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Includes correspondence, missives, orders, and miscellaneous notes concerning American involvement in the abortive López Expedition of 1851 and its aftermath, in which the Spanish South American defector Narciso López attempted to mount a military filibuster to remove Cuba from Spanish control and bring it into the United States as a slave state. These materials include some materials of Americans before the raid, expressing hopes that an American slave state of Cuba could offset the admission of California as a free state, as well as a military order by U.S. Naval Secretary William A. Graham to send the steamer John Hancock to New Orleans to prevent support to the López Expedition in the wake of its failure. Spanish royal orders to destroy the Filibuster, as well as indications of its subsequent flight to Nicaragua, are also included. Also in this file is a copy of a death certificate for Cuban-American Pedro Ángel Castellón signed by Severín LaTorre, Spanish consul to New Orleans, and verified in 1867. The folder includes a military promotion request for Leopoldo García Gardó signed by Antonio Venenc y Andrada in Segovia, Spain. The relationship of the latter two items with the other filibuster material is unclear. Partial geographical list: New York City, Havana/Habana (Cuba), Matanzas (Cuba), London (England), Tampa (Fla.), Key West, Jackson (Miss.), Augusta (Miss.), New Orleans (La.), Centreville (La.), Cheshire (Mass.), St. Augustine (Fla.), Madrid (Spain), Segovia (Spain). Additional keywords: Seminole War, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, California, Slavery, Caribbean, Georgia, Navy Department, Queen Isabella/Isabela II, U.S.-Spain relations, Spanish Army.

Includes correspondence, orders, and notes concerning the outfitting of vessels from American ports to support Cuban independence fighters in the Ten Years' War. The Virginius, referred to in a note from a U.S. court clerk in the West District of Wisconsin to the Adjutant-General declaring the preparedness of a local sharpshooter regiment to fight in the event of a war with Spain after the Virginius affair, was such a vessel. Included in this file is a note from U.S. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish to the postmaster-general urging the rapid transmission of orders between New Orleans and Key West. Also includes an exemption order for a Spanish soldier signed by several superior officers including Don Victoriano Gómez. Smuggling, arms shipments, military exemptions. Partial geographical list: Havana/Habana (Cuba), Portland (Maine), New York City, Washington (D.C.), Madison (Wis.), New Orleans (La.), Key West, Madrid (Spain).

Includes correspondences and missives sent by Máximo Gómez, who coordinated contacts between the Cuban government in exile in New York (including recruiting volunteers) and the Cuban Liberation Army, to colleagues (particularly Francisco Carrillo), initially from exile in the British West Indies and then from Cuba (particularly in Western Cuba, as far east as the region of Sancti Spíritus). Gómez frequently expressed frustration to Carrillo over the logistical, tactical, and disciplinary situation of Cuban troops and the relative discipline and strength of Spanish forces. Also includes Gómez's eulogy for General Calixto García, who died of presumed pneumonia in December 1898. Spanish-American War, Maine explosion, promotions. Partial geographical list: Turks Islands, Jamaica, Havana/Habana (Cuba), Sancti Spíritus, Los Charcos.

Includes correspondence, despatches, and notes from Carrillo's command of 4th Corps, when he was based in wartime Cuba. Also includes correspondence from Carrillo's subordinates (from the 2nd and 3rd Brigades; the "Trinidad" Brigade; the "Sagua" Brigade; the "Cienfuegos" Brigade; and the 1st and 2nd Divisions); equals (from the 1st Corps); and superiors (the Western Military Department/Military Department of the West). Some information concerning American aid to both sides of the Cuban war, including claims made by Cosme de la Torriente that the Pinkerton Agency was supporting the Spanish government into the 1890s. Also includes non-military records. One example is a despatch from Rita Suárez del Villar, leader of the "Cubanita" women's patriotic club in Cienfuegos, to Carrillo concerning her attempt to sway American support and recruits, including a young man named Teodoro Culwell attached to Máximo Gómez's regiment. Another is from a member of the men's patriotic "Panchito Gómez" club, also of Cienfuegos, who was briefly visiting Remedios. Also includes an 1899 fiscal audit of the Sagua Brigade. Occidente, Spanish military, Cuban Liberation Army, Mambí, women, revolutionary women's clubs, revolutionary men's clubs, patriotic clubs, foreign support in the Cuban War of Independence, logistics, operations, guerrilla warfare, Spanish-American War, Cubans in New York, Cuban expatriates. Partial geographical list: Havana (Cuba), Remedios (Las Villas/Villa Clara/Santa Clara, Cuba), Trinidad (Sancti Spíritus, Cuba), Occidente (Cuba), Veracruz (Mexico?), Cienfuegos (Cuba).

