The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-18
GENERAL YOUNG TESTIFlES
STATEMENTS TO W4R
 INVESTIGATING COMMISSION,
Report of Ambuscade at Battle of Qua- sima Due to DemoraIized Reporter and Adjutant-No Help From Cubans -Privations Not So Great as fin Indian Wars-soldiers "PIayed It On, visi- tors.
tors.

tOrSs
 Washington. Nov. 17.-The war inves- tigating commission adjourned at 4 o'clock to meet at the Fifth avenue ho- tel in New York at 10 o'clock to-nor- row, and General Dodge desires witt nesses who have matters to bring to the attention of the board to report at that point. Major General s. B. M. Young was before the commission at It's afternoon session relating in detail his experience at Santiago and after- wards at Montauk. With the consent of General Wheeler, General Young moved out at a. m. June "A to fight the battle of La Quasima, sending the volunteers and the rough riders by one road, the regulars going by another. He declared that there was MO surprise in this fight and no ambuscade as had been reported He reconnoitered the Spanish camp with a glass for half an hour before the fight began, and he
 o---7S had attacked the Spaniards and not the Spaniards him. Speaking of the rough riders, he said there had been no greater percentage of casualties among them than among the regulars, and that they were not led into any situation not to be expected in war;. "The report that they were allowed to be ambuscaded was due," he said, "en- tirely to the demoralized reporter and the demoralized adjutant of the regi- ment, who had left the service soon af- forwards" General Young said he had occupied the enemy's camp that day. and it was a very good camp" he added naively. In reply to question as to what aid he had secured from the Cubans in this fight, he replied none whatever.
 Shortly after the fight General Young's service in Cuba ceased as he was taken down with fever on the 30th of June and sent back home. After a period of sickness he was sent to Mon- tauk Point to establish Camp Wikoff The controlling motive in selecting Montauk was that of securing proper quarantine and a very strict quaran- tine was observed. He considered the camp very healthful and the site de- sirable. "As to what was done there for the soldiers he said, T think de- serve more credit for what I did at Montauk than for what I did at La Guisima. I think more was done than should have been done for the soldiers.' Telling of the hardships of a command which had just arrived from Cuba, he said: ''They were not heroes, being only regulars He said the privations of the war were not so great as those of Indian campaigns he had engaged in. He was satisfied that most of the com- plaints were unfounded. Many of the complaints were made by men and wo- men who had never seen men in camp. Appreciating the situation the soldiers had played it on'' the visitors, making complaints that were without founda- ton in order to get delicacies. Soldiers like to be made babies off, he said, land some of them soon got so they would not eat their regular rations." General Young concluded his testimony with the statement that the soldiers were far better cared for than they had been in the civil war.