Secretary of the Navy John D. Long to Commodore Winfield S. Schley, Commander, Flying Squadron
TRANSLATION.
Washington, May 29, 1898.
General Miles1 states if you can communicate with Cuban insurgents, request Garcia2 to assemble his forces in rear of Santiago and our Army division will take with them to Santiago five thousand stand of arms and ammunition for Cubans.3
Long.
Source Note: CbCy, DNA, RG 45, Entry 28. Addressed before opening: “Schley,/Mole St. Nicholas, Haiti.” There is a “NOTE” below the signature: “Duplicate of above sent ‘Sampson, Key West’, but arrived after departure.” And below that is a handwritten note: “Marsval)/Same telegram sent May/30 to Sampson Mole/Hayti).”
Footnote 1: Commander of the Army Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles.
Footnote 2: Gen. Calixto García Iñiguez.
Footnote 3: Sampson sent his chief of staff, Capt. French E. Chadwick, to meet with García on 19 June. Chadwick brought García back to RAdm. William T. Sampson’s flagship for a meeting with the admiral. At that meeting, García informed the Americans that he had brought 4,000 men to cooperate in the campaign against Santiago. Chadwick, The Spanish-American War, 1: 387. The Navy provided clothing, arms, and supplies to García’s men, though the exact amount of war material given to the Cubans is not known.
