The Wichita tribune., 1898-12-24
TAKES PART Of THE BLAME.
General Shafter Appears Before
War Investigators.
TELLS HIS SIDE OF THE WAR,
Fakes the Responsibility on Himself for
Leaving the Ambulances Behind-The
Transports Were Insufficient for tho
Use They Were Put To.

ArahSporCs were lnsUHiclcnt fOr thG
Use They Were Put To.
! WAsHINGToE, Dec. 81. - General
| Shafter appeared rather unexpectedly
before the war investigation commit
tee yesterday afternoon and told his
story of the Santiago expedition.
After a brief preface, General
Shafter went into detailed account
of his preparations for the Santiago
expedition. He said his plans were
changed three times by the depart
ment and once he actually started, but
was called back by the report of Span
ish warships off the coast. He said
the transport fleet was not sufficiently
large to accommodate 1900 men for
any length of time at sea, but all were
SO anxious to go that he rislzed con-
siderable crowding to take all the men
possible.
He admitted that he took chances in
doing this, but said that the weather
was good and there was no mishap to
regret.
AS to medical supplies, General Shat
ter said: "You know medical supplies
are the one thing that a commanding
general or a line officer never knows
anything about. The surgeon is sup
posed to know what he wants. My
medical officer said he thought he had
enough medical supplies for the tenn
porary service to which we thought
we were destined. Events proved,
however, that the surgeon was mis-
taken. The ammunition supply was
ample"
AS to supplies, General Shafter said
there was nothing essential left be-
hind.
'How about the ambulances?" asked
General Beaver.
''As to those ambulances," said Gen
eral Shafter, II take the whole respon-
sibility on myself. l ordered and
supervised their loading. After events
proved that it would have been better
to have taken ten or fifteen additional
ambulances and left that many wagons
behind. But wagons can be used for
two purposes and ambulances can be
used put Tor one. IaSSok the wagons
and the wounded ha,Hn ha a{transnort-
ed in them after the St d.syss hssht-
ing. 1 must say that on rocky
muddy road, such as we had there
that there is very LITTLE difference in
comfort between an ambulance and an
escort wagon. The men were put on
straw in the bottom of the wagons
and we did the best we could for them.
Ambulances would have been better,
but the hindsight is always better
than foresight.
An interesting incident of the land
ing was brought out by General
Shafter, who said he had arranged
with the Cuban general Castillo, the
day prior to the landing, to have 1000
men back of Baiquiri to catch the
Spaniards when they were shelled out
by the navy. Castillo was three hours
late, however, and the Spaniards got
away.
"How about getting the supplies to
the front for the men?" asked General
Beaver.
''It was the one problem of the cam
paign and it taxed us to the utmost"
said he. eff it had not been for the
pack train we could not have done it
and the expedition would have been a
failure"
AS to the care of the wounded, Gen
eral Shafter said that they were cared
for as carefully as the circumstances
would permit. "The doctors worked
like trojans. They deserved and re-
ceived commentator from everyone.
They worked till they were sick and
worn out The doctors were mostly
young men. You can't get very old
and experienced surgeons to so on a
summer campaign for 500 a month.
But they were splendid fellows. Com
pared with the civil war, the wounded
were better cared for in Cuba than
they were then"
Asked if he thought his own sick
ness had any effect on the success of
the Cuban campaign, General Shafter
said:
mo; most decidedly. The campaign
was carried on as planned from the
start and my health or sickness did not
alter single plan. knew I was 60
ing to have sick army on my hands
in that country pretty soon and simply
rushed matters to an issue as soon as
possible. For myself, l was not seri-
ously sick. 1t is true 1 had the gout
and had to have my foot tied up in a
gunnysack and could not get it into a
stirrup and so l had to build a plat
form from which to get on my horse.
But 1 certainly had not expected to be
subjected to personal criticism for this
It was a military necessity"