Fair play., 1898-10-01
|SHAFIER INTERVIEWED.
The Commander of the Fifth Corps
Corrects Errors Made by
Correspondents.
CHAT ABOUT THE SANTIAGO CAMPAIGN.
SmOkeiess Versus Black Powder In Action
Work of tho Enemy that AstOnishod
Veterans-The Camp Scandals the Nat
ural Product of Inexporience Among
the Volunteer Soldiers.

New York, Sept. 25.-Gen. W. Il.
Shafter, who arrived, Friday night,
from Michigan, said in the course OF
an interview: :
MisquOtsd Remarks.
MY remarks about the volunteers,
in speech at Constantine, have been
misquOted. 1 was speaking at a re-
union of the Nineteenth regiment. ]
went to the front with it 35 years ago.
1t happened that some Michigan vol
unteers got mixed up in the Santiago
fight. / merely said that they had not
been intended for active fighting that
day. They had been sent off toward
Aguadores TO make feint. They got
into a cut and shell was sent into
them, killing and wounding some.
We're Where They Had No Business.
"They had no business in the cut
and regulars would not have been
caught there. The volunteers were all
right at Santiago, Handicapped as they
were. They had black powder rifles,
for one thing, and they had not
learned what comes only from the
longest drilling and what constitutes
the ideal soldier-that is to stand with
other men without knowing it."
at has been said that there were
10000 Krag-Joregnsens in the arsenal
during the Santiago campaign that
were never issued" said the reporter.
"Well, / am not at the head of the
ordnance department, but the in
creased number of companies raised
the regular army by $4,000 men, and
these had to get Krags Immediately.
as they were expected to do the bulk
of the fighting. How many OF the
small stock of Krags were left after
the $4,000 were equipped, 1 can not
say"
NO one who has not seen Can know
the effectiveness of smokeless powder
guns. Our batteries had black pow
der; the Spaniards smokeless.
1t Asfonished Veterans.
"One day-the 10th or 11th of July
was standing in the trenches trying
to make out with my glasses the 10
cation of a Spanish battery. Our
battery was several hundred yards to
our left. We could hear the shells
leave the Spanish guns and pass over
us. We tried to locate the guns by
following the sound. but it was inn
possible. Later we found that it was
more than a mile, behind n fringe of
bushes, just thick enough to hide the
movements of the men. 1t astonished
me and other veterans who saw the
work of smokeless powder"
The .Scandals Of the Camp"
''The scandals of the camp struck
the general as the natural product of
ineXperience among the soldiers.
There has been gross carelessness
on the part of the new men in sanitary
Matters" he said. "You can't make
them understand the necessity of care.
They resent being bedeviled by their
officers for not picking up cigar stubs,
fruit peelings. and doing such appa-
rently trivial things. In the civil war
we often started out with 1000 men,
and in six months lost 500 of them
through sickness.
Not So bad, After All.
What has befallen the mel, who re-
iieved me at Santiago? They had no
such conflict with inclement weather
as we had. They have had plenty of
food and complete tentage. but they
have 1.3oo sick out of 5000. So don't
think we did so badly"