The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-23

gust turned over surplus of nearly half ton of materials to the Red Cross society. My work was done at Camp Thomas, and the day following we moved to Knoxville. As I left Camp Thomas I received a check from the Red Cross society at Pittsburg, Pa., for five hundred dollars.
 The hospitals and camps have been full of blooming liars, who have filled the newspapers with the most alarming stories of cruelty and neglect And for the sake of justice they must be met and denied. Cots and lumber were hard to get about August 10, but we soon broke the blockade and got all we needed. .,
 At Camp Thomas or Chickamagua Park the Sternberg hospital is now open. It is designed with the expectan- cy of reaching one thousand beds. It is field hospital. The quarters are the army hospital tents and wooden bar racks. The beds are iron, mattresses hair, mosquito canopies over all, and trained female nurses are in attend ance. The world has never seen such a field hospital. Hundreds of soldiers will there find more luxury than they ever knew at home, yet the day when the public press will put the Sternberg hos pital in the crucible will likely arrive.
 Let the noble fathers and mothers of this nation know that the medical pro- fesson have been devoted to their sons on the historic field of Chickamauga in this war as were our colleagues to the nations sons during the civil war. It has been Gods mercy in prolonging my good health and love of country and giving me the ability to say that I witnessed the devotion to duty of the surgeons of the civil war and in this war upon the same field in Chickamau- ga. The soldiers of this war have had their trials, but I can call upon my comrades of the civil war who are out again now to say whether the following assertion is true or not: The soldiers, sick and well, at Chickamauga Park, have had a picnic as compared with the soldiers there in 1863 and 1864.
 The park is infected now and will be rapidly abandoned, as it should be. The sink problem has been mentioned by the newspapers. It is very difficult one to discuss The problem in ordi- nary soil, with plenty of help and good tools, is easy enough. But in Chicka- mauga Park conditions of soil prevail which make it very difficult to con- struct sink with ordinary labor and tools. The soil is tough clay, deposited in a bed of rocks of all shapes and sizes. The clay stratum Is deep. It Is possessed of poor absorbing qualities, and if the rain fills the sink with water it holds 1t like a barrel. To get a sink few feet deep is of little conse- quence. It is necessary that the depth of the sink be twelve feet, and for working space, it is therefore necessary that they be five feet in width and twelve feet long. Such a sink requires many reliefs of labor. After compile tion 1t must be surface -ditched; when to this you add the ditching of nearly three acres of ground for hospital site, one may gain some idea of soldier ing.
 To the regimental commanders of the Second division, First army corps, re- turn my thanks for the large detail of men to aid me in putting the grounds of the hospital in good hygienic condi- t1On. when 1 ielt the HoSPitat site oH the morning of the 27th of August, the entire plant having been delivered for shipment at Rossvllle, the grounds were ready for picnic, not shred of anything being left unburned. not sink being left otherwise than in per- feet state of innocuousness, all being filled, and banked with lime and earth. If your readers have had some of the deceptions removed from their minds and will kindly turn their wrath from the medical officers of the army, will be we'll repaid for the time spent upon this communication"