General Chaffee has said:—
"Soldier's do not like sympathy; sympathy is for women and children. Soldiers are men, but they do like fair commendation when deserving of it, and especially when their fortitude has been severely tested. Commend our soldiers for manfully undergoing privations and they will readily respond again; but prate of their privations, deficiencies, and heavy burdens, and they soon learn to dread the hour that shall disturb their ease; the spirit becomes one of submission rather than one cheerfully embracing the opportunity to exhibit their endurance and their stamina."
The strength of the Eighth lay in the manhood of her officers and men, who were ready with a determined smile to face any game into which they were called.
A commission appointed by the President to investigate the sanitary conditions of the military camps of 1898 reported early in 1899. The report contains an allusion to the Eighth Massachusetts. It says:—
"The intelligent and watchful supervision on the part of the surgeons and regimental officers, and the observance of the well established rules of camp sanitation shown by the record of the Eighth Massachusetts Volunteers at Camp Thomas, is very commendable. This regiment was for many weeks very healthy, while much sickness was occurring in regiments near by, although the camp site, water and drill were practically the same."
This was a great compliment to the volunteer regimental commander and his officers.
In some of the camps in the United States, no thoroughly well established rules of sanitation were observed. Little restriction was placed on drunkenness and immorality. Soldiers did not seem to care how they lived, and their officers did not watch or teach them. Frequently the food was poorly cared for, and badly cooked, and the men were permitted to eat and drink anything and everything they could find. Sickness naturally followed in regiments where laxity prevailed.
The Eighth, according to evidence before the commission, followed just the opposite plan. Discipline was strict and impartial, and the health of the troops consequently of the best. They were a source of much admiration to all who saw them, both at Camp Thomas and the other places. No other regiment in the whole American army was similarly favored in the Commissioner's report.