Spanish - American War Memorial ( Arlington National Cemetery ) The Spanish - American War Memorial is a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County , Virginia , in the United States that commemorates those American military personnel who died in the Spanish – American War . Constructed by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America and dedicated on May 21 , 1902 , the memorial consists of a granite column in the center of a small grass - covered plaza . A granite sphere and bronze eagle with outstretched wings stand atop the shaft . The memorial faces west ; to its rear across Lawton Avenue is a flagstone terrace on which are placed four cannon , aimed east . Spanish - American War dead at Arlington National Cemetery . The Spanish - American War was a ten - week conflict that occurred in the spring and summer of 1898 . Cuba had been waging a war of independence against Spain since 1895 , an effort largely supported by the United States ( which had extensive economic interests on the island ) . To ensure the safety of American citizens and property in Cuba , the United States sent the battleship to Havana in late January 1898 . The " Maine " exploded under mysterious circumstances and was destroyed with large loss of life on February 15 . American newspapers whipped up war fever , and held Spain responsible for the ship ' s destruction . The United States Congress enacted a joint resolution demanding independence for Cuba , and President William McKinley signed it into law on April 20 . In response , Spain severed diplomatic relations on April 21 . The same day , the United States Navy began a blockade of Cuba . Spain declared war on April 23 . On April 25 , Congress declared that a state of war between the U . S . and Spain had existed since April 21 . The Spanish - American War began on April 25 , 1898 , and ended on August 12 , 1898 . Cuban and Spanish dead vastly outnumbered American deaths . While 2 , 910 American military personnel died during the war , just 345 were combat deaths . The rest died of disease . More than 1 , 800 Americans were buried in Cuba , Hawaii , the Philippines , and Puerto Rico . On July 8 , 1898 , Congress enacted legislation authorizing the repatriation of American dead , and appropriating funds for this purpose . Additional legislation was enacted on February 9 , 1900 ; May 26 , 1900 ; and June 6 , 1900 . Many of the dead were buried at Arlington National Cemetery , either because their families desired it or the remains could not be identified . Of the dead , 226 were disinterred in Cuba , 20 from Puerto Rico , and 24 from Hawaii . This represented the first time in history that Americans who died in battle overseas were repatriated to the United States for burial . Most of the military dead were buried in what is now Section 22 , while members of the Rough Riders ( or 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry ) were buried in Section 23 . Civilian nurses ( all of whom died of diease ) were buried in what is now Section 21 . First Spanish - American War Memorial . Some time in early 1900 , four guns captured during the war were erected in the Spanish - American War dead burial field . The two modern guns were taken from the Spanish Navy armored cruiser s " Vizcaya " and " Infanta Maria Teresa " . The provenance of the two smaller bronze cannon is less clear . One newspaper of the day said they came from a Spanish coastal battery in Cuba ( which the paper did not identify ) , but the " Washington Post " was more specific and said they came from a coastal battery near Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca ( also known as " Morro Castle " ) at Sevilla near Santiago de Cuba . All four guns were mounted on granite pedestals . The bronze cannon were spiked , while the modern guns had their breechblock s removed . No trees were immediately planted around the site , leaving it barren but also visible from the Potomac River . The Second Spanish - American War Memorial . The Capron effort . In February or March 1899 , as Sections 21 , 22 , and 23 were being prepared for the burial of Spanish - American War dead , Secretary of War Elihu Root chose a promontory on the eastern edge of the burial field as the site for a new Spanish - American War memorial . Veterans of the war strongly supported the construction of a memorial , but no action was taken . Agnes Kissam Capron , wife of Captain Allyn K . Capron , Sr . ( an Army artillery officer who died of typhoid fever in September 1898 ) , began lobbying Congress in April 1900 to appropriate money for a memorial and Representative John H . Ketcham introduced H . R . 11091 to authorize it . But Mrs . Capron left for the Philippines to engage in Red Cross work shortly after her lobbying effort began , and no action was taken by Congress . National Society of Colonial Dames effort . At its April 1900 National Council meeting in Washington , D . C . , the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America voted to seek to place a memorial to Spanish - American War dead at Arlington National Cemetery . The genesis of this effort is unclear , but a committee to consider " the subject of a tablet at Arlington in memory of the officers , soldiers , and sailors of the Spanish - American War " was appointed some time prior to the biennial National Council meeting . Winifred Lee Brent Lyster , wife of Dr . Henry Francis LeHunte Lyster of Michigan and a relative of Confederate Army General Robert E . Lee , conceived of and was the primary advocate for the memorial . The Memorial Committee proposed a bronze tablet bearing the name of all those who died ( from whatever cause ) during the war , and that this tablet be erected before the National Council meeting in May 1902 . The National Council approved a motion to have a tablet erected , but left the design and content up to a committee ( to be appointed by the chair ) , which was given the power to act on the resolution . Fundraising , design , and site selection . Lyster was appointed chair of the society ' s Spanish War Memorial Committee . She wrote more than 2 , 000 letters asking for funds for the memorial . Almost $ 7 , 300 ( $ in 2018 dollars ) was raised . Choosing a site for the memorial was not difficult . The Army Quartermaster Corps controlled Arlington National Cemetery , and in March 1901 Lyster asked the Quartermaster General , Brigadier General Marshall I . Ludington , for permission to erect the memorial at Arlington National Cemetery . Permission was granted , provided the federal government bore none of the cost . It is unclear just when the society obtained the pre - determined 1899 site , however . The Secretary of War had chosen the site in early 1899 , and the existing memorial was already located there . Obtaining the site for the Society memorial was not a foregone conclusion . The record is clear , however , that Justine Van Rensselaer Townsend , President of the National Society of Colonial Dames , approached Secretary of the War Root directly and secured the existing location for the Society ' s memorial . A Committee on Estimates and Designs , a subcommittee of the Spanish War Memorial Committee , was established to oversee the design of the memorial . The process by which designs were solicited and chosen is not clear . However , the winning design was submitted by Society member Edith Bucklin Hartshorn Mason of Rhode Island . The National Society of Colonial Dames was required to obtain the consent of the Quartermaster Corps for the memorial ' s design . Major Theodore A . True , an officer in the U . S . Army Signal Corps at Fort Myer , served as the representative of the Quartermaster General at the cemetery . True expressed concern over the original design . The design was changed and resubmitted several times before it met with True ' s approval . True submitted the final draft design to Brigadier General Ludington . Ludington approved it and forwarded it to Secretary of War Elihu Root . Root confirmed True and Ludington ' s decision and on October 23 , 1901 , informed the Society that it could erect its memorial . With the design approved , the Spanish War Memorial Committee ' s attention turned toward the language to be inscribed on the memorial . Lyster and another Spanish War Memorial Committee member , Hortense Addison Batré , visited the Pan - American Exposition in Buffalo , New York , in the summer of 1901 , and were impressed by the inscriptions written on the pediment above the main doorway of each exhibit hall . They learned that these were written by the poet Richard Watson Gilder , editor of " The Century Magazine " . Townsend was acquainted with Gilder , and Lyster and Batré asked Townsend to convince Gilder to provide language for the bronze tablet . Townsend met with Gilder , and after some initial resistance he agreed to write the inscription . Dedication . The monument was unveiled and dedicated on May 21 , 1902 . President Theodore Roosevelt permitted all civilian and military government employees to be excused at noon so that they could attend the dedication ceremony . The day of the event , 150 representatives to the National Council of the National Society of Colonial Dames convened in Washington , D . C . , to conduct the business of the society before adjourning in the afternoon to attend the dedication at Arlington National Cemetery . The 4 : 30 P . M . dedication ceremony was overseen by Major General John R . Brooke , commander of the U . S . Army ' s Department of the East . Nearly 1 , 000 members of the Spanish War Veterans — led by Lee M . Lipscomb , their national commander — mustered at 6th and E Streets NW and marched to the cemetery . Attending the ceremony were a battalion from the Corps of Engineers and a battalion of Light Artillery ( each of which included a band ) . A battalion of United States Marines from the Washington Navy Yard and four troop of cavalry from Fort Myer also participated . Commanding the battalions were Captain James T . Dean , 10th Infantry , and Captains Leroy S . Lyon and Edwin Landon , Light Artillery Corps . Dignitaries in attendance included President Theodore Roosevelt , Secretary of War Elihu Root , Cabinet secretary George B . Cortelyou , Lieutenant General John Schofield ( retired Commanding General of the U . S . Army ) , and Lieutenant General Nelson A . Miles ( incumbent Commanding General of the U . S . Army ) . The bands played the " Dead March " ( a dirge ) from the oratorio " Saul " , and a 40 - person choir from St . John ' s Episcopal Church sang " Onward , Christian Soldiers " . Father T . S . Dolan of St . Patrick ' s Catholic Church provided the invocation . Episcopal Bishop Henry Y . Satterlee read the Episcopal funeral service for the dead , and then the audience sang " My Country , ' Tis of Thee " . Mrs . Townsend of the National Society of Colonial Dames spoke briefly , and then the shroud was pulled from the monument . After a brief viewing by dignitaries , President Roosevelt addressed the crowd . " The Star - Spangled Banner " was sung , and then Bishop Saterlee gave the benediction . The bands played " Nearer , My God , to Thee " as the audience dispersed . About the memorial . The Spanish - American War Memorial consists of a column of gray granite high quarried in Barre , Vermont . Atop the column is a bronze eagle with outstretched wings , facing west . The eagle is mounted on a granite globe , which was quarried in Quincy , Massachusetts . A band decorated with 13 stars ( representing the original Thirteen Colonies ) is carved in high relief on the globe . The globe stands on a square base . The base stands atop a Corinthian capital which crowns the column . The column rests upon a tall plinth with a square cross - section . Around the top of the plinth are bronze stars across . There are 11 stars on each of the four sides , for a total of 44 stars . A bronze tablet affixed to the front ( west face ) of the memorial contains the following language : The plinth stands on a larger square base , which sits atop a foundation set in the earth . On each corner of the foundation is a polished black granite sphere in diameter . The total cost of the monument was $ 9 , 000 ( $ in 2018 dollars ) . At the rear of the monument across Lawton Drive is a flagstone terrace . Four cannon , mounted on low brick pillars capped with concrete , stand on the eastern edge of this terrace . The guns point east . The inner two guns are larger and more modern , and were taken from the Spanish Navy armored cruisers " Vizcaya " and " Infanta Maria Teresa " . The two outer guns are smaller and made of bronze , and likely were captured from the Spanish coastal battery Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca at Sevilla near Santiago de Cuba . The memorial is notable because it was the first national memorial erected by a national society of women . The " Boston Evening Transcript " criticized the memorial for being too plain for the magnificent site . It editorialized that the society should have taken time to collect more money , and built a more elaborate memorial . The newspaper expressed its hope that the Army would place no other memorials near it . Second bronze tablet . The National Society of Colonial Dames was given permission to add a second bronze tablet to the rear of the memorial in 1964 . The square tablet was placed on the memorial on October 11 , 1964 . It reads : Third bronze tablet . The National Society of Colonial Dames placed a third bronze tablet at the memorial on October 19 , 2008 . This tablet has a small eagle , clutching arrows and olive branches , in high relief at the top . It is attached to a rough grey granite base high , which is set into the earth on the far western side of the grassy plaza . It is inscribed with the words : Memorial Record Book . When the Spanish War Memorial Committee ' s Committee on Estimates and Designs considered the nature of the memorial , it quickly realized that the number of dead was too numerous to list their names on a tablet . A memorial book listing the names of the dead was more appropriate , so the Spanish War Memorial Committee established a second subcommittee , the Record Book Committee , to produce this volume . Esther Gill Jackson of Maryland was appointed chair of this subcommittee . Rosa Wright Smith of Washington , D . C . , the society ' s Assistant National Secretary , was assigned to aid her . Jackson sent hundreds of letters to state militia commanders , requesting complete lists of the name , rank , and home towns of those in state militia and volunteer regiments who died in the war . Complete lists of U . S . Army and U . S . Navy dead were obtained from General Henry Clarke Corbin , Adjutant General of the Army , and Rear Admiral Presley Marion Rixey , Surgeon General of the Navy . The Record Book ( also known as the " Book of Patriots " ) published by the society was lavish . Almost $ 760 ( $ in 2018 dollars ) was raised to produce it . The book had 6 , 480 lines of information on 324 pages . The chapter page for each state was ornamental , the information pages consisted of parchment , and each line was hand - drawn in India ink . The book was covered in dark green Levant Morocco leather , and hand - bound by the Ruzicka Bindery of Baltimore . The Record Book Committee decided that a book stand should also be designed , constructed , and donated to Arlington National Cemetery to permit display of the Record Book . Members of the subcommittee were asked to submit designs for the book stand , nine of which were received . In January 1904 , the Record Book Committee chose a design submitted by Lois B . Cassatt of Pennsylvania . A " Mr . Evans " of Philadelphia was the designer . ( This is possibly Allen Evans , architect with the firm Furness & Evans . This firm designed Cheswold , the Cassatt summer home . ) The winning design consisted of a table on a brick pillar , to be placed in the basement of Arlington House . The book was to be kept in a lockable , fire - proof box . The U . S . government provided an inscription for the inside lid of the box . The table was intended to be of soapstone or other durable , beautiful material . The book stand was given to Arlington National Cemetery in 1904 . Although designed to stand on the earth in the cellar of Arlington House , cemetery officials placed it on one of the wooden floors above . The book stand was so heavy that the floor sagged and required reinforcement . At the time , the building was not a house museum but rather contained the living quarters of the Superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery and office space for him and his staff . In 1929 , the Record Book was transferred from Arlington House to Arlington Memorial Amphitheater when the main floor of the amphitheater became a Memorial Exhibit Hall displaying honors received by the unknown solidiers lying beneath the Tomb of the Unknowns . ( It is not clear if it was put on display , or housed in the second - floor offices . ) The cemetery offices moved into what is now the Old Administration Building in 1932 , and the book stand was misplaced . Its whereabouts are not known as of 2013 .