The Portland daily press., 1898-07-21
YELLOW FEVER.
The Story OF the First Regiment of Fever
Immunes Ever Formed.

The Story of the First Regiment of Fever
Immunes Ever Formed.
New Orleans, La, July 2.-Yelow
fever having appeared in the South, not
ably along the Gulf coast of the state of
Mississippi, especial interest will center
in the regiments of yellow fever immune
volunteers now being organized. The
first regiment of soldiers immune to yell
low fever ever enlisted anywhere in the
world has been raised through the efforts
of Colonel Duncan Norbert Hood, son of
| tho late Lieutenant General John Bell
Hood, the gallant Confederate soldier.
whose name is household word in every
! Southern state, and whose memory is
particularly reyerenced in Louisiana and
Texas.
This regiment is known officially to the
war depa rtment as the Second regiment,
United States volunteer infantry. It.was
with Colonel Hood that the idea of re-
cruiting immune regiments for service in
Cuba originated. He went to Washington
| and through the influence of Senator
! Gallery of Louisiana secured the passage
of the bill providing for the raising of
the ten regiments of ''immunes
| To those not accustomed to the pecu-
| liarties of the terms that attach to yellow
fever in the South, the word immune
may be confusing and possibly without
meaning. In the Southern states and
wherever yellow fever is prevalent the
term immune is applied to all those
who have survived an attack of yellow
fever. Hoods regiment is therefore, a
regiment of ,03S men who have lived
through and are able to tell their ex-
periences with that dreadful disease 1t
is Colonel Hood own idea that immune
soldiers should be sent to Cuba to do the
| fighting In the most unhealthy localities
or wherever yellow fever is supposed to be
especially prevalent.
Cuba is known to be the hotbed of TTyel-
low fever. There is no season of the
year during which that fatal lnalady does
not exist on this island. Colonel Hood,
knowing this, and believing that after
the war is over it will be necessary to
place United States troops in Cuba to do
garrison duty, conceived the idea of rails
ing several regiments Of soldiers that
|
would not be panic stricken by the
'scourge OF the Spanish army during
the war, and be especially adapted for
service there after the war had closed
At the same time Colonel Hood succeeded
through Senator Gallery, in having the
bill passed by congress authorizing the
raising OF the immune regiments, he
secured commission as colonel contain
ing the proviso that he should raise one
OF the immune regiments himself.
This gallant young officer has sur
mounted obstacles in raising his regiment
that would have completely discouraged
and caused almost anyone else to have
the Maine report was received Colonel
Hood was In New York. There and then
he thought of the immune regiments. No
better place could be found than Louis
lana, his native state and the home of his
childhood, in which to raise regiment
of this sort. lie at once hurried to Baton
Rouge and asked Governor Fosters per-
mission to raise such a body of volunteer
soldiers in Louisiana. The governor had
political irons in the fire and was intent
on organizing the state militia into two
regiments of infantry. according to the
stipulations of President McKinley's first
call for volunteers. After listening to
young Hoods request the governor
fatharly admonished him to 80 and offer
himself as lieutenant in ono of the COM
panies of the state militia.
The young soldier had the resolute
determination Of his iron handed father,
and importuned the governor again and
again. But it was useless. Then he went
to New Orleans, his old nome and after
seeking the advice of influential friends
hurried on to Washington, where he made
the same request to President MCKINLEY
that he had made to the governor of the
Pelican state. The sturdy resoluteness of
I I, ,k.x1, F,rx, Il
pleased the president SO much that he
} gave him u commission as colonel on the
spot. Senator Gallery was with him at
the time. The president took I'D the
matter of immune regiments with the
war department. and the result was that
, soon an appropriate bill was introduced
by the house military committee provid.
ing for the enlistment Of immune yonn-
teers to the mum Der of ten regiments the
maximum membership of each of such
regiments to be 1,03S men.
Colonel Hoods regiment is now at
Camp Gallery, which is located one mile
north of Covington, st. Tammany
shore of Lake Pontchartrain, exactly on
posite from New Orleans Colonel Hood
| named his camp after his best friend
} The field officers of Colonel Hood & req
iment are all college men. Lieutenant
Colonel n. Y. Grubbs is West Point
| graduate and native of kentncl-v
| Sentas Major FL. n. Swaine is also a
West Pointer Junior Major Mari, w !"
!; Boatner Is a graduate Of the Vire;nia
military institute. Surgeon Major Flovd
, Stewart and Assistant Surgeons Homar
, Dupuy and Clarence Pierson are ali
graduates of Tulane medical eolleoa NJ
Orleans. Acting Adjutant ~ "
Homer Dupuy and Clarence Pierson ave
all college men. All are without cow "re
missions, except Colonel Hood and GU
geon Stewart. Commissions are eTno ~
within a very short time. Poo'o"