The evening times., 1898-08-15
THE DISTRICT TROOPS.
How They Suffered From S0nae-
bOdy'a. 3aisnanaxement.

How They Suffered From sonae-
body Nisnssaxement.
Chicago. Al th-HarryJ. }. whisham.
corresponde$fyof the Chicago Tribune
at Santiago. ieeSsnts the distressing re-
suit Of army mismanagemenf, having Just
reached home. among other things, he
says:
Here. in this pestflent swamp, the fe-
YER patients wefe huddled together for
weeks. their numbers freely increasing
every day. and yellow fever becoming an
ordinary affair. Soon they got quite be-
yond the powers of the one or two doc
tors who had to look after them They
would come down from The front far too
sick to take care Of themselves, and they
would lie there in the rain or sun, as the
case might happen, until the poor, hard
worked doctors could get around to them.
Often they would get drenched to the
skin simply because they were too feeble
to move under shelter of their own ac-
cord. At night. whenever the rain came,
as 1t often did. they would lie in their
wretched little shelters, soaking wet, in
the mud, groaning and vomiting all
night long, until one began to wonder
whether any Of the poor fellows could
ever. by any possible means, recover.
The climax came one afternoon when
something broke loose In the hills and a
regular torrent came through the camp
sweeping everything before it. In a few
minutes the water in my tent was knee
deep 70 IT is not hard to imagine what
were the feelings of the fever patients less
tnan twenty yards away. II was only
tnen that some one rernaynharo<1 tha. ~.
ioentical meadow where we were is u.s.
uaiiy entirely submerged In summer, and
tne doctors began to consider the adyisa-
bihty OF moving the hospital to one of
the numerous hillsides which line the
valley all the way to Santiago. That is
now the fever patients were treated at
the front.
IT is a positive fact. moreover. that
whoie brigades were without medicine en-
tirely just at the moment when the fever
OF the country became epidemic. A few
days after the fight on July /, / found the
whole OF Gen. Bates staff down with
fever. including the doctor and the gen.
eral himself. and they told me there was
not grain Of quinine in camp, and no
means of getting any.
Even where there was quinine the suf-
iering was almost as bad. for, as any
knows who has suffered from the calen-
ing as quinine when the fever has once
got a man In its grip. OF other remedies
there was absolutely none
Books might be written about the suf-
ferings OF our men from sickness round
Santiago. but one case was particularly
noteworthy from the wantonness of the
carelessness which brought IL on. The
volunteer re-enforcements, consisting of
the first Illinois and the District of Co
lumbia, got to the front on the morning
of the last day OF the bombardment AT
that time there was absolutely no neces-
sity for great haste in bringing the re-
Our position on the hills
was unassailable. and the final lombard
ment itself was more of a farce than any
thing else. Yet these volunteers were |
hurried off the ships and marched ahead |
late into the night. attempting to carry. |
as usual, far more than they could pos |
sibly bear, and finally made TO sleep out |
anywhere along the road under a terrific |
downpour of rain. They then marched |
on. cold and breakfastless, across the |
creeks. which were swollen waist deep. |
to find that the fighting was over and |
their services hardly needed.
with ordinary care they could have |
got TO the front dry. except as to the feet. |
with plenty of rations. As 1t was they |
were soaked to the skin all night, lost |
all their rations. waded through water |
over their hips. and then sat down in I
he trenches with no change Of clothing.
fever and death, Of