Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1866-09-20
From the Bio Grande.
[Correspsndsnes GalhpOlis Journal ]
BROWNSVILLE. TEXAS, Sept. 5, '66.

Correspondence Galhpolis Journal
BRowssvIILE, TEXAS, Sept. S. '66.
DrAR youRxAL:-Possibly your cor
respondent owes an apology for his
long silence, and as he has an ample
one at hand. he proposes to make it
known. In the first place he pleads
laziness. Who can write letter with
the thermometer ranging up into the
nineties? / cannot. Some six weeks
ago your correspondent hsd to nurse
his 'better half" who was sick with
the "Dango" fever. As soon as she
recovered, was taken i'll with the same
disease, and for two weeks was no ac-
count whateyer. In fact / was unable
to move hand or foot. Having been
urged by Physicians to take trip up
into the mountains for change Of air,
/ went as soon as l could set up, to
Camargo, Meir, Mexico, and Rio
Grande City, and Romo, Texas, and
was benefited thereby. While at Rio
Grande City, our "better half" was
taken i'll with a relapse of THE ''Dango,"
and 1 hastened home as rapidly as pos
sible, and after coming very near los
ing her, she is to-day berely able to sit
up part of the day. after near three
weeks severe illness. The "Dango"
fever is peculiar to this climate alone.
and is only mild type of the ''yellow
jack" Where the "Dango" prevails
the latter is never known to make its ap-
pearance. The General commanding
the District of the Rio Grande, togeth-
er with most of the officers, have been
down with it, but so far we have had
but few deaths from it.
To cap the climax, the cholera has
been raging here for the past two weeks
in style and manner calculated to de-
press every body. At White Rancho,
where the 10th U. S. c. T. is stationed,
about forty have died. Here, about
thirty-five out of the 9th U. s. c. T.,
and the same number out of the 117th,
have been buried. Twenty-Five others
out of detachments, have also died, be-
sides several in the town proper. Yes
terday morning 105 men were excused
from duty in the 9th, and l25 in the
117th, on account of sickness. have
lost one in the detachment / use, and
three sick this morning. No officers have
died here as yet. Several have been
sick, but all have recovered. 1t is al
most an impossibility to save negro il
he is attacked with cholera, as they are
sure of dying, and you cannot bring
them up. They will not take care Of
one another, believing that if God wants
them to die, all the care and nursing
will do no good. They are fatalists in
the extreme. Yet all of them fly TO
prayer meetings; get religion, shout,
and become thoroughly exhausted
Having, as they conscientiously believe,
got religion, they quietly sit down, ap-
parantly waiting for the dreaded pes
thence to attack them to carry them
straight to Heaven. If they are taken
with the dysentery, they are almost
sure to have the cholera, as they keep
it to themselves until too late to save
them. 1t is a sad sight, / assure you,
to see these poor, ignorant negroes, all
formerly slaves, dying off so rapidly,
and utterly unable to do any thing for
them. But the saddest sight of all, is
their prayer meetings; when their
meanings and tears, and shoutings OF
JOY, result in so many of them having
to be carried to their tents, from sheer
exhaustion. Do not understand me as
speaking light of religion. Far from
it. only speak of it to show the fatal
results of sheer ignorance while an epi-
demic RACES. To show that fright is
producing more deaths than the ehOle-
ra itself, is the fact that not single
officer has died with it up to this date.
Ere this reaches you the epidemic
will have run its course, and we will be
free from it. The Quarter Masters
department is unable to furnish collins,
owing to the non receipt of lumber
from New Orleans, and the poor fellows
are being put into the ground with q
single blanket wrapped around them.
1t seems hard, | assure you, to see the
poor fellows thus buried, but it cannot
be avoided, as no lumber can be had
here.
Let me say to you, reader, that the
best cholera remedy is the saturated
tincture of camphor, of DR.. Rubine OF
Naples" Equal weight of Gum Cam
phor and spirits of wine, 60 deg. over
proof. Five drops on sugar every five
minutes, blanketing the patient heavily,
will produce a reaction in from two and
and a half to four hours. have not
known white person to die who has
used it. B.