Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1898-09-03
DEFENDING HOSPITALS
The Result of an Investigation By
General Boynton.
HE REBUKEs gEEsATIONALIsM,


yesterday received the report of Cen
eral H. ". Boynton upon the state OF
affairs i'm the hospitals at Camp
Thomas. The report is dated Aug. 20.
SAYS General Boynton:
believing the death list Of this camp
TO afford an excellent standard by
which to measure its conditions as to
health and hospital service. a full re-
port was obtained Of all deaths in the
camp and in it's hospitals since it's es-
Iishment in the middle of April last.
The result shows total death list of
1888 up to the 22d of this month, when
the breaking up of this camp began
Between these dates, including regulars
and volunteers, fully 1900 troops have
been in camp in Chickakmauga Park.
The record of burials in the National
cemetery at Chattanooga shows total
of 120 volunteers and regulars. OF the
latter one of these was killed by falling
from a railway train
General Boynton examined all the
Chickamauga hospitals. and declares
that the supply of food and medicines
is adequate. that each patient has
abundant room, woven wire and hair
mattresses, and abundant bed clothing.
The ventilation and plumbing is per-
feet, and the nurses are faithful and
kindly in their treatment of patients
Leaving the details about the hospit-
ais the report proceeds to treat the
whole subject generally as follows:
I'm two of the hospitals opportunities
occurred for discovery of what un-
doubtedly originated many of the SEN
sational stories which have been print
ed over the country to the effect that
patients in the hospitals lacked suf-
ficient food, and in many cases had been
on the verge Of starvation. In the
wards where the convalescent typhoid
fever patients were found many of the
men were constantly asking for food
and were as a matter of course con-
stantly der ed everything except the
lighter forms of food, which can alone
be safely administered to recovering
typhoid patients This refusal of food
throughout the hospitals, by which care
alone, as is perfectly understood, can
the lives of typhoid convalescents be
saved, has been distorted into the cry
which has been spread throughout the
country that patients were being
starved in the government hospitals.
There has been no lack of proper food
in these hospitals and competent cooks
preparing it have been present, and the
only reason for depriving the patients
of what so many of them have clamor-
ed for has been the necessity of such
dieting as the disease demands.
so far from believing, as a result OF
my observations, that medical officers
have been heartless or negligent, /
believe that these officers and the hos
pital attendants, as a whole, have eX-
erted themselves to discharge their du-
ties faithfully. IT would seem as if
this were sufficiently shown by the
Fact that they have worked unceasing-
ly until quarter of the whole force
has itself been stricken by disease re-
sulting from their exhausting labors.
MY attention was especially direct
cd, in the order which I received, to
some remarks credited to General Ter
~, surgeon general of the state Of
New York, in reference to the condi-
ton of the camp of the Eighth New
York General Terry is reported in
the New YorS Herald to have said, as
he was leaving Camp Thomas:
General Terry found the camp in
a bad sanitary condition 1t is stu
ated in an open field in the hot sun,
with no water to be found within five
miles The water the men drink is
hauled in barrels. and is of a kind
that in New York would be refused as
bathing water This stuff is what the
men drink daily and is declared to be
the chief cause of the sickness. Gen
eral Terry told me that ii was the
most terrible sight he had ever wit
messed. and that not in the slums of
New York city could be found a place
so filthy and dirty. He declared that
if the soldiers are not soon taken
form Chickamauga Park they will soon
follow the "a who died yesterday and
nearly as many today The patients
are simply laid on filters not sick inches
from the ground. Few, if any, of the
hospital tents have plank floors
Instead Of there being no water
within five miles of this regiment, two
of the largest and finest springs Of
clear water in this entire country,
pronounced by competent medical and
chemical authority to be pure water,
are less than two miles from their
camp.
1.-THE Eighth New York had been
camped upon the ground where General
Terry observed il less than ten days.
1t was perfectly clean ground when
they occupied it, and had not been
previously occupied by any troops. If
it had been transformed within this
brief period by the troops of the
Eighth New York into place filthier
and dirtier than can be found in the
slums of New York, it win become the
officers of that regiment and the men
TO explain how such transformation
could have been made by them in this
brief space Of time.
Whether General Terry means that
"a died in the camp of the Eighth New
York or "a in the entire camp in one
day, and that nearly as many would
die the day of his departure cannot be
exactly determined by his form of
speech. but on the day that he is quoted
MS making this remark the deaths in
the entire army encamped here were
seven and the deaths in the Eighth
New York, two days before his visit
numbered only one. which had been
the rate for several days.
I'm closing l beg leave to express my
opinion that most of the interviews
with chaplains, regimental surgeons
and others both officers and men now