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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.

Includes four broadsides: (1) in Spanish, urging Spanish subjects to support the centralizing viceregency of Governor-General Valeriano Weyler and oppose the "yankee pigs" [¡Españoles! ¡Viva España Con Honra!...]; (2) in English, requesting the shipment of durable goods from Omaha to Cuba as part of a relief effort [Cuba! Help the Starving!...]; (3-4) in English, for military volunteers from the region of Albany, N.Y. [Chas. C. Kromer, For Cuba 1200 Men Wanted... Schoharie, N.Y. Dated Schoharie, May 13, 1896 and accompanying partially printed blank form (with letter by Kromer and lawyer); and (5) bilingual in Spanish and English, from a Cuban independentist group in New York dated 1875 commemorating the previous losses of "martyrs" in the Ten Years' War [La Revolucion, no. 6. Nueva York, Noviembre 27, 1875.]. War aid, famine, American volunteers in Cuba. Partial geographical list: Havana/Habana (Cuba), Omaha, Albany (N.Y.).

Includes 4 letters sent by Ens. Kenneth Bennett, serving aboard the USS Amphitrite, a monitor patrolling the seas in blockade duty off Key West, to his mother in Hackensack. Bennett expresses gratitude for his mother's weekly correspondence and his aunt's frequent mailings of New Jersey newspapers. Includes a re-telling of ship Captain Barclay's story about a shark attack he dealt with earlier in his career (2 pages). Sailors' letters, Battle of Santiago, Siege of Santiago, Sharks. Partial geographical list: Key West, Hackensack (N.J.).

Includes three letters from Odin Bestor to his mother Flora (in Baltimore) as Odin was sent from Camp Chickamauga in Georgia to Ocala, to Tampa, to Puerto Rico, then presumably to Cuba. Bestor expresses repeated frustration at the poor professionalism of the officers commanding U.S. Army troops headed for Cuba, stories of which had also separately reached Flora. On printed, illustrated Ocala House stationery (highlighting a 5-mile bicycle path to Silver Springs, "the Mecca of all Florida tourists"). Soldiers' letters, hotels. Partial geographical list: Chickamauga (Ga.), Ocala (Fla.), Tampa (Fla.), Puerto Rico.

Includes three letters from 1st Ambulance Company, U.S. 4th Army Corps enlistee Joseph Bowditch to various cousins in Massachusetts: one to his cousin May, who was attempting to ensure Joseph was following the Bible (Joseph gently rebukes her, and instead tells her about his quotidian schedule and life in the camp); another to an unnamed cousin detailing the differences between military life and civilian life, even in Florida; and another to another cousin Carrie, sending money for Carrie to buy a new bicycle. Pencil illustration of his tent. Printed Army Christian Commission stationery. Battle of Santiago, Siege of Santiago, soldiers' letters. Partial geographical list: Tampa (Fla.), East Bridgewater (Mass.).