Evening star., 1898-10-10
WHY SHAFTER DELAYED.
did Not Wish to Sacrifice Men fin In
necessary Assault

Did Not Wish to Sacrifice Men I'm In
necessary Assault.
A dispatch from Kalamazoo, Mich, to
| the New York Herald yesterday says: Cen
eral Shafter has been here since last
Thursday, and will remain several days.
| visiting old friends and scenes of his boy
hood. Speaking to me of the work of the
war investigating commission General
Shafter said:
General Wheelers testimony before the
investigation committee is very forcible and
very convincing, but wait until the line
officers tell their stories. They will not be
as cautious as General Wheeler, and will
tell story that will not only corroborate
General Wheeler, but be much stronger.
General Miles and others may say that
this commission is not legal Perhaps not,
but the testimony it is bringing out will
sausfy the public that the stories paraded
up and down the land about the neglect
and starvation and needless suffering of
the troops at Santiago have been grossly
exaggerated for political purposes"
What about Colonel Roosevelt and that
famous round robin?' ] asked
Il realized General Shafter answered
that If the troops were compelled to re-
main IN Cuba they would in short time
be wiped out by fever Orders came from
the War Department to move the troops
into higher land and wipe out the fever
we all knew this was impossible. | then
made UP my mind to send a reply to Wash
lngton stating the situation and giving nv
reasons why the troops could not be held in
cuba much longer. AS il was a serious
matter l sent for my field officers and ask.
ed them all what they thought about il
and to express their opinions. Colonel
Roosevelt was there.
Finally somebody suggested that the
views thus expressed should be put in writ
10 S1ler
officer wrote out his views. Colonel Roose-
welt then asked HE if he could send his
statement to the New York papers. / told
Kim he could do as he liked, hut must be
held personally responsible for his state
ment.
1T was this statement of Roosevelt's
that raised the mischief and panied the
President. Perhaps it would have been
better If the matter had not been made
public. Then some correspondent got hold
of my original dispatch and the whole thing
aired.
Il knew my men must get sick If there
had been defeat everything would have
had to be dropped, for the artillery and
supphes could not be gotten aboard the
transports again. Therefore it was re-
solved to push ahead and get through with
it. 1t took men OF nerve, but my men had
it.
1T took about six days to get in the
vicinity of Santiago. 1 reconnoitered the
Spanish lines and got an excellent idea of
the lay of the land, and knew very we'll
what we had to do.
81 have been criticised for delay 1 knew
after talking with General Toral that he
must surrender. At any time we could
have taken Santiago in two hours, but IL
would have cost two thousand men who
are now back in the United States, whose
bodies would have lain in Santiago
''Of course, there was a great deal of suf-
fering and sickness. My losses were a
great deal more than 1 would have wished
but great deal less than might have been
the case.
My orders were very short and very
clear, and / was never interfered with /
was to capture Santiago and drive out
Cervera's fleet. That was all there was
of it, and I think We succeeded