The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-03-19
GALVESTON YARN
DECLARED A FAKE
No Confession Made by Dis
charged Negro Soldier of the
Twenty fifth Infantry.
SENATE INQUIRY SESSION
ORDNANCE BUREAU EXPERTS
SUBMIT REPORT.

" eA9Allll = LDllH llftlti 10 nan lAicl -
Warren Of the senate committee on mil
itary affairs, investigating the Browns
vile affair. today received from Secre-
tary Taft a copy Of a dispatch from
san Antonio as follows:
The Adtutant General. L. 5. Army,
Washington: Chief of police Galveston
mas just wired me confession of Gray,
supposed discharged soldier, appearing
in papers today is a fake.
(SignedD "BLOCKSOM, Major"
The dispatch relates to an alleged
confession printed in a Galveston news
paper and sent broadcast throughout
the country.
Reports of Experts.
Reports of experts Of the ordnance
bureau of the army who examined the
thirty discharged shells picked up in
The streets Of Brownsville on the morn
ing following the affraiy, We're laid be-
fore the senate committee on military
affairs today by the officers who exam
ined the shells. The conclusion of the
war department, expressed in a letter
10 Chairman Warren from Secretary
Taft. which was presented .by Lieuten-
anS Hawkins of the ordnance depart
ment, is that the shells were dis
charged from Springfield rifles in the
hands of members Of company b, one
Of the discharged companies of the
Twenty-fifth infantry.
Secretary Taft's letter says that the
shells were examined by Lieutenant
Hawkins and G.. a. Spooner, expert in
spector of gauges used in the manufac-
ture Of muskets at the Springfield ar
Senal All the rifles in the possession
of the three companies of the Twenty
fifth infantry on Aug. 13 were in the
hands Of these experts, and two reg
ular cartridges were discharged from
each rife and the discharged shells sub
jectcd to full examination.
Results of Examination.
The results were given by Secretary
Taft, in part. as follows.
That the marks on all the shells
picked up at Brownsville correspond
exactly with the marks on the car
tridges discharged by them from one of
the guns Of company =.
That the marks on all of the shells
correspond exactly with the marks on
the cartridges discharged by them from
another of company BIS guns.
That the marks OF eight more of the
shells correspond exactly with the
marks on the cartridges discharged by
them from third gun Of company B.
THAT the marks on the remaining
three of the shells correspond with the
fldlhS Oh Allt tdIAttG66S discharged bN
them from a fourth gun of company
3. but that in this fourth case they bore
double marks and so made the identifi-
cation with the fourth rifle shell less
certain and complete than in the first
three cases,
Lieutenant Hawkins and Inspector
SpcOner state that their examinations
prove beyond reasonable doubt that the
three groups of shells were DISCHARGED
of company r, and that in all probable
ity the fourth group was discharged
from another numbered gun of the
Same company"
Guns From Storehouse.
Secretary Taft's letter further sta
ed that from an official list of cOmpa-
MES B, G and D, and the number of
guns assigned to them on Aug. Is. it
appears that two of the guns. one from
which eight and the other from which
eleven Of the shells were discharged,
were guns in the storehOuse of company
Il. which had not been issued to en-
listed men, but were i'm charge of the
quartermaster sergeant, and that the
third gun, from which eleven of the
shells were discharged, was gun as
signed to Thomas Taylor. a private of
company b. and that the fourth gun,
from which three shells were dis
charged, was a gun assigned to Joseph
L. Wilson. a private of company B.
Concerning the evidence, the secreta-
ry says:
'Of course, the very reasonable by
pothesis is that the men who did the
shooting used such guns as they could
get on the night of Aug. 13. and would
not necessarily have used the guns Of
ficially assigned to them, makes this
evidence Weighty in showing rather
that some members of the battalion did
it rather than that the individuals
above named were guilty"
Marks Were Identical.
The final reDort Of Tieutenant Hawk