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This Remembrance Profile was originally created by Richard Lee Hopka - Deceased
Contact Info
Last Address VINTON
Date of Passing May 27, 1966
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
The President of the United States
in the name of
The Congress
takes pleasure in presenting the
Medal of Honor
to
TITUS, CALVIN PEARL
Rank and Organization:
Citation:
Gallant and daring conduct in the presence of his colonel and other officers and enlisted men of his regiment; was first to scale the wall of the city.
Musician, U.S. Army, Company E, 14th U.S. Infantry. Place and Date: At Peking, China, 14 August 1900. Entered Service at: lowa. Birth: Vinton, lowa. Date of i55ue: 11 March 1902.
Other Comments:
Early at the turn of the century a rebel force in China that called itself the Society of "Righteous and Harmonious Fists", subsequently called the "Boxers", initiated a rebellion in China that threatened the legations of several nations in Peking and Tientsen. The 1st Regiment (Marines) under Major Littleton Waller arrived in China on June 19 and tried to seize Tientsin, but was driven back. On June 23 Waller's Marines finally entered the Tientsin, where they held tenuously until reinforced by U.S. Army troops on July 12, and thereafter fought their way to Peking. Beneath the 30-foot wall that surrounded the city, the American commander called for volunteers to scale the wall. "I'll try sir," replied Musician Calvin Titus. Without ropes the trumpeter and Chaplain's musician used hand-holds to slowly scale the wall, and even when fired on as he neared the top, he fearlessly continued on. Musician Titus courage inspired his watching comrades, who then followed, and it was the American and British forces of the multi-national relief force that were first to enter the city to rescue the civilian legation that had been surrounded for 55 days in Peking.
Spanish-American War
From Month/Year
April / 1898
To Month/Year
August / 1898
Description The Spanish–American War (Spanish: Guerra hispano-estadounidense or Guerra hispano-americana; Filipino: Digmaang Espanyol-Amerikano) was a conflict fought between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbor in Cuba leading to United States intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. American acquisition of Spain's Pacific possessions led to its involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately in the Philippine–American War.
Revolts had been occurring for some years in Cuba against Spanish rule. The U.S. later backed these revolts upon entering the Spanish–American War. There had been war scares before, as in the Virginius Affair in 1873. In the late 1890s, US public opinion was agitated by anti-Spanish propaganda led by newspaper publishers such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst which used yellow journalism to call for war. The business community across the United States had just recovered from a deep depression, and feared that a war would reverse the gains. They lobbied vigorously against going to war.
The US Navy battleship Maine was mysteriously sunk in Havana harbor; political pressures from the Democratic Party pushed the administration of Republican President William McKinley into a war that he had wished to avoid.[9] Spain promised time and time again that it would reform, but never delivered. The United States sent an ultimatum to Spain demanding that it surrender control of Cuba. First Madrid declared war, and Washington then followed suit.
The main issue was Cuban independence; the ten-week war was fought in both the Caribbean and the Pacific. US naval power proved decisive, allowing expeditionary forces to disembark in Cuba against a Spanish garrison already facing nationwide Cuban insurgent attacks and further wasted by yellow fever. Numerically superior Cuban, Philippine, and US forces obtained the surrender of Santiago de Cuba and Manila despite the good performance of some Spanish infantry units and fierce fighting for positions such as San Juan Hill. Madrid sued for peace with two obsolete Spanish squadrons sunk in Santiago de Cuba and Manila Bay and a third, more modern fleet recalled home to protect the Spanish coasts.
The result was the 1898 Treaty of Paris, negotiated on terms favorable to the US which allowed it temporary control of Cuba and ceded ownership of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine islands. The cession of the Philippines involved payment of $20 million ($575,760,000 today) to Spain by the US to cover infrastructure owned by Spain.
The defeat and collapse of the Spanish Empire was a profound shock to Spain's national psyche, and provoked a thorough philosophical and artistic revaluation of Spanish society known as the Generation of '98.[ The United States gained several island possessions spanning the globe and a rancorous new debate over the wisdom of expansionism. It was one of only five US wars (against a total of eleven sovereign states) to have been formally declared by Congress.
