Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1898-10-25

| bic of anticipation. ana consequently
| could not be met in the matter of tents,
| etc The hospital corps was made Of
poor stuff. 1t spite of this there was
| nothing more occasioned the sick than
discomfort. The ratio of deaths in the
| hospital were but one in ten, which was
very low. and really the men on the
average received better treatment thar
they would have had at home.
Replying to charges made by a signal
corps patient in the Chickamauga hos
pital DR.. Drake said he had seen mag
gots on one occasion in a box in the
hospital. but never on patients. Often
the men came there lousy. but they did
not remain so.
Major Joseph Heatwole. chief COM
missary of subsistence, said the quality
of the rations had been excellent. As for
the quantity, a man would have to be
gourmandizer to eat ii.
General Dodge read a letter from
DR.. Seaman, of New York. who was be-
fore the commission in Washington in
which he corrected an error in his tes-
timony- He stated that he had received
only the regular army rations for the
convalescents on the steamer "Obdam"
from Porto Rico to New York He saws
that such supplies as had been received
up to the night previous to sailing had
been received from the relief societies
During the night" he continues, the
hospital ship Relief arrived and early
the next morning I boarded the Relief
and personally secured without requis-
ition the additional supplies enumera-
ted in the receipt signed by me-
Major David Vickars. who was in
spector general for the Second division
Of the Third corps at Chickamauga, at
tributed the troubles in that camp to
:t:e shaIIowness of the sinks. He said
also that some of the regimental officers
insisted on making poor selections of
Amp sites. Major Vickars also COM
planned that the drinking water was
poor. He thought the camp site unfit
for so large an army. He said that at
one time the beds of all the patients
were on the floor and there were some
cases in which some of them were on
the ground
Lieutenant Colonel Bisbee. in COM
mand of the First infantry, told the
story Of the transportation of his reg
iment to Santiago briefly, and said that
If he had been on shore the other fellow.
with the facilities he had. wouldn't
have got ashore at all. There was con-
siderable difficulty in getting food while
in front of Santiago. but we had
enough" The only deprivation had been
in not having proper food for the sick
1t had been impossible to secure medical
supplies, said the witness. And if we
had them we could not have carried
them" Speaking generally of the Gu
ban experience he. expressed the opin-
ion that the supplies had been liberal
as could have been reasonably expected !
He knew of no deprivation at Montauk
Point.
Other members Of the two regiments |
of regulars stationed here who were ex-
amined were Captain Waring. of the |
First; Lieutenant Lutz OF the Second; !
Quartermaster Katz. Of the First; Pri- |
vate Fcldus, of the First: Quarter |
master Sergeant Stahl. of the Second. |
and Private Hounchell. of the Second. |
All testified that while there was diff |
fculty in obtaining rations while the |
troops were in the trenches before |
on the part of the men on this account. |
for the rest they expressed themselves /
as satisfied that they received as good |
attention as they could have expected |
under the circumstances.
Colonel II. NJ. Seaman. of the Fourth
Wisconsin. complained that the sup
plies his regiment had at Camp Doug
lass. Notwithstanding clothing. |
shoes and arms-had been poor. He did |
not consider the men sufficiently well
clad for the harsh weather and said
they had suffered somewhat on account
of the recent cold. Colonel James
Pfyffe. of the Third Tennessee, whose
regiment had been encamped at Chicka-
mauga park at one time. said the park
was a good site for a camp, but the
water supply as it was arranged was
bad. His regiment had a canteen and
large quantities OF beer were sold. He
had nothing to say against the sale of
beer in carteens: it initiated against
the indulgeEce of whisky