History of the Gatling Gun Detachment, Fifth Army Corps, at Santiago / With a Few Unvarnished Truths Concerning that Expedition

by John H. Parker

Cuban Residence.

Third—Lack of Shelter.

The allowance of tentage was prescribed for each regiment. Granted that it was impossible to get tentage up until after the surrender; yet it should have been practicable to forward tentage over two and one-half miles of macadamized roads. Yet whole regiments remained without tentage until they embarked for the United States. The 13th Infantry did not get tentage until the 5th of August. The 20th Infantry and the 3d Infantry obtained a portion of their tentage about the same time, but a large part of these regiments remained under shelter tents until they reembarked. The 1st Illinois and the 34th Michigan remained in shelter tents until the 15th of August, at which time the author embarked for the United States. These regiments are fair examples.

The Gatling Gun Detachment was provided with shelter-halves and remained under them until the 10th of August. Repeated applications for proper tentage were made, accompanied by medical certificates that the issue of tentage was imperatively necessary for the health of the command. Endorsements thereon by the chief quartermaster of the 5th Corps as late as the 5th of August show that there was no available tentage for issue. Application was made to the regimental commander, 13th Infantry, for a portion of regimental tentage for the detachment of the 13th Infantry; but, in spite of the fact that the reduced regiment had on hand all the canvas prescribed for the full regiment, none could be obtained for the detachment. The detachment commander was entirely without tentage from the 25th of June until the 5th of August—forty-five days in the rainy season in Cuba, exposed to the torrid sun by day, to chilling dews by night, and the drenching rains of the afternoon, without shelter from any inclemencies of the weather, and this in spite of repeated applications to proper authorities for the suitable allowance of tentage. Is it any wonder that men grew sick, and that death stalked broadcast through the camp of the 5th Corps, under these conditions?

Fourth—Lack of Proper Medical Attendance.

The surgeons who were at the front with the firing-line worked heroically, but were burdened beyond their physical powers. Owing to the foregoing causes, great numbers of men became ill as soon as the strain and tension of the battle were relieved. It was not uncommon to find twenty or twenty-five per cent of a command on the sick-report, and in some cases the sick-list went as high as fifty per cent. There were no well men in the 5th Army Corps. Those who refused to go on the sick-report were, nevertheless, sick. The author has yet to find a single member of the expedition who did not suffer from the climatic fever. The surgeons themselves were not exempt, and the very limited supply of doctors was speedily decreased by sickness. Were there no doctors in the United States who were willing to come to Cuba?

Up to the 25th of July the supply of medicines was very deficient. There was never a sufficient supply of ambulances. The accommodations in the hospitals were even worse than those on the firing-line. A sick soldier on the firing-line could always find some comrade who would cut green boughs or gather grass for a bed, but the one who went to the hospital had to lie on the ground. The supply of hospital cots was ridiculously inadequate, and this condition did not improve.

The difficulty of obtaining adequate medical attendance may be illustrated by the case of Priv. Fred C. Elkins, of the 17th Infantry, member of the Gatling Gun Detachment. Priv. Elkins had been hurt in the fight on the 1st of July and had been sent to the hospital. He found the accommodations so wretched that he feigned improvement and returned to his detachment. He remained with the detachment until the 14th of July, improving so far as his injury was concerned, but contracted the climatic fever. During this time he was prescribed for twice by the assistant surgeon with the Rough Riders, Dr. Thorpe, previous to the time this regiment was moved westward on the firing-line. His condition became worse, and on the 12th of July Dr. Brewer, 1st lieutenant and assistant surgeon with the 10th Cavalry, was called upon to examine him. This surgeon had then under treatment over 100 cases pertaining to his proper command, and was himself ill, but he readily came and inspected the patient. He promised to send medicines for him, but in the rush of overwork forgot to do so, and on the 13th of July he was again summoned. This time he sent a hospital attendant to take the patient’s temperature, which was 104°. No medicines were sent. On the 14th of July the patient became delirious. The detachment commander went in person to request the same surgeon to attend to the case, he being the only one available at that time. The hospital attendant was again ordered to take the temperature. At the end of an hour even this had been neglected. The hospital man was sick, and had been without sleep for fifty hours. Priv. Elkins was put upon a board and carried to Brewer’s tent, with his descriptive list in his pocket. The surgeon was told the name of the patient and the facts that he was related to a distinguished family and had been recommended for a commission for gallantry upon the field of battle. Dr. Brewer was himself suffering at the time, with a temperature of 103°, but he rose from his own sick-bed and administered remedies which relieved the patient. The following day, the third of his illness, Dr. Brewer was found to be suffering from yellow fever, and was carried back to the yellow fever hospital at Siboney along with Priv. Elkins. He had been sick all the time, but had done his best. Priv. Elkins improved sufficiently to write a letter to his commanding officer from the hospital at Siboney, on the 25th of July, which reached that officer at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on the 12th day of September. In spite of the fact that the patient was furnished with descriptive list, and was specially commended to the care of the surgeon as a soldier marked for extreme gallantry, all trace of him had been lost; and although two private detectives were searching for him a month, no further clew had been found to his whereabouts or fate as late as the 1st of October. Even if his descriptive list had not been furnished with this man, the fact that he was alive and rational enough on the 25th day of July to write a letter concerning his approaching discharge should have made it easy for some record of his case to have been kept.

But this one isolated case sinks into insignificance beside the condition in which some of the sick were left by commands returning to the United States. All cases of yellow fever suspects were left behind, and in the mad scramble to embark for the return voyage many of these were left without proper attention or supplies.

Gen. Kent’s Division had left by the 11th of August. The following extract from a letter dated Santiago de Cuba, August 12, 1898, will convey some idea of the condition in which the sick of this division were left: