Willis Uline: the commendation of 1898

1 July 1898

The officer: Willis Uline was a Mishawaka High School graduate of the class of 1884 and a West Point graduate of 1890 who made the Regular Army his career. In the war with Spain he was a first lieutenant of the 12th Infantry, commanding Company H in the attack on El Caney, Cuba, on 1 July 1898. He is not one of the four Mishawaka volunteers on Gore's roster of the town's Spanish-American soldiers, whose service stands in the Wars section; he was a professional officer, and his war ran on a different paper trail — the regiment's reports, printed in the Report of the Secretary of War for 1898.

The commendation, in the report's words: Captain H. L. Haskell, commanding the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry, named Uline in his official report of the El Caney fight: "To First Lieut. Willis Uline, commanding Company H, for the courage and daring displayed by him in placing his company in most advantageous position under heavy fire, to which he was repeatedly exposed, while carefully protecting his men." Uline also drew the regiment's map of the El Caney field, which the report carries with it. A published commendation of exactly this kind — an officer named by name for gallantry in his commander's official report, printed in the War Department's annual report — was the substance from which that era's gallantry recognition was made: the Citation Star, authorized for such published citations and later converted into the Silver Star Medal, rested on commendations of this form.

The award as the city names it: De Kever's city-commissioned history, Mishawaka: A History, states the conclusion plainly: Uline "participated in the July 1 attack on El Caney… and was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action." This section prints the two records together and at their combined strength: the city's history names the award, and the War Department's own report carries the commendation that is the award's documentary foundation, read first-hand. No separate medal roll for officers of Uline's generation was reached, and none is claimed; the entry stands on the report and the history, and on nothing else.

Sources:

1. Report of the Secretary of War, 1898: report of Capt. H. L. Haskell, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry, on the action at El Caney (as carried in the Cuban Battlefields project, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, report cb.report.0005, and the report's full text, p. 695).
2. Andrew De Kever, Mishawaka: A History (city-commissioned history, City of Mishawaka), on Uline's schooling, commission, and award.