It was
enough. Officers and men ran instantly for spades and proceeded to
fill up the trench. Report was then made to Gen. Bates, the division
commander, of the offense and action had thereon, with the information
that the Gatling gun commander awaited to answer any complaints. An
investigation was immediately made, with the result that such action
was sustained.
There were some ignorant Volunteers at Santiago, but of all the
willful violation of all the laws of sanitation, camp hygiene, and
health ever seen, these particular Volunteers did the most outrageous
things. They threw their kitchen refuse out on the ground anywhere;
half of the time they did not visit the sink at all, but used the
surface of the ground anywhere instead; and they continued these
offenses at Montauk Point. They raked over an abandoned camp of the
Spanish prisoners on their arrival at Fort Roosevelt, and appropriated
all the cast-off articles they could find, using the debris for
bedding. This surgeon, a "family doctor" from the pine woods in
northern Michigan, did not seem to regard these matters as of any
importance. His attention was called to them, but he took no action.
In short, there was no law of health which these people did not
utterly ignore, no excess dangerous to health which they did not
commit.
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