The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-01
ROW BETWEEN ARMY AND NAVY
Continued from Page ~
time and many lives might have been
saved had it been carried out
TOO MUCH TALK.

newspaper report has been a truthful
statement of what was sent by him
General Skaters sending any report of
this kind.
Il here, moreover, would animadvert
upon the apparently extraordinary
openness with which every detail Of
hope, effort, or suggestion on the part
of the army has been published. The
unwisdom of such procedure is too
manifest for discussion"
Continuing, Admiral Sampson says:
"The navy has been placed in such an
invidious and false position before the
country, through the very unwise pub
LEGATION of General Skaters kilograms,
that l think this matter in some way
should be made clear to the public"
On July IA, Admiral Sampson sent
the following to Secretary Long:
July IA, 1S9S.-Published kilograms of
General Shafter in Herald of July g.
reflect on the navy. 1 wish the depart
ment and the president to understand
the first requisite to opening the har-
Dor of Santiago is the occupation of
forts and intrenchments at it's entrance,
guarding mine fields, and that the gen
eral has never made a move to do this,
although before his army landed he
stated such was the primary object of
his operations. If the general chooses
to ignore the sea approaches and to at
tack Santiago to the east and north,
that is his affair, but it should be clear
ly understood this attack does not in
fluence the situation at the harbor en-
trance, 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 works,
to clear entrance of mines and to en-
ter harbor whenever the army will do
the part which the proper conduct of
war assigns to it. To throw my ships
to certain destruction upon the mine
fields would be suicidal folly, and /
have not the force to form landing
party strong enough to insure the cap
ture of the forts. No disagreement
mentioned by the paper have been
brought to my notice by General Shat
ter"
SNUBBED BY SKATER.
Admiral Sampson gives a number Of
dispatches, saying he was asked to par
ticipate in the terms of surrender, and
tried to find out when he would send
a representative, but owing to one or
two delays no time was fixed. Samp-
son comments as follows:
1.-THE foregoing shows clearly the
most absolute joint action, and l took
it for granted that we should be joint
signators of any capitulation, as is Gus
stances.
Captain Chadwick arrived at the
front at the earliest hour possible for
him to do so, and informed General
Shafter of my expectancy in the mat
ter, but General Shafter peremptorily
refused. The convention had already
been signed, and he stated as one rea-
son that nothing had been said of the
army in my report of the fleet action
of July 3. There would have been as
much reason for mentioning the navy
in the report of the land action of July
L, when assault was made by our army
on the Spanish lines.
mo mention was made of the ship
ping in the capitulation, and Captain
Chadwick informed General Shafter
that all Spanish ships would be regard
ed by US as property to be turned over
to the navy. He said he would refer
such matters to the secretary of war,
but that, of course, had no bearing
upon what [ considered my duty in the
matter particularly in the view of our
late experience of Spanish perfidy in
regard to injury of ships which, in my
opinion, made it necessary to look af-
ter their safety at once. / thus, after
the hauling down of the Spanish flag,
sent prize crews on board the gunboat
Alvarado, and to the five merchant
steamers in the harbor. An officer of
the army was found on board the AL
varado, who stated he had been sent to
take charge of her, whereupon I ad-
dressed the following letter to General
Shafter:
CLASH WITH SKATER.
" United States Flagship New York,
July H. 1898:
'Sir-Upon sending in an officer to
take charge of the captured Spanish
gunboat, the AlvaradO, it was found
that one of your officers was on board,
evidently with the expectation of TAX
ing her in charge. 1t should hardly be
necessary to remind you that in all
those which have resulted in the fall of
Santiago, all floating material is turned
over to the navy, as all forts, etc, go
to the army. 1 have been lying within
500 yards of the MORO, from which the
Spanish flag was hauled down at 9
o'clock, and upon which the United
States flag has not GO p. m.) been
hoisted. Although my forces have fire.
quently engaged the forts and yours
have not exchanged a shot with them,
[ await the arrival of a detachment of
your troops to take possession, as they
must eventually occupy them. 1 ex-
pect the same consideration.
I request that you will relieve Lieu
tenant Caruthers of the duty given
him, as I have directed Lieutenant Mar
BILE to assume command of the Alva-
RADIO. Very respectfully, etc
After quoting some further CORE
spondence on the matter, in which
Sampson claims the prizes, he Tefers to
the expulsion of Lieutenant Doyle from
captured vessels, and the failure of
Shafter to invite any of the squadron
officers to be present at the surrender,
and adds:
This, Of course, may have been a
mere oversight, but it is, of course, to
be regretted that any such thing took
place. Had the navy been Withdrawn
after the action of the Bird, after which
all the fleets operations were to aid the
army, all the shipping referred to would
have escaped, and our army became
the besieged instead of the besiegers,
as, of course, the Reina Mercedes and
the gunboat Alvarado would have been
free to destroy or drive off the trans
port feet. I do not think the COM
handing general appreciates how
necessary a part our forces were to
the reduction of Santiago, and the sur
render of its garrison in any case, in
dependently of the effect of our shell.
which latter was undoubtedly one of
the principal causes of the surrender at
this time"
Skaters rejoinder came on Aug. 8.
He declined to acknowledge the rights
claimed by Admiral Sampson, and stat
ed that as the terms of surrender were
only signed by the commission appoint
ed by him, and not by himself nor
General Toral, he should protest
against Admiral SIMPSONS signing
them Sampson cites a number of tel
egrams to show that Shafter had the
assistance of the fleet in bringing about
the surrender.