Which U.S. Army general commanded the attack at El Caney on July 1, 1898?

The U.S. Army general who commanded the attack at El Caney on July 1, 1898, was Henry Ware Lawton.

Lawton commanded the U.S. 2nd Division of the Fifth Army Corps during the Spanish-American War. Major General William R. Shafter ordered his division to seize El Caney, a fortified settlement northeast of Santiago de Cuba, and then move toward the San Juan Heights. The operation was expected to be quick, but Spanish defenders held out for nearly twelve hours.

The defense was led by Brigadier General Joaquín Vara de Rey, whose much smaller force used trenches, blockhouses, and strongpoints to delay the American advance. Lawton’s troops eventually captured El Caney, but the delay prevented much of his division from reinforcing the simultaneous assault on San Juan Hill earlier in the day.

Lawton is sometimes confused with Adna Chaffee, who served as one of his brigade commanders, or Joseph Wheeler, who commanded U.S. cavalry forces elsewhere in the Santiago campaign. Lawton later served in the Philippines and was killed in action at San Mateo in December 1899 during the Philippine-American War.