Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-01-28
LUDLows' REPLY TO MILES.
Military Governor of Havana Sends n State
ment to the War Probers.

ment to the War Probers.
Washington. Jan. 28.-There were no
Witnesses before the war investigation
commission yesterday, but the commits
sion received and gave out an affidavit
from General Ludlow. row military gov
ernor OF Havana, which the general
had forwarded in lieu OF personally
appearing in Washington. The type
written statement was principally in
answer to the statements of General
Miles before the commission in refer
ence to the lack OF preparation made by
the engineer corps, of which General
Ludlow had been the chief officer in the
field. General Ludlow. in his state
ment, disclaimed all intention of dis
respect toward General Miles before
oategorically contradicting the iatter's
testimony as reported in the papers.
General Ludlow says: Having only
newspaper clippings which were sent
to me by friends. / am without au-
thentic information as TO what General
Miles really stated to the commission.
II these clippings indicate correctly the
nature of General Miles statements and
of the responsibility which is therein
made to attach to me for any short
comings that may be supposed TO have
existed in connection with the en-
barkation and Decentralization of the
Santiago expedition, 1 beg leave. dis
claiming all intention Of disrespect. 70
express surprise at the statements
made. had the honor at the time 10 be
attached 20 Gen. Miles staff as chief
engineer of the armies in the field. and
such orders as received were given by
him.
In the newspaper statements il is
represented that / had been ordered by
70 ,-,r,1.- elf !,
erything necessary for the dissmbarka-
tion of the troops in Cuta; that failed
10 comply with these instructions, and
that practically / had done no more
than than furnish q number of small
pontoon boats that would be entirely
useless for the purpose. although l had
been sent to various places for the pur-
pose of collecting a proper equipment
/ beg leave to MAKE the following state
ment of the actual facts of the case
and of my responsibilities and duties
for the information of the commission.
10 which 1 propose to append my affi-
davit as to their correctness. as has
been, win one exceptrun.- me custom
with statements made to the commits
sion.''
General Ludlow then gives a denial
to each of the statements and the doc
uments which he claims prove his case.
port of rather warm controversy he
had with General Niles at the army
headquarters in Washington after the
return from Montauk. General Miles
had said that General Ludlow's fight
ing at Santiago was good. but his en-
gineering was very bad" General Lud-
low said that he refuted this statement
at the time. pointing out that he had
done all the engineering work that the
time and circumstances permitted: that
the Santiago expedition was not an en-
gineering campaign. hut race between
the physical endurance OF the army and
the Cuban malaria. and that If the
army had stopped to build railroads
and bridges. it would have been on its
back before the surrender instead of
after
In conclusion General Ludlow re-
quested that the commission should
give his statement as much publicity as
the statement OF General Miles.