The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-08-29
Miles, Too, After Alger.

0NE Of the newspaper correspond
~ ents at Ponce has secured an
interview with General Miles,
which. If genuine, makes the war de-
partment and worse and worse. h
the facts cited in it accurately dove
failing into facts already known. Gen.
eral Miles brings the grave charge that
the officials at Washington suppressed
certain of his cablegrams and so mutt
lated Others before giving them to the
public that their fun significance was
destroyed. He accuses Adjutant Cen
eral Corbin of having secretly sent a
dispatch to General Shafter assuring
the latter that the arrival of Miles at
Santiago would make no difference 80
him, as the superior officer would not
supercede him in his conduct Of the
military operations there. The major
general did not see the dispatch when
II was received, and General Shafter
did not mention it 10 him. He declares
that IL might nave caused great trouble
and confusion had it not been based on
an impossibility. In explanation he says
that as major general of the United
States army he could not supercede an
inferior officer. His rank made 1t obliga-
tory upon him TO take at
Santiago, and this fact was recognized
by the war department, which sent all
the dispatches regarding the surrender
to him, Shafter not being mentioned i'm
] than Durfnn q, III. aYn -, ,.As,b
they were garbled at Washington before
being given to the public, The people
were prevented from knowing the exact
facts.
General Miles is further quoted in the
interview as saying that certain cable
grams regarding sickness in the army
We're suppressed and that If any ttten-
ton had been paid to his recommended
tions much of the distress suffered by
the troops might have been prevented.
Miles showed the correspondent "a copy
of a cablegram he sent Alger on July
II. In 1t he said:
There is not a single regiment Of r.Ru-
lars or volunteers that is not infected
with yellow fever, from one case in the
Eighth Ohio to thirty-slN cases I'm the
Thirty-third Michigan. After consulting
with hest medical authorities. II is my
opinion that the best mode Of Kidding the
troops of the fever will be as | hay di-
rectCd-namoly, the troops to go Up as
high In tn" mountains as possible, alrct-
ing fresh camps every day. If this does
not check the spread Of the disease the
Only way of saving "A large portion NJ the
command will be to put them on trans
ports and ship them to the New England
| coast, to some point designated oy the
surgeon general. Colonel G~reonlCirf, sur
geon-in-chicf believes the dis,as, comes
from occupying houses, shacks and block
houses that have been occupied ~ yellow
fever patients. although I had given pos
tive directions prohibiting this before the
troops landed.
This telegram the war department
did not make public. General Miles adj
vice was quietly ignored and IL was not
until the round robin performance Of
the subordinate officers at Santiago that
the war department decided to take ac-
tion. The war department is also criti-
cised for its failure to provide the tugs
and lighters needed for the landing of
troops and supplies at Faiado. on the
north coast of Porto Rico, after the
board Of strategy had agreed upon such
a scheme. Not receiving the expected
assistance, he was forced to change his
plan Of operations. with the result that
the debarkation was made on the
south coast. Miles further intimates
that, had the IDEAS Of the Washington
officials prevailed, weeks would have
been consumed before a landing in Porto
Rico could have been Effected and that
he would nave been badly Handicapped
by their ignorance Of good military
tactics