The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1898-09-22
GEN. SHAF1ER EXPLAINS.
The. New York World Prints an In
terview with the Commanding
General at Santiago.
HEAT AND RAIN BLAMED FOR FEVER,


! New York, Sept 3.-1he New York
World prints an interview with Gen.
Shafter, who reached Montauk yester-
day, in which the general is repre-
sented as saying:
/ At Santiago we had TO deal with things as
they are. not as they should be. OF course there
was sickness II was Inevitable in q summer
/ cam ,'aiRn. But nobody was neglected The doc
tors were scarce at first, but we had boat loads
/ OF them as soon as they could get there Doctors
| got sick like the rest They were overworked
and exhausted But their ability is unques-
tionable Look at the low percentage OF deaths
/ from wounds 1t never was lower in any war
Why, In the civil war lay on the battle. eld my
self until my wounds were In horrible condition,
and that was right near by, not down in
/ malarious, sub-tropical country, far away
/ The men who ordered a summer campaign in
fever infested country are responsible for the
/ natural and unavoidable consequences. None
/ OF our wounded was allowed to lie on the bat
tleteld as was in the civil war Nothing Of
| the kind happened AnBsthetics were plenti-
! full II was the heat that was so deadly and
/ the rains Right In the midst OF the most tor
| rid heas q shower would fall It would drench
! everybody without cooling the afr. In a few
minutes, under the sun again every man would
| be steaming. Men Of the strongest constitu-
| tions succumbed
Our first case OF yellow fever developed at Ell
/
| spread like a prairie fire Many a man had
| yellow fever who will never know It. And to
| tell the truth, 1t is not so dangerous as the
| caleEtura or heat attacks that unacclimated
! men have In the malarial regions of Cuba
Why 1t is a common thing for n mans temper
ature to rise from a normal state to los in a
j few hours That means death in most cases
| IL can give cards and spades to yellow fever in
tho game OF death I'd rather have yellow
| fever
| II I could have had few more weeks to
equip hospital ships the condition would have
been better II the war mad continued we
would have stayed right there, fever or no
! fever. The sudden ending Of the war was un-
! expected. We were not prepared for the uneN-
pected. l made II an invariable rule to send
| home 25 less men on u transport than she had
| brought south That was a fair view to take.
| am satisfied with the Santiago campaign
When it is fully understood, all its diflculties
| 1t will receive just place in military history.
| We were hurried of to Cuba We landed and
| could not have got our stores back on board
ship II we had wanted to. When the invasion
| was planned II was obvious that it must be a
| rush. Such II was. And IL was success
complete and unequivocal Many things were
done, It is true, that were forced upon us by
the exigencies of the hour but the means EN-
| ployed, even under such stress, proved TO be
wisely chosen was compelled to do great
many things that under different circumstances
would not have been considered.
| We never had on the fighting line at any one
time more than 1900 men And with these we
| captured "a 900 Nine thousand Spaniards
were fortified in the best intrenched position l
ever saw. Indeed the intrenchments were of
| such a character that shelling with the guns
we had did not do them serious damage,
Where a lS-inch shell from our ships dropped
into house in the town IL demolished the
dwelling; but all the occupants were gone
Gen. Shafter was fully informed re-
garding the controversy between Gen.
Miles and Secretary Alger He was
surprised and said it was the first hint
he had of anything of the kind. He
knew nothing about the causes or the
merits of the controversy.