Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1898 — DEMOCRATIC MEXICAN WAR [ARTICLE]

DEMOCRATIC MEXICAN WAR

Statistics of the Terrible Loss of Life Through Incompetent Officials. TAYLOR’S PLEA FOR MORE SURGEONS PRACTICALLY IGNORED How the Democrat* Treated the. Soldier* They Were Using to Create More Ter* rttory For Slavery.

In the Mexican war fpr the extension el slavery, and conducted by a Demoeratip administration, 'the desertions were of disgraceful numbers, being 7 per cent of the whole enlistment of regulars and volunteers. The deaths from disease were 9 per cent. The wounded 5 per ceut. While the killed in battle and deaths from wounds were only a little more than 2 per cent. These figures are based upon returns «f Adjutant General Jones made to congress in response to a demand for information concerning the conduct of the war. He was asked to furnish it, both as 0o the beginning of the war and as to the army at the time—April 5, 1848— when he sent in his report, after many weeks delay. Of the sick he gave no figures, because he Had no returns from surgeons in the field. Congress was left to speculate what the number of slcfirwas and had been upon the number of deaths and discharges for disability. Of the volunteer force alone 5,423 were discharged for disability and 3,229 died from disease, a total of 8,652, or more than 16 per cent of that force in jbe field. Upon the staff there were only 124 surgeons for 76,690 troops, regulars and volunteers. "But the actual loss,” said the adjutant general, "cannot be shown, because the greater number of individual volunteers enrplled, among whom there is a great loss, had not joined their regiments at date of last returns and, of course, were not taken up on the rolls, but are included in the aggregate of forces in the field and camp.”

between 70,798 troops of the'entire volunteer enlistment, 71,309 that he puts in the field in this part of his report and ! the 50.000 only that he guessed at as the whole number sent to the army. I Before the adjutant general got I through figuring many more troops evii deutlv skipped away from him. for he reported iu still another paragraph: “So far as can be ascertained from the latest returns the volunteer force for the war and 12 months in Mexico is 25,660 men, and with the companies in the United States, sick inclnded, is all told 26,342, being 7,589 less than the same regiments had when mustered into service. ” What relation that statement has to his other conclusions is not at all clear. If, as in one place he stated only 50,I 000 volunteers went to the army and ; were in active service, why did he not ; account in that connection for 16,079 ! men to make the balance between 26,342 then in service and the great number that entered? If his 70,798 was correct, what became of the many thousands he had to answer for on his rolls to make up the difference between that number and 26,342? He was short 28,- ! 204 men on that calculation, for out of I the 70,798 ho said there was a loss of 21,252, when he had left in the service only 26,342. Are the missing figures those of the sick, of whom in no particular or table or classification does he , give even a n inkling?

CRY FOR SURGEONS. You Cannot Have Them, Said the Surgeon General. That memorable Democratic operation to extend slavery, the Mexican war, presents iu history a miserable picture of incompetency, neglect of soldiers aud bickerings of staff with the secretary of war and generals in the field, jealousy of the generals, shifting of responsibility for delays, shortness of equipment, iuadequaoy of quartermaster stores, failure of the oommiss&ry department, immeasurably ill appointed hospitals, an almost total loss of returns therefrom, and, above all, appalling sickness and loss of life. Herewith are given extracts from official reports that need no comment or phraseology of yellow journalism to oonvince the people of today, who think the American-Spauish war brought unnecessary suffering to the United States soldiers, that under a Democratic administration soldiers’ hardships through neglect and incapacity of the staff were many fold worse. The war was but a few weeks old when, from the regular army as well as the volunteers iu rendezvous in this country, came the cry for more surgeons to prevent the troops from being decimated by disease before they could reach Mexico. So persistent came this demand upon the war department that Snrgeon General Lawson, to offset it, reported July 18, 1846. that there was no need of more surgeons. He said: “I have no hesitation in saying that the troops employed against Mexico have comparatively as large number of medical officers as any army in the world.” This was reiterated to General Taylor, who as early as Sept. 2, 1846, wrote to Adjutant General Jones from Camargo, as follows: "Two-thirds of the army on the frontier has only two-sevenths of the medical staff. This is a manifest disproportion, to the great iujury of the service. The hospitals are scantily supplied with medical officers, and we take the field with no more than one medical officer to a battalion, and to eight battalions of regular troops have but one full surgeon. This allowance is quite too small for the field and public interest demands that it be at once increased, but it is now too late for this campaign.” To this reply, was made by the adjutant general by sending to General Tuylor a copy of Surgeon General Lawsou's report of Jnly 18. The snrgeon ( general said: i "One surgeon to 350 men is the proportion allowed by law. To do more than this would be making a sacrifice of military propriety and public interest to save a little labor to some of the medical officers, who, if the duties are equitably distributed among them, I um free to say, have not more to do than the government ha* a rigiit to expect of them. I myself l:av® acted as director, purvey >r and surgeou to a large body of troops and have frequently prescribed for 250 men iu a day. I have a right to expect that those under my ooutrol will perform something like the same amount of duty.” While this was written some mouths before, it seemed to the adjutaut general a sufficient answer to Geueral Taylor’s dispatch of September, which further read: "The great deficiency of medical officers brings with it the obvious necessity of hiring less competent physicians, and often at higher rates. There are many surgeons and assistant surgeons at garrisons on the seaboard whose places might be filled at moderate ooet, while

