in a Nebraska regiment. Theodore Roosevelt
resigned his office in the Navy Department to raise a regiment of
volunteer cavalry. Politicians struggled for commissions for themselves
and friends. Civil War veterans fought for reappointment, and enough
soldiers of the Confederacy put on the blue uniforms, or sent their
sons, to show that the breach had been healed between the North and
South. It was an enthusiastic rather than an effective army that was
brought together in the two months after the war began.

Cuba, the cause of the war and its objective, was the center of the
scheme of strategy. The navy was called upon to protect the Atlantic
seaboard from the fleet of Spain, which was reputed to be superior to
that of the United States. It had also to maintain a blockade of Cuba
and prevent the landing of reinforcements until the army could be
prepared to invade the island. Dewey's fleet in the Pacific was ordered
to destroy the Spanish naval force in the Philippine Islands, and moved
immediately upon Manila when Great Britain issued her proclamation of
neutrality and made it impossible to remain longer in her waters at
Hongkong.

On the morning of May 1 Dewey led his squadron past the forts, over the
submerged mines, and up the channel of Manila Bay. The Spanish forces in
the islands, already contending with a native insurrection, were
helpless before evening, having lost the whole fleet. Dewey was left in
a position to take the city when he chose, and sent home word to that
effect. He waited in the harbor until an army of occupation had been got
ready, hurried to the transports at San Francisco, and sent out under
General Wesley Merritt. He brought the native leader Aguinaldo back to
the islands, whence he had been expelled, to foment insurrection. The
first American reinforcements arrived at Manila by the end of June. On
August 13 they took the city.

Before the news of the surprising victory at Manila reached the United
States there was nervousness along the Atlantic Coast because of the
uncertain plans of the main Spanish fleet, which had left the Cape Verde
Islands, under Admiral Cervera, on April 29, and which might appear off
New York or Boston at any time. The naval strategists knew it must be
headed for the West Indies, but seaboard Congressmen begged excitedly
for protection, and the sensational newspapers pictured the coast in
ruins after bombardment.

To Sampson and Schley was assigned the task of guard