From the Front Lines to the Front Page:
Women Report on the Spanish-American War

Although many women wrote about the Civil War, their reports usually were because they happened to be at the right place at the right time, and not because they had actual assignments as journalists. During the Spanish-American war of 1898, however, this began to change, as newspapers assigned women to their first experiences as war correspondents with official press credentials.

The wrecked U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor. The photograph was taken in 1902, four years after the US invaded Cuba to liberate it from Spain. Library pf Congress LC-DIG-ppmsca-02918

Anna Northend Benjamin pushed her way to the front lines and followed American troops to Cuba . She insisted, “you think it ridiculous my being here, you are laughing at me wanting to go, that's the worst of being a woman. But just let me tell you, I'm going to Cuba and not all the old generals in the Army are going to stop me.” Benjamin not only proved her determination, she also scooped her competitors with stories on combat and American victories. A year later, undeterred by the horrors of combat, Benjamin traveled to the Philippines to cover the brutal insurrection in that country. Her skill as a journalist and bravery as a war correspondent paved the way for women who would cover the First World War less than two decades later.

Reporter Kathleen Blake Watkins, c. 1895. She was one of several female journalists who covered the war from Cuba. Library pf Congress

Mrs. Trumball White of the Chicago Record actually got to Cuba ahead of Benjamin by cleverly signing on as a Red Cross nurse. Future female journalists would emulate the tactic of allying themselves with nurses – all of whom were women – to reach battlefronts ahead of their male competitors.

A third Spanish-American War female correspondent was Kathleen Blake Watkins of the Toronto Mail and Express . Charles E. Hands, a correspondent for the London Daily Mail , was most impressed by her. Both stayed at the Tampa Bay Hotel, which served as Army headquarters prior to the invasion of Cuba , and he observed:

 

Mrs. Watkins knew everybody worth knowing in about a quarter of an hour. In a little while she was introducing us to generals and colonels…She talked to the Cuban women [in Tampa] and casually informed us she had got an interesting statement of personal experience she thought would throw a great deal of light on the Cuban question…Before the evening was out she gave us full details of an expedition to send arms…to the insurgents – news which we had unsuccessfully been trying to get.