The four month stay in Cuba of the 1st Battalion, 1st North Carolina Volunteers, from December 1898 through March 1899 is documented in these sixty amateur albumen photographs with captions. The photographs are 3 1/2" x 3 3/8" in 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" mounts. The soldiers arrived in Havana, Cuba, the day after the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the Spanish American War.
Raleigh's Camp Bryan Grimes was the training facility for the 1st North Carolina regiment. Of the three North Carolina regiments that were raised for the Spanish American War the 1st North Carolina was the only one to make it to Cuba, having been sent there in December of 1898. The 1st Battalion of the 1st North Carolina Volunteers broke camp in Savannah and were later transported to Havana, Cuba on the ROUMANIAN. They arrived in Havana on the evening of December 11th, after the Treaty of Paris was signed. They then traveled by train and went into camp Columbia, at Buena Vista Station. Being the first American soldiers to arrive at Havana, they received a gracious welcome. They continued their usual drills and same rigid discipline while residing in Havana. They also spent time guarding Havana. Orders were given about the 18th of March to return to Savannah, Georgia where the regiment would be mustered out. They arrived there on the March 28th, and were not mustered out until April 22, 1899 with a total of 50 officers and 1,028 enlisted men. There were only two casualties in the regiment during the war, Worth Bagley and William E. Shipp, who both died in action.
Sources: Wiley J. Williams. Spanish-American War. Accessed June 10, 2019. https://www.ncpedia.org/spanish-american-war
Troy L. Kickler. The Spanish-American War. Accessed June 10, 2019. https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/the-spanish-american-war/
This collection contains photographs taken during the Spanish American War between 1898 and 1899 in Cuba by the 1st Battalion, 1st Volunteer Infantry. The photographs measure 3-1/2" x 3-3/8" and are mounted with a penciled caption underneath. The complete list of captions are provided below. The photographs are arranged by how they were found and organized.
The archive documents document the activity of the 1st Battalion, 1st North Carolina Volunteer Infantry while in Cuba immediately after the Spanish American War. The photos presumed to have been taken by an amateur photographer of the Battalion. This photographic archive visually documents the 1st NC's four month stay in Cuba, depicting the regiment and their maneuvers and marching, street scenes, different buildings in Havana, Cuban civilians, forts, Cuban soldiers, a Cuban being escorted to prison, Spanish soldiers departing, the Battleship Maine wreckage, etc. One of the forts depicted in the collection is Artonis (spelling?) Castle, its location in Cuba is unknown.
February 1, 2019, 0.2 cubic feet; The four month stay in Cuba of the 1st Battalion, 1st North Carolina Volunteers, from December 1898 through March 1899 is documented in these sixty amateur albumen photographs with captions. The photographs are 3 1/2" x 3 3/8" in 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" mounts. The soldiers arrived in Havana, Cuba, the day after the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the Spanish American War. Purchased from Tavistock Books, Alameda, CA.
Purchased from Tavistock Books
Processed by Corinne Taylor, June 2019.
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.