The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-08-29
WATER AT CAMP THOMAS.
Gen. Boynton Still Declares That It Has
Been and Is Pure.

Gen. BoyntOn Still Declares That 1t Has
Been and Is Pure.
CHATTANOOGA. Tenn. Aug. 2S.-Gen. Henry
V. Boynton has replied to 4 report made by the
committee appointed by the Army and Navy
League OF Cincinnati to investigate the sanitary
condition OF Chickamauga Park. The report
says:
"A partial copy OF u report made to your hon
orable body by one OF its committees upon the
health conditions OF this camp having been
furnished INC by L. ID. Drewry. l beg leave to
submit the following facts and comments. first.
for convenience fairness and clearness. quot
ing that portion OF the report to which they
chiefly apply"
Here Gen. Boynton quotes verbatim the re-
port OF the committee, which is very volu-
minous. and purports to give certain facts.
Continuing. no says:
If your committee had visited park head
quarters. as it was invited to do. both by the
engineer OF the park and myself. with the
promise from both to furnish any desired
information in regard to the conditions
at the park, OF which We have been
Aaily observers from the first. they would have
learned that the small affair." the Chicka-
manga, is fed exclusively bymountain springs
that 1t lows for twenty-siX miles through Nc
IGNORES Cove. which Is in large part u rocky.
wild. uncultivated region. with no towns bor-
dering It; IN short, that there is not a valley In
the Eastern States furnishing any considerable
city with water AZ clean as this.
THE town of ChickaInauga which your com
mittee says drains into the. creek. Is a small
collection OF dwellings u mile from It, has no
Bystem Of sewerage, and the refuse from each
house sinks ut once into the ground at the
above distance from the river. The utter fall
ure OF your committee to appreciate the serious
duty with which they We're charged Is found In
this amazing sentence. We do not know where
the, Letter Hospital drains. but have 4odoubt 1t
Is the same place, ChickamauRa Creek,
Here is a committee charged especially with
investigating typhoid conditions. which did not
think IL OF enough consequence to ask about the
oithe camp. but content itself with reporting to
your honorable body that While they know moth
Ing about 1t. they have no doubt, it empties into
, the water supply. If they had ask id at the hos
Ipital. at park headquarters, or OF the Chief Sur
geon. they would have ascertained that no drop
OF sewage from that hospital has at any time
possible for the sewage "a, reach 1t.
But this COMMITTEES failed TO apply either at
military or park ]headGuaFteFs for i1formatIcn
consideration. and upon any or all Of which full
Information was, offered them and could have
dltions is q mistake based upon assump-
lions which do not exist and have
which has been prevalent aud with the talk Of
those who. after allowing disease TO gain u
foothold In their camps through gross neglect
a cry against the water as the best weapon
with which 70 shield themselves from the con-
sequences OF serious neglect OF duty"
Il am. however. constrained to say that their
report as To water and sickness follows the talk
oftwo classes OF persons. each OF which class
has been very persistent and industrious IN its
anxious TO install costly water plants, and next
and most, persistent. those who apparently
water TO divert attention from their wi serious
and most reprehensible neglect"