The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1898-08-30
TERRIBLE TALE.
Brain of Dead Soldier Taken Out and
Replaced With Handful of Straw.
His Intestines Also Removed and Stomach
Filled With Hay-An Official Investi-
cation Likely to Reveal the
Greatest Scandal in History.

Ga, Aug. 26.-The horrors of the
Chickamauga hospitals grow. Gen.
Breckenridge will proba bly, insist upon
a congressional investigation, which
will reveal one of the greatest scan
dals in the history of the army.
When an official investigation shall
have been made of the causes leading
up to the sickness and death of so
many soldiers of the volunteer army
at Chickamauga park it will reveal a
degree of negligence and ignorance on
the part of officers and surgeons that
is hardly to be credited as having oc-
Cured in the United States of America
during the close of the nineteenth CEN
fury.
Men with raging fevers were sent to
these places and compelled in many
cases to lie on the ground on blankets,
while the rain beat in through the
poorly protected tents.
There were few surgeons and fewer
nurses and the poor fellow who be-
came sick was in the main left to his
own care, with an occasional visit
from the surgeon. There was little
ice to be had and ice baths were of
rare occurrence.
In one division hospital for several
weeks there were only two tempera-
ture thermometers. The sick were al
lowed to lie ir unprotected tents for
hours until physicians could have an
opportunity to examine them and de-
eide whether they ought to be admit
ted to hospitals or not, and in some
cases men with fever We're compelled
to wait for "a hours after giving up"
as they called it, and they were al
ways kept going as long as they could
before receiving attention,
The surgeons themselves state that
their supplies were inadequate, the
Accommodations lily equipped, the
nurses and attendants few and mex
perienced, and, as one surgeon said:
at is a wonder that every fever pa
tent did not die"
1t is stated that the department did
not know of the situation for some
time. Surgeon General Sternberg's
order as to sanitation had been gross
ly ignored, and acquisitions for med
zeal supplies were sent to his depart
ment with snail-like rapidity.
Men suffered and died for lack of
medicines and proper attention. The
whole system seems to have been to-
tally wrong and inhuman, and, as re-
suit, the people of the country are sim
ply appalled, at the revelations made,
and when the whole truth is known.
in all the sickening details, the public
will wonder that the soldiers at Chick
amauga park have been able to escape
as we'll as they have.
George A. Echle, member of Com
pany L, 9th Pennsylvania, says that
his command has been shamefully neg
lected; that the sick have not been
supplied with ice, but have been al
lowed 20 almost famish in the hot sun.
The men have received wines, brandies,
pillow cases and such things from rel
atives and friends at home, but they
would gladly have given them all for
an adequate supply of ice.
Echle says that sink has existed in
the camp of his command close up to
the mess tent, and that flies and in
sects from this reel1ing mass of fifth
and putrefcation would alight in the
food as the men were eating
bOnf two orrO -
in the 9th Ohio, an estimable and reli-
able man, wrenched his knee in town
and split the bone. He was picked up
by a wagon laden with hospital sup
plies in charge of a surgeon. The
latter knew the private was in
pain and badly crippled, yet he never
vouchsafed a word of inquiry or Of
fcrcd to render him the least assist
ance. The wagon was driven to its
destination in an open field. The in
jured man was ordered out and left
several miles away from his camp in
an open field. whence in great suffer
ing he found his way to his regiment
1t appears that some of the medical
surgery" are cutting up bodies of SOL
diers, or rather holding summary au-
topsics without the consent OF the rel
ativcs of the dead men, and over the
protests of their friends.
A few days ago the body of soldier
who died Of meningitis was taken in
to Chattanooga. When the body was
uncovered it was found that the mans
skull had been lifted and that his
brain had been taken out and replaced
with q handful of hay. His intestines
had also been removed and the stom.
ach filed with hay. This autopsy was
performed without the consent of the
mans people.
Peace Commissioners in Washington.
WASHINGTON, Aug. Ex-senator Dav
IS Of Minnesota, and Senator Frye, OF
Maine who have heon Sa1aoteG fo,