The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-14
SANITARY CONDITIONS IN CAMP LIFE.


appointment of a commission which made
thorough investigation and full report of
the facts. Very early in the war it was
found that the sudden and large increase of
the army involved new hygienic conditions
and commission of inquiry and advice
was instituted to cooperate with the Med
/ ical Bureau and recommend reforms. This
commission was appointed by the secretary
of war on the 9th of June, 1861, barely two
months after the war began, and before the
first battle of Bull Run. This commission
consisted of seventeen prominent citizens of
the period, including Rev Henry w. Bel
lows. Prof. A. d. Bache six leading ply
sicians from different parts of the country
| Horace Binney Joseph Holt, Frederick Law
Olmstead and others of equal prominence
| The order appointing the commission gave
| them only advisory power, but directed
| them especially to inquire into the sanitary
condition of the volunteers; the means of
preserving and restoring the health and of
securing the general comfort and efficiency
of troops; the proper provision of cooks,
nurses and hospitals, and other subjects of
like nature During the summer and fall of
two hundred camps, making separate re-
| port on each one. These reports covered
| the whole ground OF location. water supply,
| sanitation. camp discipline. drainage, cook
ing, etc. Some of the points in the report
have direct bearing on the present dis
| cusson. They found that the average oc-
cupation of a camp site, up to the date of
! inspection, had been twenty-one days.
| though in the East this period had been
| largely exceeded and regiments frequently
occupied the same ground much longer
than safe advisable. They found
that "a per cent. of the regiments then in
the service had beard floors in their tents
20 per cent had india rubber cloth. q per
cent. had straw or branches of trees and 50
per cent. slept the ground. These sta
tistics included the Amy of the Potomac
the army in Yves tern Virginia and the troops
in the Mississippi valley. The statistics of
different kinds of sickness in 12O regiments
showed the largest proportion of those of
typhoid type occurred with regiments
sleeping on rubber blankets. the least with
those on straw or torghs; the largest pro-
| portion of catarrhal diseases with regi-
ments sleeping on wooden floors, the least
with those on the ground; the largest of
rheumatism with these or wood, the small
| est with those on straw or boughs; the
| largest of mal&rial with those on the
ground, the least with those on straw or
| boughs. The conclusion as that the best
| bed for soldiers in camp was boughs of fir
or cedar properly arranged and frequently
changed. The commission found that expe-
rienced officers generally objected to board
floors in tents, as they were thought to be
more damp than the ground itself, and to
offer opportunity for the collection of
rubbish and dirt. In n per cent. of the vol
unteer camps examined Stops, refuse and
offal were Systematically removed to a dis
lance from camp by detail of men, while
in % per cent. of the camps this duty was
very imperfectly performed. In nineteen
of these twenty-three camps the inspectors
found odors of decay and putrefaction per-
ceptibe in and about the tents and streets
In SO per cent of the camps privies were
| found to be properly arranged AMI kept in
proper order, while in 20 per cent proper
attention was not given to them, and the
! health of the men was more or less serious
ly endangered in consequence. In regard to
sickness. the commission found that up to
| the fall of 1861, in the Army of the Potomac,
the average constant number of sick, per
1000 men, had been So; in the Department
| of Western Virginia, 1872 in the Valley of
| the Mississippi, l16. The average constant
number of sick during the months of Au-
gust, September and October in the regi-
| ments East and West was II per 600 The
showed that between July l and Oct l. 1861,
| the number of sick soldiers treated in the
Army OF the Potomac was Is 49, and in the
Army of the West, as it was then called
12,2l5. The average mortality of the Army
of the Potomac during the summer was 31a
per cent, while imperfect data received
| from the West indicated a considerably
larger rate for the whole army; probably
ii will not be far from per cent. if sweep
| ing epidemics should be escaped
| The interest of these statistics lies in the
evidence they afford that precisely the
| same conditions were developed by the
| hasty organization of a volunteer army in
| 1861 in our recent war. The conditions
are inherent in the system. and the expert
ence of 1861 should have led to a reform. If
| Congress had been wise it would long ago
have reorganzed the army basis that
would either have cured these defects or re-
duced them to a minimum. Some of them
never can be cured under volunteer sys-
tenn that permits the appointment of mex
perienced and Incompetent officers who
know very little of the sanitary laws of
army life and will not enforce what they
do know. Another factor that never can he
wholly overcome is the recklessness of sol
diers themselves. who are apt to trifle with
their health until it is shattered. The re-
port of the commission of 1861 furnished
sufficient basis for the sanitary reorganiza-
ton of our volunteer system if those whose
duty ii was had taken the matter in hand.
GENERAL LEES CAMP.
Attention has been called to the remark
able success of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee in keep