Miss Barton visited all the Spanish hospitals in Santiago and made a thorough inspection and inquiry into their needs; and subsequently furnished them with everything required that we had in our stores. The Spanish Red Cross had no active workers with the Spanish army in Cuba that we could find, and whatever was done for their soldiers by that organization must have been done through the officials of the army. It was said that Spain was well furnished with army hospitals at home, all of which were carried on by the Red Cross; and that it was the custom, previous to the breaking out of the Spanish-American War, to send all invalid soldiers back to Spain to recover.
Municipal Hospital and Free Dispensaries.
The municipal hospitals of Santiago were also visited and their inmates made happy by a plentiful supply of good food and clean clothing.
The Red Cross opened a free dispensary where Drs. Gills, Carbonel, Solloso and Zuniga attended many hundred of the sick poor and dispensed medicine and delicacies to all needing them. These faithful doctors also visited the sick in their homes wherever they could find them, and did a great deal of good work.
An expedition was sent inland some seventy miles to Holguin, and the needs of all the intervening communities were carefully investigated. Miss Barton and several members of her staff also went to San Luis, and made arrangements with some of the most prominent citizens of that place to take charge of a large quantity of stores; and word was sent to all the adjacent country for forty miles on each side, notifying the people that all who were in need of help could receive supplies by coming to San Luis.
Dr. Hubbell went to Baracoa and Sagua de Tanamo before the Spanish soldiers and the inhabitants of those places had learned of General Toral’s surrender; and he was obliged to go in under a flag of truce and was not generally believed when he told the people that the Province was then under the domination of the Americans. But they were in such straits of sickness and hunger that they gladly accepted the medicine and food that he proffered them.
There was at both Siboney and Santiago a great congestion of government steamers, causing much confusion and consequent delay in getting commissary and quartermaster stores ashore. The government, of course, had charge of everything, including wharves and lighters; and as we were unable to command these facilities several shipments of goods sent to the Red Cross at Santiago were never allowed to land there and were returned to the United States. They were not needed, however, as we had an ample supply for all the demands that were then made upon us. At the suggestion of Mr. D. L. Cobb of the Red Cross, a large schooner was chartered and loaded with Kennebec ice and sent to Santiago in tow, by the “Ice Auxiliary” of New York. Certainly no other of the many methods of relief that had been suggested, was more welcome or acceptable to the suffering heroes of Santiago. No single article that was sent to the soldiers gave one quarter the satisfaction to them that was given by this cooling and comforting necessity. Owing to the lack of facilities for landing, as stated above, we were unable to get the ice ashore to deliver to the hospitals; but as transports, loaded with sick and wounded soldiers were leaving almost daily for the States, we notified the captains of all those steamers that they could have all the ice they might need, and as they could easily run alongside the schooner and take it aboard they all availed themselves of the privilege until the cargo was exhausted.
When the schooner that had brought the ice to Cuba was discharged, she was towed alongside the transport “Port Victor,” that had on board some seven hundred tons of Red Cross supplies, which it was impossible to land, and they were taken aboard the schooner and subsequently sent to Gibara on the northern coast.
Distribution of the Ice.
The following is summary of orders (for ice) upon which the cargo of the “Mary E. Morse” was delivered: