The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-15
ARMY MEDICAL SERVICE.
Inefiiciency That Has Cost Many Lives
The MOntank Point Camp.

The MOntauk Point Camp.
William f. Curtiss Letter from Boston.
The people of New England are in a state
of feverish indignation toward the War
department because of the tales that are
told by Massachusetts volunteers that have
returned from Santiago. This Indignation
is aggravated by the recent death of Col
Began, a popular Irish politician. who went
out to command the Ninth Regiment, was
seized with fever at Santiago and sent
home as convalescent upon one of the
transports concerning which so much COM
plant has been made. His DEATH which
occurred ten days after his arrival in Bos-
ton, is attributed by the local physicians to
the lack of care, medical treatment and
proper food while on the transport; they
say he literally died from neglect, for
W hich the army officers at Santiago are re-
sponsible. Colonel Began was known to ev-
erybody in Boston. He he'd held office here
continuously for many years, was a mem
Ler of many patriotic societies and political
organizations. and highly respected by all
classes. His body has lain in state at the
City Hall for two days, and thousands OF
people have come to pay their homage to
the ashes of a martyr to patriotism His
funeral was a public function under the
auspices of the municipal authorities, and
the officials, as well as the public at large.
have endeavored by attentions to the dead
TO atone for the neglect to the living.
Every day other officers and privates of
the Second and Ninth Massachusetts Regi-
ments, which participated in the Santiago
campaign, are arriving in Boston and the
neighboring towns. whose wan faces, ema-
oto
their sufferings and hardships. They all
tell the same tale. They were all right as
long as they were with their comrades at
the front in camp or in the trenches, but
when they were sent to the hospitals their
experience was continual neglect, discom-
fort and starvation. 1t is an awful story of
confusion and incompetency on the part of
the military authorities, ightened only by
the energy. the patience and the sweet SYM
pathy of the Red Cross. There is no COM
plant of long marches or exposure to dam
ger, fighting in trenches full of water, or
wearing clothing saturated with rain for
four days without changing, or half ra-
lions, or sleeping in the mud, all that is
part of the soldiers glory, but when they
had to crawl five and half miles in search
of surgeon and lie by the roadside for
forty-eight to sixty hours, too i'll and weak
from the fever to walk; when they ap-
peaed in vain for medicines, and as one
of them expressed 1t, found the hospitals
worse than hell, and the transports worse
than the hospitals" they felt at liberty to
find fault.
One of the officers of the regular army
who brings back half-healed wound from
Santiago says that the confusion there was
not due to any lack of energy, industry or
patriotism, but solely to the inexperience of
the medical officers and the quartermasters,
and the lack of adequate facilities for un-
loading the, transports,
Everybody was working night and day
as hard as he could but they didn't
cCmpish much" he says, because there
was no competent head to give direction
and no cooperation between the several
branches of the service.
THE fact of the matter is he continued,
that General Shafter has not known what
was going on half of the time. and all the
subordinateS have been working at cross
purposes because of the lack of orders.
The general has been hors du combat from
the heat almost continually since his ar
rival at Santiago. 1t was great mistake
to send a man of his girth to command an
army in a tropical country. During two or
three days fighting General Shafter was in
a tent three miles in the rear, overcome
with the heat. There was no ice for his
head, so his attendants could only fan and
relieve the congestion. Since the surrender
he has been able to keep out of the sun
under the roof of the palace in Santiago and
is able to attend to business.
General Wheeler, who commanded cur
corps, has been as clipper and as lively as
a cricket from the beginning, and although
he had touch of fever he has been on duty
every day. Being short of stature, like
Zaccheus, he did climb a tree during the
battles and was able to overlook all the
intrenchments. 1t was the funniest thing
that ever occurred in military history--a
commanding general directing his troops in
battle from treetop1but there is nothing
the matter with old Joe.
/ see Secretary Alger proposes to dis
cipine Major Woodward. of the Tenth
Regular Cavalry. for criticising Montauk
Point camping ground 1t seems to me
that it would be more in the line of justice
to court-martial the men who selected it,
and ascertain if ii is true that their action
was Influenced by railway interests If half
the reports that appear in the Boston and
New York newspapers are correct the only
recommendation in favor of Montauk is
that it has plenty of fresh air
| met an officer this morning who spent
yesterday at that place, and he was in
mood to go before a grand jury and ask
the indictment of everybody in authority
for criminal negligence and intent to kill
from the secretary of war down. He says
that when the camp was selected and
when the first detachment of troops ar
rived there YVES not drop of fresh water
within a radius of five miles except what
the men had in their 'canteens, and up to
that time the contractors who were boring
wells had not succeeded in finding water.
The camp is five miles from the railroad,
and everything has to be transported in
wagons over roads that are already inn
passable, for the wheels sink into the sand
cry drop of milk, every particle of fuel is
brought from New York city, a distance of
lis miles. 1t does seem as If the War
Department officials were beside themselves
when they determined to send twenty-five
thousand soldiers out there. The country
is full of good camping grounds, where
fresh milk, vegetables and other forms of
food which the debiitated soldiers need can
be obtained in abundance and which can
be reached with convenience and economy,
and particularly where fresh water can be
obtained without having TO haul II ninety
miles in oil-tank cars.
My friend says that Helen Gould was at
Montauk Point yesterday, protected from
the wind and rain by a pair of high riding
boots and a thick macintosh, and was re-
ceived by the soldiers as angel OF mercy.
Mrs. Ellen nardin Walworth has also been
there in charge of number OF Red Cross
nurses since the camp was opened. and but
for their ministrations several sick soldiers
would have died. My friend says that he
hopes Secretary Alger will court-martial
Major woodward so that the facts can be
brought before the public in official form:
Every officer at Montauk, from General