Charleston is recommissioned to reinforce Dewey

USS Charleston received orders to sail from Honolulu with the transport City of Peking and the rest of a reinforcement convoy bound for Manila. The instructions added a compact cruiser mission at Guam: capture the port and officials, neutralize any forces or fortifications, use or destroy available coal as appropriate, and finish within one or two days. Charleston had been recommissioned on 5 May, only four days after Manila Bay, as the United States rushed ships, ammunition, and troops toward Dewey. That rapid activation occurred while the Navy kept its main strength in the Caribbean to contain Spain's supposedly powerful squadron. Charleston's voyage linked mobilization, convoy escort, colonial seizure, and reinforcement of a distant fleet.