The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1885-10-02
SHERMAN'S SURGEON.
Doctor S. c. Plumner.
The Hero Of Atlanta Pays a COmpli.
ment to a Rock Island Physician..-
What Brought 1t About.

i The famous Halstead letter. purportet
to have been written by the editor of the
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette during thu
Vicksburg campaign in 1868. and which
has just been given publicity through the
Cincinnati Enquirer, has awakened wide,
spread interest, especially among surviv-
ing members of Sherman's and Grants
armies. The letter referred to is given in
full here:
OFFICE CINCINNATI DAILY AND WEEK
LY COMMERCIAL. Fourth and Race streets,
CINCINNATI, Feb. 10, 1S63.-Gov. Chase
my Dear Sir; l wrote you somewhat
fantastic letter the other day. But that
| suppose is not now strange. write
this morning to send you copy of a
private letter / have from our army in
front of Vicksburg. 1t is from close
observer, who endeavors to tell the truth.
There never was u more thoroughly
disguised, disheartened, demoralized
army than this is, and all because it is
under such men as Grant and Sherman.
Disease is decimating it's ranks, and
while hundreds Of poor fellows are dying
from smallpox and every other conceiv-
able malady. the medical department is
afflicted with delriun tremens. In Mem.
phis smallpox patients are made to walk
through the streets from camps to hospi>
tails. while drunken doctors ride from bar.
rooms to whore houses in government
ambulances. How is it that Grant,
who was behind at Fort Henry, drunk at
Donelson, surprised and whipped at
Shiloh, and driven back from Oxford,
Miss. is still in commando
| Gov. Chase, these things are true Our
noble army of the Mississippi is being
wasted by the foolish, drunken, stupid
Grant. He cant organize, or control. or
fight an army | have no personal feel
ing about it, but know he is an ASS.
There is not among the whole list of
retired major generals a man who is not
Grants superior. Mcclellan. Fremont,
Mcdowell, Burnside, Franklin, even Pope
or summer. would be an improvement
upon the present commander of the army
of the Mississippi Will you wake up
some of these days and find we have no
army of the Mississippi?
Then, there is awful discourgment at
the way the foolish old Hunter, who is
thought to be great man because he il
not insane in his prejudices on the negro
question, is doing. In Gods name. what
is he waiting for2 More reinforcements2
Pity he can't die and get out of the way as
| Mitchell did
But to stop this sort of growing, and
come to something more practical
The army west and east, is being
weakened hourly by assertions. 1t is the
great evil. The thing needful to stop it is
| for the president to give each commander
| of n department power to shoot deserte RS.
They must be shot by the dozen, The
presidents weak, pulling, bidding huns
antaranism is death and hell to the army.
Can't you take him by the throat and
knock his head against wall until he is
brought to mis- senses on the war bus>
ness1 do not speak wantonly when
say there are persons who would feel that
it was doing God service to kill him, if il
| were not feared that Hamiin is a bigger
| fool than he is.
| And yet the piuful congress twaddles
weekly in private caucus about political
matters, as If II little more bigger would
do everything Why don't they pass your
| finance measure, and the conscripI act,
and mind their own business2
The proclamation is positive nuisance
to every true loyal man in the west 1t is
1 u
If it is made party test, Nallandigham
| would be elected governor of Ohio. do
not think / am talking at random. What
is wanted:
/. A general for our Army of the lis
sssippi
| 2. Deserters shot by order Of cnmman.
dcrs of departments.
| .. Less dependence upon the Niger
and moIe on the white man.
| l. The consolidation of the fragments
of regiments,
g. Arrest and try Henry May and
Wendell Phillips for treason.
q. Suppress the New York Tribune
and New York World
| NJ. HAIsTEAD.
II it was because of this unusual inter
est that Missouri Repubticon reporter iu>
terviewed Gen. W, Il. Sherman in st,
Louis the other day when the great
commander paid quite a compliment to
DR.. s c. Plummer of this city. He said
If we had assaulted Niksburg when
Halstead wanted us to we would have
| had to wade our men through forty feet
| of water to dc it. Mr. llalstead might
| have done it, he was a better man than
| we were, and being in Cincinnati knew
| more about it, of course, than we did
| Still as we couldn't wade our men through
| forty feet of water, we didn't attempt to
| capture the city till it was possible. The
Mississippi had overlooked its banks, and
| our army, 10000 men, was huddled on
| the lcvee, on a strip of land twenty feet
wide in places, and elsewhere not more
| than nine feet. In front of us was the
Mississippi and back of us were the
swamps, with their constant miasm and
| malaria, producing eyhalations. Forced
| to live in climate that was unfit for
| white man, with irregular meals and no
| suitable shelter, there is no wonder that
considerable sickness existed. The men
were compelled to sleep on the ground
during the Indictment winter season. In
| other places. away from the river, where
fresh water was not accessible the men
used the water found in neighboring
pools All this gave rise to more or less
ckness of a malarial kind.
WAS there a small pox epidemic?'
by no means. OF course, there was
the usual amount of the disease that nee
essarily exists in the army. but no more.
lis it true that the medical department
was afflicted with delirium tremens2"
That sir, was as vile Islander es
was ever uttered, and the man that wrote
those lines ought to- hang his head in
shame. No purer nobler. men ever lived
than the men who composed our medical
staff, There was DIR. John Moore, now
of California; DIR. Plnmmer. now of Rock
Island; DR.. Kitile and others. Why.
have seen them work for several DAYS
without taking any sleep, They were and