ROWAN, ANDREW SUMMERS

born April 23, 1857, Gap Mills, Va. [now in W.Va.], U.S. died Jan. 10, 1943, San Francisco, Calif. U.S. Army officer, bearer of the message to Garcia. Rowan graduated from West Point in 1881. In 1898, at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, he was sent to the rebel Cuban leader General Calixto Garcia y iguez to determine the strength of the insurgent armies and obtain their cooperation. After completing his mission he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Rowan's exploit was somewhat imaginatively described in Elbert Hubbard's oft-reprinted essay A Message to Garcia (1899).