As the individual volunteers were enlisted fn March, 1847, and the adjutant general reported the figures in question more than a year later, it is pertinent to ask, "Was he during this year free from any returns concerning their health and sanitary condition?” Another paragraph suggestive of the worthlessness of his showing was: "The discharges and ordinary deaths, er deaths from disease, exhibited in the i statement must be considerably under the actual numbers, owing to missing muster rolls yet due from many regiments from which information alone ean be obtained.” His statement though was bad enough. It exhibited these fearful losses of volunteers, by far the greater part being from sickness and desertions. The three months’ men had nearly 9 per oent less at the end of their service than at the beginning. The loss of the six months’ men was 14 per oent. Of the 12 months’, 29 per oent. But those enlisted for the war had the frightful per centage of loss—more than 37. Of the latter class of troops there were 81,914 when mustered in. Up to December, 1847, after a year and eight months’ service they had lost 11,914, of which the following were classified: Discharge* 1,330 Including disability 1,084 Ordinary death* 481 Killed 910 Desertion* 1,770 Making a total of. 4,345 Of the remainder of this enormous loss, 7,639, the adjutant general gives no account. * Another illustration of trying to hide the aotual and deplorable condition of the army was given in his dealing with the figures of the 12 months’ volunteers. There were 26,344 of them to begiu with. They lost 7,620, said the adjutant general, but his classification of losses was nearly 1,000 short, as follows: Dlsolia rg*d 4,301 For disability 3.0110 Ordinary death* 1,033 Killed 478 Deeertlone 508 Apparently so inauy men were siok, dead or otherwise disposed of. concerning whom noaccount could be furnished, that the adjutant general, after being tomewhat specific, finally gave it up as a bad job. He dropped seemiug accuracy and went to guessiug at the number of volunteers after he had'set out this exhibit: Volunteer* unlisted 71,809 Deduct those not called out l>y war department or undvr net of May, 1840, am! also number mustered out as supernumerary 14,883 Total 66,998 "But this number,” said he. "was further reduced before tho battalions left the United States and It is probable the ■umber did not exoeed 50,000 when pat enroute for the army.” Yet, directly after this statement, he attempted to give in detail the losses out of 70,000 volunteers, who, it is presumed from the uuture of their casualties, took part iu uctivo campaigns. His flgnres follow: Three months’men 1,890 loss 197 Six months' men 11.150 loss 1,591 Twelve months’ men 30,844 loss 7.090 For tho war. 81,914 loss 11.914 Totals 70,798 21.268 These figures show the great loss of 80 per oent for regiments fee presumably stated were in active set vice. He did ■ot attempt to explain the differenoe

