Connecticut western news., 1886-09-08
"MALINGERING." "
Soldiers Who Feigned Stck-
 ness to Get Out of the Army.
A Surgeons Account of an Attempt That
 svas Not Successful

A Surgeons Account of an Attempt That
 svas Not Successful
 A Sturgeon of the Tenth" says in the Detroit Free Press: It was supposed that now and then volunteer would become so disgusted with army life, and so home sick to see his friends, that he would take all risks of peril and degradation aud desert his colors, but few people have been made aware of the great amount of malingering in the service from 1869 to the close of the war. There were mon who were too proud or too cowardly to desert, and yet who were determined to get out of tn, army. The only way open to them was to affect some ailment, and of course was sooner or later brought in to close contact with them. The first five men discharged from my regiment for dis ability recovered so speedily after secur- ing their discharges that became butt of ridcule. Indeed, two of them re- mained about camp and piled their pro- fessions as gamblers, and made no secret that they had fooled me. -....
 One of my toughest cases was that of a private soldier named French. He had served from June, 1861, to April, 1862, and was we'll spoken of by his officers. He was tidy man, enthusiastic in the line of duty, and had been selected for promotion. One day he attended sick call, explaining that he had not been feeling we'll for three or four days past. He had the general look of man under a slight fever. gave him some medi- cine and told him he would be all right in day or two, but next morning word came co me that he was i'll in his tent. I went over to See him and found his fever increased and his appetite gone. I was surprised that the powders had not checked the fever, but prescribed others and decided not to have him removed to the hospital for a day or two. He had no complaint to make, and this was greatly in his favor. Next day the fever was little worse than before, and the man began to look pretty haggard. ordered his removal to the regimental hospital, and set myself about in a vigor- ous manner to break the fever, which was clearly intermittent. A week from the day he was taken sick I had made no progress, and was about to order his re- moval to the hospital at Alexandria when I received pointer. One of the nurses reported to me that she had acci- dentally observed French slyly wasting his medicines. could hardly credit it in a man like him, but decided to set a watch on his movements. In A hours I was assured of several things. He was, in the first place, eating only enough to barely sustain himself, although I could find no reason why he should not be hun gry when his fever was off. He was deliberately wasting my medicines in- stead of swallowing them, and about once in six hours he was forcing himself tc swallow something which was terribly disagreeable to him. During my next call he asked to be sent to Alexandria, and said nothing to lead him to suspect that had any doubts of his being fit patient for the hospital. I wanted tc watch him little longer. l left new supply of medicine, which was so fixed that he could take it himself. While he claimed to be very weak, he was still able to move about and dress and undress himself. During the day he made pre-. tense of taking the medicine, and during the night he poured most of the contents of the tumbler on the ground.
 The next morning I gave orders tc have him thoroughly searched, and the result justified our suspicious. The mar was malingering. He had made himself up lot of pills composed of government soap and rancid fat from government pork, and was taking one about every four hours. More than that, he was swallowing the juice of plug tobacco ir sufficient quantity to sicken horse, and not one drop of my medicine was passing his lips. We had such plain case or him that he could not deny it, nor did ht attempt to. I left new medicine witt him and gave him three days to get well and before the time was up he had re- turned to duty. made no report of hi case to his captain, not wishing to de grade or disgrace him, but in the course of a couple of weeks he fired bullet in to my tent one night, knocking the cal off my head, and then made break t< run the guard and desert. He was free upon by two mon, and both their bullets inflicted mortal wounds.
 A Relic of Jefferson.