| Show GEWEAL l WHfflfRS OfNIAlS WRITES ANOTHER HISTORY OF SANTIAGO CAI3TAIGN Refutes the Charges That He Acted Without Order and Was Believed of His Command Washington March 20Adjutant General Gen-eral Corbin today made public a statement state-ment which Geeral heeler has felt called upon to make In order he says to refute certain allegations which reflect upon the cavalry division which he had the honor to command Ihe statement Is exceedingly voluminous volumin-ous making really another lustory of the campaign befOre Santiago and it is ac companed by an appendix made up from letters from otcers who were connected with General Wheeler in his operations to support the allegations he makes General Wheeler begins with the declaration declar-ation that some statements were made before the war investigation commission regarding the battle of La Guasimas which do great injustice to that part of the army which fought in that battle Stephen BonsaI states that General Wheeler was guilty of disobedience of orders or-ders General Wheeler says that to remain re-main silent and neglect to refute the untruth un-truth of the charges made by BonsaI would be disloyal to the soldiers and to the country He goes on to show how necessary it was to act prompt and that every movement move-ment was 1n strict accordance wih the orders of General Shafter He insists that the Spaiar s were 1n a position when it was advantageous for the Americans Ameri-cans to attack them rather than them to light in their blockhoues and other defenses de-fenses which they occupied at the time Lawton receIved his orders Says Genera Wheeler The least df lay and this opportunit would have been lost I knew that he Shaner wanted the enemy to be Impressed with American Ameri-can bravery and determination I knew the American people had sent us to Cuba for a specIal purpose and that a prompt attack on the Spaniards would aid in at taning that purpose This dead of yellow yel-low fever added to and empha zed the imperative necessity of prompt action upon mr part The victor wns due entirely en-tIrely to the chivalric courage of the 961 brave American soldiers who fought the battle The statement that they were ambushed was absolutely untrue The stittejnent that they were aided In anyway any-way shape or form by any other troops is also untrue The nearest American troops were about four miles off when the fight commenced and the victory had been WOn and the enemy had been In precipitate retreat fully two hours before they reached the field feld Taking up the charge that Wheeler had beep relieved of command on the nIght of the 30th and had no command during the battle on the folowing day General Wheeler says all these statements are absolutely ab-solutely false Thereupon he shows he wa assigned to his commandon June 24th and tells what he did day by day in the exercise of that command lIe says on the 28th 29th and 20th he suffered from fever resulting from exposure sufered nevertheless continued his duties and was not put upon the sick report I re-port He admits he was ignorant of the I conference held br Shatter and his generals gen-erals on the Oth but Shatter has explained ex-plained this by saying he understood I Wheeler was sick and his physician had advised against letting him know of the I proposed battle the next day Notwih standing this Wheeler SS he learned that active preparations were being made I for operations and at daylight on the next operatons day he rode to the front and exercised command |
