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Contact Info
Home Town Lancaster
Date of Passing Sep 24, 1933
Location of Interment U.S. Military Academy West Point Post Cemetery (VLM) - West Point, New York
William Murray Black was born December 8, 1855 in Lancaster, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Attended Lancaster public schools, graduating high school in 1870. Attended Franklin and Marshall College until June 1873 when he enlisted in the United States Military Academy. Graduated head of class in June 1877. Commissioned 2nd Lieut., Corps of Engineers, United States Army in 1877. Served at West Point for two months and at the Engineer School at Willets Point, Long Island, where he was under instruction and in duty with Company C, Battalion of Engineers until March 1880, being in command of the company for the last year.
March 1880 promoted to 1st Lieut. on duty on River and Harbor Works at Charleston, Kanawha, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as assistant to Lieut. Colonels Craighill and Merrill, Major Ludlow and General Weitzel from March 1880 to August 1882. August 1882 to January 1886 on duty at West Point, New York, Assistant Instructor of Practical Military Engineering and with Company E, Battalion of Engineers. January 1886 to November 1891 on duty at Jacksonville and St. Augustine, Florida for the first 4 months as assistant to Captain William T. Rossell, Corps of Engineers and later in charge of the river and harbor improvements an fortifications of the Florida District.
Promoted Captain, Corps of Engineers, December 31, 1886. November 1891 to August 1895 on duty at United States Engineer's School, Willets Point, New York as Instructor of Civil Engineering, and commanding Company C. August 1895 to March 1897 stationed at Washington D.C., Assistant to Chief of Engineers in charge of the Division of Personnel and Fortifications, Office Chief of Engineers. March 1897 to May 1898, Commissioner of the District of Columbia.
May 1898 promoted to Major, Corps of Engineers and appointed Lieut. Colonel, Chief Engineer United States Volunteers, assigned to duty with 3rd Corps at Camp Thomas, Chickamauga Park and later in Tampa and in the expedition to Puerto Rico, being in command of the advance guard which captured the town of Guanica, Puerto Rico, where the first landing was made. November 1898, transferred to temporary duty in the Office of the Chief of Engineers, Washington D.C. and in December 1898, ordered to Havana, Cuba as Chief Engineer, Department of Havana, on the staff of Generla Ludlow. January 1900 made Chief Engineer, Division of Cuba on staff of General Wood. In charge of the work cleaning Havana and of organizing a modern department of public works for that city.
In 1888 became a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and in 1893 was awarded the Rowland prize by that society for his paper on The Improvement of Harbors on the South Atlantic Coast of the United States. Author of The United States Public Works, a volume descriptive of engineering methods published by John Wiley & Sons in 1895.
Married 1st to Daisy Peyton Derby in 1877, one son, Roger Derby Black, born January 18, 1883 at West Point, New York. She died in March 1889. He 2nd married Gertrude Totten Gamble September 1891. They had two sons, Percy Gamble Black, born September 17, 1893 at Willets Point, New York and William Murray Black Jr., born July 3, 1897 in Washington, D.C.
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.
