The Butler Weekly Times Newspaper, November 3, 1904, Page 13

as ee Wy eH ey ooseveit J S ar Record. “) Wil v3 On Pra < 3 a “ v at Striet'y COL, ALEXANDER S, BACON, 3ST Liberty Street, No Ve WAS LIEUTENANT-CCLONEL ROOSEVELT A GOOD SOLDIER, OR DID HE HAVE A GOOD PRESS AGENT? The Repub veit's Mili ber of the Rough Rid all Spanish War veters Villitied and abused in out: n Campaign Committee has Issued a pamphlet called “Roose- ed by the million, and a mem- xu Committee, is sending it to; atement that the President “i IS terms for political reasons, resent the bitter camp nf oods Which are being uttered about him. This pamphlet was pr bly issued as a reply to my article in the August | nnuiber of the ARMY AND NAVY CRITIC, It is needless to say that it is not ab answer to any charge ¢ i In 100 T issued al br rein most of ‘EEN ANSWE months, and no Seventy-tirst, Reg ttorth, NO ONE Ob The August Critic has been issued for nearly three erson has attempted to answer it, T will give one thousand put at San Juan,” dollars to any person who will prove that one line of that article is not strictly | spect true, } he w J repeat the charge ~The bio cuss on San Juan was captured at about 1:30 p.m, on suly 1, 1898, by the Infantry, not by the Cavatry. | 2.—Colonc! Rooseveit did not see a Spaniard on July ist, and was not in| a position where he could see one. | report contains | oilicers on the ( one of which t's absolute- ttle contained There is not any | rt of battle from »borating Colonel Roos ificial report of the battle. I efore repent the charge that velt has obtained promo- ssidency of the United report of his own alleged Juan Hill, which re- port ere knowingly false. I repeat there was but one blockhouse, and one pntrenchwment on the San Juan Hills. e were captured by the infantry, | This infantry had lain for hours in and around the sunken road in advance of Kettle Hill, and AFTER the infan- try had captured San Juan, Roosevelt and his Rough Riders came out of the tall grass, where they had been con- cealed for hours, and went up Kettle TLil, which had never had upon it an ] entrenchment or a Spanish soldier, Colonel Roosevelt had had no mil rUEM HAS EVER | tary experience, He left a position in the navy, where he might have been of some service, in order to take a ‘ular position in the army, where the laughing stock of regulars and volunteers alike, All the world honors a brave soldier, but all the world despises false pretences, Roosevelt's Military Record,” pub- lished by the Republican Campaign 3.—Colonel Roosevelt's account of his heroic charge on horseback up ommittee, is a mere collection of | San Jusn Hill is absolutely false. 4.—Kettic Hill, a small rise of ground about S00 yards in front, of the | of Roost San Juan hills, never contained a Spanish soldier or Spanish entrenchment. 5.—The Infantry had lain in advance of Kettie Hill for hours before 1:30 | p.m. They did not take possession of Kettle Hill, for no reason except that they had no use for an old kettle. | wanes 6.—Eartier in the day, the Rough Riders had gone to the right of the read, to Santiago, for half a mile, and lay for hours in the tall grass, neck high, bshind Kettle Hill, 7—AFVER the infantry had left the sunken road between Kettle Hill’ - and San Juan, and had captured the block house, Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Riders came cut of the tall grass and went up Kettle Hill, ! 8,—There were no entrenchments on the San Juan hills, except about 100 feet around the block house. Colonel Roosevelt's statements in his “Rough | Riders,” written months after the war, do not correspond with official reports, even his own, and are absolutely untruthful, TUE OFFICIAL REPORT. GATION OF THE ROAD ON yels oilical report,| WHICIL WE STOOD was another ant oof Major] hill surmounted by a large This is the hill TLY captured by the and eppasite ta whi though they were net reral Miles’ Su ISHS, contains the fo; “Accordingly we charg house and entvenchinents on th to our right inst a heavy fire the road, * © * in good style, the men of his was the first opportunity of- at thus being the first to} fered to efficiently cary out ¢ Y fortiied position and tof Hawkins’ ercer to entilade th throvgh the Spanish lines." | Juan HG, upor i f that statement is abso- | and detachment of the Sixteenth lutely falseg * * * “After capture | now opened a hot fire, to which the} ing this bill, we first of all directed a} trenches responded, and this CONTIN- heavy fire upon the San Juan hill to] VED FOR AN HOUR, It will be ob- our left, whieh was at the time being ved that except for Cy i ¥ assailed by the regular infantry and ‘s detachment of the Sixte: cay, supported by Capttin Park-]| SINTIT WAS NOW E ers Gatling guns, By the time San] ALONE IN its attack on the Juan was taken a large force bad as-] Hil * * * sembled on the hill we had PREVI-] “flere the Sixth remained, contend- OUSLY captured.” Ing with the hill FOR ABOUT AN A glance at the map shows that