The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-10-25

there was never a sufficient supply OF
tentage and it was necessary to put SIX
men in tent. He said lthe division naa
never been completely equipped until 'ne
present time especially in the matter ol
transportation facilities. He said, now
ever, that there had been no rerusal W
honor requisitions He thought, however,
that upon the whole there was TOO much
red tape in the quartermaster' depart
ment. ~ do away with it whenever l
can. I have succeeded SO far" he sald'
''even though sometimes violate regu-
lations.
Illustrating, he said he had had to sign
his name nine times in the process Oh
paying bill of twenty dollars.
DR.. Charles NJ. Drake, in charge OF the
General hospital here and wAo was In
command of the hospital of the trst
livision of the third corps at Chicka-
manga, was the next witness. He told OF
various improvements he had found it
necessary to make in the hospital at
Chickamauga "There was,'' he said,
"such a flood of disease THAT 1t was al
most impossible to meet the demand for
tentage and quite out of the question to
anticipate it.
AS fast as he would pitch new tents
they would be filled up. The medical sup.
plies had been ample from the beginning.
but the hospital corps had proved ineff1-
cient as nurses. "They were, as class, 7"
he said, "tha very worst material that
could have been found out OF which to
make nurses"
However, he thought there had been
no more serious results than discomfort
to patients caused,,by iuefi1cieneytof nurses
He was positive that there had been no
death from starvation or deprivation.
Ten per cent of the typhoid cases of the
hosp pital had died, and compared with
hospitals generally the per centaRe was
phenominally low. He was of the opinion
that patients In this hospital received bet
ter attention than the average man in
this country receives at home.
Replying to charges made by signal
corps patient in the Chickamauga hosp1-
tai, DR.. Drake said he had seen maggots
ON one occasion in box iE the hospital
but never on patients. Often the men
came there lousy, but they did not re-
main so. Replying to charges concerning
the furloughing and shipment OF MEM
bers of the Eighth and Fourteenth New
York regiment, he said that the men OF
the two regiments had not wanted 10
travel together and that the delay in
shipping those of the eighth had been
due to tine fact that after he had secured
trans portation for them over the Penn
sylvania line, major in their regiment
changed the order SO as to secure trans
portation over more circuitous route.
Regarding the ineinuation that he tried
to favor the Southern road because he
had been the chief surgeon of that line,
he saiGSthat he had not been connected
with the road since August, 1897.
Major Joseph FL. Heatwole, chief com
missary Of subsistence, said the quality OF
the rations had been excellent. AS for
the quantity man would have to be a
gormandizer to eat it. After Major Heat.
vols was excused, General Dodge read a
letter from Dr. Seaman of New York.
who was before the commission in Wash
ington, in which he corrected an error in
his testimony. He stated that he had
received only the regular army rations
for the convalescents on the steamer OBJ
dam, from Porto Rico to New York. He
says that such supplies as had been re-
ceiyed up to the night previous to sailing,
had been received from the relief societies
during the night. He continues:
''The hospital ship Relief arrived and
early the next morning 1 boarded the
Relief and personally secured without
any requisition the additional supplies
enumerated in the receipt signed by me-
Until my conference yesterday with Ma
jor Bradley I believed these supplies, like
many Others were bought by outside
contributions and were not government
supplies"
The letter is dated October 1S, and is
directed to the surgeon general of the
| army.