The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-11-19
RULE OF ARMY SURGEONS
RACY TESTIMONY CONCERNING
CONDITIONS IN CUBA.
Medical Supplies Left On the Trans
ports, But No One Could Fix Re-
sponsibility-Dr. Lagarde's State
ments Flatly Contradicted - Bad
Conditions at Montauk.

cept Colonel DENLY and Major Miles.
DR.. Charles S. Greenleaf, chief sur
geon of the troops, said that in some
respects Camp .Alger was a good camp
for a small body of men, but there were
many drawbacks. The water supply
was poor and the country was known
to be highly malarious. There was a
sufficiency of privates in the hospital
corps and of medical officers and at
times medical supplies. The best in
terests of the sick DR.. Greenleaf said,
were not seriously imperilled, but the
efforts OF the physicians were generally
embarrassed.
Taking up the question Of the lack
OF tents, surgeons and medical supplies
in Cuba, DR.. Conner asked DR.. Green
leaf how the medical supplies were
delayed at Siboney. DR.. Greenleaf said
he did not know.
who finally unloaded these sup
plies? asked Dr. Conner.
Il did, captured six pontoons and
took the law into my own hands"
You unloaded in thirty-SiX hours
supplies that had been lying in the
harbor two weeks. Why did not DR..
Pope, chief surgeon of General
Skaters corps, land them within
those two weeks?"
I suppose. he was at the front at
tending to the wounded"
Did DR.. Pope take charge of one
wounded MANI
I cannot say" replied DR.. Greenleaf.
81 am sure that DR.. Pope did the best
he could 1 had full authority from
General Miles to do what 1 thought
best"
In reply to question. DR.. Greenleaf
said he supposed DR.. Pope had author
lily from General Shafter sufficient to
enable him to unload the supplies at
Cinpr7orr no !CSrpa111Aafl had done
SOME ONE AT FAULT.
There is no doubt" said DR.. Connor,
that somebody was dreadfully at
fault. Cannot you help Us to find out
who it Was?"
DR.. Greenleaf said he could not. In
reply to another question DR.. Green
leaf said that it was usual in time of
war to anticipate the wants of wound
ed men and to expect that there would
be wounded. He could not tell if any
proper arrangements had been made
in Cuba, but he knew that the stores
had not been landed. He declared
positively that he found no evidence of
any neglect or incompetency on the
part of any medical officer.
Camp Montauk DR.. Greenleaf con-
Sidered an ideal camp for its purpose.
Questioned as to the discomforts en-
dured by their furloughed men who.
about the railway station awaiting
fares and furloughs, he said that all
that trouble might have been avoided
by the establishment of a quarter
masters office at the hospital.
DIR. Connor asked why the large force
of women nurses who had offered their
services We're not accepted, and DR..
Greenleaf said there was no way .
care for them at the camp.
General Beaver asked Dr. Greenleaf
if sick men We're taken to the battle
line, and when the doctor said no, Cen
eral Beaver asked why so much stress
was laid upon the fact that no medical
supplies We're taken to the front, unless
it was usual to send medicine to the
men and not men to the medicine.
DR.. Greenleaf said that supplies
should have been at the battle line for
the men taken sick there.
To questions from Captain Howell,
Ex-Governor Woodbury. and General
Wilson, DR.. Greenleaf said that he
would not have selected Camp Alger
as a camping place for soldiers, and
that, in his opinion, Camp Miami, in
Florida, was fitted only for a quaran-
tine hospital and should not have been
used as a camp for 10000 men awaiting
transportation to Cuba
General Dodge asked of conditions of
the transports leaving Tampa, for Cuba
and DR.. Greenleaf said they were
dreadfully overcrowded. He could not
say that the overcrowding was not a
military necessity. but he was certain
il was wrong from a sanitary stand
point. This concluded the examination
of DR.. Greenleaf.
William Hamilton Henry, whose son
served as a private in company B, of
the Seventy-first regiment during the
campaign, was the first witness at the
afternoon session. Mr.. Henry told of
1T
son, who was sick. He found him lying
on the bare ground in a tent. The Off
GERS tents were all floored.
PILLS FOR ALL
Richard w. Henry, the son, was call
ed. He was taken sick after the sur
render Of Santiago. Speaking of the
treatment he received from the army
surgeons in Cuba, he said that they die
the best that they could and treated
every one alike.
% fact he said, they made no dis.
tinction in manner Of treatment, or in
medicine. 1t was two pills for a fever
and three pills for a broken arm"
DR.. Frank Donaldson, Who joined Col
onel Roosevelt's regiment IN Cuba on
July s, and who was stricken with yell
low. fever on July "a, followed Mr.
Henry on the witness stand. Asked by
DIR. Conner as to the condition of the
hospitals he replied:
Il do not wish to criticize DR.. Lee
garde, whom I greatly admire, but they
were entirely swamped. There was an
insufficient supply of medicine stores,
nurses and stewards. The majority of
the stewards We're of a most undesir-
able character and should never have
been selected for such service. 4
Regarding medical supplies, Dr.. Don
aldsOn said there were supplies, but
they could not be reached. Speaking of
his own regiment, be said he got sup
plies because he went out and hustled
for them.
They were not served out to you?"
asked DR.. Conner.
Not by a large majority" was the
reply. We got what We hustled for,
and nothing else"
did the men receive good care and
attention in the hospitals?"
'They suffered from lack of care be-
cause of the inefiiciency of the nurses.
The doctors were efficient and de-
voted
NO SUPPLIES SENT.
DR.. Conner asked if it was possible
to get a better class of nurses, and
when DR.. Donaldson said no, he asked
why the department should be blamed
for what could not be avoided.
There was no excuse, said DR.. Don
ALLISON, for sending them there and
for not sending supplies
DO you know they sent no supplies?'
IF they sent them they must have
vanished into Cuba libre; they did not
reach us
DR.. Donaldson criticised Dr. Lesser,
the head or the Red Cross hospital in
Cuba, severely, and declared that al
4 though DIR. Lesser posed as an expert
on yellow fever, he did not know what
= yellow fever, WAS until he was stricken