The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-08-30
Ter to appoint peace commissioners.
and Judging from Skaters report
that all was over he instructed him as
to the dIsDosjtion Of the troops

ter to appoint peace commissioners.
and Judging from Skaters report
that all was over he instructed him as
to the. disposition Of the troops.
ION July II. after the surrender Of
Santiago was completed General Shaf-
ter wired as follows to General Miles:
"Letters and orders in reference to
movement of camp received and will
be carried out. None Is more anxious
get away from here than myself 1t
seems from your orders given me that
you regard my forces as part of your
command. Nothing will give me greater
pleasure than serving you. general. and
l shall comply with all your requests
and directions. but l was told by the
secretary that you were, not to super
sede me in command here
General Miles very promptly replied
as follows:
"1iave no desire and have carefully
avoided any appearance of supersedins
you. Your command Is a part Of the
United States army. which ! have the
honor to command, having been duly
assigned thereto and directed by the
president to go wherever thought my
presence required. and give such gen.
eral directions as I thought best con-
cerning military matters. and especial
ly directed to go to Santiago for a spe-
ciiic purpose. You will also notice that
the orders Of the secretary of war of
July 13 left the matter to my discretion.
l should regret that any event should
cause either yourself or any part of
your command to cease to be part of
mine
General Miles then gave General
Shafter final instructions and left hur-
riedly for Porto Rico. In view Of the
situation as revealed by the above tel
egrams, the following statement Of
Secretary Alger contained in the New
York Herald Of recent date Is quoted:
"'If my cablegram TO Major General
Shafter, hnforming him that Major
General Miles was not sent to super
sede him in supreme command of the
troops In the field at Santiago de Cuba
prevented the storming of the city on
the day of its surrender. thus resulting
In the saving of lives which otherwise
would have been lost in the attack,
then am repaid for sending it thou
sand fold
This statement was made to me yes
terday afternoon by Secretary Alger
apropos of the publication in The Her
aid of Sunday setting forth the doings
of Major General Miles during his brief
stay in Cuba. The secretary told me he
did not propose to enter into any con-
trOversey regarding the Santiago cam
paign with anybody. The results show
for themselves and they were a suf-
ficient justification for the policy which
had been pursued by the war depart
ment in the conduct of the operations
against Santiago.
My cablegram to General Shafter'
he continued. was simply due to my
desire to assure him that intended to
be absolutely fair Before his departure
from Washington General Miles and l
had talked the matter over. and he
started for Cuba knowing that he was
not in any way to interfere with the
operations which were under the con-
troll of General Shafter. That there
could be no doubt whatever, I cabled
to General Shafter informing him that
General Miles had left for Cuba with
instructions not to in any manner sup
ersede him as commander of troops in
the field"