The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-10-09
HAD NO FAULT TO find
WITH THz WAY CAMP THOMAS
WAS CONDUCTED
COMPLAINTS OF HUNGER
Came Only From Fever Patients to
Whom q Full Diet Meant
Certain Death
Associated Press Special Wire.

WARRINGTON. Oct. o.-1he wal Ill
vastigating Commission began Its proceed
ings today with Major K. Emmett Ginen
on the stand. He was a Brigade Surgeon
at Camp Thomas. and told of his visit to
the Second Division Hospital In July last,
when, he said, it was overcrowded. In
each tent and under Its flies there were ten
men when there should have been but
four to six. There was sufficienoy of
physicians, and Major Giffen was sure
that they were competent men. The ma
iority of patients suffered from typhoid
fever and venereal diseases-about 20 per
cent being of the latter cases. He thought
tho crowding Of the hospital was from lack
Of sufficient tentage, a fault due to the
surgeon in charge.
DIR. Giffen made his visit to the division
hospital to see man of his brigade who
had been shot in the leg. He found him IN
a tent with typhoid fever patients, and
consequently had him removed.
Dr. Giffen advocated regiInental rather
than divisional hospitals. He said there
would be the advantage of classification
In the larger hospitals if the classification
was made, which it was not as rule, as
the men were brigaded then.
The division hospital surgeons were COM
petent in their profession, some Of them
being some Of the m3st competent in the
United States. but they were not men of
executive ability. He considered the water
supply good The sinks were poorly locat-
ed. They were too near the kitchens and
were too shallow. Many of them were only
tho Kitchen
and were open when he arrived. He then
had them moved farther back and gave d.
rections for daily disnfection and cover
ing. By this time, however, the regiments
were all infected, as he thought by the
flies going from the sinks to the mess
tables.
DIR. G!ffen was given charge of the con-
struction of the Sternberg hospital on the
4th of August. and after the hospital was
constructed was the chief surgeon there.
He said the tents comprising the hospital
were IA by 10, floored and supplied with four
beds each. There were 100 tents and num-
her of wooden buildings Five hundred and
thirty three was the largest number Of men
at the hospital at one time. and. all told,
1927 men had been healed there up to the
9Th inst
OF these Sc per cent were typhoid. the next
most prolific disease being venereal trou-
bles. There had been 81 deaths at the in
stitution. The cases sent to him were gen
orally the most dangerous He had twenty
five contract surgeons and two regulars.
and 167 female nurses and 159 members of
the Hospital Corps. acting as nurses.
He had received no complaints, and he
was sure that the attendants were eff
cient. His acquisitions were sent direct
to the surgeon general at Washington,
often by wire. and there was never any
delay, often being directed to purchase at
Chattanooga. Many articles were sent to
the men from the north, but as rule, they
spoiled before they arrived and could not
be used. When patients began to conval-
esce they were put on a special diet for a
week and then furloughed and sent home.
He was particular not to allow any of the
patients to leave for home until they We're
sufficiently recovered to render it safe for
them to do so.
He related how Governor Bradley of
Kentucky came to the hospital, saying he
had come to take the Kentucky men home.
Dr. Giffen refused at first, but afterward
consented to leave the matter to the pa
one said he wanted to go, and he was in
sane.
Dr. Giffen had no complaint to make
against any Of the officials of the war de-
partment, and he had heard of only one
complaint. There were no matches for "a
hours.
He thought that the contract surgeons
should have been examined before they
were appointed. They We're not so exam
ined to his Knowledge.
The doctor expressed the opinion that the
complaints of starvation had arisen from
the fact that it was necessary to put con-
valescents from typhoid fever on a spare
diet. He thought many deaths had been
caused by overlooking after convalescents
had returned 10 their homes.
Orders We're given, to his knowledge, for
prompt measures looking to the suppress
sion of the fever when it broke out, but
the orders had not been obeyed. He knew
of more cases in which the sinks were to
the last within twenty feet of the kitchens,
and in the case of the Fourteenth Minneso-
ia and the Ninth Pennsylvania regiments
the sinks We're crowded near the kitchens
when there was a quarter of a mile of open
field back of them. He thought that it had
been a mistake to locate so many men to-
gether as were at Camp Thomas.
Reausitions had been honored promptly.
81 got everything | asked for from a
tootbpick I'D, and was turned down on
nothing" he said.
Can't. James C. Baldridge comm.ssary of
subsistence for the First brigade of the
Second division of the Seventh army corps
now at Camp Cuba Libre, Jacks onville, oc-
cupied the commission during the after
noon He reached the camp on August
and made an immediate inspection of the
Kitchens. He found some of them not vel
managed, as all of the army cooks were
not experts. He believed that for an army
in camp green coffee was preferable to the
roasted, as 1t was stronger and fresher
He considered the meat good. The mel
were literally supplied with food and tbs
location of the camp was good Still, there
had been an increase Of disease, which he
attributed to the climate and to the as
sembling of large body of men. lie lsC
thought decaying fruit and the canteen
beer had had an influence in producing dis
ease Much of his testimony related =
complaints from the Second New Jerse,
regiment. He said there had been many
complaints from this regiment and .nves
tigat!on had shown the trouble was due II
the fact that the officers were without ex.
perience.
The commission has practically decid.
ed to start on the night of the 10th on It's
round of the various camps. They will &c
either to Camp Meade or to Jacksonville
f1rst All the camps will be visited in sue.