Medical recollections of the Army of the Potomac / by Jonathan Letterman.

  • Jonathan Letterman
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical recollections of the Army of the Potomac / by Jonathan Letterman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/212 page 6
    and sick should be sent up the James River to meet tlie wants of the army. And as it was impossible to obtain the requisite orders from Dr. Tripler, then Medical Director—as the telegraph wires had been cut—and feeling sure that that experienced officer would approve my exerting authority in such a case, I directed Assistant-Surgeon Alexander, U. S. A., and Assistant-Surgeon Dunster, U. S. A, the Medical Director of Transportation, to proceed up that river with their supplies and vessels with all possible despatch. They reached Harrison’s Landing in time to be of the greatest service. The troops for several consecutive days and nights had been march- ing and fighting among the swamps and streams which, abounding in this part of Virginia, render it almost a Serbonian bog. The malaria arising from these hotbeds of disease began to manifest its baneful effects upon the health of the men when they reached Harrison’s Landing. The labors of the troops had been excessive, the excitement intense; they were obliged to subsist upon marching rations, and little time was afforded to prepare the meagre allowance. They seldom slept, and even when the opportunity offered, it was to lie in the mud with the expectation of being called to arms at any moment. When it is remembered how short a time this army had been under discipline, we are surprised that it should have
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3