The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-10-25
SOME OF THE HORRORS OF WAR
ARRIVAL OF 2O6 SICK SOLDIERS FROM TIE
KAMA WHA-N0 MORE ROOM FOR THEN AT
THE MILITARY HOSPITAL-THE STORY OF
SUFFERINGS AND SORROW

AAAAFAL VI ZVo S1CA SOLDlEhS FAOM zA1
KAMA WHA-No MORE ROOM FOR THEN Ar
SUFFERINGS AND SORROW.
From the Cincinnati Times, l4th inst.
Last evening two Government steamers
arrived here from Gallipolis, having on
board two hundred and six sick soldiers
from Gen. Rosecrans' army. Omnibusses
were procured, and they were sent to the
Military Hospital, only to learn to their
horror that that institution was already
full, and there were no accommodations for
them Their distress on learning this fact
was very great, and they begged the privi-
lege of entering the building and lying
anywhere until they could be better &C.
cOmmOdated.
They were all very sick, some with camp
dysentery but mostly with the typhoid fever.
The authorities at the hospital could not
turn these men away, and finally admitted
them, and serving them with tea and other
refreshments, did the best possible under the
circumstances to make them comfortable.
The parlors and all the spare rooms in the
house were thrown open to them, and they
lay down on the floors, rolled up in their
blankets. The sickest were thus disposed
of. When the rooms were full, others, pro-
vided with comforts and pillows, were
slowed away in the halls and passages, and
thus left for the night. Those needing inn
mediate medical attention received it.
We visited the hospital about half past
ten o'clock. The scene was a sorrowful
one indeed. Young men, burning up with
levers, were lying on the floor, crowded
close together, with no bed beneath them.
Others, reduced almost to skeletons by dys.
EMERY, were lying upon their blankets as
thickly clustered together. Beds or cots
had been provided for the worst cases but
from the two hundred and six very sick
soldiers we heard not a murmur nor com
plant.
THE STORY OF THESE MEN.
The story of these gallant and stricken
soldiers is of great woe and sorrow, and is
another development of the terrible mis-.
management in Western Virginia. They
belong to the Twenty third and Thirtieth
Ohio, and were part of a brigade in the
command of Col. Slemmer, of the regular
army. Previous to the late storm, they
were subjected to continued forced marches,
and even an effort was made to drive them
ahead in the pitiless storm.
The men thus exposed were without fall
clothing. They had no protection whatev.
er. The rain fell in such torrents that their
efforts to build fires were Frustrated, until a
captains writing desk was cut up, and a
fire of fence rails started inside of wagon !
This exposure did the work. Man after
man fell stricken with disease, and when
the storm cleared away, and the bright SUM-
shine came, the regiment were in worse
condition than if they had encountered
double their number of their foe.
There were no hospital accommodations
there, so the worst of the sick were placed
in wagons-transportati wagons without
springs-and jolted over rough roads to
Camp Gauley. They were in .charge of a
nOn-commissioned officer, who has stuck to
them manfully all the way. At Camp
Gauley the hospitals were full, and orders
were received to take the party to Charles
ton. On they logged, flushed with fevers
or shivering with chllls. At Charleston,
too, the hospitals were full. "On to Gal
lipolis,' were the orders.
Oo VIC pOor IchoWS WeTc paCheu VI SCcau-
ers, laid upon the decks, and brought down
the Kanawha to Gallipolis. They were
sure they would find rest there. But, great
heavens! there was no room in the hOspi>
tails there.
"Take them to Cincinnati" was the Or
der $50 the steamer let loose again, and with
its sickly but precious freight-some of the
men by this time almost dying-made their
way to Cincinnati. We have already re,
lated their reception here but Indifferent as
it was, how thankfully accepted.
One we'll man from each regiment was
sent along to take care of the sick, some of
whom shamefully neglected their duty. ne
who had charge of fifty men, got drunk i'm
mediately on arrival in the city, and left
the sick to take care of themselves.