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Doctor From Pennsylvania

Doctor From Pennsylvania image
Parent Issue
Day
18
Month
November
Year
1898
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

MEN WON THE FIGHT.

Gen. Shafter Gets Small Credit for Santiago from General J.C. Breckinridge.

CAMPAIGN WAS HAPPY GO LUCKY,

Seems To Be the Opinion of the Witness, Who Is Anything Except Complimentary to the Commander Before Santiago - Much Praise for Miles - Characteristic Story of Beresford Told  to Illustrate the Situation Before the Surrender of Toral.

Washington, Nov. 16. - The feature of General Breckinridge's testimony before the war investigators yesterday was its tone in regard to General Shafter, which was anything but complimentary. 
On the other hand it was highly eulogistic of General Miles. He said that the preparations for embarking Shafter's force at Tampa was quite inadequate; that there were no lighters to speak of nor any preparations to land in the face of the enemy except the warships of Santiago.
At the front the only point was to get men forward; equipment was not considered. The fight there was won when General Toral's nerve gave out. He did not consider General Shafter was above criticism in the conduct of the campaign.

"Limitations of Gen. Shafter."

Proceeding General Breckinridge said that all engaged in the war had acted with zeal, and every man had done the best of which he was capable, and he had never known a war in which there was not criticism at the close of it.
"What was to be expected from the limitations of General Shafter?
* * * I am sure that if he [Miles] had had charge he would he would have been in the front rank." He could not believe the result was a miracle, but he ascribed the outcome to the fact that the army was one which was capable of meeting all calls.
"No matter how it was tangled up," he said, "it went to victory."
He had at the time quoted Lord Beresford when he said to his army upon a certain occasion: "I have led you into a devil of a fix and it is now your duty to fight like hell to get me out of it."

Leaves Room for "Speculations"

The most interesting perhaps of Breckinridge's testimony was when he declined to testify. He was asked if he had visited General Shafter in his tent when the latter was ill at Santiago, and General Breckinridge replied that he had done so.
"Did he then offer the command of the army to you as has been reported in the press?"

General Breckinridge replied: "I very much prefer not to answer that question. You should ask General Shafter.
* * * If General Shafter has not repeated the conversation I ought not to do so."

"As a matter of fact, he did not turn the command over to you?" suggested Governor Beaver, to which General Breckinridge responded:
"No he did not, and I do not think there is any impropriety in my saying that he could not have done so."

Those Sinks at Camp Thomas.

Dr. Conner questioned General Breckinridge about the condition of the sinks at Camp Thomas when the troops left there, saying that it had been represented to the commission that some 3,000 of them had been found to be uncovered.
The general replied that necessarily some of the sinks had been left uncovered; that it was difficult to clean up after a large army evacuating a camp. He said, however, that he has foreseen this and has asked $1,500 from Washington for the purpose of putting the sinks in proper condition. This money had not arrived before the departure, but he supposed it had been received later and had been used by his successor for the purpose for which it was intended.

DOCTOR FROM PENNSYLVANIA.

Tells the Commission Something More About Army Hospitals.

Dr. William G. Weaver, of the Ninth Pennsylvania volunteers, proved an important witness, as he gave detailed information concerning the conduct of a regimental hospital at Camp Thomas. Weaver said that typhoid had broken out about the 18th of June and that it had increased from that time until the 20th of August. There had been about 600 cases of this disease in the regiment and twenty-eight or thirty deaths. The doctor said there was an insufficient supply of drugs and that at times he failed to get what was needed. Quinine was one of the articles of which there had been a scarcity and 100,000 pills were secured from home.

He said that at one time there were fifty-six typhoid patients in the regimental hospital because there was no accommodation for them in the division hospital. At another time there were sixty-seven fever patients in the company tents for whom admission could not be secured in any hospital, division or regimental. In summing up the causes of disease in the camp Dr. Weaver included over-work of the men as one. The first reveille sounded at 4:30 and after that time the men were kept quite constantly engaged with drills and other exercises until 6:15, notwithstanding the weather was intensely hot. He also expressed the opinion that the water from Chickamauga creek was polluted, He considered the water in this stream hardly fit to bathe in, much less to drink.

Dr. Weaver related his difficulties in securing tents for the regimental hospital and he said that in one case Chief Quartermaster Lee had refused to allow the regiment to have a tent which was stored and which was its property. Col. Lee said the tent could not be taken out except in the proper military manner. In this connection, Governor Beaver expressed the opinion that this conduct on the part of Colonel Lee was an outrage, and he said the only mistake that the doctor and his colonel had made was that "they had not taken the colonel by the nape of the neck and kicked him out of the camp."

Major Louis A. Lagarde, a regular army surgeon who was in charge of the division hospital at Siboney, said the transports taking troops to Cuba were overcrowded, and the air was very fetid and hot. On his steamer, the Saratoga, thirteen cases of fever had developed going over. The men sent north were supplied with all that could be spared, but the hospital authorities felt that those who went north, even though short of attendance and supplies, were fewer chances than those who remained, as yellow fever was even then beginning to make its appearance. The orders were to send only such men as could wait upon themselves. He said he had obtained from the Red Cross society all that he had asked for.

There was a shortage of nurses, as the military necessities were such that it was impracticable to keep as many men at work in this capacity as were needed. Dr. Lagarde expressed the opinion that the United States could have a supply of stores on hand as well as the Red Cross, and he believed that it would have done so if such a battle as was fought had been anticipated. There was a sufficient quantity of medical supplies, if they could have been unloaded. The lighters were all used for unloading articles of military equipment, and it had been next to impossible to get the hospital supplies landed.

Referring to the charge that the sick on the Seneca had no change of clothing, he said he presumed this was true, as nobody in Cuba seemed to have more than one suit of clothing. Furthermore, the hospital had no ice to spare to the transports. Ice was a scarce article. The gentlemen of the press had furnished the chief supply to the institution.