United States Army Beef Scandal - Court of Inquiry

Court of Inquiry

In the months following the Spanish-American War, during a court of inquiry held to investigate problems in the U.S. Army's food quality, Commanding General Nelson A. Miles made reference to "embalmed beef". Miles, a Civil War Union Army veteran, had had many years of experience with army provisions. At the onset of the Spanish-American War, he had recommended to Secretary of War Russell A. Alger that local cattle be purchased in Cuba and Puerto Rico for the army's use, rather than using preserved or refrigerated meat transported from the US. This would have followed the army's traditional practice of procuring fresh beef for itself from the theater of war it was operating in.

Despite his requests, the Army was dedicated to supporting the Chicago meatpacking industry, which eventually shipped hundreds of tons of refrigerated and canned beef to the army from the mainland. In his testimony before the court of inquiry, General Miles referred to the refrigerated product as "embalmed beef", and provided the court with a letter from an army medical officer describing the product. "uch of the beef I examined arriving on the transports from the United States ... apparently preserved by injected chemicals to aid deficient refrigeration", the medical officer wrote. "It looked well, but had an odor similar to that of a dead human body after being injected with formaldehyde, and it tasted when first cooked like decomposed boric acid ..."

As for the canned product, Miles reported, during the war he had received many complaints about its poor quality. His officers provided many striking descriptions of it. "The meat ... soon became putrid", wrote one colonel, "and in many of the cans was found in course of putrefaction when opened". An infantry major declared that "'Nasty' is the only term that will fitly describe its appearance. Its use produced diarrhea and dysentery." Still another officer noted that "It was often nauseating and unfit for use. It should no longer be issued."

Miles also made public statements, reported in the newspapers, claiming that the canned meat was the after-product of the process for making beef extract. "There was no life or nourishment in the meat", charged Miles. "It had been used to make beef extract, and after the juice was squeezed out of it the pulp was put back in the cans and labeled 'roast beef'." As for the embalmed beef, Miles stated "I have the affidavits of men who have seen the process of embalming beef ... treating it chemically for the purpose of preserving it".

While other officers, notably General Wesley Merritt, who had commanded an army corps in the Philippines during the war, denied having heard of any trouble with the meat supplies, Miles would not be silenced.