The herald., 1898-08-29
MOVED AT LAST
Terrible Tales Of Suffering and Neglect From the
Men>>>They Blame Their Officers for
Their Miseries>>>Rigid Inves>
tgation Should Be Made

! line of graves in the Preside, and those
who escaped the horrors Of the general hos
pital came back to camp with chronic
bronchitis.
The sick list had run up to over hum
dred in the regiment and almost five hum
bred in the camp when the boys of the Sew
enth, satisfied they were not going to Ma
Mia, i'll fed, i'll clothed, dtsheartened and
living in a hell-hole of filth, again did what
their colonel would not do-openly protest
Some of them started a petition asking to
be mustered out.
Colonel Berry heard of that quick enough,
and SO did every other officer who is hold
ing good job with fat salary. nothing
TO do but look pretty and entertain ladies,
and none of whom have been on the sick
list except for trifling ailments.
The petition was suppressed and the men
who started it promptly punished for their
temerity in daring to ask to be mustered
out. But the situation was growing seri-
GUS, so the boys were cheered up with or
ders posted at regimental headquarters an
nouncing the Seventh would surely go on
the Arizona or the Scandia. Other regi-
'ments were being hurried away from Camp
Merritt, regiments which had been in camp
only as many days as the Seventh had been
there weeks. The Seventh was told 1t was
useless to break camp. as in few days they
would be on the high seas, and to be patient
and wait.
The Death List Grows
They waited, and while they were watt
ing there came the most terrible of all dis
eases the poor. unequipped Seventh had
to meet; the disease Matched by filthy
phoid- pneumonia-the combination which
battles the skill of the medical world. The
men began to go down like flies. Not one
case day, but eight and ten, and finally,
the day before Camp Merritt was
abandoned twenty cases of typhoid
fever and typhoid pneumonia were
reported from the various regiments, the
Seventh having furnished more than its
proportion.
The commanding officers of the Seventh
evidently realized that they would have no
men to commnd If the boys were kept in
Camp Merritt longer, and as q result the
worn out, d.sheartened Southern Califor
MIA boys were sent back to the Preside,
from which they should never have been
removed and, as many of the Junior officers
and men believe. never would have been
removed had Colonel Berry stood up for
his rights and made a fight for his men.
Had he taken any interest in his men or
had captains of some Of the companies
taken any interest in the condition Of their
immediate commands the sickness in the
Seventh would never have been allowed to
assume the proportions II has attained to-
day. The war department would not have
dared to keep the men in Camp Merritt in
the face Of the protests Of the officers
backed up by the facts they could easily
have ascertained, in fact which were at
tempted to be thrust upon their notice.
The Soldiers Afraid
Going through the camp Of the Seventh
at the Preside Saturday last The Herald
reporter had hard work to get the facts.
The soldiers said: I'D like to tell you all,
but you might publish my name. and II
you did would suffer for it," A lieuten-
ant said to me: For Gods sake, don't get
the boys into any more trouble. They have
no use for newspapers up there Jerking his
thumb toward headquarters). and the more
the papers say the worse 1t makes 1t for the
boys"
| But there were fathers In camp looking
after their sons. and when they found their
boys, the latter talked.
Indifferent Officers
do you know" said one of the boys,
that the captain of our company has
never been down the company street. The
colonel? Good Lord! He would no more
think of coming to see how we are getting
along than he would of flying. Why, our
captain has never even called on ore of his
men who was SICK
And so it went all along the line. In one
tent found man whose temperature was
over hundred. What are you doing
here In such a condition." asked. "Why
haven't YOU been sent to the hospital: -