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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Commander Bowman H. McCalla to Captain French E. Chadwick, Chief of Staff, North Atlantic Fleet

U. S. S. Marblehead, 3rd. Rate.

Guantanamo, Cuba.        

July 18th, 1898.       

S i r:

     Referring to your memorandum interpreting Squadron General Order No. 14,1 I beg to state that the public business has not been interfered with by the quarantine enforced in this port. Those who object to the enforcement of sanitary measures are _ Officers of our Army from the Commander-inChief down,2 and their objection should, in my opinion, have no weight if the health of the fleet and this port is to be preserved.

     With reference to the doubt existing as to the true character of the fever prevailing among our troops, I have the honor to state that Surgeon General Greenleaf,3 of General Miles staff, stated to me yesterday that there were 250 cases of true yellow fever in our army, that the number of fresh cases on the 14th, was forty, on the 15th, sixteen and on the 16th, thirteen, and that there had been nine deaths.

     Surgeon General Greenleaf further added that the army transport “Clinton” which was sent from this port because she had two pronounced cases of yellow fever on board, had two cases of true yellow fever on arrival at Siboney and that they had been transferred to the army yellow fever hospital.

Very respectfully,     

B.H. McCalla      

Commander, U. S. Navy, 

Commanding.            

Source Note: TDS, DNA, RG 313, Entry 48. Addressed below close: “The Chief of Staff,/North Atlantic Station.

Footnote 2: Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles. For McCalla further addressing the objections of the Army and their actions to overturn his quarantine, see: McCalla, Lessons of the Late War, 1899.

Footnote 3: Col. Charles R. Greenleaf.

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