Andrew Summers Rowan

Who was Andrew Summers Rowan?

Andrew Summers Rowan was an American Army officer who served as the liaison between the United States and Cuban rebels led by General Calixto García during the Spanish American War.

Rowan was born in Gap Mills, Virginia in 1857. He was the son of John M. Rowan and Virginia Summers. He enrolled at West Point at the age of twenty and was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1881. In the years before the Spanish American War, Rowan served several frontier posts and with military intelligence in Latin America. He was interested in Cuba in particular and co-wrote a book about the island.

With tensions between the United States and the Spanish growing, President William McKinley saw value in establishing contact with the Cuban rebels who could prove a valuable ally in case of war with Spain. McKinley asked Colonel Arthur L. Wagner to suggest an officer to make contact with Garcia's rebels. Wagner suggested Rowan, by now Captain, who then traveled to Cuba via Jamaica. Rowan met Garcia in the Oriente Mountains and established a rapport. Rowan garnered information from Garcia who was eager to cooperate with Americans in fighting the Spanish. Rowan returned to the US and was given command of a force of "Immunes", African-American troops assumed to be immune to tropical diseases found in Cuba. He received the Distinguished Service Cross.