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HIS SAD MISSION

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MYRON HOLDEN RETURNS FROM CAMP WITH HIS SON’S BODY

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FUNERAL AT SACKETS HARBOR

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The Grief-Stricken Father’s Regret that No Warning Was Given of His Boy’s Critical Condition

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Myron Holden, of Sackets Harbor, arrived in the city Wednesday morning, bringing with him the body of his only son, Benjamin F. Holden, of Co. E, 203d New York volunteers, who died at Camp Black Monday afternoon.

Mr. Holden was met at the train by Undertaker H. H. Lane, of Sackets Harbor, who took charge of the body and removed it to Northam & Guilfoyle’s undertaking rooms. The remains left for Sackets Harbor in a hearse shortly before noon, and the father returned to that village on the noon train.

Mr. Holden’s grief weighs heavily upon him, and the story of the suffering he has endured since Monday night is written in the lines of his face.

In a voice that trembled he told a Times reporter the story of his sad journey to and from Camp Black to bring home the body of his only son.

"The boys cannot long stand the life they live there," he said. "They sleep on hard board floors, with only a single blanket under them, and some of them have had to sleep on the ground. Up to a very recent time the food has been poor, or, at least, of such a kind and quality that the sick men could not eat it. My boy was the first to die at Camp Black, but I fear he will not be the last, unless something can be done to improve the men’s surroundings.

"Capt. Boyer and his subordinates showed me every courtesy after I reached the camp, but I told the captain what I firmly believe, that he is doing wrong in keeping from parents the fact of their sons’ illness. I did not know that my boy was seriously ill until half an hour before I received the telegram that told me of his death. There were more than 60 men in the hospital, a mere tent with cots for beds, when I was at the camp, and, so far as I could learn, the parents of none of them had been notified of their illness. I think Capt. Boyer is making a mistake in this particular and that the mothers and fathers who have sons in the hospital at Camp Black should know it."

Monday night, when it was first learned that a large number of the Watertown men were ill at Camp Black the Times sent a telegram to Capt. Boyer asking him to wire, for the information of parents and friends, the names of the men who were then in the hospital. To this request, Capt. Boyer has not replied.

Source: Unknown Watertown newspaper, unknown date