To the Coast Rangers, on cleanliness.

  • Hatch, L. M.
Date:
[1862?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: To the Coast Rangers, on cleanliness. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    2/15
    H3<*tt. I%(*0 2 • placed themselves in the field. Their value is only real- ized after the}' are lost, and the South will mourn for many a long year the loss of their hest men, not by bat- tle, but by disease. If the South had to pay in advance the value for the soldiers she loses, Ave will venture the assertion that every- thing relating to the health of the troops would, at once, be regarded as of the utmost importance. The most vigorous measures would bc^-taken, for we should then realize that the individual Southern soldier is the most costly, in an industrial, social, or political view, that ever did battle for his country. Our men are all taken from the best of our population, and not, as with some nations, from the poorest of the laboring classes. The loss of every man is to us a serious one, which will be felt even after long years of peace. The soldier, who dies in battle, may be said still to live. His endurance, devotion to duty, and courage, are re- membered with advantage by his friends and their foes. The dead of a hard fought battle field long remain a bul- wark to their country, a terror to invaders. To fire the mind of the soldier, or to obtain consent to his sacri- fice, from mothers, sisters, wives, would hardly be done by any inspiration drawn from the graves of those who have died by unnecessary disease. We say unnecessary, and we mean it. The soldier should not die of disease; and he would not, if he wore good clothes, ate well-cooked wholesome food, and was exercised and eared for by offi- cers fit to command him. Not ages ago, a long sea voyage was thought to be one of the severest trials a constitution could be put to. Lord Nelson, in his day, had a ship under his immediate com- mand, for three years, without the loss of a life. This favorable difference is largely due to cleanliness. It is, now, no uncommon thing for men-of-war, with