The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst (81 page)
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Authors: Kenneth Whyte
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That un-bylined report ran in the
Journal
on July 4, along with Hearst’s account of the Battle of El Caney, giving the paper the best and earliest reports of the most consequential land battles of the war (the
Herald
would take more than a week to publish Richard Harding Davis’s dispatch from San Juan Heights). Shafter decided against another attack on Santiago. Ill and weak and discouraged by the Spanish resistance of July 1, which cost him 1,200 casualties, he had to be talked out of a retreat. He lay siege to the city, a difficult operation that left his men exposed to extreme heat, torrential rains, and Spanish gunfire. The shortcomings of the army’s planning revealed themselves as the troops ran short of food and supplies and succumbed to fever at a shocking rate. Shafter was not holding the heights so much as clinging to them by his fingernails and, but for a rash move by the Spanish navy, the results could have been disastrous.
Journal
on July 4, along with Hearst’s account of the Battle of El Caney, giving the paper the best and earliest reports of the most consequential land battles of the war (the
Herald
would take more than a week to publish Richard Harding Davis’s dispatch from San Juan Heights). Shafter decided against another attack on Santiago. Ill and weak and discouraged by the Spanish resistance of July 1, which cost him 1,200 casualties, he had to be talked out of a retreat. He lay siege to the city, a difficult operation that left his men exposed to extreme heat, torrential rains, and Spanish gunfire. The shortcomings of the army’s planning revealed themselves as the troops ran short of food and supplies and succumbed to fever at a shocking rate. Shafter was not holding the heights so much as clinging to them by his fingernails and, but for a rash move by the Spanish navy, the results could have been disastrous.
Early on the beautiful morning of Sunday, July 3, Admiral Cervera made a break from Santiago harbor. His flagship, the
Maria Teresa,
steamed out to sea followed by the
Vizcaya
and five other vessels, with cover from the Spanish land batteries. The American squadron picked up the Spanish movements immediately and opened its big guns. The second great naval battle of the Spanish-American War lasted just over four hours. One by one, the Spanish ships were chased down, fired upon, and either run aground or sunk. The last ship, the
Colon,
was run onto the beach at Rio Tarquino, about fifty miles from Santiago.
Maria Teresa,
steamed out to sea followed by the
Vizcaya
and five other vessels, with cover from the Spanish land batteries. The American squadron picked up the Spanish movements immediately and opened its big guns. The second great naval battle of the Spanish-American War lasted just over four hours. One by one, the Spanish ships were chased down, fired upon, and either run aground or sunk. The last ship, the
Colon,
was run onto the beach at Rio Tarquino, about fifty miles from Santiago.
Hearst returned from Jamaica on time to observe the last of the fighting from a distance of three or four miles. With the smoke of battle still heavy in the air, the
Sylvia
approached the wreck of the
Vizcaya.
Hemment was eager to take pictures:
Sylvia
approached the wreck of the
Vizcaya.
Hemment was eager to take pictures:
We passed close to her and took views from all possible positions, after which we put off in a whaleboat and boarded her. As we came alongside the Viscaya, in climbing up the sea ladder, we found it almost too hot to place our hands upon her. Our party consisted of Mr. Hearst, Mr. Follansbee, the ship’s mate, and several others, and we boarded her and saw the terrible havoc that fire and shell had wrought. The girders which supported the main deck were twisted into every conceivable grotesque shape. The gun deck and the superstructure were totally demolished; all the woodwork, which had been so beautifully cleaned and polished, was destroyed. Nothing combustible could be found. The charred remains of many of the sailors were strewn around, some hanging from the iron girders and beams in all sorts of positions. Carcasses of animals were also to be found. We made a thorough investigation and secured a great many souvenirs, consisting of Mauser rifles, revolvers, and bunches of keys.
103
Hearst’s party left the
Vizcaya
for the
Oquenda,
which was still burning. Hearing an explosion from one of the ship’s guns, evidently caused by the intense heat, they decided against boarding. They proceeded to the ruin of the
Maria Teresa
and, while taking pictures there, spied on shore a large party of men waving white flags. Hearst, Hemment, and an assistant put off in a steam launch to investigate. They found twenty-nine stranded Spanish sailors, most from the
Vizcaya,
many of them naked but armed with machetes and rifles. Relieved to have been discovered by American journalists rather than by marauding Cuban troops, the Spaniards cheerfully surrendered their weapons and agreed to be taken as prisoners aboard the
Sylvia.
