The times., 1899-10-19

Shaftcr Hns Been Questioned-
story of the Letter to ToraI
NEW YORK. Oct. 1S-when shown the
statement made by Rear Admiral Sampson
recently at the Boston navy yard concern
ing his participation in the negotiations
with General Toral, which led to the sur
render Of Santiago to General Shafter,
Captain Chadwick commander of the cruis-
or New York, now in this port today made
the following statement:
Il regret to be involved in any discussion
or alteration with General Shafter, for
whom l have high regard and strong lik-
ing And 1 would say nothing whatever
had not our commander-in-chief been at
tackled in some papers on the ground of In
accuracy of statement.
Under such circumstances am Obliged
to say, simply in the interest of fact, that
what he says is correct; and what 1 have
seen in one newspaper as coming from the
general shows a want of clear recollection
in the matter on his part. The letter was
drafted Ton July 6. and not, as reported. on
July l2), on my own motion. after asking
the general if he was open to suggestions.
After reading it over he said he would sign
it without making any change.
Before this, however, I called up Lieu
tenant Commander Staunton, assistant
chief of staff who had accompanied ne,
and had him read the draft, asking him if
he had any suggestions to make. A slight
change was made in one paragraph at his
Tho adH yuas prrta q no
head of the draft by the clerk, who was
called up to copy it. The original draft
was given to me as the copy which |
should retain. 1t was roughly done in pen
Gil. and l sent it to my wife as a memento
Of the campaign.
Il repeat that I regard all this as rather
trivial and of no special Importance. ex
cept from the standpoint of verifying the
accuracy of Admiral SIMPSONS statement.
He is strictly accurate regarding the let
ter. The Admiral merely mentioned it,
under circumstances when he desired to
say something which he thought might be
pleasing to a large number of my friends,
then gathered together. He certainly never
designed it as an attack upon General
Shafter in any sense. To suppose other
wise would be 10 do him great injustice
Concerning General Skaters statement
that the letter written by Captain Chad
WIN ~ as DA4AJ u tOpJ VI Jl4G bCl4Aui1 AAAfLNiC
by himself Captain Chadwick said:
''As l have said, it was at my suggestion
that the letter was written, and the COM
position of it was mine, except for the
slight change suggested by Staunton. 1
know of no previous letter having been
formulated"
Regarding the circumstances attending
the writing of the letter. Captain Chad
wick explained:
af al
well that day. l found him, in his shirt
sleeves, evidently suffering. sitting outside
his tent with pair OF slippers on his feet.
He was feeling much depressed. largely
on account of bodily illness. and the loss
of men he had sustained in the assault
upon the city affected him, too. He did
not seem to have any idea as to the best
course to pursue, and. after I had talked
to him for some ime, l said:
d" General. are you open to suggestions? {?
and he answered, / am Then I said:
Why not allow me to write letter to
General Toral demanding his surrender
and giving him a plain statement of the
case? He replied, Yes, do So When l
gave the letter to him he read It over, and
declared that he was satisfied with it, and
called Lieutenant Colonel Miley over ana
asked him to have it typewriter. But I
objected to that because the Spaniards, as
I pointed out, are very punctilious about
matters of this kind, and would not look as
favorabIy upon a typewriter letter as upon
one in script. AT my suggestion, General
Shafter called man, who he said could
write clear hand. and had him copy the
rough draft which l had made. The ad-
dress, at the top of the letter, was not on
my draft and was added by the copying
clerk.
AS a matter Of accuracy, a slight cor
rection in Admiral SIMPSONS reported
statement ought to be made. The first bom-
bardment was begun on July l and not OF
the 10th, and it was not at the suggestion
OF General Shafter
In this whole discussion 1t ought to be
understood that the letter which | wrote,
and which General Shafter signed should
be regarded technically as Skaters lettr.
He read it before signing it, and adopted
its phraSeology and sentiment as his own
by putting his name at the bottom. But
it is q fact that the letter was drafted on
my motion, and the rough original was
made by me.
Il had no intention of ever saying any
thing whatever of my connection with this
letter and it had dropped out of mind, eX-
cept as a long passed incident was per
fectly willing to let any credit involved in
the matter be with General 5hafter. and
the remarks of the admiral in Morgantown
were made only with the natural wish to
say something which, under the circum-
stances. he thought might be pleasant to
my friends to know and in no way be an
attack upon General Shafter, nor do l see
how they could be so construed He is not
man 10 attack other men. His kindness
Of heart is such that while always ready to
praise he is slow to blame"