The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-11-15
Men OF Ninth
DenOunce
CLINTON MINISTER
Officers Rally to the Gallant
Offence of Soldiers.

sermon preached at Clinton by the Rev.
A. M. Osgood, which contained the
statement that a large proportion of
deaths among the soldiers, particular
ly in the Ninth regiment, were due to
the use of Intoxicating liquor, was the
whole topic of conversation at the arm
ory yesterday.
The officers of the Emmett Guards
were indignant and said that such re-
marks were totally uncalled for, as they
We're absolutely untrue in every re-
spect The officers and men who COM
pose the Emmett Guards felt keenly the
insult, as they called it, to every indi-
vidusal who took his life in his hands
and fought for his country on the Gu
ban battle1elds.
IN an interview yesterday afternoon
with a. Spy representative, Capt. Moy-
nihan said:
If that Clinton minister made the
| remarks which are quoted as coming
from his lips, he knows that he had no
grounds for the charges.
Il feel quite badly over the matter,
for the reason that l am a temperate
man, and the men in my company are
not by any means drunkards. They
are nearly all members Of the different
temperance societies in Worcester, and
no one in this company was ever en-
couraged or allowed to use intoxicants
at Camp Meade, Camp Alger or in
Cuba.
THE men in my company who died
while serving their country were not
drunkards. They were as fine fellows
as ever lived, every one of them, and
as nine out of eleven died in Cuba,
where 1t was almost impossible for the
doctors to get hold of hardly enough
liquor to keep the sick men alive, l
think that this minister has consider
ably over-reached himself.
There are times in a soldiers life
when he needs liquor. 1 am not a
drinking man myself, but believe that
there were times while we were in Cuba
that a glass of liquor would have saved
many a soldiers life.
II repeatedly instructed my men
while they were where they could get
drink, to leave it alone, and L never
had any gross disobedience of my or
ders.
Il personally knew many of the dead
men of Co. K of Clinton, and they were
honest, upright fellows, good soldiers,
and a good soldier cannot be a drunk
ard.
1T pity the relatives of every man
who died for his country, or while
serving his country, who are obliged to
listen to such remarks. Rev. A. M.
Osgood must have been looking for no.
toriety.
.Canteens were never allowed in the
Ninth regiment. Our dead and gone
commander Col. Began, was a strictly
temperate man and nearly all the Off
GERS of the different companies in the
Ninth regiment were before they went
away to war members of temperance
societies. 1 think that the captain of
Company K and his ieutenants were
all temperance advocates.
What the chaplain Of the Fifth
Massachusetts regiment would know
about the Ninth regiment is a question.
The Fifth did not hardly leave their
homes until we were on our way to
Cuba.
1.-THE dead men in the Ninth were not
the men who used liquor and l think
that the Rev. Osgood should have
looked up the facts in the case before
he made such damaging statements.
''The Clinton minister is quoted as
having said that deaths were not
caused by fighting in the Santiago
trenches, but were caused by drink If
the men when first taken in those San
tiago trenches could have had a little
liquor they would not be under six feet
Of sod today.
''I do not suppose that the reverend
gentleman's remarks are worth MOTTO
ing, but they hurt me, my lieutenants
and my men as we'll because they are
absolutely false"
Lieut.. Mccain said the minister's re-
marks were false in every particular,
and that there was less drinking in the
Ninth than in any regiment that took
part in the war
AZ think that it is disgraceful for a
minister of the gospel to make such
remarks in his pulpit. The dead can
not answer this mans unjust criticism
And think that it is a shame for the
living to SANDER the dead who served
their country so well.
1.-THE men could not get liquor. Many
times it would have worked off the
fever if they had had it.. The dead
men were temperance men, strictly
temperate nearly all of them. Those
who do drink liquor are alive today.
That minister wanted notoriety, but he
should have investigated before he
spoke, and not cast such slurs upon
our regiment"
Lieut. Hurley voiced the sentiments
expressed by Capt. Moynihan and Lieut.
McCann and was very indignant over
the accusations, which he branded as
being utterly false.
The men were excited over the mat
ter and said that those who used liquor
kept off the fever, while those who did
not use it either died or suffered for
many weeks from the dread malaria.
The officers say that the Rev. A. M.
Osgoods statement, that their disci-
pline made it possible for the men to
obtain drink, is absurd. If they had
encouraged drinking, they could not
have depended upon their men, and a
strict watch was kept by every officer
of the Ninth upon their men, as they
wanted them to be able to do the work
they were called upon to do.