Hearst treated his captives graciously, giving them food and drink, dressing their wounds, and clothing them as best he could. The Spaniards reciprocated by giving three cheers for the Fourth of July as the
Texas
sailed by. They also described for the benefit of the
Journal
correspondents the havoc aboard their ships as they came under fire that morning: knowing the fight was lost, crews had abandoned their guns and fire rooms and had crowded the upper deck in hopes of abandoning ship. The
Sylvia
eventually steamed alongside the
St. Louis
and transferred the prisoners to the proper authorities. Hearst demanded a receipt for them; it was printed along with the story on the
Journal
’s front page. The
Times
opined that the prisoners represented “the most genuine as well as the most legitimate increase in circulation” Hearst had yet achieved: “We admit that we cannot imagine Mr. Pulitzer in the act of corralling shipwrecked Spaniards for the glory of his journal and the country . . . ”
104
Vizcaya
for the
Oquenda,
which was still burning. Hearing an explosion from one of the ship’s guns, evidently caused by the intense heat, they decided against boarding. They proceeded to the ruin of the
Maria Teresa
and, while taking pictures there, spied on shore a large party of men waving white flags. Hearst, Hemment, and an assistant put off in a steam launch to investigate. They found twenty-nine stranded Spanish sailors, most from the
Vizcaya,
many of them naked but armed with machetes and rifles. Relieved to have been discovered by American journalists rather than by marauding Cuban troops, the Spaniards cheerfully surrendered their weapons and agreed to be taken as prisoners aboard the
Sylvia.
Hearst treated his captives graciously, giving them food and drink, dressing their wounds, and clothing them as best he could. The Spaniards reciprocated by giving three cheers for the Fourth of July as the
Texas
sailed by. They also described for the benefit of the
Journal
correspondents the havoc aboard their ships as they came under fire that morning: knowing the fight was lost, crews had abandoned their guns and fire rooms and had crowded the upper deck in hopes of abandoning ship. The
Sylvia
eventually steamed alongside the
St. Louis
and transferred the prisoners to the proper authorities. Hearst demanded a receipt for them; it was printed along with the story on the
Journal
’s front page. The
Times
opined that the prisoners represented “the most genuine as well as the most legitimate increase in circulation” Hearst had yet achieved: “We admit that we cannot imagine Mr. Pulitzer in the act of corralling shipwrecked Spaniards for the glory of his journal and the country . . . ”
104
The
Journal
crew now returned to Siboney to pick up the wounded Creelman. In the forty-eight hours since he had been shot, the $18,000-a-year correspondent had been more or less abandoned, spending the first two nights on a litter in a field by a stream outside of El Caney. Lawton’s division had moved on to Santiago, leaving the wounded behind without adequate protection or provisions—victims of the army’s growing logistical problems. Creelman and the other casualties were exposed to rain and sun and occasional sniper fire from Spanish sharpshooters. “Vultures gathered around the camp,” he wrote, “and waited in the wet grass. Nearer they came, with hesitating, grotesque hopes, watching, watching, watching.”
105
Finally, on July 3, an army surgeon returned to camp and told the men they were under orders to abandon the site and walk to Siboney unless absolutely incapacitated. Creelman had already penned a desperate letter to his employer:
Journal
crew now returned to Siboney to pick up the wounded Creelman. In the forty-eight hours since he had been shot, the $18,000-a-year correspondent had been more or less abandoned, spending the first two nights on a litter in a field by a stream outside of El Caney. Lawton’s division had moved on to Santiago, leaving the wounded behind without adequate protection or provisions—victims of the army’s growing logistical problems. Creelman and the other casualties were exposed to rain and sun and occasional sniper fire from Spanish sharpshooters. “Vultures gathered around the camp,” he wrote, “and waited in the wet grass. Nearer they came, with hesitating, grotesque hopes, watching, watching, watching.”
105
Finally, on July 3, an army surgeon returned to camp and told the men they were under orders to abandon the site and walk to Siboney unless absolutely incapacitated. Creelman had already penned a desperate letter to his employer:
Dear Mr. Hearst,After being abandoned without shelter or medicine and practically without food for nearly two days—most of the time under constant fire—you can judge my condition. My shoulder was as you know. That I am here and alive is due simply to my own efforts. I had to rise from my litter and stagger seven miles through the hills and the mud without an attendant. . . . Mr. [Follansbee] stayed one night with me and got a fever. We are both here without clothes. I must get to the United States in order to get well. I expect no gratitude but I do expect a chance for my life.
106
Hearst appears to have asked his friend Follansbee to look out for Creelman. Neither a writer nor a soldier, Follansbee had gone to Cuba simply for the adventure. Like Creelman, he had been unable to remain detached during the action at El Caney. Fluent in Spanish, he volunteered to lead a post-battle search party through the village of El Caney. He went house to house rounding up Spanish combatants, including several found hiding in a locked closet. If Follansbee did fall sick after attending to Creelman for a night, they appear to have been reunited at the Siboney field hospital, where Hearst finally collected his correspondent.