the) HOUR, but as we were particularly hill occupied by the cavalry was far] hidden by the hedge and protected by in the rear of the 1 Juan hills, and] gy road trench (sunken road) our cas- the reports of the engineer officers and | ualties were not heavy. At the same the official maps unanimous that} time Twas not satisfied with our po- it contains no entrenchments what-] sition on the r |, Which, being ob- ever, and there is no record of its ever} jique to the hill, gave ouly an oblique having been occupied by the Spaniards. | gud comparatively not effective tire. A glance at the map will show how] | efore concluded to ad ce the preposterous is Colonel Roosevelt's nent into the field of high grass nth THE RELY San Juan onel Roosevelt stated in a ss to the National Guard 4 1of the State of York, on Feb- y 18, 1000 (pp. 57, Ollicial Ke- Bit ¢ n Juan fight, it would | jead ished the awkins, with xth Infantr the ation to say it was a) their hats. neral Lieutenant rging at the} s and waving | s soon as this] te be an ¢ colonel’s fight. It was a squad lead: | could be sic ignal the nin. | ers fight. No human being in the col- of the Sixth, Sixteenth, unin kr hat be was to doe when the and Twenty-fourth swept! column started. We moved forward over the bill and it was won, in, eros the river and had 0} Capiain Charles Byrne's Company F, | t within range of the Spanish bat-/ and Captain Kennon’s Company EB, of teries on the bills unti! we got the or-] the Sixth, being among the foremost, der to char More by a consensus of | if not ¢ tually the very first, on the | opinion than anything else we weut} summit.” i up and took the hill. Captain Whitall, of the Sixteenth In-| This is the official report of this] fantry, says in his report, | eech to the National ¢ ad, but in} “During the entire action, ual spe admitted that he} tine General Hawkins ordered my did not see paniard; that they did] company forward, I never received a not know that there had been a battle} command from any one until u f “by the political colonel, and the only until it over. Tromny Dad carried the colors to the “The position of the First Volunteer} plockho where it was the first flag ‘avalry, half a mile to the right of u Juan Hill, At the time of the read to San al at the blockhouse on the te Hill, is ind yest of the hill I could see no other Leonard Wood, colonel. Fi men there but those of my company favalry, and T. A and a few men from other companies of the regiment.” Lieutenant Stedman, of the Six- are ver-) teenth Infantry, says, in his official batim the same. One plagar from } report (page 282): “I here ascertained the other, As General Wood was some- | that th ther companies of my battal- where in the rear, be was probably the] jon were to my left, IN THIS SUNK- offende EN ROAD. I moved my company to “After proceeding about half way] the left and went through an opening to the San Juan Hill (from El Pozo)| in a wire fence, which had been cut the leading regiment (Rough Riders) | by a Cuban, who was very prominent was d | ‘GE THE DI- he first charge. This was about RECTIO IT, and 1 ty paces from the cro: of the moving up to the creck to effect junc-| creek. This put me on the right of the tion with Gene’ front line that started to make the which was then engaged at Caney,| charge across this open space, the about a mite and a half toward the] compan consisting of A, D, E, C, right, but was supposed to be wor! and G, Sixteenth Infantry. toward our right flank, After proc “LT led my company across this open ing in this direction ABOUT HAI Space some 600 yards, and the charge MILE, this effort to connect w was made directly in front of THE | Lawton was given up, and th trench occupied by the enemy, That and Tenth ca was a litle to the left of the block- attack on the E house directly fron 1 on the Volunteer Cavalry cvest of the hill, THE “ORTI- Colonel Wood says in his report of | ViED FIELU WORKS near this July 6 (p. 342): “Our first objective} plockhouse.” was the bill with a small red-roofed| Captain L. W. V. Kennon, of the house on it.” (Kettle Hill.) Sixth Infantr in his official re- After the occupation of the San Juan] port (pag “Our ar fire hav- ‘hills by: the infantry, it became nec-| ing ceased, Company went up the sessary to create entrenchments to be] hill, and was the first o1 ganization of ~captured and Spaniards to be killed] our army to reach the summit and the fort. A number of enlisted men of way to do this was to make a bristling] other companies joined in the advance fortification out of an old kettle that] and reached the crest with us, At this had been left behind by the infantry | time there were a few Spaniards in the hours before. blockhouse and in the trenches to the Colonel Egbert, Sixth Infant flanks, but the greater part were in the in his official report, pages 364- rear of the fort, retreating to a position San Juan Hill fortifications being in| in rear.” in view, about 400 yards distart,} General Kent says in his