The evening times., 1898-09-30
CHARGES AGAINST OFFICERS.
A Private From Camp Cuba Libre
Makes Accusations.

Private From Camp Cuba Ltbre
Makes Accusations.
Soldiers from Camp Cuba Libre near
Jacksonville Fla, of whom quite a num-
Der have returned to their homes in this
city during the past week, bring very
unfavorable reports of the condition of
affairs at the supposed-to-be model camp.
Several of the soldiers who returned
were members of the Fourth United
States Volunteer Regiment, which was
largely recruited from the youth of Wash
ington, and state that in some of the
companies of the regiment, notably that
of Capt. Marshall, the officers have been
guilty of taking the food which the Gov
ernment intended for the sustenance of
! the men of the regiment, and appropriate
Ing 1t to their own use. These charges
are not made against the non-commis-
stoned officers of the company who are
entitled to use the food thus provided
by the Government but against the COM
missioned officers of the company, who
are supposed 10 purchase their own meals,
adequate salaries being paid to them for
that purpose.
Among the men who are not afraid to
make such charges is Private Alexander
I. Leathers, who recently secured an
honorable discharge from Capt. Mar
shalfs company. Private Leatners re-
turned to Washington two days ago,
and when seen a his home at No. 623 IL
Fourth Street northwest, last night, was
not averse 10 telling a Times reporter
that the charges against the officers were
true.
Yes" he said, lit is true that the off,
GERS of my company, Capt. c. j. Mar
shall, jr.; Lieut.. Wade NJ. jolly and Sec
ond Lieut. w. A Peacock, appropriated
food which was purchased and intended
for the members of the company. This
food was purchased by the Government
commissary officers, and, although IL was
of inferior quality, ii was not intended
that the commissioned officers should
partake of 1t. They are paid good sala
ries, and are expected to purchase their
own food. Marshall Is nineteen years old,
and is a bright young officer, and quite
a favorite among the men, but when 1t
came to taking food that properly be-
longed 10 the men. they did not like it.
Yes, il did rob us of food that we
should have gotten. For instance, l can
recall ten days when we were without
bread altogether and on one occasion the
men in our company We're without either
bread or ha-dtslck for more than a day.
! There was some kind of an arrangement
also whereby the supply of bread that
| they should 9iaVe given us was cut snort
| TO make a company fund. We were to
! get, say, eighty loayes Of bread day
| Well, ten loaves were cut of of this
| amount and contributed to that mysteri-
! Gus company fund. Whatever became of
| the fund no one knows. Ii was Impress
| ed upon the minds OF the privates that
the fund was to be distributed among the
! men, but they never received any of IL
~ he officers not only used our rations
for their own support, but in our COM
! pany they had two servants who were
| also granted the same privilege, all of
| which reduced the food which was right
! fully the property of the privates.
The meat which we received was fur
nished by contractors and was certainly
not of the best sort. This cannot be bet
| ter illustrated than by the fact that when
the officers wanted meat they would not
| use the same kind of meat that we were
/ given. They would take out, say, two
/ pounds OF poor meat, similar TO that Civ
| en- to us and trade II TO the meat con-
! tractors for one pound of select meat
! If they required four pounds of meat for
| their meals they would take eight pounds
! of our meat and trade II in the same
| manner for half the quantity of select
F.! meat This is not only the case at Jack
W.
were at Fredericksburg. Some of the
men carried their small portions of meat
and food to the captain in order 10 Illus
| trate the small quantities which they
! were receiving as the result of the in
! roads being made by the officers upon
our rations. Such men were called kick
| ers' and they soon learned that u was
better for them to endure their hardships
than to try TO personally better their con-
| NJ told CON sid
er every man who attempted TO make a
! complaint a kicker and, the result was
| that such privates were given fatigue
duty and double guard duty.
II know whereof ! speak, for / was in
the kitchen very often, each man being
assigned to assist in the kitchen at inter
walls. My experience there thoroughly dis
gusted me with life in the company. The
contractors would not only send bad meat,
/ but would send it short weight, thus de-
| priving the men of what was justly be-
longing TO them. Many times was the
bread no better than the meat. 1t was
| often covered with a green fuZz and mil
| dewed
Then there was an arrangement down
there whereby a ragimental canteen was
| established A large Western brewing
| concern built a branch office near the
| camp and checks were sold to the pri-
Yates by the officers of the company
| These checks were for various denomtna-
tions from 10 cents TO a quarter. and
with them the men would purchase beer
AS much as 5000 worth of beer was sold on
some of the days when the business was
most prosperous. When a man had bought
to the limit of his salary he would have
to borrow checks from other comrades
When pay day came around the amount
of checks charged to each man was taken
from his money. The canteen system was
one of the most demoralizing things that
/ have ever seen. The men were given
the impression that the profits were TO be
| divided among them, but they never got
| them. The soldiers are not fools, either,
| and know very well where the profits 60
| The statements of Private Leathers
! were corroborated by others, among them
a member of the same company in which
| Leathers served now in the city, but who
does not desire his name to be used for
| publication.
Private Leathers stated further that he
| intended to have some of the irregulari-
ties seen by him recorded at the War De-
partment.
|