WITH THE SMOKING HULKS of Cervera’s squadron littering the coast of Cuba, the Spanish-American War was for all intents and purposes over. Some 1,700 Spanish sailors and naval officers had been captured. The seige of Santiago would drag on a while longer. Shafter never did succeed in storming the city and his position was worsening, but fortunately for the U.S. Army, Spanish forces at Santiago felt at least as vulnerable and agreed to negotiate a settlement. Talks on the terms of capitulation began on July 14. The U.S. Army would take Puerto Rico against token resistance later that month, prompting Spain to sue for peace and bringing hostilities to an official close on August 12.
Even as the Spanish-American War wound down, the newspaper war raged on. The
Journal
seized on an unsigned
World
story dated July 15 that suggested the officers of the 71st New York regiment had demonstrated a want of mettle on coming under Spanish fire at the San Juan Heights. The
Journal
torqued it as a “slur on the bravery” of the boys of the Seventy-First, a regiment that had suffered a high casualty rate.
107
Hearst himself vouched for the character of these “brave” soldiers in a bylined report of his own interactions with them (although, as he admitted, he had not witnessed the battle in question). The
World
tried to fight back, arguing that it had not printed a single derogatory word about the regiment—a statement nearer the truth than the
Journal
allowed. Pulitzer began a face-saving campaign to raise funds for a memorial to American volunteers who fell at Santiago. The
Journal
mocked it all as a groveling admission of libel and coaxed veterans of the regiment into rejecting the
World
’s tribute, and the monument campaign was soon dropped.
108
Journal
seized on an unsigned
World
story dated July 15 that suggested the officers of the 71st New York regiment had demonstrated a want of mettle on coming under Spanish fire at the San Juan Heights. The
Journal
torqued it as a “slur on the bravery” of the boys of the Seventy-First, a regiment that had suffered a high casualty rate.
107
Hearst himself vouched for the character of these “brave” soldiers in a bylined report of his own interactions with them (although, as he admitted, he had not witnessed the battle in question). The
World
tried to fight back, arguing that it had not printed a single derogatory word about the regiment—a statement nearer the truth than the
Journal
allowed. Pulitzer began a face-saving campaign to raise funds for a memorial to American volunteers who fell at Santiago. The
Journal
mocked it all as a groveling admission of libel and coaxed veterans of the regiment into rejecting the
World
’s tribute, and the monument campaign was soon dropped.
108
Simultaneous with this embarrassment, the
World
’s ace, Sylvester Scovel, brought his spectacular run as a war correspondent to an ignominious climax. On Sunday, July 17, Spanish and American officials gathered in a plaza outside the governor’s palace in Santiago for a formal ceremony of capitulation. General Shafter, sensitive about his press, had banned reporters from the city. A handful snuck into the plaza unnoticed. After a series of greetings, the Spaniards dropped their colors from a flagstaff atop the governor’s palace. Three U.S. officers clambered onto the roof to hoist the Stars and Stripes. To Shafter’s astonishment, they were joined by a fourth individual, none other than Scovel. He had no business in town, let alone on the palace roof, and Shafter ordered him down. The two squared off in the plaza, with Shafter apparently taking the first swing. Scovel made the mistake of striking back and wound up in prison facing a court-martial.
109
Already under attack for smearing the Seventy-First, the last thing the
World
needed was a fight with a brigadier general. It made a show of cutting Scovel loose, only to come under fire from the reporter’s many friends and the
World
’s publishing rivals for abandoning a valiant employee who had risked his life in Pulitzer’s service. Sheepishly, the
World
hired Scovel back.
110
World
’s ace, Sylvester Scovel, brought his spectacular run as a war correspondent to an ignominious climax. On Sunday, July 17, Spanish and American officials gathered in a plaza outside the governor’s palace in Santiago for a formal ceremony of capitulation. General Shafter, sensitive about his press, had banned reporters from the city. A handful snuck into the plaza unnoticed. After a series of greetings, the Spaniards dropped their colors from a flagstaff atop the governor’s palace. Three U.S. officers clambered onto the roof to hoist the Stars and Stripes. To Shafter’s astonishment, they were joined by a fourth individual, none other than Scovel. He had no business in town, let alone on the palace roof, and Shafter ordered him down. The two squared off in the plaza, with Shafter apparently taking the first swing. Scovel made the mistake of striking back and wound up in prison facing a court-martial.
109
Already under attack for smearing the Seventy-First, the last thing the
World
needed was a fight with a brigadier general. It made a show of cutting Scovel loose, only to come under fire from the reporter’s many friends and the
World
’s publishing rivals for abandoning a valiant employee who had risked his life in Pulitzer’s service. Sheepishly, the
World
hired Scovel back.
110
Hearst himself was caught in a blunder in the last days of the war. One of his reports mentioned that Honore Laine, a sugar planter turned rebel warrior and part-time
Journal
correspondent, had gone out on patrol after the fight at El Caney and captured forty Spaniards in a blockhouse. Hearst asked Laine what he had done with the prisoners and quoted him as answering, “We cut their heads off, of course.”
