William M. Holden

Give Me 10,000 Men! William M. Holden

...and so was the rallying cry that began the Spanish-American War, when, on February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded in Havana horbor, killing 274 men. Perhaps the most famous icon from that bloody war was the American assault on Cuba's San Juan Hill in the Santiago campaign. It was not one of history's greatest battles, but it was the battle that won the campaign... the campaign that won the war... the war that dismantled the empire that had flown the blood-and-gold colors of Spain since Columbus. This book is based on the true story of Pvt. Alfred C. Petty's role in the adventure that changed the world. Contrary to legend, it was not the Rough Riders but the infantry who captured San Juan Hill. The infantry took it while Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were capturing Kettle Hill, half a mile away, in a rip-roaring charge. The Rough Riders fought as bravely as soldiers anywhere, but truth must be told: the infantry did the job at San Juan, no matter the die-hard legend. But not before the army teetered on the brink of disaster. Someone had blundered - and not just once. The ailing, 315-pound commanding general, age 63, and top brass committed four egregious blunders. And how could this proud corps of elite career officers admit that a cheeky Southern bumpkin named Petty had done the incredible in the near-debacle at San Juan? An ex-cottonpicker with no formal schooling? A buck private who had been in the army only forty-three days? A soldier who had disobeyed orders to retreat? An inelegant rustic still wearing chiefly his shabby civilian hand-me-downs? Unthinkable. Forget him. So they euchred him out of the honors he deserved as one of our military immortals. This is his tale... the incredible true story of Pvt. Alfred C. Petty, the hero of San Juan Hill.