worth in the field. The special signals unit was under the command of Captain W.A. Glassford. In 1888, Miles became the commander of the Military Division of the Pacific and the Department of California. In April 1890, Miles was promoted to major general in the Regular Army and became the commander of the Military Division of the Missouri. That same year, the last major resistance of the Sioux on the Lakota reservations, known as the Ghost Dance, brought Miles back into the field. He commanded U.S. Army forces on the Lakota lands and hoped to take a peaceful approach to removing the Hunkpapa leader from the reservation, but Sitting Bull was killed in an attempt to arrest him and about 300 Sioux were massacred at Wounded Knee. Miles was not directly involved at Wounded Knee and was critical of the commanding officer, James W. Forsyth. Just two days after the event, Miles wrote to his wife, describing Wounded Knee as "the most abominable criminal military blunder and a horrible massacre of women and children". After his retirement from the army, he fought for compensation payments to the survivors of the massacre. Overall, he believed that the United States should have authority over the Indians, with the Lakota under military control. Spanish–American War and later life In his capacity as commander of the Department of the East from 1894 to 1895, Miles commanded the troops mobilized to put down the Pullman strike riots. He was named Commanding General of the United States Army in 1895, a post he held during the Spanish–American War. Miles commanded forces at Cuban sites such as Siboney. After the surrender of Santiago de Cuba by the Spanish, he led the invasion of Puerto Rico, landing in Guánica in what is known as the Puerto Rican Campaign. He served as the first head of the military government established on the island, acting as both heads of the army of occupation and administrator of civil affairs. Upon returning to the United States, Miles was a vocal critic of the Army's quartermaster general, Brigadier General Charles P. Eagan, for providing rancid canned meat to troops in the field during what was known as the Army beef scandal. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in 1900 based on his performance in the war. To show that he was still physically able to command, on July 14, 1903,