Excerpt from The Relations of the United States and Spain, the Spanish-American War, Vol. 2

Tampa, selected as the base for the army which it was expected to send to Cuba, is on a shallow arm of Tampa Bay, in a perfectly flat district of coral sand covered at this time with open forests of moderate-sized pines. From the sandy and absorbent character of the soil, and the shade afforded by the park-like distribution of the pines, it was in many ways an ideal point for a large camp. The vast and palatial Tampa Bay Hotel, the only building of value (separated by an arm of the bay from the small town, made up of cheap wooden structures used as cigar factories, in which most of the employees were Cubans), was an important element as affording excellent headquarters. Ten miles south-west was Tampa Port, the head of navigation, and the terminus of the railway. This was the point of departure for the Plant line of steamers for Key West and Havana. The railway was the property of Mr. Plant, under whose able administration the district had been developed and whose energetic and able staff was of much assistance in the working of the overtaxed single line of rails. The chief drawback was the heat of the district at this season, accentuated by the sandy character of the soil, and which was almost unbearable to men brought from the higher plains of the Western regions, and even from Alaska, in the same woollen clothing with which they had left the Western posts. They wore this same clothing until the end of July.

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