The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-15
THE WAR INVESTIGATION.
Testimony of Father Kelly and Chief
Surgeon b. +. Pope.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14.-Rev Father
Kelly, chaplain of the Sixth Illinois Volun-
teer Infantry, in testifying before the war
investigating commission to-day as to con-
ditions at Camp Alger, Va said in the reg
ment's first camp there there a little
difficulty about the water supply but later
his regiment moved into the center of the
camp and the best of water was easily ac-
cessible. He said the food, in quality and
quantity, as far as he knew was good in
camp, but there was difficulty in getting at
it. No one seemed able to get any medical
supplies. He thought the men from the city
made the best soldiers. being accustomed to
irregular hours. He pictured Camp Alger as
an ideal camp site, but regretted there had
been no sufficient bathing facilities. His
only real objection to the camp was its prox-
unity to large towns, to which the men
could sneak off and get full" 1t seemed
to him the sanitary condition of the camps
generally depended on the care given by the
officers to the men, for the men were moth
ing but grown children"
Father Kelly created considerable amuse-
ment for the commission by the assertion
that his regiment, made up entirely in Chi
cago, was better physically fitted for camp
life than the others. He was asked II he
credited their alleged superior physiques
to the fact they came from Chicago, ana IN
the midst of the levity Ex-Governor Wood
bury insisted on the witness stating why it
was that "a man who can stand the climate
of Chicago cannot live anywhere else?
DIR. Benjamin F.. Pope, who was chief sur
geon in the Shafter expedition to Cuba and
in charge of the camp at Tampa early in
it's occupancy, said surgical dressing ma
terials enough to care for, perhaps, eight
thousand wounded were taken aboard the
transports. The supplies of drugs, however,
did not keep up with the demand at the
camp and he telegraphed to the surgeon
general for a full supply. A part of those
then sent succeeded in reaching him. He
aScribed the woes of the medical depart
ment in that expedition to the wholesale
abandonment of the regimental outfits of
did not know who was responsible for this
but conceded it was hardly likely that so
sweeping an abandonment would be made.
save on orders of Major General Shafter
who commanded. He admitted some seri-
ously wounded were loaded in heavy jolt
ing army wagons and that it aggravated
stance in which death might be ascribed TO
such transportation. Summing up. he be-
lieved the methods of transporting the
wounded in this war were at least up TO
those in the civil war. Not much fighting
had been expected, he said, the Navy
Department had informed them that ten
thousand men could capture the place and
the men be on the transports going home
in week Instead, they got a stomach full
of lighting the first day
The travel ration, DIR. Pope said, was hard
fare for even a well man at sea, and only
under skillful cook could it be made
proper food for a convalescent. There was
money on hand to purchase proper food
and he had ordered it TO be purchased and
put aboard the transports. He believed this
had been done. Witness testified to an al
most chronic shortage of drugs, which had
caused him great trouble and uneasiness
When the Relief arrived she was supposed
to have seven hundred tons of supplies
aboard but though she was unloaded on the
10th or 18th the drugs ran out again about
July 20.
DR.. Conner remarked that the shortage of
drugs seemed to be chronic everywhere eX-
cept at Montauk.
General Dodge said: please state how
you We're supported in your administration
by the commanding general"
Il think" said DIR. Pope that the COM
handing general always listened to my
views and gave me every support military
conditions would permit. He promulgated
the orders and sanitary regulations l sug-
gested and / do not know OF any instance
whore he failed to support me-
General Brooke will appear before the
committee tomorrow.
The large increase of staff officers Cen
eral Corbin said was essential to the pc
culiar new duties devolving on army Off
GERS. In the Philippines, for instance they
were collectors of customs, and would re-
When Mr.. Hay suggested that General
Miles estimated 40o0 for Porto Rico, while
General Corbin proposed $500, the latter re-
piled: Il would defer entirely to the view
of the major general in command Of the