The age-herald., 1898-09-03
SKATER TALKS
 OF HIS CAMPAIGN Sickness Mas Inevitable But No One
 Vas Neglected. DEATH BERGEN FACE LOWEST Of Any War in the History of the
 Country.
PRAISES. HIS NEWS CONDUCT
The General Expresses Satisfaction With the Santiago Campaign, Con- sidering the Hurry Orders-De-
 scription of Fl Clancy Fight.

in which he is represented as saying:
 "At Santiago we had to deal with things as they are not they should be. Of course there was sickness It was inevita- ble in a summer campaign. But nobody was neglected. The doctors were scarce at first, but we had boat loads of them soon as they could get there. The doctors got sick like the rest. They were over worked and exhausted. But their ability was unquestionable. Look at the low per- centage of deaths from wounds. It never was lower in any war. Why. in the civil war l lay the battlefield myself until maggots developed in my wounds, and that was near by-not down in a malarious, sub tropical country, far away
 '"The men who ordered a summer cam paign in a fever-infected country are re- sponsible for the unnatural and unavoid- able consequences. None of our wounded were allowed to lie on the battlefield, as the case was in the civil war. It was the heat that was so deadly and the rains. Even the more torrid heat showers would fall. It would drench everybody without cooling the air. In a few minutes, under the sun again, every man would be steam ing. Men of the strongest type succumbed.
 Spread of Yellow Fever
 "Our first case of yellow fever developed at El Caney. But the army was ripe for it, and Il spread like a prairie f1re Many man had yellow fever who never will know it. And to tell the truth, it is not so dan gerous as the calentura, or heat attacks, that unacclimated men have in the mala- rious regions of Cuba Why, it is com mon thing for a mans temperature to rise from a normal state to 105 degrees in a few hours. That means death in most cases.
 "It can give cards and spades to yellow fever in the game of death I'd rather have yellow fever. l tell you when a man burns up inside there is little hope for him.
 Our men were all unacclimated: they had faced no such constant heat before. Many of them had never slept out of doors before they went into camp. How could they be moulded into proper material for such climate and such campaign? It could not be done. These men you see coming back with the thin bodies and the yellow faces are suffering from the parasite of the low fever of the Santiago plateaus.
 Had No Hospital ships
 "The cool air and good home care will cure them. We had to choose the lesser of two evils-to ship the men north to healthy climate, not wanting to keep them where they must die We at the front did not wait to let the fever have its run. We
  to save the most lives possible. We never had a foreign war since 1S12-14 The United States has no hospital ships. It was not a question of using what was best. but what we had We used the transports that brought the troops down. "Jf could have had a few weeks to equip hospital ships the conditions would have been better If the war had continued we would have stayed right there, fever or no fever. The sudden end of the war was unexpected. I made 1t an invariabie rule to send some 9 per cent. less men on transport than she had brought south. That was fair view to take.
 shafter is Satisfied
 "I am satisfied with the Santiago cam paign When it is fully understood, with all it's difficulties it will receive just place in military history. We were hurried off to Cuba We landed and could not have got our stores on board ship if We had wanted to- When the invasion was piapned if was obvious that it must be rush. Such it was.
 And it was a success-complete ana une- quivocal. Many things were oone' IL IS true that were forced upon us by the exigencies of the hour, but the means employed even under such stress proved to be wisely chosen. I was compelled to do a great many things that under different circumstances would not have been con- sidered.
 The Fl Caney Fight
 ..The Fl Caney fight, I hoped, would be finished at 10 o'clock but it took until o,clock and rather feel now that it was for the best. Had I had Lawton on the right of the line we would have undoubted- ly taken the city of Santiago that night in which case only the garrison then there would have surrendered to us. Whereas, later. all the troops in the region surround ing were included I knew that the war was over as soon as Toral spoke to me about surrendering the troops in the east province.
 we never had on the fighting line at any time more than 13,OOO men. And with these we captured 27000.
 Mine thousand Spaniards were fortified in the best intrenched position ever saw. Indeed, the intrenchments were of such character that smelling with the guns we had did not do them serious damage. Where a 13-inch shell from our ships drop ped into house in the town it demolished the dwelling, but all the occupants were gone"
 Cervera's Men Helped
 ..Did Cervera's men help in the San Juan fight? was asked to clear up a mooted point.
 ..Yes, indeed He had 1000 men ashore from his fleet in the battle of the first of July. His chief of staff, Bustamente, was killed His marines and sailors suffered severely. Cervera put them all back on board July 2, and on the Sd he tried to get to sea- q
 ''The Spaniards were down to their last bit of rice when they surrendered, but they chivalrously declined on the first day to accept rations offered to them. They said that American charity humiliated them; but noticed that they came around for the grub on the second day.
 The Food Shortage
 "Why was your food supply short before San Juan?"
 'I had to act quickly and shove my men right into tho field, because knew they were growing weaker and weaker every hour. We had plenty of rations loaded at tba cboro but thara oplv a ain o1e road