¹ Of nearly three million head of cattle grazing on Cuban pastures in 1895, less than 200,000 remained in 1898. In some districts the loss of breeding stock and work cattle was almost complete. Horned cattle in Matanzas declined from approximately 300,000 to 9,000 and in Las Villas from 967,000 to 66,000. The 50,000 yoke of cattle in Matanzas and the 150,000 in Las Villas were reduced to 5,500 and 15,000 respectively. See Great Britain, Foreign Office. Diplomatic and Consular Reports, Report for year 1899 on the Trade and Commerce of the Island of Cuba (London, 1900), p. 14Google Scholar; See Wilson, General James H., ‘Special Report of Brigadier General James H.Wilson, U.S.V., Commanding the Department of Matanzas and Santa Clara, on the Industrial, Economic, and Social Conditions Existing in the Department at the Time of the American Occupation and at the Present Time’, 7 09 1899Google Scholar, in Brooke, John R., Civil Report of Major-General John R. Brooke, U.S. Army, Military Governor, Island of Cuba (Washington. D.C., 1900), pp. 334, 337Google Scholar; Buell, Raymond Leslie et al. , Problems of the New Cuba (New York, 1935), p. 43.Google Scholar

² Havana declined from 238,000 acres to 105,000 while Matanzas dropped from 365, 838 to 161, 766. The total figures for 1895 are approximate for no information was available for Camagüey province. See United States War Department, Office of Director of Census, Informe sobre el censo de Cuba 1899 (Washington, D.C., 1900), p. 554.Google Scholar

³ United States War Department, Office of Director of Census, Informe sobre el censo de Cuba, 1899, p. 77.Google Scholar

⁴ Ibid., pp. 143–4.

⁵ Ibid., p. 554

⁶ McLeary, Major James M., Inspector General, ‘Report of Tour Inspection’, 19 12, 1898Google Scholar, File 1487, Records of the United States Overseas Operations and Commands, 1898–1942, Record Group 395, National Archives, Washington, D.C. (Hereinafter cited as AOOC/RG 395.)

⁷ Proprietaries, Comerciantes y, ‘Petition to Leonard Wood’, 25 01 1900, File 1900/1122, Records of the Military Government of Cuba, Record Group 140, National Archives, Washington, D.C. (Hereinafter cited as MGC/RG 140.)Google Scholar

⁸ Hidalgo, Manuel, ‘Informe’, 15 11 1900, File 1900/3589, MGC/RG 140.Google Scholar

⁹ Mastrapa, Francisco, ‘Informe’, 18 07 1900, File 1900/3589, MGC/RG 140.Google Scholar

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¹² de Manzanillo, Zona Fiscal, ‘Relatión de las fincas que han adquirido en compra los no residentes en la Isla de Cuba desde la fecha de la ocupación americana’, 25 03, 1902, File LMC 1902/31, MGC/RG 140.Google Scholar

¹³ Wright, See Irene, Cuba (New York, 1910), pp. 469–70Google Scholar; Zanetti, Oscar and García, Alejandro, United Fruit Company: Un caso del dominio imperialista en Cuba (Havana, 1976), pp. 57–9, 67, 77–8Google Scholar; Marrero, Levi, Geografía de Cuba (Havana, 1951), pp. 634–5.Google Scholar

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¹⁷ The State, 10 December, 1898.

¹⁸ General George W. Davis to General Adna R. Chaffee, 15 01, 1899, File 1899/297, MGC/RG 140.

¹⁹ See George H. Chadwick to Adna R. Chaffee, 26 May, 1899, File 1899/2020, MGC/RG 140.

²⁰ Rafael M. Portuondo to John R. Brooke, 24 January 1899, No file number, Letters Received, Segregated correspondence and Related Documents, MGC/RG 140.

²¹ Emilio Avalos, Rural Guard, to Adjutant General, Military Government, 12 November 1901, File 1901/194, MGC/RG 140.

²² The State, 11 April, 1899.

²³ Wood, Leonard, ‘Report of Brigadier General Leonard Wood, United States Volunteers, Commanding Department of Santiago’, in United States War Department, Annual Reports of the War Department: Report of the Major-General Commanding the Army, 1899, House of Representatives, 56th Congress, Ist Session, House Document no. 2, ser. 3901 (Washington, D.C., 1899), p. 302.Google Scholar

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²⁵ Pupo, Ricardo Varona, Banes (Crónicas) (Santiago de Cuba, 1930), pp. 80–1Google Scholar; Captain Clarion A. Windus, Mayaní, to District Commander, San Luis, 29 March 1899, File 1606, AOOC/RG 395.

