Indeed it was splendid for the American public, but for the Rough Riders and other soldiers it was as grim, dirty, and bloody as any other war.

The war to end all wars, people said in 1918. Not for long. By 1919, White Russians were fighting Bolshevik Reds for control of their country, and Winston Churchill (then Secretary of State for War) wanted to see Communism "strangled in its cradle". So a volunteer R.A.F. squadron, flying Sopwith Camels, went there to duff up the Reds. "There's a splendid little war going on," a British staff officer told them. "You'll like it." Looked like fun. But the war was neither splendid nor little. It was big and it was brutal, a grim conflict of attrition, marked by incompetence and corruption. Before it ended, the squadron wished that both sides would lose. If that was a joke, nobody was laughing.

The war to end all wars, people said in 1918. Not for long. By 1919, White Russians were fighting Bolshevik Reds for control of their country, and Winston Churchill (then Secretary of State for War) wanted to see Communism 'strangled in its cradle'. So a volunteer R.A.F. squadron, flying Sopwith Camels, went there to duff up the Reds. 'There's a splendid little war going on,' a British staff officer told them. 'You'll like it.' Looked like fun. But the war was neither splendid nor little. It was big and it was brutal, a grim conflict of attrition, marked by incompetence and corruption. Before it ended, the squadron wished that both sides would lose. If that was a joke, nobody was laughing.

The Spanish-American War (1898) was America's first major foreign war, and one of the most impactful wars in our nation's history. The combat action lasted only 115 days and fewer than 400 American Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines died in combat.As a result of the war the United States established itself as a world power, its Navy soundly destroying the once-vaunted Spanish Armada. As a direct result of the American victories, the United States gained temporary control of Cuba and the Philippine Islands, and expanded its possessions to include Puerto Rico and Guam, both of which remain American Territories to this day. "A Splendid Little War" recounts the chronology of events leading up to and during the fighting of the Spanish-American War. Perhaps no war in our history has been more popular at home or among those who fought it. American media played a significant role in instigating war, and fanning the patriotic fervor that made it so.In these pages you will meet the heroes of both sides and follow the chronology of battle through the actions of the aging Civil War heroes that commanded the American forces, and the young Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Army Nurses who were conspicuous by their gallantry and devotion to duty and to each other.

Patrick Donegan, the fictionalized protagonist of Donegan and the Splendid Little War, is a war-profiteer and pro-Cuban journalist during the Spanish-American War. He becomes involved with the great historical and literary figures of the period, including Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, Winston Churchill, William Randolph Hearst, Ambrose Bierce, Richard Harding Davis, and Stephen Crane. Donegan inadvertently and unhappily participates in all the major events of the era, including the attack on San Juan and Kettle hills, the naval battle at Santiago harbor, and the assassination of President William McKinley.

Journalist Olive Dunford is horrified when she learns how her newspaper articles have influenced a member of her own family.