Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1898-10-19
SCHLEY'S CLOSE l.
Error in judgment in Trying to
Locate Cervera Amos Leads
to His Dismissal.

LOCat Almost Leads
to His Dismissal.
st. Louis, Mo-, Oct. 15.-One OF the
best-kept secrets Of the war has Leaked
out here and throws a new light on Presi-
dent McKinley's Judgment of men and
his generous forbearance-
The gossip in the presidential party has
it that the cabinet at two different times
by a unanimous voice advised the Presi-
dent to remove Commodore Schley from
the command of his squadron. About the
time of the battle with CerTera's fleet
there were whisperings in Washington
that Commodore Schley was in disgrace
with his superiors and had been in dan
ger of losing his command. 1t was init
mated he had been guilty of d~isobeying an
order, but it was not possible to authen-
ticate the rumor or get details.
The Washington dispatches published
now tell of coming reports by Capt.
Crowninshield and Lieut.. Sutherland bear
ing on these incidents and they led to
the present disclosure.
When Schley's squadron started from
Key West in search of Cervera's fleet
the American commander steamed for
Cienfuegos in the south coast of Cuba.
Schley thought he had the Spanish ar
mazda bottled up in hat harbor, and he
waited outside five days under that de-
fusion.
When the Washington authorities
learned through a scout boat that Ger
vera was in Santiago bay they sent a
message and order to Schley by way of
Mole St. Nicholas, Hayti. h dispatch
was carried by the Marblehead, Capt.
McCaIia, to the American feet at Glen
fuegos.
Commodore Schley Immediately raised
the blind blockade of Cienfuegos end
sailed to Santiago. The story goes hat
he soon left Santiago to go to Key West
to coal his ships. Friends of Schley have
heretofore explained that this movement
was a blind, that Cervera was not in
Santiago bay and that Schley merely got
out of sight to let the Spaniard slip into
the bottle. At any rate the present story
has 1t that when the Washington officials
learned of Schley'S departure from San
tiago they sent Capt. Cotton and his fy-
Ing scout to overhaul Schley with peremp-
tory orders to return to Santiago, block
ade the bay and under no circumstances
leave the station without permission.
1t is explained that the members of the
cabinet on learning that Schley had been
IN front of Cienfuegos five days without
discovering his mistake were chagrined
and angry. and expressed themselves
UNANIMOUSLY IN favor of removing him
from command of the squadron. The
PRESIDENT, on the other hand, argued that
it might do an injustice to condemn
r~A~NE 49, ALAO w AHS " u Liz IL
c~umstances, and at any rate il might have
a bad moral effect to make such a change
at that time-a change that would lead to
a disclosure of the reasons and perhaps to
some generalization of the navy. He
made the suggestion that Admiral Samp-
son should be sent to take command of
the squadron operating against Cervera,
which would displace Schley naturally
and without i'll feeling or bad effect. The
PRESIDENT had his way, of course, and
this civilians thu cr,IIo- e
Sampson to Santiago, about which there
had been an air of mystery.
1t is asserted that when Commodore
Schley lett Santiago the cabinet again adj
vised the President to remove him from
his Sampson had not arrived
yet. The President, it is said. admitted
he thought Schley had made an error in
judgment III going away and leaving the
mouth OF the bottle conveniently open for
Cervera to escape, but be pointed out that
sampson would soon reach Santiago,
when, as the superior commander. he
would take charge of the situation. He
argued that with the peremptory orders
to Schley to guard the entrance to San
tiago bay it would be better to have a
little patience and show no sign of de-
mOralizatiOn or error to the world at large.
The President adhered to this course.
and history tells the result.
There have been long inquiries as to
why the Washington authorities favored
Sampson above Schley. This disclosure is
the answer.
There is another version of how Wash
ingtOn learned hat Cervera was at Santi-
ago. The first news of his arrival there,
it is stated, came through Gen. Greedy.
the famous Arctic explorer, chief of the
signal service of the army. 1t seems that
at that time Lieut.-Col. Allen was in
charge of the cables at Key West. acting
as censor over all dispatches. An oper-
atOr in the Office at Havana talking over
the wires, as operators do, inadvertentIy
let slip the fact that dispatches had lust
been received from Santiago announcing
the arrival there of Admiral Cervera and
his Spanish fleet. This idle gossip of an
operator, and q foreigner at that, was at
once flashed to Washington, and Gen.
Greedy FASTENED to the whize house with
the important news. The President at
first was slow to believe it, for the last
reports from Schley were that Cervera
had not approached on the south coast.
The board of strategy was appealed to.
They didn't believe the story at all. They
didn't know where Cervera was. He
might be in Central America. but not in
Cuba. This the strategists were certain
of. Gen. Greely was insistent. He urged
upon the President that while his infOr-
NATION was essentially unofficial and IT.
regular. the board of strategy had no in
formatic2 at all.
The President finally took this view of
the situation, and orders were cabled to
Commander McCalla of the Marblehead.
who was at Mole ST. Nicholas, to get the
news to SclleV at all casts