theit valuable services might be secured where moat needed in the field daring active operations. "J To this the answer of the surgeon general was: “There is more than the army of occupation to be provided for. There are some important and indispensible duties to be performed by medical officers other than those of prescribing for the siok and administering to the wounded. ” About the time, to which this story, taken from official documents, applies the surgeon general called Assistant Surgeon Wells from the field. General Taylor wrote: "I cannot possibly spare his services. Until a considerable increase shall be made in the medical staff serving with this army I should deem myself culpable to permit any medical officer to leave who is able to perform duty.” Medical Director P. H. Craig was refused a leave of absence on the same account. Bat evidently the surgeon general attached little importance to what Taylor said, as the adjutant general, in sending to the latter a copy of the snrgeon general’s July report, showed that the department in September stood by what was expressed on these points in the preceding July. Then the snrgeon general said: "As to exposures and privations incident to a camp life making serious inroads upon a man’s health, or his being broken down by long and arduous service in the field of less than one year’s duration, I can scarcely entertain the idea.” Again wrote this remarkable surgeon general: “It is very easy for one who is called upon to do very little more service than he did at a small military post to speak in round numbers of the arduous duties, privations and sufferings he has experienced, when a statistical examination into the matter will prove that his grievances are all imaginary, mere trifles, light as air.” Oct. 15, 1846, General Taylor was in camp near Monterey, and he informed Adjutant General Jones at Washington that on that date "the force of 12-months’ men has suffered greatly from disease. Many have died and a great number have been discharged for disability. So much has their effective strength been reduced by this cause and present sickness that, in the absence of official retarns, lam satisfied that 500 men per regiment would be a large average of effectives among the volunteers.” To this came the response in that remarkable report of that remarkable surgeon general of July 18: “I have given all in the way of medical aid which military propriety, the custom of the service in like cases and the actual wants of the army seemed to require, but if they want more medical officers they shall have them.” But he qualified this offer by the following: “There is wanted a large reserve of medical officers at home to meet the hasty assembling of recruits, the getting up of new expeditions, each call requiring employment of medical officers and, therefore, constituting a good reason for not sending all medical officers at once into the field.” Within the month following the warning of the depletion of his troops • at Monterey which General Taylor sent to Washington, and his failure to get more medical officers, Surgeon General Lawson reported to Secretary of War Marcy as follows: "The proportion of disease to the □umber of officers and men is 2.93 to 1, or on an average each man has been sick 2.93 times daring the year.” As to the volunteers he reported particularly that ”1 have not sufficient data upon which to found a report leading to any useful results. The surgeons generally have made no, regular returns or other statements of the sick to this office, and no information on the subject derived from other sources is sufficiently accurate or explicit to be adopted as the basis of any official report. All that I can say understandingly, is that whether stationary or on the march, in camp or field, the volunteers have been exceedingly sickly.” On their way from home rendezvous, the Tennessee und Kentucky regiments, he said, left many men in hospital at' Memphis and Little Rock. He said in addition: "The same proportion of sickness from all aooonnts seems to have prevailed among the volunteers on the Rio Grande, one-half being from time to time on'the siok report.” Auother#sentence from the same report and as to the same matter: "It is believed that the extent of sickU6BS among the volunteers has been fourfold more than that among the regulars, with a corresponding excess of mortality in the ranks of the former.’’ Here is a quotation from the same source, especially commended to the critics of the preseut administration: "As far as I understand the matter, the government has, uifder the present state of things, virtually to pay 100 men, while it realizes the services of but 50. The volunteers have oost the government 100 per oent more per man than the meu of the regular army,” And still another: "But this is not aH. The presence of a numerous body of invalids seriously embarrasses the servioe, for, besides consuming the subsistence and other stores required for the efficient men, they mast have additional snrgeonsand men to take care of them, which necessarily lessens the disposable force, the available force for uotive operations in the field.” Thus, throughout these intensely in terestiug documents of a war brought on and conducted by the Democratic party, when it had the extension of slavery as its shibboleth, are fouud continuous reports of enormous sickness and mortality, a constant demand for more medioal officers and as oonstant unwillingness of the administration to appoint them. The men died in the field and badly equipped hospitals from inattention, incapacity and neglect. It