official re- ie to our right and IN PROLON-| port (page 160); “General Hawkins, o and behind Ket- nd 341, of Gene report). These repo: and the recommendations elt for brevet and a medal of honor met with no serious consid. eration, They were rejected, The let- ters of recommendation are very guard- Matitudes, ! written ed he-| sunt to notl Suel endations may be aski ished swered. And 1 rep man with knowled them, General MacArthur obiained his pro- motion as Major-Gen by making a report about his mar rres in the capture of the city of Manila, which we now know to have been a shaw batile, and Admiral Dewey swore be- fore a committee of Congr that the city had practically surrendeved to him a week before and it was arranged that the Spaniards were not to tire back. Colonel Funston obtained his promo- tion as brigadier-general upon his own report of his own heroic deeds in-the capture of Aguinaldo, which we now know to have been put up by Aguin- aldo himself, who says, ineE 's Magazine of August, 1901, that the la- dies had come over the day before from Casiguran to Palinan to have a dance, thus traversing the very road over which Funston passed in his hor- rible privations, Colonel Roosevelt has obtained pro- motions by a false report in his “Rough of his own herole deeds in an LETTERS FROM A PRIVATE, “Tin Glad Pm a RegularssThey Go Ahcad and Do Their Business Without Aay Fuss or Feathsrs:-But I'm Sorry That We Will Not Get Any Cre it For Cur Work:+They Say Our Charge Will Make Roosevelt: Presid nt Scm2 Bay and That is Whal We Went to War For.” LETTER NO, 1, At Foot of San Juan Hill, 1 This has been a d yet this evening fiads me sit cool and calm, * * *% The Started about daybreak with an artil- ‘y duel, in which our artillery to have got the worst of it, Ih Grimes has been shelled out of his pos} T sec, our artillery was using black pow- der, while the Spanish used smokeless powder, So, while we were a perfect mark for them, we could not locate their batteries at all, The casualties have been pretty heavy, I hear to night that our division has lost about 350 killed and 2000 wounded, Our regiment lost something over 100 killed and wounded, but I don't know just how many, I thought we would be the whole thing on account of hay- ingtaken this hill, but the adjutant (who is now Lieutenant Koehler) says the Rough R will get all the credit y have their press agents And, what do you think, they were not even in the fight, They left the main advance column early in the morning, and going off to the right got lost somewhere in the chaparral and did not get out again until to- night, I just got back from a walk along the lin d find the army strung out Jike this: (Letter conta a map not thought necessary to reproduce.J— ka, lt is a pretty thin line, but I gue: we will be able to hold our position, The regulars are simply wonderful as fighters. They go at it just as if it was sport instead of tragedy, and the fact that men are killed and wounded con- tinually don’t seem to bother them at all, They take it as a matter of course, * * * I'm glad I’m a reguiar. They d and do their business without or feathers, But I’m sorry that we will not get 4 hey say our charge will make Roosevelt President some day, and that that is the only thing he went into the rv for—just politics. Well, I suppose I shouldn't kick, as I am looking for a laurel wreath myself, The adjutant says I'll never be heard of unless I should chance to get killed, when T will occupy one line in the ‘papers in the list of dead and wounded. * * * When I was over on the right flank about an hour ago the Rough Riders were just getting up to the line in the position assigned them. Where they had been all day I don’t know, but the talk is that they were having sport on a hill somewhere in the rear, I will proba- bly know more about this to-morrow or next day. It is rumored that we will advance again to-morrow and drive the Spanish into the harbor. They retired in pretty good order to-day, as they only left eight dead on the hill and no wounded, so far as I know. * * Just how many are in the op- posing army I do not know, but it is PARTING OF THE WAYS. The People Must Decide Whether | the Nation Shall Be a Republic | or an Einpire, We are now at the parting of the ways—one (Democracy) carries us for- ward in the grand avenue traced out! for us by the founders of our nation, a path of dignity, honor, peaceful, hap- py advancement, which marks us the hope of mankind in all that makes for wisdom and good government; while the other (Republican) road takes us into the great arena where ancient peoples, full of ambitions, civil hat- reds, religious feuds, feudal e centur| trailing their slime across the centur- ies, are facing each other, burdened with armor, to fight out questions of said that there Is between 20,000 and noon, We have only the island, of whieh 4000 or are olunteers, so you see what kind of saul we are made of, LETTER NO, 2 San Juan Hfitl, July 10, 189s, No