The age-herald., 1898-09-25
MAJOR MARTIN = MAKES EXTRACTION
 sf - Took Back Remarks in Regard to Chickamauga Water. = ...-.... 9e' HEALTHFULNESS OF PARK
Observations of Regimental Officers Not in Accord With Published Report of the Sanger Board Crit
 icising Chickamar ga.

Washington, September A.-In his ca- pacity as chairman of the Chickamauga park commission, General H. V. Boynton has furnished the war department with the copy of aretracti on made by Major John c. Martin, chief surgeon first brigade, sec ond division, first corps, of certain state ments reflecting upon the purity of the drinking water in the park.
 The surgeon in his testimony before the Sanger board of surgeons attributed the existence of typhoid fever in Camp Thomas to polluted surface waters and to the contamination of Chckamauga creek above the up-take to the pipe system. General Boynton says Colonel Martin made these statements first to him in public, coupled with the statement that the mili- tary authorities were trying to suppress such information and that the chief sur geons reports were not true. General Boyn- ton had the surgeon promptly summoned to him before headquarters, where after admitting that he must make good his as- sertions or retract them he wrote:
 "Chickamauga Park, July 16 '"ro the Assistant Adjutant-G General, Camp
 Thomas and Department of the Gulf:
 "Sr:-I desire and do retract each and every word spoken and statements made by me to General Boynton during a private conversation held in the Read house at Chattanooga on the evening of July Il. 1S9S believing it best for myself and for the in- terests of the public service
 "(Signed) JOHN c. MARTIN, "Major and Surgeon. General Boynton has also made a report to the adjutant-general at Camp Thomas, giving certain observations in regard to the pulished report of the Sanger board criti- cizing the fitness of Chickamauga park as camp site. .He expresses regret that va rious favorable opinions of regimental ofii- cers testifying to the healthfulness of the park and the wholesomeness of it's water supply were not>alluded to in the report of the board, which did not allude to the only analysis of the water it possessed, one pronouncing it to be pure, made by the chemist of the Philadelphia board of health On the other hand, General Boyn- ton says, by authority of the secretary df war, the park board had every spring used by the troops analysed and all were shown to be pure.
 General Boynton does not agree with the boards report to the garbage being "genrally burned,' but shows that there was great laxity in this matter which con- tinued up to the time the troops guilty of this neglect left the camp
 General Boynton says further that in the camps of the Ninth Pennsylvania, Twelfth New York, Fifth Pennsylvania and Fifth Minnesota. regiments of General Sanger's division, the sinks were very bad and so near the tents in some eases that swarms of flies went back and forth from the tents to the kitchens, and in one case to the officers mess The distance of the kitchens of the Eighth New York to the sinks of the men was thirty steps on one flank and fifty at the, center of the camp and the sinks were In disgusting condition. The un- sanitary conditions are quite sufficient to account for disease without condemning the water supply.