Corpus Christi’s Kenedy Rifles leave for war
(This column first ran in the Caller-Times on Feb. 18, 1998. It was Murphy Givens' first historical column.)
One hundred years ago the Kenedy Rifles of Nueces County marched through Corpus Christi on their way to "a splendid little war."
The Caller had been filled with war news since the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor on Feb. 16, 1898. The Caller had been pushing for war. It said in an editorial there had been “too many bluffs and grandstand plays, but perhaps we will get down to business in a few days.” War against Spain was declared on April 22.
Volunteer units were forming all over Texas. There were the San Antonio Zouaves, the Belknap Rifles, the O’Connor Guards of Victoria, the Sealy Rifles. Teddy Roosevelt and the “Rough Riders” were training in San Antonio.
The papers were full of chest-thumping rhetoric, when they weren’t worrying about Spain invading. The Caller reprinted Kipling’s ode to racist supremacy, “The White Man's Burden.” The Houston Post said Spain had once ruled half the world, “but fooled it away — too many bullfights.” A battery was moved to Galveston and the San Antonio Express whooped, “Now the enemy will never get into Texas by way of Galveston.”
The Kenedy Rifles had to borrow money to take the train to Austin. As the train left the depot, someone yelled, “Remember the Maine!” They picked up recruits on the way and arrived with 84 men. They were formed into Company E of the First Texas Volunteer Infantry.
They were in training when the battle of El Caney was fought, when the Rough Riders stormed up San Juan Hill, and when the U.S. Navy defeated the Spanish fleet outside Santiago harbor. The actual fighting in the Spanish-American War lasted four months, from April to August, but a peace treaty was not signed until December.
The Kenedy Rifles were shunted from Mobile to Jacksonville to Savannah. At Camp Onward — a tent encampment in a cotton field outside Savannah — they received gift boxes from home filled with “cakes and hams and all kinds of dainties.” From the Army they received new Krag-Jergenson rifles in preparation for duty in Cuba.
They boarded the transport ship Michigan on Christmas Day 1898 and steamed into Havana Harbor five days later, where they sighted Moro Castle, the wreck of the Maine, and “crossed the bar with the band playing the Star-Spangled Banner.” Departing Spanish soldiers waved and shouted, glad to be going home, and the arriving Americans waved back.
Robert Hall, a member of Company E from Corpus Christi, wrote home that the Cuban people were very friendly — “they cheered and threw us cigars in the parade.”
Their camp was located on the side of a mountain three miles from the Atlantic. They discovered rum and Cuban girls. One wrote home, “There is some kind of drink here that will set a person wild. Some of the boys got hold of some and nearly went crazy.” Another reported that, “the girls here are the prettiest I ever saw.”
They were not impressed with the defeated Spanish soldiers. “They look little,” one wrote. “One American could whip four of them.” Another warned that, “Cuba is no place for a white man, not even a soldier.” He said that in Havana “all the houses look like jails, streets like sidewalks and sidewalks like cow paths.”
They did garrison duty during the occupation. Almost a year after they had marched out of Corpus Christi, they were ready to be demobilized. They turned in their guns, belts, bayonets, scabbards and boarded a transport vessel for Galveston.
They arrived at the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Depot in Corpus Christi on Tuesday, April 18, 1899, to a rousing welcome from mothers, sweethearts, friends and relatives. They were supposed to march in a parade through the town but the Caller said “it was impossible to form them into a procession as parents would not give them up.” Next day, Market Hall on Mesquite Street was decorated with flowers and bunting and a banquet was held for the conquering heroes. Their splendid little adventure was over.