Includes documents concerning the Cuban Revolutionary Party, which was at that time and under Palma's direction decamping from its exile in New York, as well as notes of gratitude by Palma sent to American functionaries and veterans of the war in English, and correspondence concerning finances between Palma and James McDermott of Philadelphia. Palma makes reference to the increasing tensions between the U.S. and Cuba concerning the extent of Cuban sovereignty. Two empty envelopes addressed to McDermott, and an 1896 pro-independence pamphlet out of New York (in Spanish) entitled La Invasion de Occidente, or "The Invasion of Western Cuba," detailing Spanish military movements from 1895-96, and written by Palma, are present. Cuban-American Legion of Honor, Spanish-American War, U.S.-Cuba relations, Puerto Rico. Partial geographical list: Havana/Habana (Cuba), New York, Washington (D.C.), Philadelphia (Pa.).

Includes correspondence from Special Commissioner for Cuba Gonzalo de Quesada y Aróstegui to financier and philanthropist James McDermott of Philadelphia concerning various minor requests made by McDermott, some of which Quesada was able to fulfil or answer and others which he was not. Amongst these requests were a request to have a verifiable signature by Antonio Maceo; a request for information concerning allegations of political prisoners in the aftermath of Cuban independence; and a request for information as to the whereabouts of the body of Francisco Gómez. During the course of this correspondence, Quesada (based out of Washington, D.C.) moved from The Raleigh hotel and offices on Pennsylvania Ave. and 12th St. NW to a new headquarters on the corner of 14th St. and F St. NW. Machete, Máximo Zertucha, prisoners of war, African penal settlements, Carlos García. Partial geographical list: Washington (D.C.), Philadelphia (Pa.), New York, Cuba.

Includes miscellaneous files and documents pertaining to the Cuban War of Independence, including operational and logistical notes issued within the 4th Corps of the Cuban Revolutionary Army, promotion papers issued to Pedro Silva and Fabian Fagerman, a call for war bonds to assist the Cuban Revolutionary Army and the Cuban Revolutionary Party, and correspondence concerning the death of José Maceo (at the Battle of San Pedro), whose medic, the Cuban-American Máximo Zertucha, was cleared of wrongdoing. Includes letters received by James McDermott in Philadelphia. Also includes a war bond for 25 (Mexican) pesos issued by the Cuban Revolutionary Club "Yucatán and Cuba Branch" towards the purchase of a cannon; and a pension receipt of 13 pesos (of unknown currency--the document is from Florida) given to Clementina de Vega for weekly expenses. Also includes a letter from May 1898 signed by Bartolomé Maso, the head of the Cuban Governmental Council, to U.S. President McKinley concerning Maso's appointment of Gonzalo de Quesada y Aróstegui as Cuban Head of Business Affairs. Includes military rank identification papers for "Jhon" Caldwell, José Francisco Lamas, and Silverio Fraola in the Cuban Revolutionary Army. Includes a poem by a Chicagoan dedicated to Máximo Gómez. Several documents indicate shifts in strategy following Gen. Calixto García's death in December 1898. Military Department of the East, Eastern Military Department, military financing, Cuban Revolutionary Party, Cuban Revolutionary Army, Cuban Revolutionary clubs, revolutionary men's clubs, patriotic clubs, William McKinley, logistics, operations, guerrilla warfare, Cuban-American relations, Calixto García, Cuban-Mexican relations, poetry. Partial geographical list: Havana/Habana (Cuba), Key West (Cayo Hueso), San Pedro (Cuba), Oriente (Cuba), Kingston (Jamaica), Mérida (Yucatán, Mexico), Philadelphia (Pa.), New York, Chicago (Ill.), Washington (D.C.), Norwich (Conn.).

