Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1898-09-01
AFTER THE WAR is OVER.

The war between the United States
and Spain is ended, but our army is
coming in for more comment now than
at any time since hostilities began,
The awful mismanagement of the
troops by the War Department, the
terrible suffering that the men were
needlessly compelled to endure by in-
efficient commissary and medical ar
rangements, and the appalling state
of affans in the unsanitary camps
where the soldiers have been kept
until whole regiments were disinte-
grated by fevers-these matters are
now coming in for their full share Of
attention. These combinations ofpre-
ventable evils have been far worse
than the bullets of the Spaniards, and
it is right that the criminal careless
ness and heartless Indifference Of Off
GERS and department officials should be
shown up.
1t seems almost inconceivable that
in this enlightened age, with our treas
ury full of money and every facility
for the handling of men, that the troops
should have been kept at places where
death was stalking in its grimmest
forms. At Chickamauga no less than
200 men have died of fever since the
camp was established, while 1924
men were sick in the hospitals from
diseases that could and should have
been largely prevented, and it is only
within the past week or two that the
place has been abandoned. At Camp
Alger, in sight Of Washington, while
the experts were disputing whether or
not the site was unhealthy and wheth
er the water was pure or impure, $50
men died there. At Tampa and other
points the same story may be told, and
the soldiers who were sent out few
months ago active and strong and full
of life are now returning sick and
feeble and dying, with no spirit in
them and only DESTROYS of lying down
in a decent bed at home once more.
The average Of deaths among these
soldiers who never saw the enemy has
been greater than those who fought
the Spanish at Santiago.
OF course somebody is responsible
for this state of affairs, and the people
ought to know where the blame be-
longs. In the first place, the fountain
head, the War Department, has been
far from pure. For instance, at the
urgent request Ofvarious officers Of the
medical corps an order was prepared
in the Adjutant-General's office on
August 10th authorizing surgeons in
charge of hospitals to expend money
for delicacies for the sick soldiers who
could not use the regular ratlons in
their enfeebled condition. Fifteen
days afterward, on August 25th, it
was discovered that the order had new
er been communicated to the proper
officers. In those two weeks scores Of
men had died and hundreds were suf-
fering in despair though this unheard
of carelessness.
At Montauk Point, New York,
where the wounded and feyer-stricken
soldiers from Santiago were landed,
the emaciated and hali-starved' men
have shown their suffering so plainly
in their utter weakness and their gaunt
appearance that men have wept at
simply looking upon them. Yet these
same soldiers found so little provision
made for them when they came that
MANY, sick and well, had to sleep on
the bare ground in drenching rains be-
cause their camp was not ready. 1t
was only when indignant people from
their private means bought them the
food they needed and crayed that they
had decent provisions. Government
red tape wonld have caused many a
death if the charitable had not stepped
in.
Besides these general evils, from
private sources comes many a tale Of
woe-stories of brutal and Indifferent
officers, of incapable physicians and
surgeons, of petty tyrannies and inhu-
man punishments.
The glories of the victory over Spain
are sadly dimmed by the awful suffer-
ings Of our own heroic men.
SENATOR WELLINGTON IN a recent
.....:.... 40 u d. - 10 @ ,,,,n rn,nt thn