I have for some time
had as mess-mates Surgeon J—— V—— and his two sons. I find him a most estimable
Quaker gentleman, and he is by his courteous and affable manner, doing very
much to smooth down the asperities of the rough road over which I am now
traveling. Since the removal of camp, the sickness is abating rapidly. The
list, which two weeks ago numbered over two hundred, is now less than sixty,
and every day diminishing. I have much trouble in getting my assistant to
perform his duties, which, with the constant interference of military officers,
greatly embarrasses me in my course. We have to pass some trying scenes. Last
week a private in our regiment, a lawyer from ———, heard of the sickness of his
daughter. He asked a furlough of thirty days to visit her. The officers here
granted it, but when it reached General McClellan he cut it down to fifteen
days, which would but give him time to go and return. He declined to go on it,
and yesterday intelligence of his daughter's death reached him. Oh, how much I
thought of this, and thought if it were my case! 'Tis very sad to think of.
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, pp. 49-50
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