The muster rolls just handed in to the colonels of the
nineteenth and one hundredth and seventy-ninth regiments are the most ridiculously
curious documents it has been our luck to encounter. In their anxiety to get clear of militia
duty. Hundreds of the men have attached
to their names the record of some permanent injury or horrible distemper. The rolls are thus made complete catalogues
of all the ills that flesh is heir to.
The great number of one-eyed and deaf men, the prevalence of chronic diarrhea,
and rheumatism in all its varieties, is truly astonishing. Some parties, who perhaps could think of no
particular affliction, have stated in general and comprehensive terms, that
they were “physically disabled,” and in “bad health.” One old gentleman, who avowed himself a
hypochondriac, actually appended his will and codicil to his signature. Great numbers have signed themselves “exempted
by the Governor,” and numerous citizens, though only perhaps making a pair of
shoes for a clerk in the Treasury department, have followed their names with
the imposing announcement, “employed on Government work.”
It is our opinion that this city has already contributed her
quota to the army; but we hope these muster-rolls will be published, and that
the world may know the men who would shirk muster themselves, and only parade
(in many instances assumed) diseases when their country calls for soldiers. –{Richmond
Examiner.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye,
Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 15, 1862, p. 2
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