The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-28
THE EVIDENCE
 CONFLICTING Admiral Schley Was Kept
 in the Dark. LAWYERS HAVE TILT Sampson Not Regarded as
 Party to Case. The Court Will Not Allow Him to Be Represented by Counsel.
 Inquiry May Close
 Next Week.

 Washington, Sept. N.-In the Schley court of inquiry today letter was pre- sented from Rear Admiral Sampson ask ing to be allowed to be represented in the court by counsel, but the court re- fused to grant the request on the ground that the court does not at this time re- gard you as party to the case" The principal witnesses of the day were Lieutenant John Hood, who commanded | the dispatch boat Hawke during the | Spanish war and Captain Bowman H. McCalla, who was in command of the Marblehead. The testimony of both of these officers dealt with the delivery of dispatches from Admiral Sampson to Commodore Schley and both related to conversations with the latter. Captain McCalla gave in detail his part in arranging a code of signals with the Cuban insurgents, and his communica- tions with them near Cienfuegos May 24, 1898. was when 1t was learned definitely that Cerveras fleet was not in the har- Dor there He said that Captain Chad. wick. who was Admiral Sampsons chief of staff, was the only person at Key West to whom he had committed the signal code.
 Captain McCalla expressed the opinion that coaling was feasible at Santiago at the time Schley began his retrograde movement.
 As usual Admiral Dewey was prompt today in bringing the court of inquiry to order. and. as usual, the counsel on both sides were in their seats and prepared to proceed promptly with the business be fore the court. Indeed, Captain Lemley and MT. Hanna. the Navy Department's | representatives, had been in the court room for an hour or more, preparing the @AfO fla Nf AnIo Fsm Nt.Sxwr aAaw the present stage of the proceedings an | important one, requiring the most care | full attention. Captain Lemley estimates that he will be able to conclude the pre- 1 sentation of the government side of the l case by the close of next week, if no un- | forescen contingency arises to cause de- lay. He says he will have about fifteen | or twenty more witnesses to introduce. One of the most regular attendants up- | on the court lS Mir. William A., Slayton,
 the attorney who is understood to be
 than Admiral SchIey. He sits outside the
 rail and does not in any way participate | in the proceedings. He said yesterday
 that so long as Admiral Sampson was | kept out of the cage he would have noth- | ing to say. Today's session begun with the recall of Captain Wise to make verbal changes
 in the official copy of his testimony. Wise Alters Testimony. He altered his previous statement con- 
 ment of May 20 1898. in which he was directed to inform every vessel off Santi- l ago that the flying squadron is off Glen fuegos. saying that he desired to correct his response to the courts question as to why this order was not carried out by | stating that 1t had been carried out. The flying squadron was ordered to proceed with all possible dispatch" he said and added
 T did not desire to inform the Com modore of the flying squadron of his own l movements. The order was to inform flying squadron"
 The court then asked: Did you direct Captain Sigsbee to give tained in the dispatch from the Navy De- partment concerning the whereabouts of the Spanish squadronS'
 Lieutenant Spencer s. Wood, who com manded the dispatch boat Dupont during the Spanish war, was then called and continued his testimony begun yesterday,
 Mir. Raynor resumed his cross examina- tion. The witness said that while off Ctenfuegos he had been on picket duty two miles from shore on the night of May 22d and had been instructed to signal the squadron with the red lights in case the enemy's torpedo boats came out of the harbor.
 MT. Raynor then read from the testi- mony of Captain Harber of the Texas, saying that there had been no picket yes sells within the line of the fleet off Cien- fuegos. The witness said that the state ment was wrong
 Captain Lemiey said Captain Harber had testified that there were no pickets
 so far as he could recall" to which MT. Raynor responded: We are not i'm peaching Captain Harber's veracity. We are impeaching his recollection, not his integrity"
 MT. Raynor-Captain Harber has stated that there were no picket boats at Glen fuegos. He was wrong, was he not?
 There Were Picket Boats.
 'He was" replied the witness. "As I have seen since the commander-in-chief also reported that the Dupont was not there. have written the department that I was there. Other people forget about it, too" -,.-- Harber's want of recollection by stating that the commander-in-chief wrote a Iet- ter that there were no picket boats there?'
 "He did not mention their presence and I corrected 1t.
 Do you recollect any statement made by the ecommander-in-chief when he had a | picket boat within the picket line that l lie had arranged signal from the picket l boat to the fiagship?
 He did not mention any. and have a letter on file in the department calling | attention to the omission in that report.
 "I call your attention to the report of the commander-in-chief, in which he states The line of 1. blockade etc
 
 was inside the line and that Is the report made"
 "'T still stand on the point that he Is not bringing out where the torpedo boat was.
 ''You are perfectly right about that but you are asked in reference to any critI- cism you may have heard of the comman- der-in-chief. The question is this:. Can tain Harber has definitely stated that there was no picket boat inside the line at Cienfuegos. You say there was and that the Dupont was one of those boats"
 T was inside the line, inside the Cas- tine"
 By the court: Could you see the Texas from the Dupont during the nights of May 22 and 23?''
 No, sir"
 Mir. Hanna asked what steps had been taken while the flying squadron was of Cienfuegos to ascertain If the Spanish fleet was inside the harbor there.
 None that I know of." was the re- spOnse.
 Was there any effort to destroy the shore batterfes?"
 The witness replied that he knew of