His imagination and sympathies stirred by the revolution taking place in Cuba, he headed to New York, where he made arrangements to work as a foreign correspondent for the Herald, a paper well-regarded for its reporting of international news.
Sylvester Scovel had never planned to become a yellow kid journalist or the celebrated correspondent covering the Spanish–American War for Joseph Pulitzer's New York newspaper, The World.
After some initial difficulties in eluding Spanish authorities as he tried to slip out of town, he headed to the backcountry in search of the army of General Maximo Gomez, the Cuban insurgent chief in the eastern provinces.
In an effort to locate American newspapers, early January 1896, while traveling with the rebel band of General Antonio Maceo, Scovel attempted to slip into Havana to check on his dispatches.
On February 23, 1896, Scovel published an exclusive interview with Gomez that enraged General Valeriano Weyler, Spanish governor of Cuba, who responded by posting a reward of $5,000 (Milton 95) and then $10,000 for The World correspondent's capture.
Nursing a six-month-old gunshot wound that he incurred while witnessing an exchange of fire between the insurgents and the Spanish, Scovel left the country in disguise in August (Milton 100).
Scovel continued to elude capture until February 2, 1897, when he was arrested for a second time by Spanish officials, who claimed that the journalist had forfeited his recourse to the American Consulate by assisting the insurgents.
Congress, 14 state legislatures, as well as the Oklahoma territory and the city council of Columbus, Ohio, adopted resolutions calling for immediate governmental intervention (World, February 17-March 9, 1897).