The times., 1898-11-16

that the Inspector generals department
was 'emasculated' by the war adminis-
tration, he concluded that the best way
for the inspector general to share the
dangers of the war was to get out with
the troops.
Col. DENLY wanted 10 know what the
witness meant by ''emasculated." The
witness would explain The efficiency
that would have been possible under such
organization as the chief of corps would
have liked was interfered with When he
(the witness) left he thought the Secre-
tary of War was going to appoint Gen.
Sanger as inspector general.
When Gen. Breckenridge got back to his
office in the War Department he asked
for certain material from which to make
up his annual report. and was told that
what he desired was not in the office.
This was but an Illustration of the fact
previously emphasized I'm his testimony.
that there was no way of getting infor
nation of existing conditions from the
camps to central authorities.
The general thought the lack of prep
aration was responsible for the bulk of
suffering among the volunteer troops. He
urged strongly the maintenance of an
army sufficiently large TO meet any
emergency. If members of Congress per-
sisted in their refusals to provide the nee
tSSdTy military equipment muse WHO sent
them to Congress must suffer when the
emergency arose There was an army OF
$4,000 men at the beginning of the war
and there were not anything like 250.GG)
suits of clothes, and the same was true
of other equipments.
When Gen. Breckinridge had concluded
his testimony Capt. Robert w. DOwdy,
who served as first lieutenant in the Sew
enteenth Infantry during the Santiago
campaign, told of the complaints he had
heard among the soldiers and ended with
the statement that had there been IA
cilities for water transportation between
Montauk Point and New York instead of
one irresponsible railroad line much trou-
BILE could have been avoided. The Alser
Relief Workers wisely avoided further
inquiries along this line of evidence.
Word About Camp AISer.
Capt Dowdy was followed by DR.. G. L.
Magruder, of this city. who testified con-
cerning the conditions which existed at
Camp Alger.
! Here the witness had found soldiers eat
! ing ice cream. stale pies. and drinking
/ lemonade and pop and on subsequent
visits he had noticed that many of the
J troops were unclean. which was excused
! by the statement that they had no water
/ in which to bathe.
An officer had told him that water was
so scarce that the soldiers frequently
went thirsty for many hours AT a time.
/ The doctor thought the camps were
! too close together. and. throughout, con-
| ditions were not what they should have
| been, to his way of thinking
! He would not say that the vicinity of
! Camp Alger was particularly unhealth-
/ full, no more than all the country sur
| rounding Washington. This, with a
! few other remarks about the ordinary
/ sanitary precautions having been taken.
/ closed the testimony of DR.. Magruder.
DIR. Weaver on the Stand.
The first witness at the afternoon ses-
sion was DR.. William G. Weaver. Of
| Wiikesbarre, Pa, who was acting sur
| geon of the Ninth PENNSYLVANIA Volun-
teers. The sanitary conditions of Camp
! Thomas, he must admit, were very good
! from outward appearances but judging
/ from results they must have been very
bad. He was sure his regiment did not
carry fever into the camp.
There had frequently been difficulty in
| getting medical supplies. He had made
acquisitions of the division hospital and
sometimes he got the supplies and some
J times ne 0lQ not
| Dr. Weaver explained that in his hos
! pital all beds, linens and foods were fur
| nished by charitable people of Pennsyl-
vania and none by the Government. Reg
mental surgeons were somewhat over
/ worked. He had worked forty-two hours
| continuously. but in the end il resulted
in his own illness. He did not disapprove
of the idea of receiving donations for
such work. 1t fostered a spirit of pa
triotic giving.
| Major Louis A. Lagarde. surgeon of the
Ninth Cavalry, testified that he organized
| the Ninth Cavalry hospital at Chicka-
mauga. At Tampa he was detached from
his command and placed in charge of a
hospital which he organized there This
| hospital was made one of the division
| hospitals of the fifth corps TO be sent TO
I Cuba
In anticipation of the campaign he or.
| ganized an ambulance corps with ten
! ambulances and secured sixty-nine men
At the last moment he was told he could
not take the ambulance train to Cuba.
and it was left at Port Tampa The
transport was greatly overcrowded but
| this was somewhat remedied
Major Lagarde said that through some
misunderstanding the transport that he
| was on was left in front of Moro Castle
| for four or five days. while other trans
| ports were unloading. He disembarked
June 27 and set up his hospital al Sibo-
ney.
Did you have sufficient quantity OF
hospital supplies?" asked DIR. Connor.
Yes, except beef tea and milk. We
| had some of these articles, but could not
| get more at Tampa. We rather relied on
the commissary department for these ar
ticles. There was sufficient quantity OF