Spanish-American War — Fort Sam Houston as national military staging base

Spanish-American War — Fort Sam Houston as national military staging base

The U.S. declares war on Spain. Fort Sam Houston — already a major army post by the 1890s — serves as a national staging base, including Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders mustering nearby. The military buildup cements San Antonio’s role as the commercial supplier to the U.S. Army’s southwestern operations — the institutional market that documented H&H sales to Fort Sam Houston by 1914 already grew out of.