Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-08-12
MIR. Remnants Statement.

To the Editor of The Evening Star:
Inasmuch Fair Play thinks I misun-
derstood George Remnants meaning in the
Outlook of July 30, let me quote more fully
from tina article:
THE resources and supplies of the hospi-
tai, outside of instruments, operating ia
bles and medicines, were very limited.
There vas tent shelter for only about one
hundred wounded men; there We're no cots,
hammocks, mattresses. rubber blankets or
pillows for sick or injured soldiers; the sup
ply of wooden army blankets was very short
and was soon exhausted, and there was no
clothing at all except two or three dozen
shirts. In the form of hospital food for
sick or wounded men thsre was nothing eX-
cept a few jars of beef extract, matted milk,
etc, bought in the United States by Major
Wood, brought here in his own private
baggage, and held in reserve for desperate
cases.
such was the equipment of the only field
hospital in Cuba at the attack on Santiago.
That it was wretchedly incomplete and in
adequate hardly need say. but the respon-
sibility for the incompleteness and made
qCacy cannot be laid upon the field force.
The small force of field surgeons
worked heroically and with a devotion that
nave never seen surpassed: but they were
completely overwhelmed by the great bloody
wave of human agony that rolled back in
ever-increasing volume from the battle line.
of wounded men that had been brought
into the hospital camp was about 800 :
The force of surgeons and hospital stewards
Immediately available was altogether too
small to attend properly to the great num-
Der of wounded thrown suddenly upon their
hands, and no men could be Spared to look
after the wretched and suffering soldiers in
the grass whose wounds had baen treated.
when there were a hundred more who had
not even been looked at in twenty-four
hours and who were lying in long close
ly packed row on the ground awaiting their
turns at the operating tables. In
stead of the force of five surgeons and
about twenty stewards and attendants with
which the hospital began work on Friday
there should have been force of fifty sur
geons and at least two hundred stewards.
attendants and stretcher-beare so that
they might have been divided into two
watches, or reliefs working and resting al
ternately. AS 1t was on Friday. five sur
geons and twenty attendants had to take
care of the wounded from three whole Of
visions. They were reinforced by five mora
surgeons and perhaps twenty more attend
ants Friday evening, but even this force
was so insufficient and inadequate that at
midnight on Saturday cne of the highest
medical officers i'll the camp said to me,
This department Is in state of complete
collapse
As to Fair Play" endeavoring to make
1t appear that | wanted the medical de-
partment to set up a hospital among the
Spaniards before our troops arrived that is
amusing. Manifestly all that was suggest
ed was that the medical department ought
to have landed sufficient mer and supplies
with the troops-a week before the Santiago
lighting And as to my misQuoting the sur
geon general of the army in regard to the
Red Cross at the front, 1 quoted exactly
from the published interview. which 1 have
Eever seen denied.
NOT MEMBER OF THE RED CROSS.
August u, 1898.