The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-12

1y commended by his captain. the late Rear Admiral Leroy.
 Remey was in many fights with Cop naval assault on Fort Sumter, Sept 8. 1883, and suffered a long imprisonment: Since the war he has been in command Suts e flag s'atS iieStensnt in nearly ali of the great Admirals battles; was wounded in the battle of Mobile Bay. Alter that bat-' tle Farragut gave watson most natter attention of the department. Watson was not considered good enough for com mand during the war with Spain until after the battle of Santiago. when he was designated as the commander in chief of squadron to go on the highly im- portant mission to the coast of Spain to dissuade the Spanish Government from it's purpose to send Admiral Camara to the Philippines with a battleship to attack Dewey, who had only unarmored ships. Schiey had record both in the civil war and in the assault against Corean fort in 1871 that surely entitled him to recog- milton when the nice berths were parceieo out at the outbreak of the Spanish war. It IS true he was put in command or she flying squadron, but that squadron belied It's name, because Admiral Crowninshield, who is now, if he was not then, the im- placable enemy of Schley, seeing fit to give Schley vessels that could not fly" to save their old hulks from the bottom of the sea.
 That. as heretofore stated. was the be-
 
 along by Sampson when he sent that ex- ceedingly
 Egot,stical Dispatch
 announcing that ''the squadron under my command has the honor to present to the nation as Fourth of July gift" etc. His failure to even mention the fact that he was not present at the battle caused the newspapers to make sarcastic references so fhs Of 1he who To word of credit to the man who had &C., tually been in command when the battle was fought. Some of these attacks were so savage that a few days after they were begun Schley felt constrained to- write Admiral Sampson note saying that he was not responsible for them. and clos ing with the magnanimous statement that there was glory enough for all. It Is the opinion of all unbiased officers of the navy that if Sampson had shown the reporting the battle off Santiago harbor, there would never have been any contro- versy, although there was sufficient ground for it furnished by the promotion Rear Admirals and four Commodores. After this note of glory enough for all, there was no development in the matter until along in August an anonymous com munication appeared in one of the reputa- ble weekly newspapers, which criticised Schley TOT raising the blockade off San anonymous article is generally attributed to Lieut.. Staunton. Sampson's flag secre- tary, who also wrote the egotlstical and stih- -phrased dispatch announcing the a temporary discussion of the then fast developing controversy. It. however, died out for lack of material. The real begin ming of the controversy, however, took place late In the fall of 1898, when the newspapers learned that Admiral Samp- son, under date of July 10, 1898, had ac- cused Schley of reprehensible conduct for which he ought to have been court-mar ualed. When Congress convened, a reso- lution was adopted calling on the Navy Department for all the facts in connec- tion with the matter, and his reasons for recommending that Sampson be promoted eight numbers and Schley only six. The President followed the recomme endation of Secretary Long and nominated Samp- son for advancement eight numbers and Schley six. but the Senate refused to con- firm them, By that time the friends of Schley had determined that they would never permit Sampson to be placed above Schley on the permanent list. They were willing to let the temporary promotion that was made during the war stand 1t was made without warrant of law, as well as without any good reason.
 The fight was intensified when Secre- tary Longs letter was sent to the Sem ate, and 1t was discovered that he had omitted 0 dispatch from Sampson to Schley in which the former placed all move in which he ordered the flying squadron from Cienfuegos to Santiago. The department had apparently tried to make the Senate believe that Ssmpson's discretionary. That discovery made 1t impossible for either officer to be pro- noted until 19c0. Efforts to make them Schleys friends would not consent to Sampson being made the senior.
 The controversy has broken
 Lifelong Friendships.
 The families of army and navy officers have been divided by 1t. There have been so many intermarriages that prac- tically speaking every officer Is related to every other officer: The feeling has scarcely speak to ,.the other half. This bitterness had begun dying out very per- ceptibly in the first part of this year, when everybody began to settle down to would remain in statu quo; that the prin- cipals would remain Rear Admirals to the end of their dates. and that Capt. Clark, | who brought the Oregon around the lively in rank than he had been at the beginning of the war, because of the per- | nicious system of promotion by numbers. |
 Then came along one Edgar Staunton | Maclay, with book purporting to be a | history of the Santiago campaign. The | first two volumes of his history, now | known to he full of plagiarisms and inac- | curacies had been adopted as & textbook | found that the third volume was also likely to be adopted as a textbook they called the attention of Admiral Schley to the fact that Maclay, nominally laborer In the Brooklyn navy yard, had called him a caitiff and a coward. This was too much for Schley to endure, and on July % he demanded a court of inquiry. The friends of Sampson profess to be glad that he has done s3 So.lt It is believed that etanca hack of it. Schey's lawyers have