The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-12-01


at the harbor entrance, from which his
left flank is distant not less than four
miles. l have been ready at any time
during the last three weeks to silence
the works, to clear the entrance of
mines and to enter the harbor when
ever the army will do the part which
the proper conduct of the war assigns
to 1t. To throw my ships to certain de-
struction upon mine fields would be sui
cidal folly, and ] have not the force to
form landing party strong enough to
insure the capture of the forts. No
disagreements mentioned by the paper
have been brought to my notice by Gen.
Shafter
A Display of Discourtesy
After quoting some correspondence in
which Sampson claims the Spanish vessels
lying i'll Santiago harpor as prizes, he re-
fers to the expulsion of Lieutenant Doyle
from the captured vessels ana the failure
of General Shafter 20 invite any OF the
SQUADRON officers to be present at the sur
render, and adds:
This, of course. may have been a mere
oversight, but it is, of course, to be regret
ted that any such should take place. Had
the navy withdrawn after the action CT The
3d-after which all the heets operations
were to aid the army, all the shipping re-
ferred to would have escaped and our
army have become the besieged instead of
Mercedes and the gunboat Alvarado, lying
in the harbor would have been free to de-
stroy or drive off the transports. I do not
think the commanding general quite appre-
ciates how necessary part our forces were
to the reduction of Santiago and the sur
render of its garrison in any case indie
pendently of the effect of our SHE'LL which
later was undoubtedly one of the principal
causes of the surrender at this time"
General Skaters Rcjoinder
Skaters rejoinder came on August l, d.
rected to Sampson, as follows:
Santiago, August IL do not acknowl-
edge the authority of the secretary of the
navy in the matter in which you wire me.
The surrender of Santiago was made to me
by General Toral in person, in surrender
ing verbally all the provisions and public
property of Spain in the district occupied
by him, and 1 accepting the same in the
presence of troops representing all the re-
spective armies. The details for carrying
this into effect were arranged by three
commissioners on each side. These articles
were signed by the respective commission
ers in duplicate, one copy of which was
handed to General Toral and the other was
sent by me to the secretary of war. Neither
General Toral or myself signed them. Ger
tainly I could not and would not permit
these articles to be presented to any other
officer for signature, my own not being
affixed and I shall protest to the secretary
of war against your signature to that docu-
ment. respectfully invite your attention
to the fact that no claim for any credit
for the capture of Cervera and his fleet has
been made by the army, although 1t Is a
fact that the Spanish fleet did not leave
the harbor until the investment of the city
was practically completed and Cervera had
sufficient losses on land on July / and 2.
notably among them his chief of staff.
(Signed) ''W. r. SHAFTER,
"Major-G General"
Sampson says that he acknowledged re-
ceipt of the above without argument; that
the matter should be decided at Washing
ton. Meanwhile he cites number of tele-
grams and signals to show that Shafter
had the assistance of the fleet in bringing
about the surrender