Fenwick Travers and the Years of Empire — Raymond M. Saunders

Fenwick Travers is a rollicking good-natured, and thoroughly unmilitary brawler who finds himself in the army as the result of pure happenstance. Above all else, he wants to establish himself comfortably in the world without undue exertion. Unexpectedly, he excels in his new career. While campaigning in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, Travers acquires a completely gratuitous reputation for valor in combat while hobnobbing with Teddy Roosevelt and Black Jack Pershing. After the war, he remains in Havana to conduct a cozy gunrunning operation.
After things begin to sour in Cuba, our hero is off to China to help put down the Boxer Rebellion. He battles howling fanatics, becomes aware of unlimited opportunities for looting and like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn before him, is soon off on a treasure hunt. Travers eventually returns to New York as a national hero, feted and honored by the nation's political and military leadership.