The record-union., 1898-09-01
General Boynton Reports Upon the
State Of Affairs
As They Have Existed Since the Camp Was
Established in April Last.
While Fully Seventy-Five Thous-
and Troops Have Been in Camp
at Chickamauga Park the Total
Death List Numbers But One
Hundred and Ninety-Eight.

Death List Numbers But One
Hundred and Ninety-Eight.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 31.-Secretary
Alger to-day received the report of Cen
eral H. V. Boynton, upon the state of
affairs in the hospital at Camp Thorn
as. The report is dated August 24th.
The General reports that he visited all
the hospitals in the camp without Civ
ing notice of his purpose, and adds:
Believing the death list of this camp
to afford an excellent standard by
which to measure its conditions as to
health and hospital service, a full re-
port was obtained of all deaths in camp
and its hospitals since it's establish
ment in the middle Of April last. The
result shows a total death list Of 1913
up to the 22d Of this month, when the
breaking UP of this camp began. Be-
tween these dates, including regulars
and volunteers, fully $4,000 troops have
been in camp in the Chickamauga
Park
The report takes up in detail, first the
two permanent hospitals Letter and
Sternberg, and then states with the
greatest minuteness the exact accom-
modation afford by each The first is
at Crawfish Springs, under charge of
Major Carter and was converted from
a summer resort hotel into a hospiral,
receiving the worst typhoid cases from
the camp. Each patient has abun-
dant room, woven wire and hair mat
tresses and abundant bedclothes. The
ventilation is perfect, plumbing en-
tirely new and bathing facilities ample.
The number of attendants, when all
are Well is entirely satisfactory and
attendants are on the way to take the
places of those who are broken down.
Taking up the Sternberg Hospital in
charge Of Major Griffin, General Boyn-
ton shows it is one of the most COM
plete field hospitals ever seen, accord
ing to veterans of the last war. 1t is
stated in addition that all the hospital
refuse is burned in a crematory, and,
according to Major Griffin, all of the
200 patients now sick in the entire
camp could be safely moved now. The
diseases are more of a typho malarial
character than of typhoid fever strictly
the death rate being very low, about )
per cent. of the worst cases.
The First Division Hospital, in charge
of Major Frake is f1oored with planed
lumber and it is as clean as possible
The patients are on cots and never
have been on the ground for any length
of time. None of the sixty cents al
lowed per man for delicacies has zen
used as it was not needed.
General Boynton shows that there is
a full refrigerator capacity for this hos
pital, porcelain-lined oaths, sterilized
and iced water and every convenience
In the malignant typhoid ward there
have been but two deaths out of thirty
cases in three weeks. He says that
both the medical officers and the hospi-
tai attendants at this hospital have un-
doubtedly performed their duty with
energy and efficiency.
The next hospital inspected was the
Third Division Hospital, First Corps,
in charge of Major Thomas Clark Here
the attendants We're found sufficient.
though in the earlier days there were
not enough surgeons or attendants.
The grounds were in excellent condi-
ton, the tents clean, most of the tents
f1oored and all of the space between the
cots and aisles For a time the hos
pital was week behind in obtaining
its medical supplies, but this was be-
medical stores in great quantities.
Taking up the last field hospital,
that Of the Third Corps, Second Divi-
sion, under Major Smith, the report
states that the fifty-three tents are at
present not all occupied, though dur
ing the epidemic of measles they were
crowded.
Leaving the details about the hos
pitfalls, the report proceeds as follows:
I'm two of the hospitals opportunities
occurred for discoveries of what un-
doubtedly originated many of the sem
sational stories which have been printed
over the country to the effect that pa
tients in the hospitals lacked sufficient
food. and, in many cases, had been on
the verge of starvation. In the wards
where the convalescent typhoid patients
We're found many of the men We're con-
stantly asking for food and as a matter
of consequence were as constantly de-
MED everything except the lighter forms
of food which can alone be safely ad-
ministered to recovering typhoid pa
tients.
There has been no lack of perfect
food in the hospitals, and competent
cooks for preparing it have been pres
ent, and the only reason for depriving
the patients of what so many of them
have clamored for has been the neces-
sity of such dieting as the disease de-
mands. 1t will be easily observed that
the conditions set forth in this report
are mainly present conditions.
Undoubtedly there has been serious
inconvenience, and at times of the
greatest crowding there was lack of
conveniences and full attendance which
go to make up that painful condition
of affairs, which, as every veteran
knows, are inseparable from the field
hospitals of great armies, even when
all concerned exert themselves to secure
the comfort of the patients.
$50 far from believing, as a result of
my observations, that medical officers
have been heartless or negligent be-
lieve that these officers and the hos
pital attendants, as a whole. have ex-
erted themselves to discharge their du-
ties faithfully.
I'm closing, beg leave to express my
opinion that most of the interviews
with Chaplains, regimental surgeons
and others, both officers and men, now
appearing at the North in many of the
newspapers in regard to this camp are