The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-09-25
HIS WORDS EXPLAINED
General Shafter Shows Where
He Was Misquoted.
ACTION OF HIS SOLDIERS
In Comparison With the Judgment Ex-
ercised by the Regulars He
Wants to Go to the Pa
cific Coast.

New York, Sept. 24.-General W. r.
shafter. who arrived last night from
Michigan, said in an interview with q
representative Of the Press:
My remarks about the volunteers in
a speech at Constantine have been MIS-
quoted. l had been attending the re-
union OF the 18th regiment. / went to
the front with II 50 years age. 1t rap
pened that some Michigan volunteers
got mixed Up in the Santiago fight. L
merely said they had not been Intended
for active fighting that day. They had
been sent of TO Aguadores to make a
feint. They got into a cut and a shell
was sent into them, killing and wound
Ing some. They had no business in the
cut and regulars would not have been
caught there. The volunteers were all
right at Santiago. handicapped as they
were. They had black powder rifles for
n thing. and they had not learned
what comes only from the longest drill
ing and what constitutes the ideal SOL
dier-that IL TO stand with other men
without knowing it,"
1T has been said there were 20. 900
krag-Jorgensens in the arsenal during
me Santiago campaign that were never
"@ANAE III n INDbINNT.
Well, / am not at the head of the
department. but the Increased
number OF companies reinforced the
army by 35. 900 men, and these
had to get Krags Immediately. as they
were expected TO do the bulk Of the
fighting. How many of the small stock
of krags were left after $1,000 were
equipped? / cannot say. No one who
has not seen 1t can know the effective
ness Of smokeless powder guns. Our
batteries had black powder; the Span
iards smokeless. One day. the 10th or
llth Of July, / was standing in the
trying to make out with my
glasses the location Of a Spanish bat
terry. Our battery was several hundred
yards TO u left. We could hear the
shells leave the Spanish guns and pass
over US. We tried TO locate the guns
following the sound, but IL vas i'm
Later we found that IL was
more than A mile away. behind a fringe
of bushes just thick enough to hide the
movements Of the men. II astonished
me and other veterans who saw the
work of smokeless powder"
The scandal of the wal department
General Shafter as the MURAL
product of inexperience among the SOL
There has been gross carelessness on
the part OF the new men in sanitary
llalAtISs ne SdAu. 1Ou GanDOt make
them understand the necessity of care.
resent being talked to by their
officers for not picking up cigar stumps.
fruit Feelings inc such trivial things.
In the civil war we often started out
a thousand men and in six months
500 of them through sickness. What
has befallen the men who relieved me
AZ Santiago? They had no such con-
lict with inclement weather as we had.
Thew have had plpnty Of food and com-
plete tentage. but they have 1900 sick
1ut Of 5000. So l don't think we did so
As TO coming to New York to take
'harge OF the department of the East,
General Shafter said: II do not know
! will go finally. 1 have express
ID a wish to go TO the Pacific coast.
where | expect to live when / am re-
ired, but before going / should not OBJ
TO taking n department OF the
East for several months. till General
return. My wife is from YER
mont and l hail from Michigan. and a
tay of a short time in New York would
rive me a chance to meet many per-
l have long wished to see and
whom | may never again have occasion
o meet.
What do I think OF the territorial
Well. | don't think my views
Ire OF much Importance. but they are
'ery brief. Hold on TO all we get. We
lad to work hard to get 1t; let's keep 1t.
are rising into the position of a lead
r among nations and We must accept
he responsibilities hat come from that
leadership"
General Shafter said he would go at
nee TO Montauk Point to take COM
nand there.