The record-union., 1899-01-15

ended when the camp broke up. Every
narrative of the campaign, whether
from the hips Of private soldier or
those of a Captain. Colonel or General,
was prefaced and punctuated by
indictments of the fever as the chlef
evil encountered in Cuba. Witnesses
needed squirting in order to bring out
details of battle, but the unusual hard
ships of the transports, Of existence III
Cuba and of the fever were staple top
les.
In general the breakdown of the
troops began Immediately after the sur
render. The heat, the loss of capacity,
to relish and digest coarse, fatty ra-
ticns, physical strain and malaria,
We're reasons for the collapse. The reg =
uiars also said that drinking water was
rendered impure by the volunteers, who
washed and bathed in the streams
above camp. Regular soldiers knew
better and carried water away from
the streams for their ablutions. In
every respect. the sanitation of the vol
unteers was cited as bad, and Camp
Wlkoff official inspection records gave
evidence of it.
Weakness due to heat and the lack of.
nutriment invited fever. Every effort
was made to stem the evil From the
first cargo of foodstuffs landed at San
tiago Shafter bought several thousands
cans of condensed milk for the troops.
Cuban wines and all the farinaceous
foods available were also purchased by
the Government or from outside funds.
Two officers of the Sixteenth regulars,
Lieutenant Colonel Mclaughlin and
o%a;v 1T or1o md own
Contributed by their wives) in getting
supplies Cor their commands. The Red
Cross led in noble work and the one
sentiment in the army about this socie-
ty was God bless the, Red Cross!''
July 22d was the date when the first
alarming list of fever patients was re-
ported Out of / 800 sick $50 cases were
set down as fever. On the 23d there
were 400 new cases and 500 on the 24th.
This report was misleading, for on the
25th there We're over 2, 100 fever cases
in camp, 800 of them new, and only 2S7
sick of Others complaints. By the 10Th
the sick roll had reached $40, nearly
1900 being fever cases. About this
time there We're 600 to 500 new fever
cases daily, and on the 2Sth with
sick roll of 4.279, over 400 were down
with fever. This exhibit refers to the
hospital only Several hundred fever
cases were returned from the hospital
to the quarters each day, but the VIC
TINS were not cured, and on the Sd of
August, when the round robin took the
matter up, General Ames of Kent's di-
vision declared "a full list of the sick
would mean a copy of the roster of
every company" in Cuba. Throughout
there were more sick in the quarters
than in the hospital.
The first general relief began about
July 24th That day Clara Barton sent
word to camp that she had supplies at
Santiago dock for the regimental sick.
The dole for regiment was a sack of
rice and one of cornmeal. One officer
told me that it cost S1.5O to get the sup
ply for his regiment to camp, and 1t
helped all hands. Before the troops left
Cuba they received rations of veget-
ables and of fresh beef. The Govern
ment supplied beef to the officers
messes at 10 cents pound. Panic
prices prevailed in the markets. An
officer said that he paid 81 and upward
for the canned fruit and vegetables sold
by grocers here at 10 to 15 cents each
and was glad to get them at any price.
On August 9TH the first troops sailed
from Santiago. After that steamers
left daily At one stage 1000 men
per diem poured into Camp Wikoff. On
the 7th of the month there was not
bit of shelter ready. and the same with
about every necessity, so that on the
arrival of the first troops from Cuba the
accommodations We're inadequate and
never up to the demand until the very
last BY the time the l,UO new ar
rivals of a given day had been provid-
ed for fresh detachment, half of whom
were sick. demanded attention. Yet
there was no apparent lack of wise and.
energetic action in the use of such fa-
cilities as the Government provided,
with the exception perhaps of the med
ical department Hospitals grew, but
they couldn't beat the pace of the
fever; nurses came forward, but the
fever gave ten new victims to the one
they could save, and supplies poured