Evening star., 1898-12-31
SERGEANT HILLS TESTIMONY.
Cause of 1nsufficfent Rations 10 Vol
unteers I'm Cuba,

Cnuse of Insufficient Rations 10 Vol
unteers I'm Cuba.
| To the Editor Of The Evening Star:
The testimony of Mr. Hill, late sergeant
| in Company L, District of Columbia VoIun-
| teer Infantry, does Colonel Harries a gross
| injustice. / believe that 1t was given by
Mr.. Hill as perfect truth, and in all fair
| ness, from his viewpoint but his position
| was not such as to make him thoroughly
conversant with facts, or else his company
| commander was woefully remIss in not in
structing his sergeant in the matter of ra-
| tons, etc. / prefer to believe the latter
| Tor 1 am acquainted with MIR. Hill, and
| knowing him to be an intelligent fair
| minded gentleman, do not believe he could
| have made the statements attributed to
| him by your report of his evidence.
In the first place, Mr.. Hill never was a
| commfsSary sergeant of Company l. for
| there is only one commissary sergeant TO
| regiment, and he is of the non-commission-
| ed staff. The quartermaSter sergeant of
| Company L was gentleman by the name
| of Smith, and Mr.. Hill was only a duty
| sergeant. He may have been in charge of
| the company rations, thus superseding the
| first sergeant and the quartermaster ser
| geant; but If this were so, the question
| naturally arises:
why were two men made non-commis-
| stoned officers unless they could do their
| duties, and not deprive the guard details
| OF the company of the service of Sergeant
| HIP"
| AS to the rations we took ashore at Sib-
oney, desire TO say that l received orders
| to draw three days full rations for going
ashore, about two hours before we landed.
| This order originally emanated from Col.
| Harries himself, and after l had sent my
| quartermaster sergeant and a detail for
| the rations l was notified a second time TO
| draw three days rations for the men to
carry in their haVersacks. This time the
| notification came, IL l remember correctly,
| from the regimental commissary sergeant,
Clayton. The remnant of five days ra-
lions was the remnant Of a supply We
drew on July on board the Catania and
OF which we had not used onc-half.
| j personally issued the three days rations
! to the men of my company, and then, when
the men could not crowd all L gave them
| into their haVersacks, told them to put the
stuff into their blanket rolls Each man
| had beef and hardtack. and for every two
| men there was can OF beans; Also each
| man had coffee and sugar. When we left
| the ship l left behind me two cases of beef,
| three boxes of hardtack. and sugar coffee
| and tomatoes enough to feed a company
| for day.
| This L got back after the surrender. when
| We were comfortably ensconced in big
| tents and getting plenty to eat on San
| Juan Heights.
When we moved TO the firing line. break
| ing camp at Guasmas. the men of my COM
pany were told to carry rations in haver-
sacks, but many of them were so impa-
| tent and excited that they would not take
| a thought of the morrow. On the 11th, in
the trenches, ] ate a can of beef with my
quartermaster sergeant, noticing that most
| of the men had none, because they had
left that issued tC them at GuaSimaS. On
the morning of the 18th, while all the men
| were complaining of hunger, MadduX, who
! died at Montauk, produced a can of beef.
AS he did not want TO eat it and had TO
poncho, | traded him my poncho for it,
| and shared it, believe, with Captain King,
Lieutenant Bell and Sergeant Eberly. Cap
| tain King afterward secured a very little
nnff nd haT taPl. md Cho cd thnrp I,
| all the men in the trench, some forty
| members of Company b. These things
| show that only those who were careless
| were utterly without food on the 11th and
18th, and that had Colonel Harrfes orders
| been followed We need not have gone
hungry.
On the evening of the 10Th Company B
| was relieved from the trench, and that very
evening Lieut.. Grifiths arrived from ST.
! honey with beef Canned, potatoes, hard
| tack, and coffee and sugar for the whole
command. This shows the colonels fore
| sight in leaving Lieut.. Griffiths at Siboney.
| True, We were virtually on half rations,
| but at that my appetite was satisfied, and
! am very hearty eater
AS to the canned beef / have never seen
a can of 1t that was not perfectly gocd
when eaten soon after opening. If kept for
| a few hours after opening 1t invariably
| spoiled, but if eaten at once was good 1t
had. as Mr.. Hill says, foul smell, but that
| l attributed to the cooking of it, without
salt, in the cans.
The fresh beef issued us was good for ]
myself cut it up and issued to the men of
| my company. The issue was stopped by
| Maj. Pyles on the theory that it caused
dysentery.
| At Tampa as Mr.. Hill says, we lived
we'll, and though a few complained, ], an
eX-regular soldier, thought we were living
| exceptionally well for troops in the field
In regard to the medicine, l myself have
heard Maj. PyleS assert that we were bet
| ter equipped than any regiment he knew Of.
We had one medical outfit issued by the
government and one which belonged to the
District of Columbia militia, and plenty of
Quinine. Whenever l asked Maj. Pyles,
which was nearly every day, for quinine for
Company B, he gave me sufficient to give
every man in the company as much six
grains. If need be. On one particularly bad
night | gave every man in the company
ten grains, and as a consequence my COM
| pany had a smaller sick report than any
| next morning. Through the energy of Mai
Pyles, backed up always by Col. Harries,
medical supplies were obtainable nearly
every day from the division hospital. l
once heard Maj Pyles complain of a short
age of blue mass, but when asked for some
few days later he cheerfully gave it.
The fact Of the matter is that the men
| III our regiment wrote home that medicine
was scarce simply because they could not
get just what they wanted l have seen
Major Pyles give bismuth and opium or
bismuth sub-nitrate for diarrhoea, and
then some men would go behind their tents
and throw it down, and say that pills or
powders would not help them. If given
liquid preparation they had all faith in it.
One poor lad, now dead. received medicine
from home, among it being two-gran qui-
nine pills. He would not touch the quinine
issued, but thought that which he had was
better, and while the surgeon was trying
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