ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, January 21, 1996               TAG: 9601190106
SECTION: BOOKS                    PAGE: F-4  EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: BOOK REVIEW 
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY ROBERT P. HILLDRUP 

NAVY'S PART OF 1898 WAR

THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR AT SEA: Naval Action in the Atlantic. A.B. Feuer. Prager Publishers. $55.

Roanoke author A.B. "Bud" Feuer, an established military writer and historian, has produced a book that fans of American military history should most certainly welcome.

The Spanish-American War of 1898 was a war of brief duration but lasting impact. It solidified that mixture of American good-hearted idealism and blackguard imperialism that has more than once marked subsequent American ventures on foreign soil.

What Feuer does so well is to single out one aspect of that war, the Navy's part in the Atlantic campaign, which is to say, Cuba, and to present it in context with the overall land campaign.

To generations now aged, if alive, the Spanish-American War was Teddy Roosevelt's Roughriders and the charge up San Juan Hill. It was Adm. Dewey and Manila Bay. The Atlantic naval aspect was simply the explosion of the battleship Maine.

Feuer fleshes this out and puts it in context. He describes naval gunfire in support of land operations, amphibious landings, the Spanish response, feeble as it was, and engagements and men now largely forgotten.

Of particular interest are his maps and photographs, many of which have been seldom seen in recent years, a list of participating warships and a sound bibliography.

This is a readable, informative book and a solid addition to the literature of its period.

Robert P. Hilldrup is a Richmond writer and former newspaperman.

LENGTH: Short :   40 lines