The Advocate and news., 1898-10-12
The BlunderS
of Shafter.
Criminal InCOmpetency of the Man
Whom AIger Selected to Lead
the Santiago Campaign.
SOME STARTLING TRUTHS.

The truth is coming out about General
Shafter, the man who was pushed for
ward in the Santiago campaign simply
because he is a friend and crony Of
Alger and his advancement would help
Alger at home. Shafter has always been
miserable failure, and his manifest un-
fitness checked his efforts for promotion
until Alger was made Secretary Of War
But Shafter was boosted up to the
front, and there is stencil as result.
1t is exposed by the highest authorities,
by men who have no personal or polit-
ical motives to crafty, and through pub
lications of the highest rank and respec-
liability.
Harper's Magazine and Scribners
Magazine for October bear unanswer-
able testimony against Shafter. Their
standing and responsibility cannot be
questioned.
To the latter magazine Richard Hard
ing Davis contributes an article on "The
Battle of San JUAN" which Is outspoken
and unsparing in its condemnation of the
incompetent Shafter. Mr. Davis has
travelled all over the world as a reporter
and he is considered competent to tell
what actually happened at San Juan.
He says:
1t is not a difficult task to criticise the
conduct OF campaign after 1t is finished,
to show how Santiago should have been
taken after 1t has been taken; but long be-
fore the army moved there were general
officers who saw how the approach on the
city should be made, and who did not wait
until after the LIST of July to explain what
should be avoided. Five days before the
battle Of San Juan General Chaffee, in my
hearing, explained the whole situation and
told what should be done and foretod what
eventually happened If certain things were
left undone.
General Shafter saw the field of battle
only once before the fight took place. That
was on June 29th, when he rode out to Ell
Poso hill and surveyed the plain below. He
was about the last officer in his army
corps to climb that hill and make this sur
Vey, and he did not again go even that far
to the front until the night after the battle,
and he did not see the trenches for days
after the battle had taken place. His trip
to El POso, which was three miles distant
from his headquarters, was apparently too
much for his strength, and the heat dur
ing the ride Frustrated him so greatly that
he was forced to take to his cot, where he
spent the greater part Of his stay in Cuba
before the surrender One day after the
a foreign attache: Il am PROSTATE in body
and mind" He could confess this to
stranger, and yet, so great was the obsti-
macy, so great the vanity and self-conh-
dence Of the man, that although he held
the lives and health of 1900 soldiers in his
care, he did not ask to be relieved of his
command. Instead, he relieved General
Wheeler Of his command, and while Gen
eral Wheeler was living in the captured
trenches under constant fire, Shafter him
self remained three miles in the rear. l do
not think his not coming to the front was
due to personal timidty, although in their
anger and evaporation at his absence his
officers freely accused him of allowing his
personal safety to stand in the way Of his
duty; in other words, they called him a
coward and so little regard had they for
him that have heard a Colonel counter
mand his orders in the presence of other
Generals. His remaining in the rear was
undoubtedly due to physical disability, and
to the fact that he was i'll and in pain.
This is the offense / impute to Shafter,
that while he was not even able to rise and
look at the city he had been sent TO cap
ture, he still clung to his authority. His
self-conhdence was untouched. His self
Continued on page 9.)