change since my last letter * * * 4 Are rumors that we will attack Spanish in the morning, Seems likely that we will, as we ha orders to pack rolls and bay 41a, m, to-morrow, This afternoon f went along the entire line of our » SWHad nothing else to do, and I wanted to see just how we were lo- cated, This is the way we are sit- uated: [Letter furnishes map not decmed necessary to publish.J—Kd, You will notice a little hill in the rear which I have marked “R. 2." That is where the Rough Niders did all their terrible fighting on the first day of the fight. I don't know, but honestly believe they never saw a Spaniard over ther IT hear th in all the New Roosevelt and his Rough San Juan Hill, That is a lie. : didn’t take San Juan Hill, He didn't even see the hill, and he has never been near It yet. We took the hill, we've been on top of it ev The actions of that man are the ing stock of the army, He is coutinu- ally blowing his horn, and seems to think he is the biggest man down here, If he were not Roosevelt I believe he would be drummed out of camp. It is quite sickening to sce the airs he pui on, I suppose before the war is over he will be commanding the army, and that will mean a through ti to the Presidential chair, It's all politics. The men who did the fighting—the regul. have very little to say. They seem to be in it for glor The simply do it as a matter of business, But Roosevelt is out for glory alone. ATING FRAUD MOST HUMILL Gol. Bacon's Reviey af the Events of duly 1, 1893 Daring Uaplure of en Undefended Field Attended With Imaginary Slaughter. ‘ROOSEVELT AT SAN JUAN OUT FOR GLORY, HAVING BEFORE HIS EYES THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION, We now come to the most humiliat- ing fraud in recent history—the cele- brated battle of San Juan, ip the Span- ish War of 1898, which has given scores of brevets for every dead Span- iard, The first act In the drama was to re- move every West Pointer from heads of departments (excepting the engi- neers and ordnance, which contain graduates only), because West Point- ers and contractors are natural born enemies. The next act was to put in command of the army of invasion an officer who was wholly incompetent to serve in a tropical climate, weigh- i 20 pounds and baving permanent ical disabilities, ‘The facts of the battle are briefly as follows: General Shafter’s plan of bat- | tle seems to have been all right, but was not carried out, General Lawton was expected to capture El Caney by 7 o'clock in the moruing; then turn to his left and form the mght wing of the attack on the San Juan hills; the cen- tre to be occupied by Wheeler and his cavalry; the left by Kent and the in- fantry, El Caney was not captured until 4.30 in the afternoon, In the nieantime the Wheeler and Kent divis- ions simply drifted toward San Juan, through a dense jungle, of which there had been no reconnoissance, and the Spanish skirmish line on San Juan ex- ed itself at target practice from o'clock in the morning until 1.30 in the afternoon, simply shooting at the roads and trails where the American troops were helpless, in column, Is it not high tim» that some of the mists surrounding the battle of San Juan were raised? The War Depart- ment, when asked how many Span- iuvds were in Santiago when it sur- rend » and how many Spaniards were killed and wounded at San Juan and El Caney, states in a letter that they have no records that throw any light on the subject. Prominent of- who have knowledge, give eva- replies, Lieutenant Jose. Muller ‘jJeiro, second In command of na- siy y MAP J} SS or SAN JUAN HIL?. e ng all he can get. * * * Now he wants to get back to the United States (probably to pull some wires). He has done nothing but kick, kick, kick for the last three or four days, and he has made himself very obnoxious everywhere. He kicks’ because he can’t have toast and eggs every morning for breakfast. He kicks because he has to sleep on the ground instead of a hair mattress. He kicks because his men are homesick and want to see their best girls, I'm homesick myself, but I'm not kicking, and I haven't heard a kick from any one in the regiment yet—not even from one fellow whom I helped into a trans- port wagon to be taken back to the hos- pital. He had both eyes shot out, wounds through the neck, chest, ab- domen, legs and arms, but the only thing he said was: “Who's got a pipe handy?” gave him mine. I didn’t think he'd live more than an hour or two, although he had lain in the grass three days without attention, but they got him into the hospital alive, family, or of territorial and commer- cial greed, By the latter path we abandon hu- munity, and with drum and trumpet and warship, hurl ourselyes into the wretched wrangle, which has been go- ing on in the old world since the dawn of history, and the new world then ceases to exist. This is the track into which, tentatively but surely, our Gov- ernment has been trying to push, with accelerated pace, during the last three years, and