Brookings weekly register. (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1898-1903, 1899-01-19

whatever he may have or lack, he has
qualifications Tor high command.
William r. Shafter is no accident.
| i was SO fortunate as to pass whole
forenoon in General Shafter' headquar-
ters tent the second day after he took
command Of the camp at Wikoff, where
/ could witness his method of admins
tering affairs calling for prompt and en-
ergetic action. The business of the ad-
ministration being over, he devoted
more than an hour to general and Of
hand elucidation of the difficulties Of
the Santiago campaign.
AS % Skaters army in the Santiago
campaign. could not help saying to
myself again and again at Camp Wikotf
that the equal of his corps as | saw it,
barring the fever wrecks lying on the
ground and in the hospitals, could not
have been paralleled by any single corps
in the Army of the Potomac in 1864.
This Notwithstanding the fact that at
the beginning of the Wilderness cam
| paign the Army of the Potomac was
thoroughly reorganized and consolidat.
ed.
In the first place, this country has
progressed more than a quarter of cen.
tury since that time Military ideals
have been fostered and followed up to
their very highest point and the very
elements of choice American bone and
blood and sinew and brain which went
to the creation of the crack corps Of 1864
have entered into the make up of those
matchless regiments of regulars who
stormed and carried the heights Of El
Caney and San Juan in the face of foe
the equal in courage, in equipment. in
position, of any troops that ever stood
for battle.
Shafter had the pick of the regular
army with him at r ntiago. This was
stated to me again End again at Camp
Wikoff, and / think no discrimination
was intended against the regiments that
were not there. The fact seems to be
that those regiments which were select
ed happened to be, without a single ex-
ception, up to the very highest standard
Of efficiency. The soldiers had passed
through just the experiences in the west
which would fit them for hard cam
paign. They were well officered, well
disciplined, rugged, gritty" men. In
the Army of the Potomac in 1864 the
very best Of the army corps had regi-
ments and sometimes whole brigades of
raw and untried material and scores and
scores of green officers. One needed but
to see the regulars in Camp Wikoff to
recognize at once the fact that the vet.
erans there had not evoluted in single
months campaign from the standard Of
the militia volunteer.
In the twenty and odd regiments
whose camps / fingered round not a sim
gle one but what was commanded by a
veteran of the civil war. In many cases
these commanders were majors The
field officers above them, absent on &C.
count of wounds or promotion were war
veterans, and in several instances the
commanders held the rank of captain
and were war veterans. 1t seems that
there are now something like 65 cap
tains in the regular army who served in
the civil war. The importance OF all
this will appear during the battle mar
rative, where the leaders will be named
in connection with their war record.
General Shafter says that after Samp-
son located Cervera's feet in the harbor
Of Santiago and had looked the ground
over be cabled to Washington that an
army Of 10, 900 men could take the city
at one blow. Shafter was already get
ting together an expedition for the in
vasion Of Cuba somewhere. He was di-
rected to embark 10, 900 men and pro-
ceed at once to Santiago. Owing to some
difficulty in the way Of forwarding Ger.
tain supplies or other elements in the
expedition to the point of emharkation
at Tampa there were empty transports
in the hsrbor after the 10, 900 had gone
on board. Shafter ordered these empty
transports to be filled with troops, and
as result be took something like 49,
900 or II. 900 men to Santiago He said,
and General Wheeler, who was present
at the conversation, agreed with him,
that had the expedition gone with 10,-
600 men it would have ended in hor-
rible disaster. In confirmation of the
statement about embarkation is the
story Of the Ninth infantry, of San Juan
fame. On the night that it embarked at
Tampa an orderly dashed up to the
headquarters with message to the ef-
feet that if the Ninth regiment was not
on board the transport within limited
time given it would be left behind at
Tampa and not go to Cuba. The point
was that the material which lad been
ordered forward to Tampa might arrive
y