The times., 1898-12-01

tions to preserve the health Of the army
It1was a.auestion Of feeding his men well
and keeping them dry. They did not get
enough food to keep them strong and
for the first few days of July, when they
were continually going backward and for
ward along the trail, bringing up their
packs, carrying wounded, or collecting
the bodies and burying them. they were
wet to the skin through fording the IN
Vulnerable streams.
Anyone knows that the first rule gov
erning the health of the troops in the
tropical countries Is that their feet should
be kept dry to prevent cold and fevers.
And yet, incredible as 1t seems. during
the eighteen days between the fight OF
San Juan and the surrender the men were
compelled to wade In water above their
knees three and four times in an hours
march because no bridges had been placed
at the foris.
These fords were only three yards
across from bank to bank and could have
been bridged in half a day. From three
to four thousand men from the hills on
one duty or another waded through them
daily, so that they were never dry shod.
This fact and the lack of ratons left
their systems open to receive the malarial
fever that rose from the fresh earth OF
the rifle pits. After eight days one bridge
Was attempted. but it was carried away
by the first storm, and by that time the
fever was well started. There We're not
only no bridges. but the piers at the land
ing places were absolutely inadequate and
dangerous and the roads were inpassabie.
In fact, everything which engineers could
have done as In the case of the mendins
of the trails and OF the building of piers
needed for the landing of rauons.
As an instance of Gen Skaters lack Of
executive ability. on the first day Of land
ing. instead Of putting the engineers on
shore. in order that they might build a
| proper dock or improve the one already
| there, he sent the ship on which they
were passengers eighteen miles down the
| coast with food for the Cubans, and so
kept the engineers away for four days
There were thirty-four transports, but IL
was particularly in keeping with all Shat
| ter did that he should have ordered away
| the particular one that held men whose
| technical knowledge was most needed at
that particular time 1t would be an un-
grateful duty to trace to its end each OF
| Skaters blunders to show how many
lives and millions of dollars his tncompe-
tency cost this country, and to tell in de-
tail the mistakes that caused death ana
sickness. .
The people car judge for themselves IL
sixty-five doctors are fit proportion tor
10 600 men, of whom 1.50e were disabled
,, in one day and Thousand Of whom We're
ON the sick list from fever ten days later.
The people win want TO know why the
siege guns were not brought To the
front: why battery was so placed BY
his order that the return lire OF tue
enemy killed and wounded sixteen men
cayaIrymen, who, by his orders. We're
enoamped around the battery; why rice
and beans were not supplied for tropi-
cal climate in preference to fat bacon I;
why Gen. Joseph Wheeler was reileFsd
from his command for ill-health by man
who was 50 i'll himself that he could not
rise from his cot. and who. while Wheel
er. though still relieved from his COM
mand. was near the front under fire, re-
mained in his tent three miles in the
rear and never at the front when a bat
tie was in progress. Some people urge
that Shafter deserves credit for continu-
Ing i'll command in spite of the pain lie
was suffering from gout and in spite oil
his exhaustion. but | cannot take that
view.
II he was too i'll to attend to his duties
he should have had the courage to admit
that Illness had defeated him and let the
command pass temporarily to another.
But he ciuag TO II with obstinate vanity.
although he knew that the health and
lives of 1900 regulars and volunteers were
in his keeping and that the honor of his
country was in his keeping-in the keep
ing of man who lay prostrate on his
back with an orderly rubbing his head.
What Skaters personal character or per-
sonal habits may be is OF very little con-
sequence in the light of his great failure
as a military commander, and there Is
something | certainly do not intend to
discuss But it is supposed that our Of
f1cers are both gentlemen as well as Of
iS officially
ed when their conduct IS described as
unbecoming.
Shafter. of course is not gentleman.
His treatment of all the foreign military
attaches who were the guests of the ma
tion and his especial guests was so
scandalous, so lacking in consideration.
tact and common courtesy that it is sur
prising that International representations
have not arisen in consequence.
And nothing better shows the nature of
the man than that the one attache he
should have selected to treat with notable
rudeness was the representative of Great
Britain, a most courteous. able and dis
tinguished officer the young man who at
Caney cared for the American soldiers
under the heavy fire, who was among
the first up the hill with the men who
storned the block-house, and who was
the only attache who lived in the rifle
pits instead of three miles away in the
rear with Shafter at his headquarters.
Or, what could have Illustrated the
character of the man more clearly than
his treatment of Mr.. Scovel? The best
that Skaters best friends could make
of that would be to say that he lost his
temper. and after first insulting and ours
ing Mr.. Scovel, in sudden fit of anger
struck him
But an unprejudiced person would look
at it differently. He would say that
when Gen. Shafter struck Mr.. Scovel he
showed himself to be just what his Of
ficers say he is, what they called him the
day after San JuaR-a coward.
1t does not matter what was Mr..
Scovers offense-that he had presumed to
tell the truth about this gross Faistafi
in his paper was probably the real offense,