Does a Pension = Combat in Spanish American War?

[dstroebel]

My grand uncle received a pension (I have the pension documents) from his Army service during the Spanish-American War. I am told he was a rough rider. His enlistment documents I have state he was a volunteer enlistee, yet I cannot find his name on any list that says he deployed to Cuba or Puerto Rico for the Spanish-American War. Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks

Dave
Freehold, NJ

[waldorf]

Dave,

Which Volunteer regiment did he serve with? Instead of the Caribbean region its possible that your grand Uncle might have served in the Philippines. I have pasted two links for you to take a look at. The first link gives you an order of battle for U.S. forces in 1898 along with their locations during the war. The second link deals a little more with the subsequent fighting in the Philippines after the Spanish American War officially ended.

http://www.spanamwar.com/usoob.htm
http://www.spanamwar.com/genealogy6.html

Are you sure he served specifically in the Spanish American War? If he enlisted after December 10, 1898 than he would not have been actively engaged in the war against Spain, but definitely could have been shipped over to the Philippines.

Chris

[dstroebel]

HI Chris,

Looking right now at his enlistment papers, he enlisted on 19 March 1898 in Jersey City and was assigned to Battery F, 7th Artillary at Fort Slocum, New York. I also have his pension papers that gives him a pension from that service.

Thanks

Dave

[waldorf]

Dave,

When I have a little more time I will do some more research into the movements of your grand Uncle's unit. I did find a preliminary article you may be interested written by the N.Y. Times on May 11, 1898. The article involves troop movements in the Department of the East. In the article it mentions that Battery F, 7'th Artillery moved from Fort Slocum to the defenses at Grover's Cliff, Massachusetts.

To answer your original question though your ancestor could still have gotten a pension without having seen combat. He just would have needed to serve "x" number of years in the military to qualify. On the papers you have does it mention when he got out of the Army?

Below is the article:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.h ... 94699ED7CF

Chris

[Trackhead M2]

HI Chris,

Looking right now at his enlistment papers, he enlisted on 19 March 1898 in Jersey City and was assigned to Battery F, 7th Artillary at Fort Slocum, New York. I also have his pension papers that gives him a pension from that service.

Thanks

Dave

Dear Dave and Chris,
A lot of people enlisted and were in units that were never shipped overseas. The New York "fighting 69th" was called up and shipped out to Kansas but never left the USA.
Strike Swiftly,
TH-M2