all led to the remarkable loss of 25 per cent of the entire force, 9 per cent more ! than the total loss of the civil and recent Spanish wars. J PHASES OF WAR. How Democrats Mistreated Ameri--9 can Soldiers. Here are a few nuts for critics of the McKinley administration to craok. They were not taken from the columns of yellow journals 52 years ago, but from official documents relative to the Mexicali war. That war was conducted by a Democratic administration. General Wool was delayed months in starting ou an expedition independent of Taylor’s movements, because he could obtain no transportation. The expedition was ordered by the war department over Taylor’s advic9. When at San Antonio, Sept. 15, 1846, Wool wrote to Adjutant General Jones: . “I have been delayed in my movements toward the Rio Grande. I assure yon it has been exceedingly difficult and attended with great trouble, and yet may add great expense to get supplies and forward them to this place. “I am greatly in want of experienced , medical officers. But one of the new j appointments have reported for duty. ! I have only three citizen surgeons for three volunteer regiments, but one will not remain because he was not appointed an assistant surgeon, another is on the’ way between San Autonio and La Yaca, and the other is dangerously ill.” i Major Thomas, his quartermaster, wrote to General Wool: “It has been great labor getting supplies and wagons for you. I have, since j my arrival at La Yaca, been as hard at work as the youngest assistant quartermaster. I have cheerfully done this to | remedy the errors of others higher in authority. ‘‘Provisions and supplies should have been at San Antonio before your arrival, so as to enable you to take the field as soon as the troops were ready, but many of the articles I required are yet behind and the delay is unpardonable.” Captain Sanders, Taylor’s chief of engineers, wrote to Quartermaster General Jessup as early as July, 1846: i,*‘Boats are wanted to reach Camargo.” Because he did not have them, Captain Sanders said General Taylor’s “movements are paralyzed.” The quartermaster general replied 'that he had “sustained Taylor’s army with funds from other appropriations, and for using which the president would have been impeached. Overruling necessity, however, required it.” The secretary of war did not -notice this startling statement until he was preparing and editing the documents for submission to congress in response to a call for information concerning the conduct of the war. He demanded an explanation from the quartermaster general, and that, too, in no mild phrase. Said the quartermaster general in reply: “I did not consult you on the subject of using those balances, because you oould not have given any legal authority for using them.” But, in spite of the illegal use of appropriations to meet all the demands of the army, General Taylor in September told the adjutant general: “There is at this moment, when the army is to take up a long line of march, a great deficiency of meansof transportation and of many important supplies.” The boats bought in July did not reach Taylor until September, when he wrote: “I hazard nothing in saying that if proper foresight and energy had been displayed in sending out suitable steamers to navigate the Rio Grande, our army long since would have been in possession of Monterey. “My force has been increased fivefold since it left Corpus Chrish, but my wagon trains have been lesseired. “Had we depended upon means from without, the army would not have been able to move from this place. . “I wish it distinctly understood that our ability to move is due wholly to means created here and which could not have been reckoned on with safety at Washington. “Of the want of minor supplies the army has suffered more than enough.” The secretary of war again asked the quartermaster general to explaiu, saying: “The avowed object of General Taylor is to make these complaints a matter of record. I am extremely unwilling that they should remain without explanation or investigation. He considers the quartermaster department deserving of censure.” Quartermaster General Jessup’s response was that General Taylor’s complaints were “unjust and unwaoranted.” He further said that the general did not call at all for what he wanted, or did not make timely requisition. Tbere the matter dropped for a time. Previous to 1889 the 6tate owed on its foreign debt a little more than $1 per capita. At the end of that year it owed very near $4 for every man, woman and child. 1 * Seventeen hundred thousand had been borrowed so meet the demands of the state within a few months of the year named, beoause the legislature of 1887 had failed'to make appropriations for ordinary expenses and the completion of new state institutions. That was the time when the Democrats conspired to elect David Turpie United States senator against the wishes of the people; when A. G. Smith usurped the office of lieutenant governor for that purpose and Lieutenant Governor Robertson was prevented by the conspirators from exercising the duties to which the people of the state had called him. With all the madhouse Exploiting of the sufferings of the soldiers of today the deaths from all causes nave not been more than 2 per cent. In the civil war the mortality Ust was 18 |>< r cent.