Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1900-04-19

ment and want of administrative ca
pacity on the part of Warren. But,
whatever faults Warren may have
committed, the failure must also be
attributed to the Discrimination of the
officer in supreme command to assert
his authority and see that what he
thought best was done, and also to
the understandable and needless as
sumption of responsibility by subor-
dinate officer"
The dispatch concludes: 1.-The graft
flying feature of these dispatches is
the admirable behavior of the troops
Throughout the operation
General Buffers report, comment
ing on General Warren's reports of
the capture and evacuation of Spion
kop, after disputing the correctness of
some of Warren's assertions and de-
scribing the dangerous situation oc-
cupied by Warren's force. tells how
he saw the force al Spion lsop had
given away before Warren knew of it,.
Butler therefore tclegrnphed to War
rem:
UNLESS you put a really good hard
fighting man in command on top you
will lose the hill | suggest Thorny.
croft
General Butler continues:
III have not thought it Necessary to
order an Investigation. az at sun
down the defense of the spahmit had
been taken i'm hand, intrenchments
laid out and the dead ana;wountled re-
moved, the whole place would have
been brought under regular military
commands and the hills would have
been held. | ann sure. But no arr
engagements were made. Coke appears
to have been ordered away just as he
would have been useful. and no one
succeeded him. Those on top We're ig-
norant of the fact that the guns were
coming up, and generally there was IL
want of organization and system that
acted most unfavorably on the de-
Tense. 1t is admitted that all of
Thornycroft's command acted with
the greatest gallantry throughout the
day and really saved the situation
But preparations for the second days
defense should have been organized
during the day and commenced at
nightfall. AS this was not done. l
think rhornycraft exercised wise dis
cretion."
General Warren sets forth the fact
that he Spion kop operations had not
entered into his original plans, as his
instructions were to occupy plain
north of it. On consultation with the
commanderin-chief January 81. how
ever, when the question of retiring
from attacking Spion llop was dis
cussed. Warren expressed his prefer
cnce for attacking. This was success
fully accomplished by General Wood
gate. Then came the order of the
commander-in-chief to put Thorny-
croft i'm command on the summit. In
the meantime Warren had sent Gen
eral Coke up to reinforce him, with or
ders to assume command Intellectual
efforts were made to Photograph
Ihornycroft and ask whether he had
assumed command toward sunset. He
was finally enabled to get orders
through and concluded the position
could be held the next day if guns
could be provided and shelter OBJ
tanned. Both those conditions were
about to be fulfilled when sin the alb
sence of Coke, whom had ordered to
come and report in person on the situ-
alton, the evacuation took place under
orders given on his own responsibility
by Thornycroft. This occurred in the
face of the vigorous protests of the
brigade ma. ior and others"
In conclusion General Warren said:
"lf is Il matter for the commander
in-chicf to decide whether there will
be any investigation into the question
of the unauthorized evacuation of
| Spion kop'