The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-08-04
\ I R R 4 |! !!
IMPENDING
HORROR
Officers Demand the Instant
Removal Of the Army
From Santiago.
HALF The MEN MAY DIE
Entire Force Debilitated By
Malarial Fever and I'm
1T For Service.
NO SAFE SPOT NEAR BY
Crisis Demands the Sending of
the Troops to Recuperate
in a Northern Climate.
fBy Cable Copyright, 1898. by The Associated


GBy Cable Copyright, 1895, by The Associated
Press.
SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Aug. 8, 1898 $3.50
P. M)-Delayed in transmission )-sum-
moned by Major General shafter a meet
ing was held here this morning at head
quarters. and, in the presence of every
commanding and medical officer of the
Fifth Army Corps. General Shafter read
cable message from Secretary Alger,
ordering him, at the recommendation of
the Surgeon General, sternberg, to move
the army into the interior, to San Luis,
where It is healthier.
AS result of the conference, General
shafter viii insist upon the immediate
withdrawal of the army North or within
two weeks
AS an explanation of the situation the
following letter from Colonel Theodore
Roosevelt, commanding the First Cav
airy, to General Shafter was handed by
the latter to the correspondent here of
The Associated Press for publication
Major General shsfter:-
Sir-In a meeting Of the general and
medical ofTicers called by Won at the Pal
ace this morning, we were all, as you
know unanimous in view of what should
be done with the army. TO keep Us here.
in the oDinion of every officer command
ing division or a brigade, will simply IN
volve the destruction of thousands There
tically the entire command North at once.
Yellow fever cases are Very few in the
cavalry division, where / command one Of
the two brigades, and not one true case of
yellow fever has occurred in this division,
except among the men sent to the hos
pital at Siboney, where they have, | be-
lieve contracted it, But, in this division
there have been 1,500 cases of malarial
fever. Not a man has died from it; bat.
the whole command is so weakened and
shattered as to be ripe for dying ike rot
ten sheep when a real yellow fever cpl
denlic instead of a fake epidemic like
the present strikes us, as it is bound TO
if we stay here at the height of the sick
ness season, August and the beginning OF
September. Quarantine against malarial
fever IS much like a quarantining against
the toothache. All of us are GER
tain. as soon as the authorities
at Washington fully appreciate the con-
ditions of the army to be sent home. If
we are kept here, it will in all human
possibility mean an appalling disaster, for
the surgeons here estimate that over half
the army, if kept here during the siekly
season. will die This is not only terrible
from the standpoint of the individual lives
lost, but it means ruin from the stand
point of the military efficiency Of the
flower of the American Army, for the
great bulk of the regulars are here with
you. The sick list. large though it is.
exceeding 1000 affords but faint index
Of the debilitation of the army Not 10
per cent are fit for active work. Six
weeks on the North Maine coast, for in
stance. or elsewhere where the yellow
fever germ cannot possibly propagate,
would make US all as fit as fighting cocks,
able as we are and eager to take a lead
ing part in the great campaign against
Havana in the fall. even if we are not
allowed to try Porto Rico.
we can be moved North, if moved at
once. with absolute safety to the coun-
try although, of course, it would have
been Infinitely better if we had been
moved North or to Porto Rico two weeks
ago. If there were any object in keep
ing us here we would face yellow fevsr
with as much indifference as we face
bullets. But there is no object in it,
The four immune regiments ordered here
are sufficient to garrison the city and
surrounding towns and there is absolute
Nv nothing for US to do here, and there
has not been since the city surrendered
II is impossible to move into the inte-
rior Every shifting Of camp doubles the
sick rate in our present weakened con-
dition. and, anyhow. the interior is rather
worse than the coast as | have found
by actual reconnaissance. Our present
camps are as healthy as any camps at
this end Of the island can be.
| write only because cannot see our
men. who have fought SO bravely and
who have endured extreme hardship and
danger so uncompiainingly, go to de-
struetion without striving so far as lies
i'll me. to avert doom as fearful as it is
unnecessary and undeserved.
Yours respectfully.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT,
Colonel. Commanding First Brigade.
After Colonel Roosevelt had taken the
Initiative. all the American general OH
GERS united IN round-robin addressed to
General shafter ii reads:
we the undersigned Officers commando
inc the various brIgades, divisions. etc.