The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1813-01-14
To THE PRINTERS or THE NEw.ENc

L
LAND PALLADIUM.
SIRs-The charming accounts of tho sick
ness and mortality of our army on the from
| tiers, which appeared not long since in
your paper, have reached the head quar-
ters OF the troops, and have excited sur
prise and sorrow. and this has been nCreas-
ed by the narrative in Your paper of the
savage manner of turving the dead and
has occasioned representation from tie
heads OF the Medical Department, contra
dieting this representation. Dr. James
Mann, OF Wrentham. who is at the mead
. OF that department, has ccntradcted, in
general terms, the whole of that represen-
tation. He called upon me number of
times to converse respecting the medical
department of an army and its provisions,
and has since communicated TO me the &C
tuai state of things in his department and
am free to declare, that Go not believe
| there is an army in the world where the
| comforts of the sick have been more atten-,
ded TO. NY observation to him was, that
the provisions were rather redundant than
deficient. He gave me a number of instan-
ces evincing the fraternal and fatherly care
from the officers generally, and from Gene
raj dearborn particularly. Dr. Mann de-
clared tome. that,the troops were not only
heafhy, but were the merrieSt set of beings
he was ever among. He said that he attri-
outed General Dearborn's remarkable So
| hcitude Tor the sick, in some measure to his
having been educated to physic, and that it
was to him very pleasant circumstance
lie declared TO me, that the sickness had
not been greater than what happens in eve
! ry camp onthe coming ON of frosty weather,
and that the deaths had not been more nu-
| merous than in civil life.
| Previous to the marching of the army
from Plattsburg to the Canadian line, one
| fhlrd 81 tie men were seized with the n1ea-
zlea. Nearly 500 of General Chandler's
| brigade, and full as many of Bloomfeld's,
we're under this disorder. and the pleuretic
consequences of it. Cumh /epers and dy-
scnsGTies are disorders that arise from bad
situations, bad food, poor clothing, hard du-
| ty and Gejection but the meazics arise
from an unkno7U1 cause, which human skill
could not have obviated nor hreScience
guard against. It is pestilence that walks
| In darkness. How unjust, as well as cruel,
TO lmpute to the improvidence of the War
Department, or the inattcnton of officers, or
the unskiitulness IF physicians, such a dis
temper as this. The measles is q formda-
bic disease to grown people of firm fibre,
as 1t IS almost always accompanied with
pieureses and peripncumonies, and vet
DR.. Mann has testified under his hand, and
published in the Burlington paper, that the
'd'Oh ldS lOSL Dul illtie over an hundred
men not exceeding one hundred and tzven-
fy. lie who calls this great mortality,
under these peculiar circumstances, knows
nothing of armies. DR.. Mann enumerates
the articles of comforts, which he says they
have in profusion.
The account that +" tie dead zoere thrown
INTO hole IN, the sand barely dech enough
TO admit Of their being COVERED" as men
toned IN your paper, is positively contra
dlcted by the sergeons of the army. We
are by them assured. that no man is buried
without coffin, and the graves are more
than feet deep. The men are buried
with parade, & carried to their long homes
with the solemn sound of the mufDed drum.
DIR. Joseph Lowell, of this town, has lust
written to his relations here, and corrobo-
rates the foregoing, and contradicts the idle
stories OF the unusual mortality, and of the
negligence to the lick, and the barbarity to
the dead.
have felt it a duty to transmit you this
refutation of Calumny against our bre-
thren in the tented field, and am ready to
give. further particulars honorable to our
high officers and medical gentlemen in the
camp.
/ am, with respect, SC.
BENJAMIlJ WATERHCUSF.
Boston, NIlk-Street, Dec. SO, 1911.