The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-23
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Chief Surgeon, U. $. ", Commanding Second Division, First Army Corps Hospital.
 A Prominent gentleman of this city sends the following article from the last issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association: My apology for intruding upon the columns of the Jour civil war, and did duty upon the bat tle-feld of Chickamauga, upon which have been again on duty since the Eth day of July. My knowledge of hospit- als is of long duration, and extends to the hospitals of Europe as well as those of our own country. Moreover, while the hospital under my command needs no defense for it's efficiency under my own administration, feel that my col leagues in the army and in other hos pitals have been most unrighteously abused--from the surgeon-general at Washington to the humblest lieutenant serving as an assistant-surgeon in the regiments In this defense of a noble
 
 of duty or stupidity in any medical of ficer. Occasionally a medical officer is found who is incompetent, not always because of want of medical knowledge, but by reason of his disposition, which disqualifies him for his position. Such men are in the army, but they are few.
 Let me photograph for you the pie lures in my mind as they were regis 1,, I11lx T n,n nooga at S:30 p. m. My hotel for the night was the Read House At 5 a. m. of the 7th I arose, put my head out of the window and counted twelve sol diers lying drunk in the street At the Central depot, a few hours later, wait ing for train to Lytle, where I must report for duty, I observed soldiers drunk and in the company of prosti- tutes. A police officer at the depot, of whom made many inquiries suggested by my knowledge of Chattanooga at the time of the civil war told me that the town was full of drunken soldiers and prostitutes, the latter numbering many hundreds, of all shades of color and damnation.
 A railroad ride of an hour, between Missionary Ridge and Lookout Noun
 
 "Lytle" or "Battlefeld' was reached. Wooden sheds surrounded a space op posite the depot, forming an aggrega- tion of restaurants, fruit and nut ven- dors, variety shows and houses of pros titution. An hour later I reported for duty and was assigned to the staff of Brigadier- General Rosser, of Confede rate army fame.
 of ffn,.r I r,nt1 ar O qt- tanooga and slept that night in the Southern Hotel; at S:90 next morning counted, from the window of my room, seventeen soldiers lying drunk in the street. Hundreds of others lay about the town in the same condition. Who was responsible for this? I ask the honest reader if the sickness in the army springing from drunkenness and prostitution was due to the careless ness of the medical staff of the army? This loose military and civil govern 1nent had been prevailing for weeks, and the army was suffering from dissi- patton and prostitution. Not less than five per cent. of about fifty thousand men were incapacitated for their full duties by syphilis or gonorrhea, or both. They focked in at the sick calls, the quarters were besprinkled with them, and they furnished fully eighty per cent. of the surgical patients of the field hospitals, How did they conduct themselves there? Their appetites were not inspired; they craved full diet, and, because they were in the hospital, wanted all the delicacies provided for sick men who could eat but little and drink soup and milk. They resented their grievances by writing letters to newspapers abusing the hospitals and the doctors An anxious mother from the far north becoming alarmed came down to Chickamauga. She had read these letters Her own son had written her his views and told her of the hor- hors of the army hospital. Upon her arrival she poured out her seven vials mon the bospital and the staff, and then demanded that she be conducted to her darling boy" The surgeon ad- dressed. by this time little warm un- der the collar, said: Your son is out in the woods under the trees; he is do- ing well. but he has had a very bad at tack of gonorrhea" Many examples of the outrageous behavior of this class Of natients might be given. But the sub- feet will not bear investigation in the daily press. notwithstanding it's libelous and criminal attacks upon the hospitals and their medical staffs. Can you ac- cuse the doctors for not preventing this? You can no do it. The civil au- thoritics of Chattanooga, to their erer- nal disgrace, are largely responsible for this matter. They bowed down before the brazen image of cupidity and re- solved to do nothing that would stay the draft upon a soldiers pocket in their morally rotten corporation.
 On July I took the position of brig ade surgeon on General Rosser's staff. I remained on this staff as brigade sur geon until August 1. General Rosser is a man who has been educated in the art of war from West Point through II the wars of the last and present gene ration. He is kind and resolute, com- panionable and pure in his daily con- duct indefatigable in the pursuit of his duties despite poor health. Not drop of spurious liquors of any kind were ever seen at his headquarters and as we stood about our mess table, with it's plain and simple food, frequently in the rain without cover, General Rosser, with all heads uncovered, never failed to invoke the blessing of God upon the
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