Twenty-Fifth Regular Session, 1901
Pp. 463-64
JOINT RESOLUTION No. 7.
[Adopted January 22, 1901.]
Complimentary to Andrew S. Rowan, of the United States Army.
WHEREAS, In the month of April, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, a short time before war was declared between Spain and the United States, his excellency, the President of the United States, found it very important to communicate with General Garcia, the commander of the Cuban forces at that time in revolt against the oppression of the Spanish government in Cuba; and
WHEREAS, It was important that the authorities of the United States should secure all possible available information relative to existing conditions at that time in Cuba, and to secure such information was accompanied with great dangers and required unusual courage and caution. In this emergency Andrew S. Rowan, of the Nineteenth Regiment, United States Army, volunteered his services to the President, and entered upon the important mission. Lieutenant Rowan was given full instructions, and, without hesitation, entered upon the mission, within three hours after he received his instructions. He was furnished an open boat from Kingston, and landed on the Cuban shore; walked one hundred and fifty miles into the interior; found General Garcia; fixed upon a place to land the United States Army upon the island, and in other particulars carried out the orders of the President. Within five hours thereafter he started upon his return; took a rickety fishing boat, and after four days over a rough sea, reached Key West, wired the President the information he desired, and reported to the War Department for duty. He was immediately promoted to the position of a lieutenant-colonel of volunteers, and remained in the volunteer service until the close of the war with Spain. He then returned to his former regiment (the Nineteenth United States Regulars), and was soon thereafter promoted to the captaincy of Company I, which regiment is now in the Philippine Islands; therefore be it,
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the thanks of the people of his native State of West Virginia be and are hereby returned to Captain Rowan for the distinguished services rendered to his country in a period of great emergency, and that the successful manner in which he filled his trust marks him as a man of bravery and patriotism, scarcely paralleled in history.
Resolved Further, that a copy of these resolutions be engrossed and forwarded to Captain Rowan.