them cool at Montauk Point in the
fall. The marines drank only water that had been boiled or sterilized,
while the men of General Shafter's command drank out of brooks into
which the heavy afternoon showers were constantly washing fecal and
other decaying organic matter from the banks. The marines were well
protected from rain and dew, while the regulars of the Fifth Army-Corps
were drenched to the skin almost every day, and slept at night on the
water-soaked ground. The marines received the full navy ration, while
the soldiers had only hardtack and fat bacon, and not always enough of
that. Finally, the marines had surgeons enough to take proper care of
the sick, and medicines enough to give them, while General Shafter,
after leaving his reserve medical supplies and ambulance corps at Tampa,
telegraphs the adjutant-general on August 3 that "there has never been
sufficient medical attendance or medicines for the daily wants of the
command." In short, the marines observed the laws of health, and lived
in Cuba according to the dictates of modern sanitary science, while the
soldiers, through no fault of their own, were forced to violate almost
every known law of health, and to live as if there were no such thing as
sanitary science in existence.

Governor Tanner, General Grosvenor, and Secretary Alger may declare that
the wrecking of the army by disease was inevitable, that Northern
soldiers cannot maintain their health in the tropics, and that "when
troops come home sick and worn, it is a part of war"; but, in view of
the record made at Guantanamo Bay, we may say to them, seriously and
respectfully, rather than flippantly: "Tell that to the marines!"

The record of the marine battalion, taken in connection with General
Shafter's admission that his command was disabled by "twenty days of
bread, meat, and coffee, without change of clothes, and without any
shelter whatever," seems to show conclusively that the epidemic of
disease which wrecked the army was the direct result of improper and
insufficient food, inadequate equipment, and utter neglect of all the
rules prescribed by sanitary science for the maintenance of health in
tropical regions. The questions then recur, Why did not the army have
such food, clothes, and equipment as would have made obedience to the
laws of health possible? Why should they have been directed by their
chief surgeon to boil all drinking-water, to avoid sleeping on the
ground, and to change thei