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SSG Justin Davis
to remember
Rowan, Andrew Summers, LTC.
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Contact Info
Home Town Gap MIlls
Date of Passing Jan 10, 1943
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Rowan, Andrew S. Captain, U.S. Army Home: Union, West Virginia 19th Infantry Date of Action: May 1898 General Orders No. No. 38, W.D., 1922
Citation:
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Andrew S. Rowan, Captain , U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action in connection with the operations in Cuba in May, 1898.
At the outbreak of the Spanish-American campaign Lieutenant Rowan, under disguise, entered the enemy lines in Oriente, crossed the island of Cuba, and not only succeeded in delivering a message to General Garcia, but secured secret information relative to existing military conditions in that region of such great value that it had an important bearing on the quick ending of the struggle and the complete success of the U.S. Army.
Rowan’s army career was, for the most part, unremarkable: garrison duty at various posts in the United States; some survey work in Central America; a Washington assignment in the Adjutant General’s Office; appointment as military attaché to Chile; staff service in Puerto Rico and Cuba during the War with Spain; some time in the Philippines; a year teaching military science in Kansas; and retirement as major after thirty years service.
There was one spectacular break in the routine. Early in 1898, Rowan was dispatched on a secret mission to obtain information on the strength of rebel forces in Cuba from their leader, Gen. Calixto Garcia. Rowan landed on the island the day Spain declared war, found Garcia, and returned with the information in eleven days. Rowan’s exploit inspired a much–reprinted and much–translated 1899 pamphlet by Elbert Hubbard, Message to Garcia, that made the officer’s name world famous.
Moro Rebellion (Philippines)
From Month/Year
February / 1899
To Month/Year
June / 1913
Description The Moro Rebellion (1899–1913) was an armed conflict between Moro indigenous ethnic groups and the United States military which took place in the southern Philippines but was unconnected to the Spanish–American War in 1898.
The word "Moro" is a term for ethnic Muslims who lived in the Southern Philippines, an area that includes Mindanao Jolo and the neighboring Sulu Archipelago.
After the American government informed the Moros that they would continue the old protectorate relationship that they had with Spain, the Moro Sulu Sultan rejected this and demanded that a new treaty be negotiated. The United States signed the Bates Treaty with the Moro Sulu Sultanate which guaranteed the Sultanate's autonomy in its internal affairs and governance while America dealt with its foreign relations, in order to keep the Moros out of the Philippine–American War. Once the Americans subdued the northern Filipinos, the Bates Treaty with the Moros was violated by the Americans and they invaded Moroland.
After the war in 1915, the Americans imposed the Carpenter Treaty on Sulu.
