The San Francisco call., 1898-10-25
NJ SUFFERING
 FROM HUNGER Testimony Before the Board of Inquiry. REGULARS GIVE EVIDENCE HARDsHIPs OF THE FIRST IN PANTRY IN CUBA. All but Seventeen Were Invalided at One Time or Another Dur
 ing the Santiago
 Campaign.
REGULARS GIVE EVIDENCE
HARDsHIPs OF THE FIRST IN
 PANTRY IN CUBA.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

J
 ,,n+iI 5:3 :30 to-day. and examined about a dozen witnesses, including number of offers and men of the regular troops. as well as d number of volun- teer officers. It is now expected that the Commission will leave for Hunts vile tomorrow night.
 Renlvine. 10 charges made by a Sig nal Corps patient in the Chickamauga Hospital, Surgeon Drake said he had seen 1naggots on one occasion in box in the hospital, but never on patients. Often the men came there covered With yermin, but they did not remain so.
 Major John H. Heatwole, chief com rnissary of subsistence, said the quality of the rations had been excellent. As for the quantity, a man would have to be a gormand to eat it all
 General Dodge read 8 letter from Dr. Seaman of New York, who was before the Commission in Washington, in which he corrected an error in his tes- timony He stated that he had received only the regular army rauons for the convalescents on the steamer Obdam from Porto Rico to New York. He says that such supplies as had been received up to the night previous to sailing had been received from the relief societies.
 
 hospital ship Relief arrived and early the next morning l boarded the Relief and personally secured, without any requisition, the additional supplies enumerated in the receipt signed by me Until my conference yesterday with Major Bradley 1 believed these supplies, like many others, were bought by out side contributions and were not Gov ernment supplies"
 The letter is dated October 16, and is directed to the surgeon general of the army.
 Major Vickers, who was inspector general for the Second Division of the Third Corps at Chickamauga, at tributed the troubles in that camp to the shallOWness of the sinks. He said, also, that some of the regimental off cers insisted on making poor selection of camp sites, and in one instance a Mississippi colonel, who had put his men in d swamp, had insisted upon re- maining on the ground as the Missis- sippianS had a natural affinity for swamps. Nevertheless his men were taken sick. Major Vickers also com plained that the drinking water was poor Asked as to the competency of the surgeons at the hospital he said there was one man in the hospital whose prOneneSS to profanity unfitted him for the service. This man was Major Hubbard, surgeon in the Ninth New York. His profanity was of such a villainous character" said Major Vickers, that it pretty nearly made me sick, and l knew it could not have pleasant effect on patients"
 Lieutenant Colonel Bisbee, in com mand of the First Infantry, told the story of the transportation of his regi- ment to Santiago, briefly described the fighting about Santiago, spoke of his experience in Cuba, of the return to Montauk Point, and of the stay at that place and the transfer south. Asked if the landing at Santiago could have been accomplished if opposed, he re- piled: The facilities were so poor that l think not; at least, 1 should say if I had been on shore no enemy would have been permitted to land. I cannot say how it was with the Spaniards.'
 He said there was considerable diff ficulty in getting food while in front of Santiago, but we had enough He added: If there had been more to eat, the men would probably have been sicker."
 He expressed the opinion that the only deprivation had been in not hay ing proper food for the sick. They could not take the food in their condition, he said. He thought the rations contained too much fat meat for the climate Colonel Bisbee stated that himself and sixteen men were the only members of his regiment who had not been i'll at some time during the Santiago cam paign. Tt had been impossible to secure medical supplies" said the witness, ''and if we had them we could not have carried them" He added that the army was badly broken up in that respect, and it did not get into shape promptly, for some reason. He said the men were just beginning to break in health when Santiago surrendered, and the capitua- tion came at just the right time. He ant number of doctors in the Cuban cam paign He thought the contract sur geons were capable doctors, but they were not familiar with army methods, and did not know how to get the neces- sary medicines. Speaking generally of the Cuban experience, he expressed the opinion that the supplies had been as liberal as could have been reasonably expected.
 Major Dempsey of the Second Regi- ment Infantry covered much the same ground as Colonel Bisbee. He said his command had never during the San tiago campaign suffered for want of supplies. Men had sometimes at night felt the want of covering, but not of food. Not more than half the men in the regiment were fit for duty at the time of the surrender of Santiago. He had heard doctor say that Quinine and castor oil were the only medicines he coul get.
 Other members of the two regiments of regulars stationed here who were cX- aInined were Captain Waring of the First; Lieutenant Lutz of the Second /: Quartermaster Katz of the First: Pri- vate Feldus of the First; Quarter mas ter Sergeant Stahl of the Second and Private Hounchell of the Second. All testified that while there was a differ ence in rations issued while the troops were in the trenches in the vicinity of Santiago, there was no real suffering on the part of the men on this account. They expressed themselves as satisfied that they received as good attention as they could have expected under the cir cumstances.
 Colonel H. M. Seaman of the Fourth Wisconsin complained that the sup plies his regiment had drawn at Camp Douglas, including clothing, shoes and arms, had been poor. He did not con- slider the men sufficiently we'll clad for the harsh weather, and said they had suffered somewhat on account of the recent cold.