The record-union., 1898-08-05
ASKED TO BE SENT HOME.
Appeal From Commanding Officers
to General Shafter.


copyrighted 1898, by Associated Press.l
SANTIAGO De CUBA. Aug. 3. $50
p. m.-(Delayed in transmission.)-
Summoned by Major General Shafter,
meeting was held here this morning
at headquarters, and in the presence
Of every commanding and medical Off
Ger Of the Fifth Army Corps General
Shafter read a cable message from Sec
retary Alger ordering him at the rec
ommendation of Surgeon General
Sternberg to move the army into the
interior, to San Luis, where it is
healthier. As a result of the confer
ence, General Shafter will insist lpon
the immediate withdrawal of the army
north within two weeks.
AS an explanation of the situation,
the following letter from Colonel Iheo-
dore Roosevelt, commanding the First
Volunteer Cavalry, to General Shafter,
was handed by the latter to the cor
respondent here of the Associated
Press for publication:
Major General Shafter-Sir: In j
meeting of the general and medical of-
ficers, called by you at the palace this
morning, we are all, as you know,
unanimous in view of what should be
done with the army. To keep us here,
in the opinion of every Officer COM
manding a division or brigade, will
simply involve the destruction of thou
sands There is no possible reason
for not shipping practically the entire
command north at once. Yellow fever
cases are very few in the cavalry di-
vision, where 1 command one O. the
two brigades, and not one true case
of yellow fever has occurred in this
division, except among the men sent
to the hospital at Siboney, where they
have, l believe, contracted it.
But in this division there have been
/ 800 cases of malarial fever. Not
man has died from it, but the whole
command is SO weakened and shattered
as to be ripe for dying like rotten sheep
when a real yellow fever epidemic, III
stead Of a fake epidemic like the pres
ent, strikes US, and it is bound TO II
we stay here at the hight of the sick
ness season, August, and the beginning
of September.
Quarantine against malariah fever is
much like quarantining against the
toothache All Of us are certain as
soon as the authorities at Washington
fully appreciate the condition of the
army it will be sent home. If we are
ity mean an appalling disaster, for the
surgeons estimate that over half the
army, if kept here, will die. 1t is not
only terrible from the standpoint of the
individual lives lost, but it means ruin
from the standpoint of the military
efficiency of the flower of the Ameri-
can army, for the great bulk of the
regulars are here with you.
ceedics 1000, affords but faint in
dex of the debilitation of the army.
Not ten per cent are fit for active
work. Six weeks on the North Maine
coast, for instance, or elsewhere the
yellow fever germ cannot possibly
propagate, would make US all fit as
fighting cocks, able as We are eager
to take a leading part in the great
campaign against Havana in the fall,
even If We are not allowed to try Porto
Rico.
I'VE can be moved north, if moved at
once, with absolute safety to the coun-
try, although, of course, it would have
been infinitely better il we had been
moved north or to Porto Rico two
weeks ago. If there We're any object
in keeping us here, we would face fever
with as much Indifference as we faced
bullets, but there is no object in it,
The four immune regiments ordered
here are sufficient to garrison the city
and surrounding towns, and there is
absolutely nothing for us to do here,
and there has not been since the city
surrendered. 1t is impossible to move
into the interior. Every shifting of
camp doubles the sick rate in our pres
ent weakened condition, and anyhow
the interior is rather worse than the
coast, as / have found by actrual re-
connOisance. Our present camps are
as healthy as any camps at this end
of the island can be-