Colonel ——— to-day
complains that I have too much force employed in the hospital, and says that he
will cut it down. The regulations allow ten nurses and two cooks to the
regiment, besides Surgeons, and Hospital Steward. All I have, are three nurses
and two cooks. Will he dare to cut that down? Should he do so I will "try
conclusions" as to his authority to do it. Three nurses, for one hundred
sick, and that must be cut down! Nor is this all. The Quartermaster, taking his
cue from the Colonel, refuses to acknowledge our right to a hospital fund, and
I therefore get but few comforts for the sick, except through charity or a
fight for it. It is to be hoped that these officers will, by a little more
experience, become better posted in their duties, and that the sick will not
then be considered interlopers, or intruders on the comforts of the regiment. I
forgot to say, in the proper place, that we are brigaded, forming a part of
Gen. Rufus King's brigade, composed of four regiments.
I have not yet
donned the full uniform of my rank, and there is scarcely a day passes that I
do not get a reproving hint on the subject from our Colonel. A few days ago,
whilst in Baltimore, he came to me almost railing at certain army officers for
appearing in citizens' dress. "There," said he, "is Major B.,
Major K., Gen. D., Doct. N. P., all of the regular army, and not one of whom
can be distinguished from a private citizen." "Colonel," I
replied, "they probably fear being mistaken for volunteer officers. He did
not feel flattered, but dropped the subject. Since I came here, I think I can
tell a man's calibre by his shoulder-straps. The amount of brain is generally
in inverse proportion to the size of his straps.
SOURCE: Alfred L.
Castleman, The Army of the Potomac. Behind the Scenes. A Diary of
Unwritten History; From the Organization of the Army, by General George B.
McClellan, to the close of the Campaign in Virginia about the First Day
January, 1863, p. 18
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