The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-10-05
1HEWARINVESIIGATlON
Major General Wheeler Before tho
Commissioners.
DEFENDS THE WAR DEPARTMENT

Declares That at Santiago Genera
shatter Made Every Effort to Protect
His Men-Camp wikoF Was Better
Supplied Than Any Camp In History
Washington. Oct. 5.-The war inves.
tigating commission began the taking
of testimony yesterday, and Major
General Wheeler was on the stand the
: greater part of the day. There was a
full attendance of the commission, and
: the doors Of the room in which the In
quiry Is conducted We're for the first
time opened to representatives Of the
press.
General Wheeler's testimony covered
the case Of the soldiers at the two i'm
portant points Of Santiago and Wikoff.
He said with reference to the conduct
Of affairs at Santiago that there has
necessarily been some suffering In the
trenches, but that General Shafter had
exercised the utmost effort to protect
his men. There had been, he said, a
shortage Of land transportation faclli-
ties for a time and there had been no
tents for week. The roads were very
fair. He revealed for the first time
that he had some feeling over the fact
fourth place in General Skaters order
for the landing at Santiago, VIII n he
had thought he was entitled to b. al
lowed to land first, on accoun. of his
rank.
The entire afternoon session was de-
voted to the explanations of condi-
tlons at Camp Wikoff, on Long Island.
The general contended that Wikoif was
model camp, the climate salubrious
one and the accommodations quite
exceptional in character. He consider
ed the hospital capacity equal to the
demands upon 1t, and that no military
camp in history was ever so well sup
piled in all respects as was this.
He had read to the regular soldiers
the assertion that they had been in an
almost starving condition, and they
laughed at the report. The men as
serted that the only trouble was that
they had too much. and matter of
fact no soldiers had ever been so well
supplied General Wheeler asserted
that 1t was true some of the employees
had used articles intended for the sick,
and he had been told by some ladies'
that physicians had used some of the
articles. including appollinaris water,
provided for the hospital. He had is
sued an order for the arrest of those
engaged in such a practice. He had
himself seen a boy distributing oranges
among his fellows. "They WERE" he
said. Undoubtedly individual cases of
suffering and of neglect, but they were
the exception"
He had investigated the charge that
the hospitals We're overcrowded, and he
was satisfied that such was not the
case. He made almost daily visits to
the hospitals, and if he had found
them overcrOwded the deficiency
would Lave been made good, and i'm
mediately. We had no red tape about
this or any other matter" said the gen.
eral, "but we ordered a thing DONE and
II was done. Our aim at WikofY was
to supply the necessities of the men.
and we attempted to do so without re-
sorting to formalities resorted to In
time Of peace.
At 4 o'clock the commission adjourn
ed until today. General Wheeler re-
sumed his testimony this forenoon, and
will probably be followed by General
H. v. Boynton. General F'itzhugh Lee
has notified the committee that he will
not be able to appear before next
Thursday. -