The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-08-17
SOMEBODY IS GUILTY
Distressing Result of Army Misman-
agement Mt the Battle of Santiago.


agement Mt the Battle of Santiago.
CHICAGO, Aug. H-H. J. Whigham, the.
well known correspondent writes the Trb-
une the following
| In looking back over the Santiago cam
palgn the great feature which stands out
perslstently above everything else is the
horrible and unnecessary suffering which
was encountered on every side both in our
own lines and in the enemyS.
In time of war suffering disease and
edath are expected, and II numbers go
| for anything the casual observer might %
| inclined to think considering the greatness
| of the results obtained, got off lightly
| in our month, campaign in Cuba. Nothing
can be more pernlclous or more misleading
| than such an easy gong point OF view.
| Every one who was the spot knows per-
| fectly well that the acknowledgement of the
| medical and cOmmiSSarlat departments was
| simply horrible.
inexperienced correspondents who have no
! standards to go by may be excused for at
| tempting to gloss over the frightful state
| Of things which prevailed; those who have
served in other campaigns are unanimous in
! saying shat the only parallel which they
| can apply to the case is the condition OF
| the Greek army in the recent European
| war.
Hele are a few of the facts which do not
! by any means cover the ground, but may
! give some faint idea Of the harships under
gone by our wounded and SICK.
| On July l, something like LOCO were kill
| ed and wounded on our side There were
! exactly twelve ambulances with the eXpe-
| dition. That in itself is almost sufficient to
| condemn the medical department. Wound
| ed men, shot through the chest, or In the
leg with broken limbs had to drag
| themselves along for miles before they couN
| be attended to-. Many went forty-eight
] longer
| f~t rough dressing upon their wounds.
| Even when they reached the division hos
pital near headquarters they found the num-
her os patients far beyond the powers Of
the doctors so that they had to go on to
Siboney before they could get proper treat
ment
SICK MEN JOLTED IN WAGONS.
| Siboney is good ten miles from what was
then headquarters, and the only means OF
transportation was In empty ammunition
! wagons To give some idea of that method
Of travel 1 need only state that on one
hot, muddy day. when l was walking into
Siboney, driver of a wagon offered me
ride l got inside and rode for a hundred
yards; after that l preferred to continue on
foot. And that is what our wounded men
had to put up with.
But the field fever hospital was the crown
ing achievement of the medical department.
The men began to drop out with fever
about the 4th and 9Th of July, and 1t was
necessary to have separate hospital for
them The place chosen was the site OF
Gen. Skaters camp, which he had moved
just day two previously.
Not content with choosing a spot by ma
ture swamp, and by recent circumstances
a fetid one, the chief Of the medical de-
partment ordered the little shelter tents of
the patients to be put up on the part of the
camp which had before been used by the
colored servants at headquarters, and had
been made a dumping-ground for all the
| refuse of the camp. | happen to know the
circumstances accurately because my own
| tent was within 50 feet of the hospital; my
| servant had fallen sick, and | had NJ means
| of moving my tent.
PATIENTS LIE IN \ SWAMP.
Here, in this pestilential swamp, the fever
patients were huddled together for weeks,
! their number freely increasing every day
! and yellow fever becoming ordinary at
fair Soon they got quite beyond the pow
| ers Of the two doctors 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, the case might happen un-
! til the DOOR 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 accord. At night, whenever the
! rain came, as it 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 pos
| sible means recover.
| The climax came one afternoon when
something broke loose in the hills and a
regular torrent came through camp, sweep
ing everything before it. In few minutes
the water in my tent was knee deep, SO it
| is not hard to imagine what were the feel
ngs of the fever patients less than 20 yards
| away 1t was only then that someone re-
| membered that the identical meadow where
we were is usually entirely submerged in
summer, and the doctors began to consider
| the advisability OF moving the hospital to
one Of the numerous hilsides which line the
valley all the way to Santiago. That Is
how the fever patients were treated at the
| front.
WHOLE STAFF DOWN WITH FEVER.
| 1t Is a positive fact, moreover that whole
brgades were without medicine entirely
just at the moment when the fever of the
country became epidemic. A few days af-
ter the fight July 1 found the whole
of Gen. Bates staff down with fever, In
cluding the doctor and the general 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 suffer
ing was almost as bad, for, as any cn,
knows who has suffered from the 'calen
tura" as it Is called, nothing is no nauseat
ing as quinine when the fever has once go
a man in it's grip OF other remedies ther
| was absolutely none.
Books might be written about the suffer
ines of our men from sickness round San
tiago, but one case was particularly note
| worthy from the wantonness Of the care
| lessness which brought 1t on. The voluntee
| reinforcements, consisting of the 1st Hi
| nois and the District Of Columbia, got t.
| the front on the morning of the last da,
of the bombardment. At that time ther
was absolutely no necessity for great hast
= | in bringing the reinforcements Our posi-
ton on the hills was unassailable, and tn
| final bombardment itself more OF
farce than anything else. Yet these volun
Z teers were hurried off the ships and marche
II | ahead late into the night, attempting t
| carry, as usual, far more than they coul
possibly bear, and finally made to sleep Ou
anywhere along the road under a terrifi