Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-11-23
TEDDY WENT AHEAD.
CONTINUED from page ~

Inc ships were needed and the govern
ment paid the price asked" Col. KIM
ball said there was not movement of
any magnitude made to or from this
city which was not made as the result
of open competition. There was much
complaint of lack of transportation.
Now / want to know who was at
fault 2" asked DR.. Conner, speaking of
Montauk Point.
You refer to wagon transportation
at Montauk and with that I had abso-
lutely nothing to do. That was fur
nished through the quartermaster gen.
eral and ordered from the various de-
pots
That's just my luck said DIR. Con-
nor. Il thought at last / had found
the man responsible. I have been go
Ing from post to pillar for months and
am still no nearer than when
started
In reply to question as to the COM
plants Of delay in the Long Island
Railroad, Col. Kimball said: Il know
of no complaints except in the case of
an Illinois volunteer regiment which
was anxious to get home. A new local
quartermaster did not know that had
49,
a regular schedule. With the assist
ance Of the colonel of the regiment, the
local quartermaster got the Long Is
land Railroad to bring the regiment
away from camp, with the result that
the men arrived in Jersey City Is hours
before the Lehigh Valley was ready to
handle them. A similar misunder-
standing took place, the next day,
when an Ohio regiment wished to be
moved
Miss Mary C. Lowell, daughter of
Sidney Lowell, said she studied nurs-
Ing, last year, for philanthropic work
and found it useful during the two
weeks she spent at Camp Wikoff.
There was a scarcity of doctors and
Miss Lowell considered many of the
contract doctors careless and indiffer-
ent to the men. She found one man
with temperature of 106 and reported
to DIR. Thomas, who said he would see
to it, but when she visited the man, "a
hours later, the doctor had not seen
him. Miss Lowell mentioned other
doctors who she said had neglected
their duty and said great suffering re-
suited from the i'll management of the
ambulance service. Miss Lowell said
the condition of affairs in the general
hospital was shocking. She corrobo-
rated the testimony of previous wit
nesses as to the lack of sanitary pre-
cautions and the plague of flies.
Rev. Henry B. Bryan of the Garden
City Cathedral, said the publication of
a statement of Major Brown, that all
the bodies were decently buried had in
duced him to come forward to testify.
I'm his published statement" Mr..
Bryan said, Major Brown said there
was no truth in the report that the
bodies were not decently buried. l be-
lieve Major Brown gave the proper or
ders but those were not carried out. l
know personally of 20 bodies that were
not buried as Major Brown says they
were, and wonder what became of the
clothing and of the money paid for the
embalming.
II do not question Major Brown IN
any way, he had not time to see that
his orders were carried out. Coughlln
and Kohler, who wore Bellevue hos
pital badges, We're in charge of the bur
ial of the dead. My duties led me by
the morgue every day, and stepped in
to see who had died during the day
l saw the naked bodies of soldiers
placed in bare pine collins and the
name of the man ana his regiment
written on the lid of the coffin. Oh
course the damp earth quickly obliter-
ated these marks and no further re-
cords were kept. Some times the bod
les were buried in a nightshirt, but
they never took the trouble to button
the shirt. 1t was grossly indecent. AT
the morgue the attendants sat on tn2
collins with the bodies in them and
Showed and smoked and told indecent
stories 1 rebuked them once but they
were Bowery toughs and it was useless
to talk to them"
do you know who was responsible
for the condition you found"
mo, but l understand that Mrs
Robelin paid Coughlin and Kohler tc
go to the camp and take charge of tho
norgue there. An autopsy was made
on the body of Barney Trio, and tbs
Organs removed were left lying abou
III until the attendants tied them up in &
8 towel and threw them away
After recess, Lieut.. DIN of Co. /
fist Regiment, testified that all the
sick were cared for as we'll as posi-
BILE and none of them was neglected
Mr.. DIN said he and his men were
treated with every consideration am
courtesy at Camp Wikoff.
George Wallace. lawyer of Free
port, l.. l., who had a son and brother
in the war, testified that while at CAM
Wikoff looking for his son, he saw
many soldiers struggling along thu
roadway apparently too weak to move
Some of them told him they had beef
discharged from hospitals as cured
He told of the regulations that com
PEELED these men to hang around TO
hours before they could get transporta
ton to their homes and he said h
came to the conclusion that the hand
ling of the men was careless and IN
efficient. Il do not blame the war de
partment," said he, but some on
must have been responsible for tn
brutal negligence. 1t was not the hea
officers but the officers charged wit
carrying out the minor details"
Col. Theodore Roosevelt came in a
and in reply to a request from Ger
wilson told of the equipment and mus
tering in of the Rough Riders.
when we reached Tampa" Co
Roosevelt said, there was conditio
90 W