111
This news alarmed officials in Washington who cabled Shafter seeking confirmation of Hearst’s story. The general replied that it was completely false. A subsequent
Journal
editorial claimed that Hearst’s original copy had said “four” Spaniards were decapitated, not “forty,” and that the error was made by the telegraph operator. Walter Howard, the
Journal
reporter who had cabled Hearst’s story, corroborated his boss’s claim, but the damage was done. “The
Journal
men are mightily cut up over the bad break made by Hearst and [Laine] in the matter of the ‘forty beheaded Spaniards,’” wrote the
Journalist.
“It was bad enough as it stood, but when Hearst explained that he meant four instead of forty, he gave the
World
a chance to show him up, because, according to Shafter and all the rest, there wasn’t a single instance of the kind, not one.”
112
Journal
correspondent, had gone out on patrol after the fight at El Caney and captured forty Spaniards in a blockhouse. Hearst asked Laine what he had done with the prisoners and quoted him as answering, “We cut their heads off, of course.”
111
This news alarmed officials in Washington who cabled Shafter seeking confirmation of Hearst’s story. The general replied that it was completely false. A subsequent
Journal
editorial claimed that Hearst’s original copy had said “four” Spaniards were decapitated, not “forty,” and that the error was made by the telegraph operator. Walter Howard, the
Journal
reporter who had cabled Hearst’s story, corroborated his boss’s claim, but the damage was done. “The
Journal
men are mightily cut up over the bad break made by Hearst and [Laine] in the matter of the ‘forty beheaded Spaniards,’” wrote the
Journalist.
“It was bad enough as it stood, but when Hearst explained that he meant four instead of forty, he gave the
World
a chance to show him up, because, according to Shafter and all the rest, there wasn’t a single instance of the kind, not one.”
112
The
Journal
also ran afoul of General Shafter for plastering Santiago with advertisements for a forthcoming Cuban edition of the paper. The large, illustrated posters were headlined “Remember The Maine.” Shafter, responsible for a thousand Spanish prisoners of war and Cuban allies who were not ready to quit fighting, considered the advertisements an unnecessary provocation. He arrested several
Journal
men and charged them with attempting to create disorder. Secretary Alger, knowing Shafter to be in poor health and worse temper, wrote a polite letter from Washington asking him to reconsider. The
Journal,
he said, was “in terrible distress because of their exclusion from Santiago.” The general insisted that the culprits “deserved death” but he did eventually release them.
113
Journal
also ran afoul of General Shafter for plastering Santiago with advertisements for a forthcoming Cuban edition of the paper. The large, illustrated posters were headlined “Remember The Maine.” Shafter, responsible for a thousand Spanish prisoners of war and Cuban allies who were not ready to quit fighting, considered the advertisements an unnecessary provocation. He arrested several
Journal
men and charged them with attempting to create disorder. Secretary Alger, knowing Shafter to be in poor health and worse temper, wrote a polite letter from Washington asking him to reconsider. The
Journal,
he said, was “in terrible distress because of their exclusion from Santiago.” The general insisted that the culprits “deserved death” but he did eventually release them.
113
Hearst delivered on his promise of a battlefield newspaper. During the siege of Santiago, a mechanical department under the endlessly resourceful George Pancoast set up shop at Siboney in a wood-paneled cabin with open rafters. Hand presses were mounted on planks suspended over barrels. Pressmen and correspondents labored with cigars in their teeth at makeshift composing tables, the floor strewn with waste paper. On July 10 they produced a four-page newspaper, seven columns to the page, containing not only the latest from
Journal
war correspondents but reports from Washington and Europe and an assortment of sports and entertainment news as well. The English-language edition was called the
Examiner-Journal;
the Spanish,
El Journal de Nueva York.
Copies were circulated among American and Cuban soldiers at Santiago and among Sampson’s sailors. The front page featured pictures of William McKinley and Vice President Hobart with a message from J. Addison Porter, the president’s private secretary:
Journal
war correspondents but reports from Washington and Europe and an assortment of sports and entertainment news as well. The English-language edition was called the
Examiner-Journal;
the Spanish,
El Journal de Nueva York.
Copies were circulated among American and Cuban soldiers at Santiago and among Sampson’s sailors. The front page featured pictures of William McKinley and Vice President Hobart with a message from J. Addison Porter, the president’s private secretary:
The President takes great pleasure in commending the enterprise of Mr. Hearst in publishing an American newspaper under the stars and stripes on Cuban soil. He regards it as a unique exemplification of modern journalism, and has no doubt that the Army and Navy at Santiago will receive the publication with the utmost cordiality. The President extends the thanks of the country to the soldiers and sailors for their gallant conduct. The eyes of the world are upon them, and they are furnishing an inspiration that will last forever.
114
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