washington, 1898), vol. 1, pt. 2, p. 165Google Scholar.
11 Leighton, ‘Reminiscences’, loc. cit., p. 837.
12 Ibid., p. 833.
13 Ibid., p. 837.
14 Ibid., p. 833 and p. 838.
15 Ibid., p. 837.
16 Ibid., p. 838.
17 Brown, Charles H., The Correspondents' War. Journalists in the Spanish-American War (New York, 1967), p. 361Google Scholar. Brown also indicates that Sir Bryan wrote for the New York Journal.
18 Stallman, R. W. and Hagemann, E. R. (eds.), The War Dispatches of Stephen Crane (New York, 1964), p. 286 and p. 288Google Scholar. In this volume the editors were unable to identify ‘Leighton’, and tentatively suggested that it might be a reference to Richard Harding Davis. However, the coincidence of names hardly admits to any doubt as to the real identity of ‘Leighton’.
19 Leighton, ‘Reminiscences’, loc. at., pp. 838–9. Ibid., p. 841, the author noted: ‘Many dead bodies of Spanish sailors were still floating about Santiago Harbour when I left, about a week after this [17 July] relics of the sea fight.’ As the naval battle took place on 3 July, and Sir Bryan left Santiago about 24 July, the bodies had presumably been in the water for three weeks.
20 Ibid., pp. 839–40.
21 Ibid., pp. 833–4 and 836. See also Spencer Borden to President William McKinley, 22 August 1898: ‘He [Borden's son] had a long interview with Sir Bryan Leighton, an English officer who went to Santiago to watch the fighting. This man confirms what I also had from the Norwegian observer, and from a regular army officer whose name I cannot mention. They all bear witness to the criminal incapacity and brutality of Alger's friend Shafter. They say that while the fighting was going on, Shafter lay in a hammock having his head scratched to allay the itching caused by a disease of the scalp, from which he suffers.’ William McKinley Papers (Library of Congress), Series 1, vol. 17.
22 Leighton, ‘Reminiscences’, loc. cit., p. 840.
23 Ibid., p. 840. Brown, , The Correspondents' War, pp. 402–5Google Scholar, explains the background to and the controversy over what actually happened at the ceremony.
24 The Wellington Journal and Shrewsbury News, 8 October 1898; 3 December 1898; and 4 February 1899.
25 Letter from Mr George Lloyd published in The Wellington Journal and Shrewsbury News, 17 December 1898.
26 The Wellington Journal and Shrewsbury News, 25 January 1919.
27 Ibid.