The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1898-09-03


ing the air. In a few minutes, under
tbe sun again, every man would be
SCANNING. Men of the strongest eonsti-
tu.lons succumbed.
Troops Ripe for Fever.
"our first case OF yellow fever devel-
oped at FL caney. But the army was
ripe for It and It spread like. prairie
sre. Many man had yellow fever who
never will know It. And to tell the
truth /. is not as dangerous as the cal
er,ura or the heat attacks, that unaccll-
mated men have in the rnhiarrous re-
gIoas of Cuba, Why It is.a common
thing for a mans temperature to rise
from a normal state to los in a few
hours. That means death in most cases.
1T can give cards and spades to yell
low fever in the game of death. I'd
rather have yellow fevers'1 tell you
when man burns up inside there's lit
to hope for him. ~
"our men were all unacclf1Gated: they
never had faced such constant heat
Many OF them never had slept out doors
before they went into camp. How
could they be moulded into proper E'a-
ter!al for such climate and ouch a
campaign? 1t could not be done. These
men you see coming back with the thin
bodies and the yellow faces are suffer-
ing from the parasite OF the low fever OF
the Santiago plateau. The cool air and
good home care will cure them.
I'VE had to choose the lesser Of the
two evlls-to ship the men north to a
healthy climate. NOT wanting. to keep
them where they must die, We at the
front die not walt to let the fever have
its run. We wanted to save ltfe Now
the problem was to save the most lives
possible. We never had u foreign war
since 1924. Tho United States has no
hospital ships. 1t was nut ACQUISITION of
uslng what was best but wha: we had.
We used the transports thar brought
The troops down. t,
III could have had a few weeks to
equip a hospital ship the condition
would have been better. If,he war had
continued we would have stayed right
there, fever or no fever. The sudden
end of the war was unexpected. We
we're not prepared for the unexpected.
I made It an unvarlable rule to send
home 25 per cent less men Oh a trans
port than she had brought south. That
was fair view to take. a.
sauunOd with Santiago Campaign.
II am satisfied with tho Santiago
campaign. When It ls fully Understood,
with all its difficulties, 1t vii receive a
Just place in military history. We were
hurried of to Cuba. We landed and
could not have got our stores back on
board ship IL we had wanted 10. When
the Invasion was planned It was obvious
that It would be a rush. Such It was.
And 1t was a success-complete and
unequivocal Many thIngs were done, IT
Is true. that were forced upon us by the
ezIgeucies of the hour, but the means
employed even under such stress proved
TO be wisely chosen. was compelled
to do great many things that under
different circumstances would not have
been considered.
The FL Caney fight hoped would be
nalshed at 10 a. M. bu, 4; took until 8
o'clock, and rather feel now that It was
for the best Had Lawton on the right
OF the line we would have undoubtedly
taken the city of Santiago that night, in
which case only the garrison then there
would have surrendered to US, Where
as, later. all the troops in the region
surrounding were included. knew
that tho war was over as soon ms Toral
spoke to me about surrendering the
troops in the eastern province. l almost
fall over.
we never had on the fighting line at
any time more than $4,000 men. And
with these we captured 1900.
"NInc thousand spaniards we're forth
fsd In the best entrenshed position I
ever saw Indeed. the intrenehmeuts
were Of such a character that Smelling
with the guns we had did not 10 them
any serious damage. whore a 13-lnch
shell from mIr ships dropped into n
Hopse in the town 1t demolished tho
dwelling; but all the occupants were
gone"
"pId ceryera's men help Ia the san
Juan 1ght?" waE aeSed. to clear up a
mo1toJ point.
Yea Indeed. he hid 1000 men ashore
from DTS fleet In the hattie " July J..
Ills chief Of sinn Buslmrn;c, was KIN
cd lie marines ana slllors suffered Soc