Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-07-16


from Admiral Sampson as well. 1t is
supposed that they have been called
forth by the newspaper controversy
over the credit for the victory over
the Spanish squadron, controversy
which is most earnestly deprecated by
the officials of the navy department,
as well as the real friends of both of
the officers concerned. Secretary
Long declines to make public these
cablegrams, though it is believed that
they tend to demonstrate the existence
of good relations between the two Of
fcers and disposition on the part of
both to be judged strictly according to
the canons of naval law.
- The war department, on Wednes-
day, afternoon, made the following
statement concerning the state of
things in the hospitals near Santiago ::
"On the 18th of July telegram was
received from Lieutenant Colonel Pope,
chief surgeon of Skaters army, in
forming the surgeon general that there
were IA cases of yellow fever in the
field hospital which has been estab-
lished for the care of such cases. Since
that time information has been received
that a number of additional cases have
occurred. Every effort will be made
to arrest the progress of the disease by
the establishment of isolation hospl-
tails, in which the sick will be treated
by immune surgeons and cared for by
immune nurses.
Speaking of the Cubans, wound
ed soldier in New York, the other day,
said: "As scouts and guards and spies
the Cubans are all right. In battle we
sent them out of the way, because it
was hard to tell them from the Span
iards. Many of them had Spanish
uniforms which they had captured and
some of them were almost naked" "
Another wounded soldier who was
passing through Chickamauga, on his
way home, last Wednesday, expressed
himself thus II wouldn't trust one
of them as far as l could see him. In
a hot skirmish we had one day we put
a detachment of the Cubans well up
in front. They didn't stay there. At
the first fire they made break for the
rear, and when the skirmish ended a
short time later, we found them steal
ing our provisions. They can't be
depended upon"
- Some time before there was any
expectation of difficulty with Spain.
Commodore Schley remarked to a
company of gentlemen, whom he met
in club in New York, that if the
time should come when we should
have any difficulty with a foreign
nation, involving naval operations,
there would probably be some surpris-
es in connection with the performances
of our gunners. He stated that the
practice of gunners in the United
States navy, firing at targets, ETC.,
was he believed, more thorough than
in any other navy in existence, and
that the records showed that the
craftsmanship of the gunners in the
American navy was superior to that
of any other. This fact he believed
would exert an important influence
upon any naval battles in which our
gunners might take part, and his pre-
diction seemed to be borne out by re-
cent events.
- The Germans do not want to fight
the Americans-at least not while
Dewey is around. For sometime Dew
ey had been keeping quiet and leaving
it to Aguinaldo to run things as ne
wanted to. On July 6, Aguinaldo re-
ported to Dewey that he had taken all
of Subig bay except Isla Granda, and
this he was prevented from taking by
the German man-of-war Irene. Next
day Dewey sent the Raleigh and Con-
cord with instructions to take the
place. AS the American vessels opened
fire, the Irene slipped her cables and
left by a different channel from the
one that had been entered by the
Americans. Within few minutes the
Spanish flag came down, and 1900
men surrendered with their arms and
ammunition. On returning to Manila,
the Irene explained that she interfered
ssin the cause of humanity" and offer
ed to hand over to the Americans the
refugees she had on board. Admiral
Dewey, however, declined to accept
them.
- Lieutenant William E. Trull, Jr.,
who was wounded in the first days
fighting round Santiago, returned to
New York few days ago, and among
other things was asked the meaning of
the term missing" in connection
with the reports of killed and wound
ed. "I'd hate to have any friend of
mine reported missing" replied Lieu
tenant Trull, sadly. "You see, the
underground there is so dense that l
believe the majority of the missing
men were men who were wounded,
and who were never found in the un-
dergrowth where they fell. The grass
gets matted and tangled up, sometimes
reaching height of II feet. You can't
force your way through it. You can
only cut path with machete. The
roads are but trails, and you can see
how easily wounded man could be
g 81