Shameful Treatment of Soldiers

Complaints are frequently made of the ill treatment of sick and wounded soldiers on their way home. Yesterday we mentioned a case of extortion on a small scale at LaSalle; and this morning we have to tell of a shameful maltreatment on the part of some steamboat men and the officers of a railroad. Five sick soldiers, of the Second Cavalry, who arrived on the same train as the one mentioned yesterday, had rough usage from the time they left Cairo till they reached the Illinois Central Railroad. They took deck passage on the Emma Duncan, having been furnished with proper passes, and their means not allowing them cabin fare. One of them inquired what part of the boat his ticket would entitle him to occupy, when a young fellow sitting near said, “D----d dirty soldiers! Put them in the hold; its good enough for a d--- soldier!” He was not reproved by the officers of the boat, if indeed, he was not one himself. One of the men, John C. McHone, was robbed of $50 – all of the money he had except about two dollars in silver. On the Terre Haute and St. Louis road, the same sick soldiers were crowded into the smoking car, where they were compelled to breath the foul air arising from the fumes of tobacco smoke, and an exceedingly filthy car, and were denied what their tickets clearly entitled them to, seats in the passenger cars. On the Illinois Central and Chicago and Rock Island road they were kindly treated, and have no complaint whatever to make against them. It is disgraceful that any men should maltreat, either directly or by negligence, any poor, sick, disable men, who are unable to help themselves, and more especially when these men are soldiers, who have become so disabled in the service of their country. If no other persuasions can be made to reach the ears of such men, the press should keep the world posted as to who they are and their whereabouts, that they may be shunned by all good people.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, April 26, 1862, p. 1