Since I wrote my article on wargaming the Spanish-American War for MWAN, two books were published shortly after so I ordered them. One is great while I have mixed feeling about the other one.

Let's start with the great one. This would be The Spanish-American War 1898 written by noted SPI Strategy and Tactics author, Albert A. Nofi. It is published by Combined Books and carried by Scholar's Bookshelf. Many of you like myself probably receive a few catalogs from them each month.

For the wargamer this book is ideal. While sufficiently covering the background and events leading up to the war in sixty pages, it emphasizes the land and naval combat more in its 352 pages. Though there is a good map of the battle of San Juan Hill, I was surprised by the detailed maps for Las Guismas, El Caney and Coamo. Coamo was fought during the Puerto Rican campaign!

If any books have a map of Las Guismas, it is normally a hard to read period map. However, this is the best map I have seen of this battle. I have never seen a map of a battle fought in Puerto Rico either. Normally, the wargamer has to make up a rough battle map himself piecing bits of information together for obscure battles.

The highpoint of the book was the table detailing every single land and naval engagement with the date fought, location and casualty figures. Some of these clashes would make great skirmish games if a map was available. Interspersed thoughout the book are the Strategy and Tactics style blurbs detailing everything from Fitzhugh Lee to Escario's March. As you might have figured out, I highly recommend this book, even for a Spanish-American War junkie like myself that has read seven books on the war.

Knowing so much about the war is one of my problems with America's Great Patriotic War With Spain written by John Tebbel. This book is published by the Marshal Jones Company and carried by Scholar's Bookshelf.

Concentrating more on the background and events leading to the war, the book is subtitled "Mixed Motives, Lies and Racism in Cuba and the Philippines, 1898-1915". It is written in first person style attempting to put the reader right there. An example is "In Washington they're already talking about replacing him (Shafter)." This attempt was OK with me but it got a little irritating after a while. I much prefer The Spanish War by G.A. O'Toole. I still am impressed by this work six years since I have read it. It also has rough orders of battle, period battle maps and photographs compared to Tebels's book which lacks all of these. This is an omission I find hard to accept.

While generally good, I have to rank Tebbel's book down there with The War with Spain in 1898 by David Trask. I didn't learn anything new from either book and I disagree with some conclusions. With the centennial of the Spanish-American War this year, there will be a rash of books on the war. Spanish-American War buffs could be in for a real treat. Hopefully, some of these books will feature new information and photographs.

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