Pearce Atkinson was an American railway engineer from Ohio who volunteered in Cuba in 1896 to serve as Antonio Maceo's aide-de-camp. He died that year. This group of materials consists of documents held by his father, G.W.P. Atkinson, who was at the time of Pearce's death based in Toronto. Most of the documents relate to the attempt by American authorities, led by General Fitzhugh Lee (at that time consul-general to Cuba), to learn what had happened to Pearce, who by the time the search started had already died in Taco Taco, near Pinar del Río. Both G.W.P. Atkinson and Pearce's mother Margaret Pearce Atkinson petitioned consular as well as political (e.g. Sen. John Sherman) authorities to discover the circumstances surrounding Pearce's disappearance. Pearce's death was confirmed by Cuban functionary J.A. Huau in 1897, nearly a year after his death and after several conflicting reports from military, press, and consular services. This group also includes several documents in the wake of Pearce's death, regarding the disbursal of Pearce's life insurance by New York Life and the settlement of Pearce's estate--the absence of a body or immediate confirmation of Pearce's death made the process onerous for Pearce's family. The materials include two copies of a letter sent by John A. Floyd, a Georgia-born mess-mate of Pearce and a purported witness to his death, to Pearce's brother Clarence. Floyd's testimonies were used extensively by Pearce's insurers and the family's lawyers. [NB: The William L. Clements Library holds papers of Pearce Atkinson, which are described in the Pearce Atkinson Papers Finding Aid]. Máximo Gómez, life insurance, probate, American volunteers in Cuba, deaths of American military volunteers. Partial geographical list: Havana/Habana (Cuba), Chicago (Ill.), Evanston (Ill.), Guayamas (Sonora, Mexico), Washington (D.C.), Franklin (Pa.), Toronto (Ontario, Canada), New York, Pinar del Río (Cuba), Taco Taco (Cuba), Jacksonville (Fla.).

Includes miscellaneous items related to Americans in Cuba: three letters sent by a planter Antonio Maden to his wife Kathleen Duryea in Brooklyn expressing dismay at the rapid Cuban insurgent advance into Cárdenas and the destruction of plantations, an assurance that the planter is alright but fleeing to Havana, and a hope that Kathleen's "servant hasn't left" her (the first letter); confirmation of arrival in Florida and anger at the lack of American intervention in the war (the second letter); and a desire for further communication and support for the possibility of American intervention against the Spanish (the third letter). [NB: The William L. Clements Library holds additional materials related to Antonio and Kathleen, which are described in the Antonio C. and Kathleen Duryea Maden Collection Finding Aid ]. Also in this group of materials are a menu of a New York Press Club dinner of May 1896 that hosted an American journalist who had been expelled from Cuba for his editorial line; an invitation from the Governor of Florida to the Governor of New York requesting a New York delegation to come to Florida for a January 1897 conference concerning the strengthening of southern U.S. sea defenses against the possibility of Spanish invasion; a letter sent to a C.C. Vaughan in Illinois, who had been considering volunteering in the war but thought better of it; and a letter sent by Charles Barnett, taken prisoner for his actions against Spain during the war, to U.S. consul to Cuba Fitzhugh Lee requesting his urgent intervention in Barnett's release. Florida sea defenses, interstate relations, prisoners of war, American volunteers in Cuba. Partial geographical list: Havana/Habana (Cuba), Cárdenas (Cuba), Bensonhurst (Brooklyn, N.Y.), New York, Tallahassee (Fla.), Golconda (Ill.), Brightwood (Ind.), Fortress Cabana.

Documents pertaining to Spanish awareness of the impending war in Cuba and against the United States, including the relay of orders to form a new anti-insurgency military unit in Cuba; and a letter sent by the Quebecker P.E. Perreault to a Mr. Solis, the Spanish consul in Quebec City, in which Perreault (born in the U.S.) disclaimed his American nationality and his loyalty to Canada and offered his espionage services to Spain in the upcoming war, viewing Spain as a friendly Catholic nation. Espionage, immigration, Anglo-American relations, Spanish-American relations, U.S.-Canada relations. Partial geographical list: Havana/Habana (Cuba), Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic), Québec City, Canada.