The Spanish-American War

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During the months in the Spanish-American War as a Red Cross nurse, I have seen soldiers in pain. I have seen them screaming and moaning because of the bullets in their body. I have heard that 3,289 soldiers died in this war, most of whom had family. I felt so horrible seeing them in that amount of pain, so I started the American Red Cross Foundation. I bandaged up soldiers and helped them to recover, but I still think there was no need for this war. I, Clara Barton, do not think that the Spanish-American War was justified and worth the expense. First of all, the Spanish probably didn’t even sink the Maine. The Maine is a battleship which was in Havana Harbor one evening, and the ship exploded. There were hundreds of men killed, 268 to be exact, in this accident. This was a main cause of the war, and I find that Spain was wrongly accused of sinking the ship. No one really knows what happened to the ship, but I am fairly sure that Spain didn’t sink it. Initially, everybody thought that Spain did it. This obviously could have been a possibility at the time, but after further consideration, there are more accurate possibilities. I personally think that it was an internal explosion that sank the Maine. “Like all warships, Maine was loaded with explosives and flammable materials including the shells and powder for her guns, the coal used to fuel her engines, and paint supplies.” All of these items were highly flammable, which could have set off an internal explosion. I think that someone could have accidentally done something to trigger a chain reaction of explosions, or internal sabotage. You never know if someone could have gotten mad at a commander, and set off the mine themselves. I have seen what goes on in war as a nurse, and I ... ... middle of paper ... ... Spain didn’t sink the USS Maine, we lost a lot of soldiers and money, and there was no initial conflict between U.S. and Spain. I am proud to say that I was a nurse helping out wounded soldiers, but am not proud to say that we got into this war in the first place. I have seen too much suffering on both sides of the war to know that this war didn’t even need to happen. I hope that in the future our country will come to war only when it is really necessary, not just to imperialize. Works Cited What Destroyed the USS Maine." Spanamwar. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. . "American Red Cross." NPS. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2014. history/museum/exhibits/clba/redcross.html>. "Platt Amendment." Our Documents. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. .

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