The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-08-13
A Charge that the Living Members Of the
Expedition DeyOured the Remains Of
Their Dead Comrades.
Charles B. Henry Led Out and Shot
for Stealing, and His Body Eaten.
The Narrative Creates Sensation at Wash
ington-- officers Of the Navy Decline
to Deny or Confirm the Report.
4 SHOCKING story.

A SHOCKING STORY.
Repetition of the Statement that the Greedy
Party Subsisted on Human Flesh.
New York Special.
The Times tomorrow will print the following:
Written documents, now in the possession Of the
Navy Department, add to the record of misera-
BILE suffering already published in connection
with the Greedy expedition shocking stories of
inhumanity and cannibalism. All the facts
have been in the possession Of Secretary Chand-
dler for three weeks, but have been closely
guarded For the sake of humanity the author
tiles are endeavoring to keep the matter hushed,
but the facts will undoubtedly come out. It will
be remembered that in Commander Schley's
first dispatch to Secretary Chandler, announcing
the finding of the Greedy party, he said: Il
would urgently suggest that the bodies now
placed on board be placed in metallic cases here
for safe and better transportation in a seaway.
This appears to me imperative
AS Mr.. Chandler was in West Point, the dis
patch was answered by Rear Admiral Nichols.
He said: use your own discretion about care
and transportation of bodies"
Secretary Chandler afterward telegraphed:
Prepare them according to your judgment"
1t took some days to prepare the iron caskets,
which were all bolted and riveted It was re-
marked at the time by experienced officers that
this would have hardly been necessary for the
preservation of the frozen bodies. They could
safely have been brought on in wooden cofins.
The design was obviously to prevent friends of
the dead being given opportunity to look at
their remains. Even the sailors on the relief
ships, with the exception of few who assisted
in removing the bodies, were not allowed to see
them When Commander Schley met Secretary
Chandler and General Hazen at Portsmouth,
on the arrival of the ships from St Johns, he
was much agitated, and called the gentlemen into
the cabin.
Undoubtedly he then communicated to them
the facts The sufferings and privations of the
men in their cave-hut during the bitter winter
of 1884 have not half been told. 1t has been pub
lished that after the game gave out in February
they lived on sealskins, lichens and shrmps.
As a matter of fact, they were kept alive on hui
man flesh. When the rescuing party discovered
the survivors, one of them, a German, was wild
in his delirium.
.'Oh,n he shrieked, as the sailors took hold of
him, don't let them shoot me as they did poor
Henry. Must / be killed and eaten as Henry
wasl Don't let them do it. Don't Don'Ji'
The sailors were Mortified and reported the
words to Commander Schley, and after a brief
investigation he felt satisfied that some of the
men who had perished had been stripped of their
flesh to keep their surviving comrades alive. He
instructed two or three gentlemen, among whom
was Dr. Ames, the surgeon of the Bear, to make
a careful examination and put their conclusions
in writing. This was done and the reports are
now in the department. Greely WAS averse to
having the bodies of the dead disturbed, He
thought it wise, as they had been buried SO
long, 70 iet tnem remain IN tnelr arctic graves.
Schley did not agree with him. The bodies
were dug from their graves.
Most of the blankets contained nothing but
heaps OF white bones, many OF them picked
Clean The remains could be identified only by
marks on the blankets. Schley discovered that
many of the seventeen men said to have per-
ished from starvation had been eaten. 1t was
the last resort and death stared the hungry and
erazed men in the face, but there was hope if
life would hold out for even few weeks. The
only men who escaped the knife were three or
four who died Of scurvy. The amputated limbs
of men who afterward perished were eagerly de-
voured.
Charles B. Henrys death was particularly
tragic. He was young German, without rela-
tives in this country and Joined Company E.,
Fifth Cavalry, in Cincinnati. His friends tried
to dissuade him from going but his spirit of ad-
venture was aroused by tales of arctic exploits
and he determined to go. Driven to despair and
hunger, Henry tried to steal little more than
his share of rations.
He was found out and shot In the official re-
port the death is set down as having occurred
June g. When the body was found his hands
and face, though shrunken, were intact, but
nearly everywhere else the skin had been strip
ped and the flesh picked from the bones Even
his heart and lungs were eaten, and one rib was
shattered by ball. and to another fragmentof
lead atyacned A bullet hole was In the skin
The body was In this condition when it was in
tered in Cypress Hill Cemetery last Saturday
me letter MS friend Mr. Robert Oberfelder, of
Sydney, Neb Is daily looking for, will probably
never come to light
The survivors were 10th to talk Of the horri
promises of secrecy their evidence was taken in
Wr1ung. nn aa;a - ,.,aa -,
cued by the army instead Of the navv of conrse
it was impossible to keep the actual state of af