The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-10-21
these Indian-corn is the best and most
abundant. Parched in frying-pan, it
is excellent food; if ground, or pounded
and boiled with meat of any sort, it
makes most nutritious meal.


and boiled with meat of any sort, it
makes most nutritious meal.
| A SUBSTITUTE FOR BREAD.
The potato, both Irish and sweet,
forms an excellent substitute for bread,
and at Savannah we found the rice also
suitable, both for men and animals For
the former it should be cleaned of its
husk in hominy block, easily prepared
out of log, and sifted with a coarse
corn.bag; but for horses it should be
fed in the straw.
During the Atlanta campaign We were
supplied by our regular Commissaries
with all sorts of patent compounds, such
as desiccated vegetables and concentrated
milk, meat-biscuit and sausages, but
somehow the men preferred the simpler
and more familiar forms of food, and
usually styled these "desecrated vegeta-
bles and consecrated milk"
We were also supplied literally with
lime.juice, sauerkraut, and pickles, as an
antidote to scurvy, and | now recall
the extreme anxiety of my Medical
Director, DIR. Kittoe, about the scurvy,
which he reported at one time as
spreading and imperiling the army.
This occurred at a crisis about Ken
esaw, when the railroad was taxed to its
utmost capacity to provide the necessary
ammunition, food, and forage, and could
not possibly bring us an adequate supply
Of potatoes and cabbage. the usual anti
scorbutics, when providentially the black
berries ripened and proved an admirable
antidote, and / have known the skirmish-
line, without orders, to fight a respectable
battle for the possession of some old
fields that were full of black berries.
Soon thereafter the green corn or roast
ing ear came into season, and | heard no
more of the scurvy.
Our country abounds with plants
which can be utilized for prevention to
the scuyvy; besides the above are the
persimmon, the sassafras root and bud,
the wild mustard, the "agave," turnip-
tops, the dandelion cooked as greens,
and decoction of the ordinary pine
leaf.
For the more delicate and costly
articles Of food for the sick we relied
mostly on the agents Of the Sanitary
Commission. | do not wish to doubt
the value of these organizations, which
gained SO much applause during our
civil war, for no one can question the
motives of these charitable and gener-
Gus people; but to be honest | must re-
cord an opinion that the Sanitary Com
mission should limit its operations to the
hospitals at the rear, and should never
appear at the front.
TO SUBSERvE DISCIPLINE.
They were generally local in feeling,
aimed to furnish their personal friends
and neighbors with better class of food
than the Government supplied, and the
consequence was, that one regiment of
brigade would receive potatoes and fruit
which would be denied another regi-
ment close by. Jealousy would be the
inevitable result, and in an army all
parts should be equal there should be
no partiality, favor, or affection"
The Government should supply all
essential wants, and in the hospitals to
the rear will be found abundant oppor-
tunities for the exercise of all possible
charity and generosity. During the
war | several times gained the ill-will
of the agents of the Sanitary Com
mission because | forbade their coming
to the front unless they would consent
to distribute their stores equally among
all, regardless of the parties who had
contributed them.
The sick, wounded, and dead of an
army are the subjects of the greatest
possible anxiety, and add an immense
amount Of labor to the well men. Each
regiment in an active campaign should
have a Surgeon and two Assistants
always close at hand, and each brigade
and division should have an experienced
Surgeon as Medical Director.
The great majority of wounds and Of
sickness should be treated by the Regi-
mental Surgeon, on the ground, under
the eye of the Colonel. As few should
be sent to the brigade or division hos
pital as possible, for the men always re-
ceive better care with their own regi-
ments than with strangers, and as rule
the cure is more certain; but when men
receive disabling wounds, or have sick
ness likely to become permanent, the
sooner they 60 far to the rear the better
for all.
The tent or the shelter of tree is q
better hospital than house, whose walls
absorb fetid and poisonous emana.ions,
and then give them back to the atmos-
phere. To men accustomed to the open
air, who live on the plainest food,
wounds seem to give less pain, and are
attended with less danger to life than to
ordinary soldiers in barracks.
Wounds which in 1861 would have
sent man to the hospital for months, in
1865 were regarded as mere scratches,
rather the subject of a joke than of sor-
row. To new soldiers the sight of blood
and death always has sickening effect,
but soon men become accustomed to il.