Since the order of
the early part of this month, that my directions in reference to the sanitary
measures could be disregarded, I have not visited the camp, or given any
directions in regard to cleaning, ventilating, &c., and though it is now
but three weeks since that order was made, the sick list, which had decreased
in two weeks from about two hundred to thirty-nine, has suddenly run up again
to one hundred and sixty, and the diseases are assuming a low typhoid type. So
foul are the tents that if a soldier, with simple intermittent, remains three
days in his quarters, he is sent to hospital in a condition approximating
ship-fever. The seeds of disease are now sown in our regiment, which, in
despite of the greatest care, will not fail to yield rich harvests of sickness
all winter. Our Governor has been in camp to-day. He has no doubt seen the
effect of this military interference, for he has called on me to know if something
cannot be done to arrest the trouble. I have laid the whole matter fully before
him, and I have no doubt that what is in his power to do, will be done to avert
the evil.
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. 56-7
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