, 1863-03-07
The Army of the Potomac

A correspondent of the New World
gives some statements in regard to the
wasting away" of the Army of the Poto
mac which are rather startling:
without giving any clue to our real
strength, let me say that any regiment
which went out with Mcclellan to the pc
ninsula, and which can still number three
hundred men for duty, has more than the
average strength of these regiments. And
the new regiments which joined the army
in Maryland and Virginia during the past
three months are melting away with ra-
pidity that makes one sick at heart when
he considers the work before them.
Though many have suffered severely in
battle, yet not one-fourth part of the de-
pletion is thus incurred. The real and
great cause, may say, of depletion, is the
responsibility of the medical service. Let
me say that in this do not allude to the
service in the field, the attention and care
of sick in field hospitals, or the attention
to the wounded after battle, but to the
abominable system which takes men from
regimental hospitals, transfers them to dis
tant points, and there, through manage
ment and mlsmanagement, corruption and
illegitimate influences, at least two thirds
of them are never heard of in the service
again. 1t has become the regular habit of
regimental officers to look upon a man
transferred to a distant hospital as dead to
the service; and the records of many regi-
ments show more than half their original
strength marked "sent to hospital" and
never heard from save through an applica-
ton for a descriptive list for obtaining
pay.
1t may be that the medical service of the
army, outside of the army, is as well man
aged as it can be, but do not believe it.
If it is, then it is almost useless to raise an
army, for the hospitals can render it pow
erless sooner than the enemy. AS matters
stand now, three-ffths of the magnificent
armies raised since the war began are no
longer in the field, and that includes all the
late levies, too; for the new regiments have
been pat in the field without the seasoning
and hardening which the first levies had,
and the sickness in the ranks is correspond
ingly greater
1t does not need much figuring to tell
where we shall be in this respect when the
time of the nine months men shall have ex-
pired. And so unless some better means
is devised of returning absent, convalescent
and deserting men to the ranks, we shall
look in vain for our army.
Whatever the hospitals and their mana
gers may do with the men sent to them, it
is certain that they return very few of them
to the regiments. l give case which may
illustrate A Colonel had occasion to go
to Philadelphia few days ago to look af-
ter some men Of his regiment reported in
hospital there. Consulting the hospitals
there, they were reported coEvalescent, and
marked, returned to duty" But they
had never been heard from in the field
Upon further investigation, however, he
found them doing provost guard duty in
Philadelphia And this is only sample
1t is next to impossible to get men back to
their regiments from either the hospitals or
the convalescent camp, for the system of red
tape to be gone through with is so perplex-
ing and requires so much time thatno off,
Ger can get leave Of absence long enough to
get through with it.
This matter is great and crying evil
Every officer in the army having the well
fare Of his command and his country at
heart feels it deeply. Cannot some system
be devised which shall render the service
more secure in its strength that strength
without which our victories are thin air,
and treason is triumphant.