The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-03-06
The Sickness I'm Gen. Grants Army.
Negligence OF the sick.
Correspondence Of the N. Y. Times.

OFF VIcKsBuRa, Friday Feb. Is.
The horrors of war, its bravery and en-
durance, its sufferings, triumphs and hero
isms, are not all the exclusive possession
OF the battlefield. A battle aggregates
these qualities, and hence brings them
more conspicuously before the world and
yet, every hour in the existence of the ar
my, away from actual conflict, is charac-
terized by events equally worthy our ad-
miration, our sympathy, our tears.
If, at such times, Death is not riding on
the sulphurious whirlwind belched from
cannon and musket, he is not idle; but
simply changes his form, and carries on
increasingly his labors His attentions are
not the less assidious that they are quiet
not less fatal that they are unsought.
| Five hundred men were killed in the
late attack upon Vicksburg-fve hundred
men went down in fight that lasted four
days, and the country was Mortified at the
nselessness and enormity of the sacrifice.
And yet, every day since we have been
here, not less than one hundred fail to re-
spond to roll call, and are carried out to
never return. The levee, ruffled into bill
.ows by this tempest of death, is all that
tells us how great are our losses, and how
fearful our sacrifices in these noiseless, un-
known interludes between actual conflicts
My attention has been faithfully direc-
ted to these facts within the last three
days. Sunday night received word that
a soldier was lying very sick at one of the
hospitals, located ON a plantation some
three miles above Young's Point. Upon
reaching the place, 1 found roomy pala-
tial mansion, and some thirty or forty low
log buildings, formerly used for negro
quarters, but now devoted to hospital pur-
poses. All the log buildings were of the
! "saddle-bag" order of architecture that
| is, two small huts Joined by a common
roof and floor, and with no other means
for the entrance of light and ventilation
than is afforded by narrow door.
At various of these pens, I made inqui-
ries, and at length found the one / sought.
| I entered it, and after waiting few mo-
ments, till my eyes became accustomed to
| the darkness, l found my soldier, or at
| least found poor skeleton upon cot in
a corner-an emaciated sobbing remnant
of what had once been an athletic man.
Over to the Surgeons quarter; the Sur
|
Went down to dine with Gen. Blair. The
three miles intervening between the hos
pital and the tent Of the General did not
| last long under the incentive of relief and
speed, and not long afterwards I had the
Surgeon at the side of the patient. A clasp
! Of the pulse, and shake of the head was
all that resulted.
l obtained some information of the Sur
geon. The roomy, airy house could not
be used by his patients, because it was
| held by some individual who sported star
on his shoulder. He had five hundred pa
tents crowded together in these dark, moi
some negro quarters, and of these fifteen
to thirty died daily. The weather was at
| times intensely cold-he could get no
wood-nobOdy would answer his requisi-
tons, and the sick suffered severely from
the cold. He had chopped down all the
fences in the vicinity, dug up all the posts,
| dismantled few out-houses, and in this
way had managed to afford little fire in
cases of extremity. He had no medicine
acquisitions met with no response beyond
a refusal He had no provisions beyond
coarse army rations; and tor three
days the only food given the sick was that
which was humanely shared with them by
small guard that had been placed around
the quarters, and who fortunately had
brought a few days rations with them.
He was unable to afford those under his
charge much beyond sympathy when sick,
and detail of men with picks and spades
to cover them up when dead.
This was the Post Hospital, and in it, it
| rhop TO hat
dying is the rule and getting we'll the ex-
ception. Application for discharges in
cases where recovery without change Of
air was impossible, rarely meet with sue
cess, it having been asserted by at least one
General that it is easier to dig two graves
than to sign one set Of papers. The re-
quisite brutality Of such a remark will
command admiration individual who
uttered it takes prominence in all that is
mean, unfeeling and diabolical
The rise of water, the immense guam
tity of rain that has turned this portion of
the "bottom " into fathomless abyss of
mud, and the severe fatigue duties required
of our soldiers in digging canals and build
ing levees, will show the origin of much
of the sickness in the camps; but there
! is is no explanation why the mortality is
so fearful-no reason why our men should
be packed like hogs in narrow pens, and
left to die in filth, darkness and neglect.
There may possibly be good reason
strategetic, moral, or otherwise-why all
the fine houses hereabout are occupied by
officers, while the sick are left to die in
narrow boats and dirty huts, lately used by
negroes-but if there be reasonable ne
cessity for such things, I have yet to learn
its character. As these gentlemen gain
the credit of all their victories, and as
their comfort is so much to be preferred to
the lives of the common herd, can only
suggest that the rank and file be cisband-
ed, and they be allowed to do the digging
and fighting 1t might materially lessen
the number of this class of patriots, but
that such a result would be a damage
either to the country or the cause, is a
question that will admit of good deal of
diverse argument. ua
When there yet remains undone so much
| of the gigantic task undertaken by the
| 1,hop n croporo1 droft io fo1l,ol IL