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Show Schley's Vindication. AT THIS WRITING (Thursday) Admiral Ad-miral Schley's testimony before the court of inquiry is not yet completed, but it has advanced so far as to cover all the important details of the campaign which began with the formation of his plans at Hampton Roads and ended with the destruction of the Spanish fleet in Santiago Bay. It has gone far enough completely to vindicate him from the malicious charges made against him by the Sampson partisans (including all the "absentee captains") and to establish beyond all controversy not only that the credit of the victory belongs to him but that in directing the operations opera-tions which led up to it and in the preliminary pre-liminary direction of the blockade he displayed a personal courage, an executive ex-ecutive ability, and a practical seamanship sea-manship which entitles him to a position posi-tion in the front rank of the great American naval commanders. There have never been but two points made by the Sampson partisans that had weight enough to be worthy of investigation viz.: the retrograde movement and the "loop." These have been explained by the admiral in such manner as must have convinced the court that the former was not only excusable ex-cusable and that Scjiley's dispatch' to the naval department lis justifiable, but that the movement was one of I prudence and strategic importance be- cause it was his first duty to keep his ; fleet as a unit at its highest steaming j and fighting capacity whether for fighting or for pursuit. And this he did as after events, demonstrated. As to the "loop," the court must also be convinced that when he made the turn he made the Brooklyn the leader of the fleet and forced the fighting, though exposed to the fire of three of the Span ish vessels at once, and that he made the "loop" because the original plan 1 had failed. Th'e Spaniards did not take the direction Sampson had anticipated. Schley made his own plan, swept around the circle without in the least endangering the Texas, plunged "into the battle, firing at everything in sight and holding his own until the magnificent magnifi-cent Oregon forged in between the Iowa and Texas and came to the Brooklyn's help. Then the two splendid vessels carried everything before them, not 1 pausing until the last Spanish ship was surrendered. Thinking there was j "glory enough for us all," Schley signaled sig-naled the victory to the New York, which made its appearance exactly one hour and eight minutes after the Colon had surrendered, but it was half an hour before the signal was acknowledged. acknowl-edged. In closing his description of the battle bat-tle Admiral Schley said to the court: "I want to say that I was much impressed im-pressed with the fact that the officers and men who were engaged in that battle fulfilled in the highest and noblest degree the traditions of the American navy." Equally the American Ameri-can people are impressed with the fact that the officer who was in command com-mand that day, whose vessel was the leader in the fight, was always nearest the enemy, and was in the fight to the finish, fulfilled in the highest and noblest degree the traditions of American Amer-ican naval commanders. |