Description: Seven stereoviews show the 8th Ohio Infantry Regiment, U.S. Volunteers prior to their departure for Cuba during the Spanish American War. They measure 3.54 by 7.09 inches (9 by 18 cm). Stereoviews, also called stereographs, contain side-by-side images captured simultaneously from two slightly different perspectives. Looking at the card through a stereoscope, a viewer sees a single three-dimensional image. The first two images are of training exercises at Camp Alger. The third and fourth images show men of the unit at Camp Alger. Images five and six capture regimental commander Colonel Curtis V. Hard of Wooster and Lieutenant Colonel Charles W. H. Dick with other officers in New York. In the final image, men are seen boarding the St. Paul, which transported the regiment to Cuba. The 8th Ohio Infantry Regiment was an Ohio National Guard (O.N.G.) regiment organized in July 1876 and mustered into federal service in May 1898 at Camp Bushnell in Columbus. Prior to the Spanish American War, the regiment maintained peace during civil disturbances and labor strikes throughout the state. Men in the regiment were from northern Ohio, predominantly Ashland, Holmes, Medina, Richland, Wayne, and Stark counties. The 8th Ohio was nicknamed "McKinley's Own" or "The President's Own" because three companies were from President William McKinley's hometown of Canton. The 8th Ohio assembled in Akron, Ohio on April 26th, 1898, just three days after the call for troops. On July 4th, 1898, following several months of training at Camp Bushnell and Camp Alger, Virginia, the 8th Ohio received orders to move to New York, where they would set sail for Cuba. The regiment disembarked at Siboney, Cuba on July 11. Although the unit never participated in combat, it was plagued by disease. The soldiers that did not perish from illness left Cuba on August 17 aboard the S.S. Mohawk. The Spanish American War was the shortest war in United States history, lasting less than four months. It inspired tremendous patriotism, since it was the first war the U.S. fought as a unified nation after the Civil War. American sympathies for Cuban independence from Spain and a "yellow press" interpretation of the sinking of the battleship Maine led to the Spanish American War. (The term "yellow press" refers to a style of journalism that sensationalizes news events.) More than 15,000 Ohioans served in the militia and the volunteer army. Of those, few were involved in major action, although 230 died of disease. The Treaty of Paris, negotiated in part by Ohioan Whitelaw Reid, formally ended the war on December 10, 1898. Spain relinquished to the United States control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Cuba became independent in 1902. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om1331_1664684_001
Subjects: Military Ohio; Spanish American War; Soldiers; Military officers; Boats; 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (O.V.I.)
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Ashland County (Ohio); Holmes County (Ohio); Medina County (Ohio); Richland County (Ohio); Wayne County (Ohio); Canton (Ohio); Stark County (Ohio)