Florida began as a Spanish Colony, with governing headquarters in Havana, Cuba.It is fitting, then, that the state played such a large role in the Spanish-American War. As a base of training and combat operations, Florida's involvement was crucial to the war effort. A time when Roosevelt's Rough Riders prepared for battle at Tampa bases, when battleships departed from south Florida ports to avenge the sunken USS Maine and when a nation looked to the Sunshine State to help united America around a common cause, even as the nation still struggled to come to terms with the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Florida in the late nineteenth century -- Cubans, Florida and Cuba libre -- The yellow press -- The Florida experience: filibusterers and politicians -- Preparations for war : the American navy -- The American army -- The army arrives in Florida -- In camp -- Sanitation, soldiers and science -- Floridians and Jim Crow -- American intelligence operations -- Plans, plans and more plans -- Port Tampa : confusion on the docks -- The war and its aftermath in Florida.