²⁶ See Major J. L. Fowler, Holguín, to Assistant Adjutant General, Santiago de Cuba, 18, 20, 21 June 1899, File 1589, AOOC/RG 395; Vaillant, Lieutenant Colonel Juan, ‘Reseña para la hoja de servicios de teniente coronel Juan Vaillant, Jefe de la Provincia de Santiago de Cuba’, 11 02 1902Google Scholar, File 1902/1201, MGC/RG 140 and Lieutenant Colonel Juan Vaillant, Jefe Guardia Rural, Provincia de Santiago de Cuba, ‘Novedades ocurridos en esta provincia in los años 1899 a 1900 con motivo del bandolerismo’, 11 February 1902, File 1902/1201, MGC/RG 140.

²⁷ See Gastón, Luis, ‘Report of Associate Justice Gastón Concerning his Visit to the Court of “Instructión” of Holguín’, 19 10, 1899Google Scholar, John R. Brooke Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

²⁸ The State, 10 January, 1899.

²⁹ Carpenter, L. H., ‘Report of L. H. Carpenter, Commanding Department of Puerto Príncipe’, 10 07 1899, in United States Department of War, Annual Report of the War Department, 1899, United States Congress, House of Representatives, 56th Congress ist Session, House Document no. 2, ser. 3899–3904 (3 vols., Washington, D.C., 1899), I, part I, p. 331.Google Scholar

³⁰ Lieutenant R. S. Paxton, Holguin, to Adjutant General, Santiago de Cuba, 12 September 1899, File 1589, AOOC/RG 395. See also The State, 11 April, 1899.

³¹ J. C. Bates to Adjutant General, Division of Cuba, 28 January, 1899, File 196, AOOC/RG 395.

³² Richardson, James D., ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789–1902 (10 vols., Washington, D.C., 1896–1902), x, pp. 63–4.Google Scholar

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³⁴ See Diario de la Marina, 22 August, 1901 and Carreras, Julio Angel, ‘El bandolerismo en la república burguesa,’ Santiago, 1 (06, 1983), 148–9Google Scholar. Nothing was as central to North American hopes for control of Cuba than the goodwill and allegiance of local elites, precisely those classes that had earlier supported Spain. ‘Our supporters are the producers and the merchants…,’ Leonard Wood insisted. ‘Our best friends are the country people, the planters and the commercial classes.’ Wood feared that the United States could ‘have a great deal of disgust and discontentment unless we show these people that it means something for them to be under the protection of the United States.’ It was no easy task ‘to instill wild enthusiasm into the people over the advantages of American protection,’ Wood insisted, without meeting basic needs. ‘We do not want to get the real Cuban people, I mean the producers and merchants, against us.’ See Leonard Wood to Orville Platt, 12 January 1901 and 19 December, 1900, Leonard Wood Papers, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

³⁵ John C. Bates to Adjutant General, Division of Cuba, 28 January, 1899, File 196, Santa Clara, AOOC/RG 395.

³⁶ Washington Evening Star, 25 January, 1899. At a McKinley cabinet meeting, Secretary of War Russell A. Alger made a strong case for a constabulary as a source of employment: ‘Honorable and profitable employment would be given to a considerable proportion of the Cuban soldiers, who might otherwise in the absence of individual employment, drift into evil courses or become a dissatisfied and dangerous element in the community.’ See Washington Evening Star, 1 November, 1898.

³⁷ John A. Logan to Adjutant General, Department of Santa Clara, 3 February, 1899. File 294/11, Records of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, Record Group 350, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

³⁸ Leonard Wood to William McKinley, 27 October 1899, Wood Papers. See also Leonard Wood to Adjutant General, Washington, D.C. 11 November, 1899, File 2594, MGC/RG 140. See also Steinhart, Frank, ‘Memorandum’, 28 12, 1928Google Scholar, Correspondence, 1928–31, Hermann Hagedorn Papers, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

³⁹ Henry Adams to Elizabeth Cameron, 26 February, 1899, in Ford, Worthington Chauncy, ed., Letters of Henry Adams (2 vols., Boston, 1930–1938), II, p. 20.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Joseph B. Foraker to James H. Wilson, 22 May, 1899, James Harrison Wilson Papers, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

⁴¹ Fitzhugh Lee to Joseph B. Foraker, 29 November, 1899, Foraker, Joseph Benson, Notes of a Busy Life (2 vols., 3rd ed., Cincinnati, 1917), ii, p. 48.Google Scholar

⁴² In Holme, John G., The Life of Leonard Wood (New York, 1920), pp. 77–8.Google Scholar

⁴³ See Leonard Wood to Theodore Roosevelt, 18 August 1899, Theodore Roosevelt Papers, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C. ‘There was no news in Cubans killing Cubans’, wrote Wood's biographer. See Hagedorn, Hermann, Leonard Wood, A Biography (2 vols., New York, 1931), I, p. 214.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Captain Francis Moor, Holguín, to Adjutant General, 28 June, 1899, File 1806, AOOC/RG 395.

