The Charge Up San Juan Hill

It was on this day in 1898 that Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders volunteer cavalry regiment secured a stunning American victory over the Imperial Spanish forces in the Battle of Santiago by storming San Juan Hill in Cuba. To avoid capture, Spanish Admiral Pascual Cervera tried to retreated from Santiago harbor two days later. The Spanish ships were attacked by the American fleet, burned and sunk. Two weeks later, the Spanish crown surrendered her remaining colonies in the West. And thus ended the short-lived Spanish-American War.