"The
health of our armies is evidently not above the average of armies in
the field.
The mortality of the army of the Potomac during the
summer months averaged 3 1/2 per cent., and for the whole army it is
stated at 5 per cent." "Of the camps inspected, 5 per cent.," he
says, "were in admirable order; 44 per cent. fairly clean and well
policed. The condition of 26 per cent. was negligent and slovenly,
and of 24 per cent. decidedly bad, filthy, and dangerous." Thus 50
per cent. were either negligent and slovenly, or filthy and
dangerous. I wonder what the report would have been had Camp
Benton, at St. Louis, been surveyed! "In about 80 per cent. of the
regiments the officers claimed to give systematic attention to the
cleanliness of the men; but it is remarked that they rarely enforced
the washing of the feet, and not always of the head and neck." I
wish Mr. Olmstead had added that they never enforced the cutting of
the hair. No single trait has been so decidedly disadvantageous to
the appearance of the American army as the long, uncombed, rough
locks of hair which the men have appeared so loath to abandon. In
reading the above one cannot but think of the condition of those
other twenty regiments!
According to Mr. Olmstead two-thirds of the men were native born,
and one-third was composed of foreigners. These foreigners are
either Irish or German.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 220 of 531
Words from 58698 to 58947
of 142339
