John H Parker

The Gatlings at Santiago: the History of the Gatling Gun Detachment, U. S. Fifth Army Corps, During the Spanish-American War, Cuba, 1898 John H Parker

At war against the Spanish in Cuba

This well-known book concerns the United States flexing of its imperial muscle as it expelled the Spanish from Cuba at the close of the nineteenth century. This little campaign, one of the earliest in which American soldiers fought beyond their own frontiers, has entered into American legend particularly as an American President, Theodore Roosevelt won mythic fame as he and his 'Rough Riders' stormed San Juan (Kettle) Hill. Indeed, the Gatlings supported the 'Rough Riders' in their attack and Roosevelt has provided the preface for Parker's book. This book was written by the battery commander and is amply complimented by photographs of the campaign taken by a member of the detachment. Although this book concerns the doings of the US Fifth Army Corps during the Santiago campaign it retains the essential intimacy of a unit history, is filled with immediate detail and as such has become a classic of its period.