2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment (1898) 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment (1898) The 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantry unit of the United States Army, mustered into Federal service during the Spanish–American War. It was one of three state volunteer regiments that fought in the Santiago Campaign in Cuba, and the only volunteer unit at the Battle of El Caney. The regiment participated in the Siege of Santiago until the city surrendered, spent several weeks in Cuba, and was moved back to the United States as a result of disease in August. After the end of a quarantine period the regiment was placed on
History of Cuba sailed within sight of Havana harbour but did not disembark on the island. Havana's inability to resist invaders was dramatically exposed in 1628, when a Dutch fleet led by Piet Heyn plundered the Spanish ships in the city's harbor. In 1662, English admiral and pirate Christopher Myngs captured and briefly occupied Santiago de Cuba on the eastern part of the island, in an effort to open up Cuba's protected trade with neighbouring Jamaica. Nearly a century later, the English were to invade in earnest, taking Guantánamo Bay in 1741 during the War of Jenkins' Ear with Spain. Edward Vernon, the