Battle of San Juan Hill

Did he carry a lot of vases when he rode his horse around? That's right.

Up San Juan Hill in the

Spanish-American War.

That's a lovely terracotta vase.

Pershing's Indian campaigns also included combat in the Dakotas with the Sioux, those Indians who were so advanced in warfare that they had real tactics, and who 14 years before had out-generaled General Custer, exterminating in battle that gallant soldier and the brave men of the five troops of the 7th Cavalry who died with him to the last man.

In 1898, Captain Pershing fought in the San Juan Hill battle, which wrested the heights around the town and harbor of Santiago, Cuba from the Spanish troops and forced Cervera's Spanish fleet to put to sea and face destruction by our fleet.

The Philippine Insurrection, which shortly followed our capture of Manila from the Spaniards and the many years of constant fighting with the Mohammedan Moros of the southern Philippines, furnished Pershing with additional experience against a savage enemy.

This time, as in Cuba, it was amidst the abundant foliage of tropical islands instead of the grassy, wind-swept, freezing plains of Dakota or the sandy, briling ones of Arizona and New Mexico.

Suddenly, above the crackling of the carbines, rose a peculiar drumming sound, and some of the men cried, The Spanish machine guns! Listening, I made out that it came from the flat ground to the left, and jumped to my feet, smiting my hand on my thigh and shouting aloud with exultation, It's the Gatlings, men, our Gatlings! Lieutenant Parker was bringing his four Gatlings into action and shoving them nearer and nearer the front.

Now and then the drumming ceased for a moment, then it would resound again, always closer to San Juan Hill, which Parker, like ourselves, was hammering to assist the infantry attack.

Our men cheered lustily.

We saw much of Parker after that, and there was never a more welcome sound than his Gatlings as they opened.

We ought to have expected this, for they have always done well in holding entrenchments.

On this day, they showed themselves to be brave foes, worthy of honor for their gallantry.

In the attack on the San Juan Hills, our forces numbered about 6,600.

There were about 4,500 Spaniards against us.

Supplies run on the docks while soldiers starve in Cuba.

And then Teddy Roosevelt charges up San Juan Hill and becomes a legend.

Except Atkinson is careful to separate the myth from what actually happened.

The charge wasn't a glorious dash, it was a confused, bloody affair with heavy casualties from poor leadership and inadequate planning.

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Writer Sam Dan and director Hyman Brown are joined by Jack Grimes, Marion Haley, William Redfield, Bryna Rayburn, and Ian Martin in CBS Radio Mystery Theater's The Ghost of San Juan Hill.

First broadcast on CBS Radio on May 10th, 1976.

It is episode 481.

A bride is preparing to remarry when her husband, long believed killed in the Spanish-American War, returns.

His homecoming unsettles the planned wedding and everyone connected with it against the public memory of the fighting at San Juan Hill in Cuba.

CBS repeated the broadcast on September 5th, 1976.

Now, back to the golden age of radio.

You know, they're tough, independent men who are accustomed to outdoor life.

And so this is going to be what launches him as a national figure because he decided to lead from the front of his men, and he is going to lead a, a charge up San Juan Hill that's going to be a pivotal turning point and be really important for America's victory in this war.

So when he comes back, he comes back as a hero.

And this is what's going to get him back into higher positions in politics.