now the people of the Unit- ed States are about to be called upon to say if it be their wish to continue the march, If they say yes, let them marshal their heaviest battalions, change their form of government to a dictatorship, and prepare their purses for a drain in comparison to which that of cur Civil War was light. The Republic is, indeed, at the parting of the ways, was reinforced by another company.” The artillery on San Juan consisted of two old pieces that looked as if they, were a hundred years old, mounted on rickety old carriages. They were eft behind. This echelon of San Juan was attacked by 7500 Americans witb light batteries aud a Gatling battery—thir- ty to one. The American loss at San Juan, in killed and wounded, was more than a thousand by the official figures. The Spanish loss was substantially, nothing. Every Spaniard kiled or wounded four Americans. The per centage of American loss at San Juan was twice that of the British at the “bloody” battles of Tugela River, The Spanish loss is unknown, but was practically nothing, “One of the regular officers, who was one of the first to ascend the San Juan hill and occupy the blockhouse, when asked, before the Seventy-tirst Regi- ment Court of Inquiry, “What did you see on arriving at the top of the hilly" replied ‘othing.” =, “Nothing at ally” . “Nothing but scenery.” Q, “No Spariards?” A. “Well, a Sew might be seen in the distance retiring to their trenches,’ The fact is that as soon as the Americans formed iine of battle and proceeded up the hill at about 1.30 p, m., the Spanish skirmish line retired to their breastworks around™ Santiago, which were never captured, but were surrendered with the city om July 17. About 800 yards In front of the San Juan hills was a small stream called Purgatorio Creek, with densely wood- ed banks. It flowed close by a slight rise called Kettle Hill, which was also far in front of the San Juan hills. As far as known, Kettle Hiil had never concealed a Spanish soldier in the his tory of the world, and its only forti+ fication consisted of an old iron kettle that gave its name to the Americans, For hours the infantry had been lying in a sunken road, in advance of Kettle Hill, No one thought of going on top of it because there was nothing to go after, But when the infantry left the wee Cae If Id cae ed a Annan sunken oad and captured the blocke go, in his history, which has been house, Colonel Rvosevelt and the translated in part by the Navy Depart- Rough Riders marched from the millet ment, gives only 3000 effective Span- ish soldiers in and about Santiago on July 1. Escario and his column did not break in unti the 8d, and there were about 2100 sick in hospital. Their food consisted exclusively of rice and water; their ammunition was scarce; their artillery consisted of thirteen pieces of antique patterns some of which they did not dare discharge, Santiago had not been prepared for a siege, These 3000 men had over ten miles to cover, and were attacked at five different points simultaneously: (1) The fleet menaced Morro Castle and the Socapa battery at the mouth of the bay. (2) Five thousand Cubans, whose losses were heavy—Bonsal says (p.444) their percenta,+ of loss was fif- ty per cent. greater than the Ameri- cans’—were active, and harassed them on the west. (3) Aquadores was men- aced by a demonstration of Michigan troops just landed, (4) El Caney was attacked by about 6000 men; and (5) San Juan by abou’ 7500. According to Lieutenant Muller, the San Juan hills were occupied by a mere skirmish line of 250 Spaniards, Captain Nunez says, in his history, al- 80 translated in part by the Navy (p. 113), “that the advance echelon of San Juan, consisting of two companies un- der the command of Colonel Vaquiero, field, behind this hill and Purgatorie Creek, and frantically charged up Ket+ tle Hill! It was attended with little more danger than an attack on the City Hall in New York, The San Juan hills directly beyond it had no in- trenchments, and had already been abandoned by the Spaniards, His slaying the fleeing Spantard Jess than thirty feet away sounds much like murder. No regular officer found it necessary to establish his reputa- tion by an account of exultant blood- thirstiness, They accepted the painful duty of fighting the enemy as one of the sad necessities of war and sought to win no glory by gloating over the widows and orphans they were forced to make, Colonel Roosevelt stands out against the lurid horizon of war as the Solitary autobiographer from the days of Caesar till now to write himself down boastingly as a slayer of his fel- lowman, and that, too, at such close range. : Having examined under oath about 100 participants in the San Juan en- gagement, and having in my posses- sion the stenographer’s transcript of their testimony, I am prepared to state that Colonel Roosevelt did not so much see a Spaniard on July 1, 1898, and was not in a position where he could see one, a peet ste welt BaPeige ‘10f Ne 101