Expectation is still
on the strain. How long it has been kept up! But no order to move, and I doubt
whether we get any soon. Indeed, I think now that we should not move. 'Tis too
late. The roads are excessively bad, and for a long time we have been having an
almost continuous storm of freezing rain and snow. An army could not lie out
over night in this terrible weather, and be in condition next day to fight
against those who had slept in good quarters and been well fed. The time has
passed to move. But why are we not ordered to winter quarters? There seems to
me to be great recklessness of the soldiers' health and comfort in this army.
There is wrong somewhere.
A sad case has just
passed under my notice. Three days ago, as I was busily engaged in attending to
hospital duties, I entrusted, necessarily, the light sickness of quarters to
others. As I passed out just after morning call, I heard one of my nurses say
to a man, "You look sick; why do you not come to hospital, where we can
take care of you?" "That is what I came for, but the doctor says I am
not sick, and has returned me to duty." I passed on, but
notwithstanding that there is scarcely a day that some "shirk" who is
pretending to be sick to avoid duty, is not treated thus, that voice rang sadly
in my ears. In ten minutes I returned, and inquired after the man. The drums
had beaten to duty, and he was on parade. I followed to parade ground,
found him endeavoring to do his duty, on a "double-quick." I took him
from the ranks, examined him, and sent him to hospital. Before they got him to
bed he was delirious. He has just died. 'Twas a case of typhoid fever, of which
he had been sick for two days before I saw him. I ask of army Surgeons, Had you
not better excuse ten "seeds" who are worthless, even when in rank,
than sacrifice one good man like this, who believes he is not sick, because you tell him
he is not?
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. 79-80
