The times., 1898-12-11
MIGHT AFTER SAN JUAN
Facts and Incidents for the
Alger Commission.
HOW SOLDIEPS SUFFERED
A Detailed Statement of Events by
a CIose Observer ON the Field
What the American Troops Had
to Contend With and What They
Had to Undergo While in Cuba.


titled ''The Night After San Juan in
which there is some rather forcible testi-
mony as 10 the inadequacy of the hospital
service in Cuba and the Incompetence of
various officials in the commissary and
transportation departments. Mr.. Bonsal's
account of the scenes after the battle be-
gins in this way:
After the rain and during the hour of
darkness before the moon rose, in all the
fullness OF its warm tropical beauty, over
the battlefield. the wounded, who had
been crouching behind the bushes near
which they fell or in the little dressing
stations directly behind the firing line,
where they had been cared for as far as
the devotion of their comrades and the
courage OF the surgeons and the hospital
stewards could supply the absolute want
of proper medical and surgical supplies,
We're placed on blankets caKed with mud
and Wet from the recent rain, and carried
down the hillside under dropping fire
from the enemy. and back along the for
est road which led from the foot of the
heights to San Juan Creek"
Owing to the limited number of men
who could be spared for the service, it ap-
pears that the jungle could not be thor
oughly searched and Mr.. Bonsal says:
THUS many of the wounded We're not
discovered until the following day, and
quite a number, indeed not until the
armistice was declared, on the third day
after the battle, when the men had time
to ransack the hillside and the valley
for the missing. apd there We're some
those who had the strength when they
fell to crawl through the cactus. the
Spanish bayonet, and all manner of prick
ly and trailing plants into the deeper and
more protected recesses of the Jungle
who were never discovered at all until
days, many days, had passed, and the
gathering of the vultures told where some
poor fellow had died without care and
without food, of his wounds or from star
vation. OF such an one. when his place
of hiding was discovered there was, as
rule. only left a whitened skeleton and
pieces of the uniform he had worn. The
last resting place of not a few was never
discovered at all.
'I believe l am giving a moderate esti-
mate when l say that at least one-third
of the men wounded on July received
no attention and were not brought back
to the division hospital until the afternoon
of July 3 This night we knew nothing.
and had not the slightest suspicion of how
numerous the undiscovered wounded were.
Those that had been discovered and
brought back to the dressing station by
the creek were far more numerous than
even those who had followed the battle
most closely had anticipated. Shortly af-
ter sunset a long train of army wagons,
which. in default of ambulances, were to
carry the wounded back to the division
hospital and to Siboney, came rafting up
to the dressing station, and here were
loaded with the sadly moaning and pitt
fully mutilated bodies of those who had
fallen in the gallant charge. To the song
OF the shrapnel and the cracking sound
of the Mauser bullets. as they tore their
way through the jungle. and amid the
sharp. exploding reports overhead. which
gave rise to The belief among our men that
the Spaniards We're using explosive bull
let's the wounded were taken out of the
improyised litters upon which they had
been brought down, loaded into the
springless army wagons, and started
down the trail, where for many a mile
they were potted at by sharpshooters. and
were. indeed, for considerable distance,
well within the range of the fire of the
Spanish rif1emen in their trenches.
"Only about half of the wounded men
who were discovered this evening had
been brought back to the dressing station,
when the moon rose above the dark forest
line and lit up the battlefield and the
heights of San Juan as clearly, and, in
deed, more clearly than day, for there
was now not the dazzling force and con-
fusing mirage of the pitiless sunlight to
blind the sight The majority of these
men had had their wounds dressed where
they fell, or soon after falling, with the
first-aid bandages. There were very few
indeed 10 whom it had been pos
sibIe to give any further attention than
this, as the regimental surgeons. for want
of transportation, had been unable TO
bring their medical chests, and those who
We're best provided carried with them only
small pocket cases. Under these circum-
stances. then the distribution to the SOL
diers of the first-aid bandages, which had
taken place several days before, was a
great blessing, and undoubtedly saved
many lives.
when the first-aid bandages We're ap-
piled the wounded man and those who
helped him were, as rule. under fire,
Ghich made any but the most summary
methods of mountaineering quite impossi-
bic Fortunately these bandages, so SIM
pie and practical, lent themselves excel
iently well to this procedure. The first
thing the soldiers or the hospital attend
ants would do when they came upon
wounded man was, in the case of wound
in the body, to tear off his shirt, or In the
case of a wound in the leg. tear on MS
trousers, and then wrap around tne Wouhu
the first-aid bandage.
.sThe wound-dressers were generally In
such haste, and the wounded men usually
so helpless to assist in any way. and their
shirts and trousers so rotten from the
drenching rains in which they had been
worn without change day or night, that
the taking off of the cio.Aing was liter
ally what I call it-tearing, and the gar
ment came off SO rent as to be quite use
less for further wear. Consequently the
soldiers were carried half-naked, or. If
they had been wounded in both the body
and the lower limbs, as was so frequently
the case entirely naked, to the army
wagons and SO down TO the hospital,
where there was not scrap OF clothing
or bedding forthcoming to cover them
with. Those who were stripped in this
way during the daytime were baked and
blistered by the fierce sunlight, only to
shiyer with the penetrating cold and
dampness after the rain had ceased to
fall and when the chill night came on
'Knowing that he was totally unpre-
pared 10 clothe or cover the wounded that
would probably be brought in, the chief
surgeon Of the corps issued an order the
evening before the battle that all wound
ed men should be brought in with theiI
blankets, halves of shelter tents. and
ponchos. when possible. This was GER
tainly a step in the right direction. ever
II 1t was but frank confession by the
authorities that no preparation had beer
made by them for the emergency which
Il cannot be said was suddenly thrust
upon them, but winch they might have
foreseen and should have been preparing
against for many weeks previous While
the attending soldiers. realizing how Sc
rious for their wounded comrades it would