The United States went to war with Spain in April of 1898. Pressures to intervene on behalf of Cuban revolutionaries had been growing for months. President William McKinley, himself a Civil War veteran, opposed intervention. But soon events grew beyond the president’s power to control.
McKinley ordered the U.S.S. Maine to Havana Harbor to protect American interests. On February 15, 1898, the ship exploded, taking 268 Americans with it to the bottom of the harbor. The Spaniards were immediately blamed for the conflagration. Cries for war grew deafening. And yet the president resisted. After a naval investigation confirmed a Spanish mine caused the disaster, the president asked Congress for a Declaration of War. (Modern historians generally attribute the Maine’s destruction to a fire and explosion in the ship’s coal bunker, not Spanish sabotage.)
The U.S. Army was not ready for war. It had but 25,000 men scattered across the country in seventy-five small garrisons. The army had not fought in an engagement of more than 1000 men in the thirty years since the end of the Civil War. The army brought in a new adjutant general at the end of February to supervise an overhaul.
The new man was Brig. General Henry Clark Corbin of Monroe Township. Corbin, a Civil War veteran, accepted an officer’s commission in the regular army, personally rendered to him by General Ulysses Grant. He had served much of his time in remote forts across the western frontier, fighting Indians. Corbin had always shown a special talent for administrative affairs, a talent that would be severely tested during the upcoming war.
Corbin’s office was responsible for raising, training, and supplying 275,000 new volunteers and integrating them with state militias and the regular army into an effective fighting force within a short period of time. Other challenges included securing and transporting potable water to the men, making sure that the army had enough coffins and setting the market price for tobacco in Cuba. Corbin and his small staff of six men worked around the clock, often sleeping on cots in their offices.
July 1, 1898: Theodore Roosevelt was about to enter what he would later call his “crowded hour”. Sitting astride his horse, Texas, Roosevelt ordered his dismounted Rough Riders to follow him up a hill frowning with enemy trenches, block houses and rifle pits. A steady fire from the Spanish defenses peppered the advancing Americans. Roosevelt dismounted and engaged two of the enemy with his revolver, hitting one of them “as neatly as a jack rabbit”. Above the din of battle, Roosevelt was heard shouting. “Holy Godfrey! What fun!” The Battle of San Juan Hill became an iconic American victory.
Roosevelt’s supporters began an intensive lobbying campaign to secure the Congressional of Honor Medal for the hero of San Juan. The army brass, including General Corbin, disapproved of such a blatant political effort. Roosevelt asked Corbin for his advice. Corbin answered the colonel’s questions, but remained non committal. The army’s disapproval of Roosevelt’s action turned to outright anger when his suspected involvement with the “round robin” letter-a letter written by junior officers criticizing the army’s failure to treat a yellow fever epidemic that swept the ranks-became known. And that was that. There would be no Medal of Honor for Roosevelt.
Corbin agreed with the decision. As a professional soldier for thirty years, Corbin believed the army had certain standards of conduct that must not be challenged by rambunctious volunteers. He felt that Roosevelt’s actions were reckless and should not be encouraged. Corbin told a reporter that awarding Roosevelt the medal would “prostitute the medal and stultify the service.”
Mrs. Roosevelt later said that not receiving the medal was the “bitterest disappointment” of her husband’s life.
Roosevelt became president and Corbin continued as adjutant general of the army. One can only imagine how strained their relationship was. However, they attended football games and rode horses together. The president attended Corbin’s wedding and gave the couple an autographed photograph of himself.
Henry Clark Corbin was a man of impressive accomplishments. President McKinley cited Corbin as “the man most responsible for winning the war.” Corbin also oversaw the army during the Philippine War and the Boxer Rebellion in China. He was a reformer who prepared the army for its expanded role during the American Century. He retired from the army in 1906 with the rank of Lt. General and died in 1909 of kidney failure. He and his second wife Edythe are buried at Arlington Cemetery.
Through it all-no matter where life took him-Corbin always thought of himself as a “Clermonter.”
Theodore Roosevelt received his Medal of Honor from President Bill Clinton on January 16, 2001; fifty-six years after his son, Theodore,Jr., was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroics at Utah Beach on D-Day.