The evening times., 1898-09-21
Army Officers Score Him for
Camp Horrors.
GEN. WILEY'S PLAIN WORDS
The Secretary OF War Told That He
and Gems. LudinEfon and Stern
berg Are 10 Blame for SufIerings
mt Chickamauga-Qua uartermaste
Department Severely Arraianed.

Sull Iancled Onclal etiquette, that tney
were responsible for the misery, sickness
and death of the nations soldiers at
Ghickamauga.
The dramatic episode occurred in the
headquarters tent of Major General
Breckenridge, of the Third Army Corps.
Upon returning from the tour of in
spection through the camps and hospitals
and the reNjew of the troops, Secretary
Alger summoned the commanding Off
GERS Of Gen Sanger's division at Camp
Hamilton. te meet him al the headquar-
tiers tent.
II was to be friendly, informal meet
ing to talk over the division hospital sgs-
TEN, but no sooner had the officers taken
of their hats and Secretary Alger asked
for views from the colonies present, than
the vague, general topic was thrown
aside and the story of the horrors of
Chickamauga Park and the responsibility
for those horrors burst upon the iAyestl-
gators in a sudden storm.
Gen. Sanger began with the statement
that there was rottenness in the depart
ments of the quartermaster and surg eon
general
Addressing Secretary Alger, he said:
Sir your chief cook and bott,e-washer
down there q refer to Dr. HuiGekoper
was nothing but the very rankest sort of
veterinary surgeon.
He did not know the meaning Of dis
infectant., l gave orders for materials
and could not get what / wanted. j
sent requistion after requis!tion, and
none of them was received
The Only Reply He Got.
Finally / sent a tart request, and re-
ceived the reply that such stuff was not
needed"
Col. Leonard. of the Twelfth New
York, backed Gen. Sanger in his state
ment regarding DR.. Huidekoper. Then
Brig. Gen. Wiley broke in:
'"The neglect TO furnish supplies, he
said was criminal ] was. while at
Chickamauga, in command of the di-
vision over which Gen. Sanger is now,
and while thus engaged / made requisi-
tions which were not honored.
ION one OCCASION j wanted boilers in
which TO boil the water for the men
before drinking. / made the usual requi-
sition the quartermaster general.
mo attention was paid 10 ii. l re-
peatedly urged that the boilers be fur
nished until one day ! became tired of
the regular form. and fired a saucy
message at him. The reply I got was:
The War Department does not furnish
boilers
General LudinSton Accused.
Il ser to work another way, and Sc
cured boilers, and had the men boil the
water but of course it had TO be done on
a small scale. and the men suffered in
consequence.
These men cannot stand off and say
that il was somebody else's fault. 1t
was the fault of Quartermaster Gen
eral Ludington, who is standing right
here.
These acquisitions were made both to
his office and on the quartermaster gen
eral in charge.
THE brigade surgeons complained Of
the absence Of medicine and medical in
struments. acquisitions for these things
were not hOnored and men were forced
10 borrow fever thermometers to take
the temperature of the sick. The same
instrument had TO be passed from one
regiment to another. These things are
responsible for the terrible state Of af-
fairs
Secretary Alger broke in, saying: II
want TO get at the bottom Of the whole
matter We don't care if somebody's
feelings are hurt; we want to find out
who is to blame.
But what we are TO consider at this
meeting is whether we are TO continue
the division hospital alone or go back to
the regimental hospital, or whether We
should have both"
Col. Leonard condemned the division
hospital. THE system" he said, strips
the regiment of its surgeons, its company
nurses and its proper stewards, and the
men who are taken away are left to die
among strangers, with little guarantee
that If they escape death they will be
better off in the division hospital
IF we had man at Chickamauga who
understood his business, and not yeteri-
nary surgeon, we might have had a
healthy camp. The horse doctor you had
down there, Mr.. Secretary Col
Leonard was stopped.
Several argued that DIR. Huidekoper
was a graduated surgeon holding diplo-
mas from the best medical schools in the
country, but Col. Leonard and Gen.
Wiley would not have ii SO. They said
that if he ever knew anything he had for
gotten il, and. in their judgment, was un-
tit even for horse doctor.
Surgeon General Sternberg now appear
ed to hear his department denounced
Coming forward he said:
1--WE have done, I think, the best We
could No acquisitions came TO Washing
ton which were not honored. We tried to
secure the best, regardless of cost, as the
Secretary had instructed US to do.
IF the medical officers failed to do
their duty they should have been report
ed and if acquisitions We're not granted
there should have been complaint lodg-
ed against the proper parties"
scores ALcer to His Face.
This statement was too much for Gen.
Wiley, and he burst forth with many in
stances of failure to respond in matters
which were essential TO the health and
comfort of the men. Directing his fire to
Secretary Aiger he said:
You worked the men TO death at Chick
amauga. Why, sir, these men were drill
ed from five to six hours each day in the
hot sun, and when they fell there were
no stretchers, litter bearers or ambulances
TO carry them away.
In hundreds of cases the poor fellows
were forced to lie in the broiling sun
without attention. 1t was criminal negli-
gence not 10 have a sufficient number of
litter bearers and stretchers.
THE reason these men were not on hand
was that every available man for doctor
or nurse had been taken away from the
commands and placed at the division hos
pital
II am not in favor of abolishing the
division hospitals. i think they are a ne
cessity. The sick are naturally not even
ly distributed as TO regiments. Some may
have 100, others but dozen. and IL there
were no division hospitals some surgeons
would be oyerworked and others would
have nothing to do.
Keep the men in camp until the symp-
toms are developed. and then send them
TO the division hospital; but do not take