⁴⁵ See Sergio Navarro to John R. Brooke, 8 September, 1899, File 1899/6968, MGC/RG 140.

⁴⁶ See Major V. Harvard to Leonard Wood, 21 September 1899, Wood Papers.

⁴⁷ Lieutenant R. S. Paxton to Adjutant General, Santiago de Cuba, 12 September, 1899, File 1589, AOOC/RG 395.

⁴⁸ Major V. Harvard to Leonard Wood, 21 September, 1899, Wood Papers.

⁴⁹ Captain Wilfredo Betancourt to Leonard Wood, 27 January, 1902, File 1902/1201, MGC/RG 140.

⁵⁰ Captain Wilfredo Betancourt to Leonard Wood, 27 January, 1902, File 1902/1201, MGC/RG 140.

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⁵³ Hugh L. Scott to C. B. Hoppin, 6 December 1900, File 1900/5165, MGC/RG 140.

⁵⁴ See Eduardo Usabiega to Leonard Wood, 26 May, 1901, File 194, MGC/RG 140; Pío Domínguez to Leonard Wood, 16 May, 1901, File 1901/194, MGC/RG 140; García, Liana and Company to Leonard Wood, 18 January, 1901, File 1901/138, MGC/RG 140.

⁵⁵ See Commandante B. Peña to C. A. P. Hatfield, 3 February, 1901, File 1901/879, MGC/140; J. F. Craig, President, Francisco Sugar Company, to Leonard Wood, 2 February, 1901, File 1901/879, MGC/RG 140; W. I. Consuegra, Acting Chief, Rural Guard, ‘Monthly Report for November, 1900’, File 1900/6105, MGC/RG 140, José de Jesús Monteagudo, Chief, Rural Guard, to Fitzhugh Lee, 31 October, 1900, File 1900/138 MGC/RG 140.

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⁵⁸ Leonard Wood to Louise Wood, 11 October, 1898, Wood Papers.

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⁶⁰ Francis Moore to Lt. R. Cavanaugh, 30 June, 1899, File 1806, AOOC/RG 39;.

⁶¹ Major V. Harvard to Leonard Wood, 21 September, 1899, Wood Papers.

⁶² The State, 10 January 1899.

⁶³ ‘Report of Brigadier General Leonard Wood, United States Volunteers, Commanding Department of Santiago’, in United States War Department, Annual Reports of the War Department: Report of the Major-General Commanding the Army, 1899, i, pt. i, p. 302.Google Scholar

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⁶⁵ J. L. Fowley to Assistant Adjutant General, 21 June, 1899, File 1487. AOOC/RG 395. The inability to execute captured bandits often embarrassed commanders. Reported one rural guard officer in 1907: ‘I am still pushing the pursuit of the Mayari gang. We have now captured six and killed one. I am sorry to report the capture of so many, but they were encountered under such circumstances that we would not kill them without raising a row. Hope to have better luck with some of the four leaders who are still out.’ In E. Wittenmyer to F. S. Foltz, 22 October 1907, File 146/20, Records of the Provisional Government of Cuba, Record Group 199, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

⁶⁶ See Francis Moore to Adjutant General, Santiago de Cuba, 11 July, 1899, File 1806, AOOC/RG 395.

⁶⁷ Captain M. Evans to Adjutant General, Department of Cuba, 16 September, 1901, File 1901/194, MGC/RG 140.

⁶⁸ Antonio Rivero, Court of the First Instance, Holguín, to Chief Justice of Audiencia, 10 July, 1901, in ‘Report of the Chief Justice of the Audiencia of Santiago de Cuba’, November 1901, File 1901/4852, MGC/RG 140. This sentiment was also expressed by municipal officials. ‘The people here’, complained the mayor of Calabazar, in Santa Clara province, ‘hold the opinion that the rural police body is anti-democratic for it's not depending directly on the municipal authorities.’ See Leopoldo Ramos, ‘Informe’, 30 August, 1900, File 1900/3589, MGC/RG 140.

⁶⁹ See Calderón, Juan A., ‘El terror en Gibara y Holguín’, La Discussión, 20 07, 1899.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ James H. Wilson to R. Suydam Grant, 14 September, 1899, Letterbook, Wilson Papers.

⁷¹ John R. Brooke to Adjutant General, 14 November, 1899, Brooke Papers.