Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-01-14

of the army, the Secretary of War or
any army officer or War Department
official can take cogniZance.
There was only silence and deser-
ton in the army headquarters and in
the inspector generals Office. Neither
Gen. Miles nor Gen. Breckenridge were
at their desks at 10: 80, in spite of the
| fact that the commanding general is a
hard worker and usually is on hand
promptly after the department opens
None of their subordinates was inclin-
except to guardedly say they wished
the War Department could wash its
linen indoors" This homely proverb
! was made use of by three prominent Of
| ficials, who declined to say anything
for publication.
Gen. Eagan was at work in his Of
fee promptly as usual. He refused
TO SAY ANYTHING
beyond what he had given to the war
| commission yesterday, saying that his
statement then was a full declaration
of his feelings and beliefs. 1t was an
| official utterance, he said made to the
body which had a right to hear it, and
hedeclinedto enter into any expost facto
newspaper war. 1t was stated at the
War Department to-day that orders
hau RI InSnnofnr
Breck Iidge to proceed to Porto Rico
and Cuba for a thorough inspection of
the army camps there. 1t is denied
that this order has any connection
with the beef investigation set on foot
by Gen. Miles, and now being prosecu-
ted by the inspector generals office. :;
Brig. Gen. Leonard Wood was the
star witness before the commission
to-day. His testimony here was on
general conditions in Cuba, and he
opened with the general statement that
never in the history of any country
had there been so successful cam
paign with so small losses of life. He
praised the quality of the much-talked-
of beef furnished the army, and said
that except for some cans that were
tainted and consequently thrown away
the beef was of a good quality, and he
himself had used the meat both in the
war and in his own family.
Gen. Wood thought every man in his
command, if necessary TO the governs
ment, would volunteer his services
again. No amount of preparation in
/ addition to that which had been made,
| he said, would have brought about any
| difference in the amount of sickness
! among the army of invasion. The
difficult ,es, he said, in getting food TO
the army were almost insurmountable,
and the occasion of shortage was very
| readily accounted for. The roads were
almost impossible. None of the men
should now have any disagreeable or
dreadful recoHections of the war save
such as would result from any hard
service which always goes with a war.
The success of the Cuban campaign,
said Gen. Wood, was simply phenom-
email. The campaign was very rapid,
and perhaps the extraordinary success
was due in large measure to this fact.
The Spaniards, he explained, were
whipped so quickly every time that
they were almost paralyzed and dazed.
THE LOSS OF SANTIAGO,
where the United States forces cap
tured over $4,000 men in all its terri
tory, was so complete and rapidly eff
fected that it brought about the sur
render of the entire island AS to the
war generally he had seen far greater
hardships in his Indian campaigns in
the west than he had in Cuba. AS to
the beef he had never noticed any
thing bad, and said the great trouble
was the ignorance and superstition of
the men. The average soldier, he as
serted, does not regard matured meat
with any favor. AS to the refrigerated
beef used during the campaign. he ex-
planned that it was gotten in tremen-
dously hot weather, the beef was I'M
loaded in good condition, was taken
out of the refrigerators aboard at
night, owing to the cool air then, was
gotten ashore by daybreak. meantime
there would be a shower. followed by
the sun coming out in intense force,
and by the time it reached the camp it
would be about four o'clock iu>the af-
ternoon. If eaten that night it would
be all right. The United States forces
at Santiago had unlimited rations and
the Spaniards left the city full of food.
The popular idea that Santiago was
devoid of food and the Spaniards sur
rendered because they were starving.
he said, was not true.
The war investigating commission
probably will close the taking of testi-
mony, save that of Surgeon DAILY, who
is i'll. by the latter part of next week.
and its report is expected to be fin
ished by the last of this month or early
in February