The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-11

| learned that IL nau spread so fnuCn ln1ll | there were over a hundred cases. The
 medical officers were undecided as to | the extent it might cripple the com | mand. This was the most serious fea- | ture of the situation and impressed me with the importance of the fact that
 prompt action should be taken and suggested that 1t was a case where dis
 cretionary authority should be granted.
 At the appointed time accompanied 1 by Brigadier General Gilmore and l Lieutenant Colonel Marion of my stan, | Major General Shafter two of his stafE
 officers and Major General Wheeler and l Lieutenant Wheeler, aide -de-camp, l
 met the Spanish general Toral with two | of his staff officers and an interpreter,
 I informed General Toral distinctlvely that I had left Washington six days
 before; that it was then the determina- | ton that this portion of the Spanlsh forces must either be destroyed or cap l tured; that I was there with sufficient achievements to accomplish that ob- ject, and that if this was not the case any number of troops would be brought
 there as fast as steamers could bring
 them, if it took 50,000 men. I told him that we offered him liberal terms, namely, to return his troops to Spain;
 and I also pointed out the fact that this
 was the only way in which his forces
 could return, they being on an island
 three thousand miles away from their
 own country with no means of succor.
 He said that under the Spanish law he
 was not permitted to surrender as long
 as he had ammunition and food, and that he must maintain the honor of the
 Spanish arms My reply was that he
 had already accomplished that; that he
 must now surrender or take the conse-
 quences, and that I would give him un- til daylight the next morning to decide.
 He appealed for longer time, saying
 that it was impossible for him to com
 municate with his superiors, and l
 granted him until noon After thor
 oughly examining the entire position
 and riding along the trenches from
 right to left I returned to General Shaf-
 ter's camp, where I received the follow
 ing cabegram:
 Washington--YOu may accept surrender
 by granting parole to officers and men, the
 officers retaining their side arms The of
 hcerS and men on parole to return to Spain,
 the United States assisting. If not accept
 ed the assault, unless in your opinion as
 sault will fail. Consult with Sampson and
 pursue sgfh cGnrs as you 9n5y
 Signed k. A. A,ger, Secretary of War. This left the mater entirely to my discretion to accept surrender, order an
 assault, or withhold the same"
 General Miles describes the prepara-
 tions for disembarking the troops and
 gives an account of the continuing ne- gotiations with General Toral for sur render The Spanish commanders were
 addressed to General Miles. On July 14
 General Miles addressed this order to
 General Shafter: "The Spanish army Il having surrendered, the terms of capit-
 ulation will be carried into effect with
 as little delay as practicable on the un-
 derstanding that those troops will be returned to Spain at the expense of the United States. You will place such troops in separate camps and report
 the number that will be available for service with another expedition. As to . the organizations which have been in- fected with yellow fever every effort will be made to improve their sanitary condition and to check the spread of , the disease by placing them in as = nedllny cdfnDS as UOSSlDle.
 , Cablegrams in regard to the Porto Rican expedition are then given. Gen r eral Miles compliments the skill and s good generalship of the officers com- } manding the divisions and mentions es- pecially Brigadier General John l. Rog-
 CTS Lieutenant Colonel Wagner of the l bureau of military Information, and 3 Colonel James Allen of the signal corps General Miles then says: Tt is grati- flying to record that during the war t not single defeat has been met and 9 not a prisoner, color, gun or rife has
 been captured by the enemy. In this
 respect the war has been most remark 3 able, and perhaps unparalleled. Under all circumstances and in spite of many 5 most trying difficulties the troops have - maintained the fortitude of the Amer
 ican character and the honor of their l arms. The experience of the last few Q months, trust. will be valuable to the : people and the government of the United States
 l General Miles renews his former rec 7 ommendation that the government au- thorize en1istments in the army at the s rate of one soldier to every one thou Q sand population. The general also rec ommends that congress authorize an l auxiliary force of native troops to be . officered principally by United States . army officers for service In Porto Rico Cuba and the Philippine islands not tc
 exceed two soldiers to every 1000 oi
 the population of those islands. Ii would pacify the native elements of
 the islands and would be in the inter- ' ests of economy and good government General Miles then says: "I recon. mend that congress be requested tc : take immediate action upon this ques- = tion of organizing an army. If thf
 system I have suggested is adopted il
 would give us an available force oi , 100 GOO men and would enable the vol
 unteers who enlisted for the war to be
 returned to their homes without de. lay"
 DERC0N5T MENTION