Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-07-28
HANCOCK AS A BRUTE.
His Inhuman Treatment of Soldiers
Under His Command.
Statement of Surgeon Castleman, of the
Fifth Wisconsin.
cincinnati Gazette, July 1911

1t is not our intention at the present
time to expend any campaign ammuni
ton on Gen. Hancock. We have no need
of so doing, for we have alleged facts in
regard to his ways recorded five years be-
fore his name was ever mentioned in con-
nection with the Presidency, and when
there was no apparent motive for inven-
ton or exaggeration. They show that he
was not merely the ornament of dress
parade whom the soldiers nicknamed
Gen. Strut, but coarse and unfeeling
man. In 1863, Surgeon Alfred L. Castle.
man, of the Fifth Wisconsin Regiment,
published a volume entitled 1.-THE Army
of the Potomac, Diary of Unwritten
Army by Gen. George B. Mcclellan to
the Close of the Campaign in Virginia,
about the Last Day of January, 1863"
This testimony of an eyewitness is very
interesting, and may be said to give q
pretty faithful portrait of parsonage
often mentioned in it's pages Under the
date of October 2, 1861, DR.. Castleman
says his regiment was transferred to a
brigade under Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott
Hancock, an officer of fine appearance,
but with rather a narrow forehead, and
from what little [ have seen of him |
should presume him to be
AT LEAST ExCITABLE, IF NOT IRRITATA-
BILE"
This opinion was not mistaken, for
about three weeks later we find the author
writing:
"Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock Is
the very antipode of Gen. Smith. He is
fully as long as his name, with the title
prefxed, and as for quiet and courtesy
oh, fie! I saw him come on to the field
one morning this week to brigade drill.
He was perfectly sober. He is one of
those paradoxes who believe that one
man, at least, is to be known by his much
talking. He became excited, or wished
to appear so, at some little mistake in the
maneuvering of his brigade, and the vol
ley of oaths that rolled and Numbered
down the line startled the men with sus-
picion' that they were under the command
of some Quartermaster, lately made Gen
eral, who mistook the men for mules, and
their officers for drivers. He must be
facetious chap, that General, to wish to
excite such suspicious. think he halls
from Pennsylvania, but nobody seems to
know much about him, except from his
statement that he has been seventeen
years in the service, and knows all about
It, Wherever he has been, he has Ger.
tainly acquired perfect intimacy with
the whole gamut of profanity"
This was by no means a solitary out
break. On Jan. 2, 1862, the men in hos.
pital under the Surgeon, twenty-seven in
number, were rejoicing over their Christ
mas and New Years boxes Then fol.
lowed
THIS SCENE:
"This morning as I was prescribing for
them (all sitting up), some reading the
morning papers, and talking loudly over
war news, some playing whist, some
checkers, some chess, some dominos, all
laughing and merry, Gen. 81. walked in,
and, looking for moment along the line
of sick, exclaimed, What the h-ll have
you got there?' My hospital, General
"A BRIGADE replied he, in his toughest
manner, of id sight better men than
you have lett me. Where are your sick,
STRIP All here, SIR We'll, this beats
anything I have seen in the army, and if
you give your men such beds and such
comforts as this you will have every man
of your regiment in hospital before a
month"
A little later during the winter the
surgeon went to see detachment of his
regiment, which had been appointed to
guard Hancock's headquarters. He says:
"Around the house occupied by the
General was q large ditch some five feet
deep and some ten or twelve feet wide,
dug as the commencement of a fort. In
this ditch, over which a few evergreen
boughs had been thrown as covering,
stood q well dressed lieutenant Qrom my
own regimenD with squad of soldiers
guarding the Generals house-the lieu.
tenant trying to- infuse into the men
little warmth of patriotic feeling, while
the winter torrents poured through the
evergreen branches, and their whole
frames shook with Geld in this sentry
house, char1tably built for them by orders
of the General, VINO at that moment was
being joyful over his wine and with his
friends"
But it was not cold. hearted indifference
only that characterized Hancock's con-
duct toward the men under his command.
He was
MIsCHrEvOUsLY MEDDLEsOME
DR.. Castleman writes under date of
March 10:
"The effects of Gen. H--'s vindictive
meddling with the medical department
are beginning to manifest themselves.
When he took from me my well.trained
hospital attendants and my experienced
druggist, on the 9th inst, there were ap-
pointed in their places men worthless in
the ranks, and without knowledge of the
important duties which they were to per-
form in the hospital. The druggist knew
not one medicine from another, and to-day
three men are poisoned by mistake in
dispensing medicine. One of them is al
ready dead; the other two are suffering
severely, though [ have hopes that they
may yet be saved. Thank God I was ab-
sent at the time, and had nothing to do
with either dispensing or administering;
and yet, should I write that the vindictive.
ness was not yet grati6ed, would the world
credit it? It is even so. have addressed
to the General respectful letter, setting
forth the facts and urging the restoration
of my druggist, but he refuses! Would
he decimate his brigade to crafty his
vindictiveness
The sick were not the only persons who
suffered from Hancock's