The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-09-01

For. the last SIX weeks there mas fDeen
no difficulty whatever in obtaining
medical supplies of every character.
The Red Cross has made liberal do
nations to the hospital and friends in
Minnesota have sent great quantities
of delicacies. The hospital fund for
July amounted to $415 and with that it
has been possible to purchase all the
milk needed.
Taking up the last of the field hos
pitfalls, that of the third corps, second
division, under Major Smith, the report
states that the f1fty-three tents are az
present not all occupied, though during
the epidemic of measles they We're
crowded. There were no Red Cross
nurses and a detail of two ladies from
the Chattanooga association has visited
the hospital daily to cook the ngnteI
food for the sick. When the hospital
was crowded the number of attendants
was insufficient. There were also strong
complaints of the failure to get medical
and surgical supplies in the early days
before the government had been able 10
furnish itself, and when 1t was 1mpos-
sible to avoid delays incident to rushing
out supplies to great army camps Inc
requisition papers on file, hoWeyer'snoW
that the hospital officers made every
effort to obtain full supplies.
Leaving the details about the nos
pitfalls, the report proceeds to treat the
whole subject generally as follows:
I'm two of the hospitals opportunities
occurred for discovery OF what IN
doubtedly originated many of the SEN
sationa1 stories which have been PRINT
ed over the country to the erect that
patients in the hospitals lacked sur
hcient food, and in many cases hao
been on the verge of starvation. IN
the wards where the conVaIescenL
typhoid patients were found many OIL
the men were constantly asking TOT
food and, as a matter of course, were
as constantly denied everything except
the lighter forms of food which can
alone be safely administered to recover
ing typhoid patients This refusal OF
food throughout the hospitals, by which
care alone, as is perfectly understood
can the lives of typhoid convalescents
be saved, has been distorted into the
report which has been spread through
out the country, that patients were De
ing starved in the government hospitals;
There has been no lack OF perfect 1000
in the hospitals and competent COOKS
for preparing it have been present ana
the only reason for depr1Vlng the
patients of what SO many OF them nave
clamored for has been the necessity o.
such dieting as the disease demands
1t viii be easily observed that the con-
ditions set forth in this report are
mainly present conditions Undoupted-
" there have been serious 4nconNeh-
fences and at times of the greatest
crowding there were lack of conVen-
fences and full attendance when go TO
make up that painful condition OF
affairs which, as every veteran knows
are insepara BILE from the field hoSpltals
of great armies, even when all concern
ed exert themselves to secure the com
tions which in times of rapid increase
of disease-a condition which was
reached at this camp solely in my Judg-
ment, from the filth which TOO many
of the regimental officers allowed to
dominate their camps, IN spite OF the
orders which would have prevented an
this trouble from the surgeon genera
and from the commanding ofhcers OIL
this camp-create a situation which can
not be Immediately ameliorated.
$50 far from believing, as resu4l
of my observations, that medical or1cers
have been heartless or negngenI' De
ieve that these officers and the nos
pital attendants, as whole nave e1-
erted themselves to discharge their ou-
ties faithfully.
my attention was especially directed
in the order which received, to some
remarks credited to General Terry
surgeon general of the state Of New
York in reference to the condition OF
the camp of the Eighth New York
General Terry is reported IN the New
York Herald to have said, as ne was
leaving Camp Thomas;
General Terry found the camp in a
bad sanitary condition 1t Is situated
in an open field in the hot sun with no
water to be found within five miles the
water the men drink is hauled in bar
rels and is Of a kind that in New York
would be refused bathing water
This stuff is what the men drink daily,
and is declared to be the chief cause Of
the sickness.
% General Terry told me that it was
the most terrible sight he had ever wit |
messed and that not in the slums of New |
York City could be found place so |
filthy and dirty. He said he would in
sist on the Eighth regiment being re-
turned to New York, and had wired |
Governor Black and the secretary OF
war of the situation.
81 If the soldiers are not soon taken |
from Chickamauga park they Will fol- |
low those who died yesterday and to-
day
syr1.,- ,,,,o-,. xz,as vooxye5 r. 4ba o1ap
field on the special request of the off, |
GERS concerned, as they were inclined to |
think that their camp in the woods had |
something to do with the increasing |
sickness Of their men. Here 1t may be |
pertinent to remark kn passing that |
this New York regiment had at the /
maintained, one of the filthiest and |
most disgusting canteens to be found in |
the entire army. From personal obser- |
walton of this canteen some two weeks |
since I am prepared to assert that it |
was little better than serving beer to |
the soldiers of the Eighth New York in !
a hog pen. It is also true that the re- |
ports show that since this regiment |
moved its health conditions have i'm |
proved.
Instead Of there being no water |
within five miles of this regiment, two |
of the largest and finest springs Of clear |
water in this entire country, pronounce |
ed by competent medical and chemical |
authority to be pure water, are less |
than two miles from their camp.
1.-The Eighth New York has been |
camped upon the ground where General |
Terry observed it, less than ten days. |
It was perfectly clean ground when |
they occupied it, and had not been pre- |
viously occupied by any troops. If it |
had been transformed within this brief |
period by the troops of the Eighth New |
York into a place flthier and dirtier |
than can be found in the slums of New |
York, it win become the officers and |
men of that regiment to explain how /
such transformation could have been |
made there in such a brief period of |
time.