Sunday morning globe., 1901-12-08
sampson VS. schIey

Sampson VS.. Schley.
/ Among an the.misieadng, vague, vicious,
/ OF TO use a charitable term blundering in
structious issued during the great naval
campaign around Cuba iu 1898, none
equalcd Admiral .2) SIMPSONS course in
deceiving Commodore Schley m relation TO
Schley's stay at Cienfuegos. Instead of
putting Schley in possession ofall the facts
and history on which the War Department
telegram was based Sampson withheld the
whole history. the basis above mere rumor
Sampson did this while placing the burden
on Schley 10 act ON his own judgment
The whole country along the Gulf and At-
lautc was tied up by the unknown where
abouis of the Spanish fleet. The army was
held 100 port. and everything was at "a stand
STILL Lieut. Wells had been To- Key West
and obtained the information from the IT, $.
officer go charge that we had a spy iu the
telegraph Office at Havana. Cuba, who had
telegraphed, the previous evening, Of the
arrival on the day before .the 10TH of four
Spanish ships and two destroyers al San
tiago, Cuba The spy could telegraph only
NA D. NI MIaaNI NAlN AhlNN va" aN HN p Nhl#
Sampson got this straight and reliably from
Lieut. Weuz, the message officer Wells
was sent back the next day to get the con
hrmatiou which the U S. telegraphic officer
was to obtain from the spy at p. IN. Of
the day Lieut. Wells FIRST couversed with
him Wells was SIMPSONS aid going be-
tween Sampson and Key West daily for
u 60
Sampson the second time with full iuforma-
tiou confirmed in every point as fully as we
now have 1t written in the logs Of the Span
ish fleet How blundering. or worse, it was
in Sampson to withhold these particulars
from Schley. and send a vague and unintel-
ligible order to Schley to stay at Glen
fuegos.
We are aware of the duty to protect spy
but here several officers possessed the whole
history Nothing was clearer than it was
the plain duty Of Sampson TO Immediately
send Wells or one Of the officers who pos
sessed the history, direct to Schley with all
haste. General Sherman would have sent
Captain Dayton, or some other intelligent
aide.de-camp, to talk 1T over with Schley.
Had Schley been placed IN possession of
This information and history, is there any
doubt how that patriotic officer would have
acted2 IL was a tme to put none but
Americans ON duty tonight"
This was a grave blunder Tor something
wor-cI iu Withholding the facts. schleys
whole course up TO the time he himself dis
covered the Colon at Santiago haIbor was
hampored by This blunder of Sampson 's.
. 10 was blunder that needs accounting for
Had Sampson paresis then' Did Sampson
think be saw ahead great chance to boom
Sampson by discountiug the whole inior-
nation on which the War Department set
much weight, aud thereby show himself q
. great paper stratcgist2 He had placed much
weight on the theory that Cienfuegos was
the only point connected by rail with
Havana, and the only logical destination Of
the Spanish fleet short Of Havana
This latter supposition is the only phi'oso-
phic explanation of SIMPSONS conduct in
the matter We got a sample Of his vanity
when he returned Schley's first report of
the immortal battle of July g. 1893, because
10 ,ruthfully omitted the statement that
the New York Simpsons flag ship was
engaged in that fight He required Schley
to make "a false report, and Schley did this
by pretending that the New York was in
the battle. Schley filed a new report with
that iu it as generosity 90 the requirement
of his superior officer It was proved
to have been a polite falsehood for Samp-
sons credit Judge-Advocate Lemly got
his foot in it through over zeal for Samp.
son, and drew out, on cross-eNamiuauon OF
Admiral Schley, the true history, TO Lcmly's
disgust and the modification of the Bureau
of Fabrihcauon.
Sampsou'5 Gag ship was not in sight unit
am hour and dfeen minutes after the Color
lthe last of the Spanish feet had sur
rendered When Schley stated this or
cross-cxamiuauou Lemly flashed tha
second report on Schley, and pointing t'
the inserted words showing that the New
York was in the battle, demanded TO know
whether Schlcy had written that schlel
offered To- explain the discrepancy by in
trsducing the first report; but Admira
Dewey held that the FIRST report not hayinl
been accepted by Sampson was not evi
dencc. Schley was, however permitted b.
Dewey. over the objection of Lemly, ID
testify from memory to the whole trans
action Thus Icmly and the Sampso
crowd got caught in their own trap.
which thing became a snare unto Gideo
and 20 his house"
According the distribution OF pril
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