Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1898-09-08
GEN. SKATER INTERVIEWED.
He Saws 1t Was the Terrific Beat That
Caused the siokness--histaIe of Send
ing Soldiers to Cuba In June.

New York, Sept. 3.-The New York
World prints an interview with Gen.
SKATER, 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 summer
campaign But nobody was neglected The doc
tors were scarce at trs:, 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 Mt the low percentage OF deaths
from wounds II never was lower In any war
Why, In the civil war lay on the battlefield my
self until my wounds were In horrible condition,
and that was right near by, not down In Il
malarlous sub-tropical country, far away
The men who ordered summer campaign in a
fever infested country are responsible for the
natural and unavoidable consequences. None
OF our wounded was allowed TO lie on the bait
tehed as / was IN tho civil war Nothing OF
the kind happened. AnRsthetics were plenti-
full 1t was the heat that was so deadly and
the rains Right in the midst OF the most tor
rid heat shower would fall 1t would drench
everybody without cooling the air. In few
minutes, under the sun again. every man would
be steaming. Men OF the strongest constltu-
tions sucCumbed
Our first case Of yellow fever developed at FL
C0ney, But the army was ripe for 1t and 1t
spread like prairie fire Many man had
yellow fever who will never know It, And to
tell the truth, 1t is not so dangerous as the
calentura or heat attacks that unaccimated
men have in the malarial regions OF Cuba
Why 1t is o common thing for mans temper
atuHe TO rise from q normal state to l05 In O
few hours That means death In most cases.
1t can give cards and spades TO yellow fever In
the game OF death I'd rather have yellow
fever
II could have had q few more weeks TO
equip hospital ships the condition would have
been better If the war had continued we
would have stayed right there, fever or no
fever The sudden ending OF the war was I'M
expected We were not prepared for the unex-
pected. / made 1t an invariable rule to send
home q less men on q transport than she had
brought south That was fair view to take
am satisfied with the Santiago campaign.
When 1t is fully understood, all its difficulties,
It 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 1t was obvious that 1t must be a
rush. Such 1t was And it was q success
complete and unequivocal MANY things were
done, it is true, that were forced upon us by
the exgencies 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 10, 900 men And with these we
captured 1900. Nine thousand Spanlards
were fortified in the best intronched position
ever saw Indeed, the intrenchments were of
such a character that Smelling with the guns
we had did not do them serious damage.
Where l3-lnch shell from our ships dropped
into house in the town 1t demolished the
lwelling 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.