The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-10-14

Remainder of the Day Devoted to Exami-
nation of Report of Secretary of War
ms An Interesting Witness Comm. on To-
day.
Washington, October 13.-After devoting
the forenoon to hearing the testimony of
DR.. Hoff, chief surgeon of the Sd army
corps, stationed at Camp Thomas, the
war investigation committee gave the
remainder of today to the reading of pa
pers submitted by Secretary Algsr with
his statement concerning the conduct of
the war. The papers include orders for
the move ment of troops, comm unica-
tions to the secretary of war from the
officers in the field and from the secre-
tary to them and various other comments
bearing upon the subject of the investi-
CATION. The documents reveal the fact
that Gen. Miles recommended the occu-
patton of the Isle of Pines about the time
of the battle offSantiago. and that Secre-
tary Alger disapproved the suggestion.
1t also appears that Gen. Miles recon-
rnended that some point between Santis
ago and Porto Rico, be taken previous to
the beginning of the Porto Rico cam
paign. The correspondent also developed
the fact that there was an apparent con-
flict of authority between Gen. Miles and
Shafter at Tampa before the Santiago
campaign was inaugurated. 1t also shows
that orders were issued by the Secretary
of War that, in the event that Gen. Shat
.cl,., I,e,I cd ~ SiClrnaSs 9TH.
or cause the command OF the troops at
Santiago should devolve upon Gen.
Wheeler and upon the nexta.in command
in case of disability OF both Shafter and
Wheeler. The commission has summoned
Major Louis L. Seaman, a surgeon in
the first volunteer engineers, to appear
before it, and he Is expected to testify at
tomorrow's session. He has recently been
quoted in New York as saying that 300
men had died daily because Of the NAL
administration of the quartermaster' de-
partment.
Washington, October 18-Lieut. Col.
]. G. Huff was before the war inyesti-
eating committee at its forenoon session
today.
he is regular army officers and was
chief surgeon on the third army corps at
Camp Thomas, Chiokamauga Park.
He did not consider the camp to have
been in the best sanitary condition. but
expressed the opinion that it was the best
under the circumstances. The men w.re
encamped somewhat closer to each other
than they should have been. but it would
have been impossible to make the sinks
as deep as good sanitation required.
Furthermore it was impossible to COM
pei the men to use the sinks and he
thought it probable that this difficulty
had Jed to injurious results.
DR.. Hoff said that. lin. the beginning the
camp was deficient in medical supplies.
The shortage was due to the fact that 1t
had been expected the troops would come
to camp supplied with medicines, but
some of them hadTTfailed In this respect,
making a greater demand than had been
oountedSupon.
Continuing, DR.. Hof said the capacity
of the division hospitals was often doubled
and trsbled.
Twas there any deprivation on account
Of the shortage of tents and nf medical
supplles?'' asked Gov. Woodbury..
sit was ESQ reported" responded DR..
Hoff.
Whose fault was it?'' was asked.
"Not mine" he replied. 81 did all that
l could do"
DIR. Conner stated that the Governor
of Arkansas had complained of the
neglect Of the troops from that
the Arkansas troops received the same
medical care and attention that had been
given to other soldiers under like condi-
tions. He knew of no case in which men
in the hospitals had been compelled to lie
on the ground but he thought there were
probably cases in which sick men had
been kept under flies for several days. He
was asked ifs.itaawss true that at night there
was an average of only one nurse to forty
patients in the hospital of the second and
third corps, and said this could not be
true.
He read an extract from the letter of
the Arkansas Governor saying that he
had made personal Investigation of the
cond itions in this hospital and that he
had found ''the conditions deplorable-
simply disgraceful." He charged that the
doctors in the institution were all North
ern men unfamiliar with diseases Incl
dental TO the South; that there were cases
of fever in which patients had gone with
out water for "a hours and which sick
men went without attention from sur
geon or without peeeiving 9 dose of medi-
cine for a week. Replying, DR.. Hoif said
that several southern physicians were en-
gagged at the hospital andsthnt he did not
think it possible that men could have
been neglected as indicated by the Gov
srnor's letter. He had heard of no such
cases. A statement in the nature of a re-
port was read from DR.. Samuel ID. Hub
bard, sargeon of the ninth New York re-
iecting to some extent upon the second
division hospital. He charged that the
water for the hospital was bad, coming
from ChickamaugasCreek, which he said.
drained the cam p. DR.. Hoff thought the
only safe plan was to regard the water
in the pipes as infected. The intake for
this water was about forty feet above the
mouth of Cave Spring branch, which
drained the camp, and soma physicians
had regarded it possible that it might be
infected through the fundamentally of
side eddies which might have taken water
from the small stream into the pipes He
safd that 0urip0 the last few weeks of