Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1898-08-31
TERRIBLE TALE.
Brain of a Dead Soldier Taken Ont and
Replaced With Handful of straw.
His Intestines Also Removed ard stomach
FILLED With Hay-An Omciai Investi-
CATION Likely to Reveal the
Greatest Scandal i'm History.

CAMP THOMAS, CmCKAMAUGA PARK,
Ga, Aug. 26.-The horrors of the
chiebamauga hospitals grow. Gen
breckenridge will probably insist upon
congressional investigation, which
will reveal one of the greatest sean
dals in the history of the army
When an official investigation shall
have been made of the causes leading
up to the sickness and death of so
many soldiers of the volunteer army
at Chickamauga park it will reveal a
degree of negligence and ignorance on
the part of officers and surgeons that
is hardly TO be credited as having oc-
Cured in the United states OF America
during the close of the nineteenth cen
fury.
Men with raging fevers were sent To
these places and compelled in many
cases to lie on the ground on blankets
while the rain beat in through the
poorly protected tents.
There were few surgeons and fewer
nurses, and the poor fellow who be-
came sick was in the main left to his
own care, with an occasional visit
from the surgeon There was little
ice to be had and ice baths were OF
rare occurrence.
In one division hospital for several
weeks there were only two tempera-
ture thermometers The sick were al
lowed TO lie ineunprotected tents for
hours until physicians could have an
opportunity to examine them and de-
eide whether they ought to be admit
ted to hospitals or not, and in some
cases men with fever were comrelled
to wait for - hours after giving up. -
as they called it, and they were al
ways kept going as long as they could
before receiving attention.
The surgeons thems elves state that
their supplies were inadequate, the
Accommodations lily equipped, the
nurses and attendants few and mex
perienced, and, as one surgeon said:
1T is n wonder that every fever pa
tent did not die"
1t is stated that the department did
not know of the situation for some
time. Surgeon General Stern berg's
order as to sanitation had been gross
~ ignored, and acquisitions for med
zeal supplies We're sent TO his depart
ment with snail-liIe rapidly.
Men suffered and died for lack of
medicines and proper attention. The
whole system seems TO have been to-
tally wrong and inhuman. and, as n re-
suit, the people of the country are sim
ply appalled, at the revelations made.
and when the whole truth is known.
in all the sicSening details. the public
will wonder that the soldiers at Chick
amauga park have been able to escape
as well as they have.
George y. Echle, member of Com.
pany L, 9th Pennsylvania, says that
his command has been shamefully neg.
lected; that the sick have not been
supplied with ice. but have been al.
lowed 20 almost famish in the hot sun.
The men have received wines. brandies.
pillow cases and such things from rel.
atives and friends at home, but they
would gladly have given them all for
an adequate supply of ice.
Echle says that sink has existed in
the camp of his command close up tc
the mess tent, and that flies and in.
sects from this rocking mass of filth
and putrefcation would alight in the
food as the men were eating.
About a week or two ago a private
in the 9th Ohio, an estimable and reli.
able man, wrencheCshis knee in town
and split the bone. lie was picked UT
by wagon laden with hospital SUP.
plies in charge of a surgeon. The
latter knew the private was in
pain and badly crippled, yet he never
vouchsafed word of inquiry or of
fered TO render him the least assist.
ancc. The wagon was driven TO its
destination in an open field. The in.
jured man was ordered out and left
several miles away from his camp in
an open field, whence in great suffer.
ing nc found his way to his regiment.
It appears that some OF the medical
officers. in the interest of science Of
surgery. are cutting up bodies of sol.
diers. or rather holding summary au.
topsies without the consent Of the rel.
atives OF the dead men, and over the
protests of their friends
a few days ago the body OF "a soldier
who died OF meningitis was taken in
20 Chattanooga. When the body was
uncovered IL was found that the mans
skull had been lifted and tb,t bts