t was President of the United States
and that as such he proposed the name of Wood for advancement to
Major-General of Regulars from Brigadier-General added fuel to the
flames. The fact that Wood was the senior Brigadier and that as such
he would naturally become Major-General in regular seniority seems to
have carried no weight at the time. Even then the Rathbone affair
would have had no connection with the matter of this appointment had
not Major Rathbone possessed personal friends high politically in the
government of the time, and had not the regular army officers looked
with disfavor upon the appointment even in regular order of a man who
had been an army surgeon and who was not what is known as a line
officer originally.

All these influences, however, coming together at the same time caused
an uproar in Congress over his appointment which, while it cleared
Wood entirely, still made a political scandal that hurt to the quick
the man who had just accomplished what he had accomplished in Cuba.

Wood was charged with conduct unbecoming {171} an officer; that he
made an intimate friend of an ex-convict in Santiago, and employed him
as a newspaper correspondent to blacken the character of eminent
American officers and advertise himself; that Rathbone was unjustly
accused and convicted through Wood's direct agency; that Wood had been
guilty of extravagance; that he had accepted while Governor-General
presents from a gambling house in Havana, and so on.

All this evidence and much more was laid before the Committee of the
Senate on Military Affairs and was most thoroughly aired. The result
was the absolute vindication of Wood, his confirmation as
Major-General of the Regular Army and a report which is a part of the
records of the Senate in which it is written that:... "not one of them
has a better claim, by reason of his past record and experience as a
commander, than has General Wood; and in the opinion of the Committee
no one has in view of his present rank equal claim to his on the
ground of merit measured by the considerations suggested."

The whole episode thus ended in still greater credit to General Wood.
It is only interesting {172} and in point here and now because it
brings out the fact that the man himself never had the support of the
Washington Army Department men until his service in the Philippines,
except here and there amongst those officers who have served under
him. Doubtless his extraordinary execu