This grand transformation of the dirty Cuban hospital was watched with great interest by the American officers and men, and when it was finally finished it presented such a noticeable contrast of peace, cleanliness and comfort to the United States Army hospital, where everything was the very opposite, in all its hideousness of neglect, squalor and suffering, that there was a universal grumble in the camp, and men were heard to mutter: “What kind of people are these Red Cross folks that come down here and give the best of everything to the Cubans, and pass by our own boys, who are dying for the want of these very attentions?” When it was explained to them that the Red Cross had first gone to our own hospital and offered all it had to our own army surgeons, and that they had declined assistance, there was an immediate and widespread inquiry, “Why?” and as no answer that would satisfy could be given, and the grumble was becoming more general and forcible all the time, a little later the army surgeons thought best to allay further irritation by a general acceptance of whatever was needed from the Red Cross stores, and any personal assistance that might be offered.
As a result of this change of mind everything that was needful to make the American hospital the equal of the Cuban hospital was gladly given by the Red Cross, and from that time on to the end of the war the army surgeons and the Red Cross worked in perfect harmony and with mutual respect and admiration. A Red Cross hospital was opened at Siboney and immediately filled to its capacity with American soldiers and government employes; and the Red Cross surgeons were given operating tables in the army hospital and on the field, and with the aid of Red Cross nurses rendered splendid service in the bloody days that soon followed.
Urgent Call for Help at the Front.
As General Shafter pressed forward with his troops, the fighting became more severe, and his chief surgeon, Colonel Pope, sent word to Miss Barton asking for aid to be sent out to the front. She responded immediately and personally led a party consisting of Mr. George Kennan, Mrs. J. Addison Porter, Dr. and Mrs. Gardner, Dr. E. Winfield Egan, Dr. J.B. Hubbell, and Mr. J.A. McDowell, going forward in army wagons and on foot over a road whose badness could not be exceeded anywhere; and they soon had their tents up and their kettles boiling, and for several days they devoted all their time to relieving the sufferings of the wounded men on the field. They made gruels and soups, and all the delicacies that could be prepared with the facilities at hand, and distributed fruits and cooling drinks. These poor wounded soldiers were lying on the field where they were left after their wounds had been dressed; and as there was no food for them to eat except the regular army ration of salt meat, hardtack and coffee, which many of them were unable to swallow, in some instances they had not taken any nourishment for three days, and were nearly starved.
The “rainy season” had just set in and these “martyrs to the cause of Cuban liberty,” who were helpless and in many cases without clothing of any kind, were left without protection, except such as could be had from small bushes and trees; and they were subjected daily to alternate “sunshine and shower;” and when it is said that those words are not to be taken in a poetical sense, but that they mean intense heat and deluging rains, the suffering that ensued can be understood. And it may be well to say that in that locality at that time of the year, when the sun sets the cold air from the mountains drops down into the valleys and the nights become uncomfortably chilly before morning.
That the statement of the sufferings of these men may not be thought overdrawn, I shall introduce here an extract from the testimony of Major William Duffield Bell, an army surgeon, as given on this point in his report for the War Department:
The First division of the Fifth Army Corps Hospital was the only one in the field. The surgical force in this hospital was insufficient to meet the demands upon it, and numbers of the wounded lay unattended for twelve and even twenty-four hours on the bare ground before their turn came. There was an insufficient supply of proper food for invalids, due to lack of transportation, though there was no lack of surgical supplies at the hospital, thanks to the energy and business like efforts of Major Wood, chief surgeon of the Division Hospital.
Another great want was the scarcity of clothing and blankets. In many cases soldiers were soaked with rain and stiffened with mud from the trenches, so that their clothes had to be removed before an operation or dressing, and could not be put on again. Men were often taken from the operating table and of necessity in many cases were laid upon the wet ground without shelter, and in the majority of cases without even a blanket, and with little or no nourishment for two awful days until the Red Cross Society, under Miss Barton, appeared on the scene.
With no intention to place the blame for the condition of things existing, it is only just to state that had some officers of the commissary and quartermaster’s departments displayed the same zeal and enthusiasm as did Major Wood and his officers and men, such things need not have happened, and the poor sick and wounded sufferers would not have had to feel, as many did, that they were almost forgotten by God and man.