The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-23
CORRESPONDENT GIVES GRAPHIC
DESCRIPTION OF BATTLE
OF SANTIAGO
HIGH PRAISE FOR sCHLEY
Remarks of Fighting Bob Evans in
Admiral Schley's Cabin Are
Brought Into QueS-
tiOn.
THE CHASE OF THE COLON

WASHINGTON, Oct. %. - The Schley
court of inquiry opened today with Lieut..
Is. w. Wells Jr., who was Commodore
Schley's flag lieutenant during the Span
ish war still on the stand, but he was
soon displaced to. allow 7 conan Albert
V. Mason, who had written the Brook
lyn's log for the period covering the
Santiago campaign, to testify. Mr.. Ma.
son explained the erasures in the log en-
try referring to the Brooklyns turn on
the day of the battle off Santiago. He
was followed by Mr.. George E. Graham,
who as an Associated Press correspond
ent, was with Commodore Schiey during
the entire campaign. Mr.. Grahams tes-
timony covered all the principal events
of the campaign and discussed especially
the bombardment OF the Spanish ship
Colon on May 81, and the battle off San
tiago on July 8. Mr.. Graham testified to
hearing a conversation between Commo-
dore Schley and Capt. Sigsbee when the
latter came aboard the flagship Brook
lyn off Santiago May 26. He said he had
distinctly heard Capt. Sigsbee tell the
commodore that the Spanish fleet was
NOT INSIDE THE HARBOR
at Santiago Mr. Graham also stated
that Admiral Schley had told him that
the object Of the bombardrnent of May
81 was 70 develop the Spanish land bat
~ ASos e1AAC 4AS Sellh llietl Tie range w DIS
fixed at 1900 or $500 yards in order to
Draw their fire.
He further said With reference to the
events of this engagement that he had
heard no conversation in which Commo-
dore Schley had said that the officers In
their white uniforms were conspicuous
objects. Mr.. Graham detailed a conversa-
ton between Commodore Schley and
and Capt. RObley D. Evans, which took
place after the Santiago engagement.
There was some discussion over the ad-
misslbility of this statement, but the
court decided that any conversation be-
tween the commodore and anyone else
bearing upon the case was admissible
The witnesses for the afternoon were:
Dennis ]. Cronin, who was Admiral
Schley's orderly, and who also testified
along the same lines as Mr.. Graham to
the conversation with Capt. Sigsbee;
Commander William r. Rush, who said
he thought the Vizcaya had planned to
ram the Brooklyn; Lieut.. Edward Simp-
son, who gave very graphic picture of
the battle of July g. and Lieut. Edward
1. fitzgerald, an assistant engineer, who
was on duty in the fire room on July g.
and who testified that an order had been
given early in the action to stand by for
q ram.
WELLS SS-EXAMiNED.
Capt. Lemly began his cross-examina-
tion of Lieut.. Wells by asking him
whether there was kept a book OF records
showing letters received on the Brook
lyn as Lieutenant Commander Sears had
testified there was. Witness replied that
there was a record of letters sent to and
received from vessels of the squadron.
Lieut.. Wells also was questioned con-
cerning the department orders regard
ing the risking of American ships to
bombardment from the shore batteries
the orders under consideration being
those Of April 26 and two of May 5. The
orders of this character stated that the
department does not wish the vessels of
your squadron to be exposed to the fire
OF the batteries at Havana, Santiago or
other strongly fortified ports in Cuba"
ana the others were regarded as indica-
tons OF these. In the last of these, dated
May t. the department said:
ne department IS perfectly willing
mat you should expose our ships to the
heaviest guns of land batteries, if, in
%our opinion, there are Spanish vessels
of SCfncient military importance protect
ed by these guns to make an attack adj
N1sabie, our chief aim at present being
the destruction of the enerny's principal
vessels
Having read these dispatches, witness
was asked by Capt Lemly: Can you
separate your knowledge with regard to
the conversat ton with Commodore Schley
so as to distinguish between either of the
other two orders or both of these orders
and as to whether or not anything was
Continued on Fifth Pare