[CRCIKSHANK] FROM ISLE AUX NOIX TO CHATEAUGUAY 173 



as opponents of the government. A rumour soon became current that 

 he had wiitten a letter, which had not been published from motives of 

 policy, stating his opinion that it would be imprudent to attempt 

 to take Montreal with an army of less than thirty thousand men, 

 and that he would rather resign his command than undertake it.* 



During the autumn his troops had suffered considerably from 

 an epidemic of measles which affected nearly one-third of the regulars 

 encamped at Plattsburg and Champlain. One regiment, originally 

 nine hundred strong, had been reduced to less than two hundred fit 

 for duty by neglect of proper sanitary measures. At one time thiee 

 hundred and forty men of this unfortunate corps were in the hospital 

 and a large number reported sick in quarters. To preserve the health 

 of the remainder Dearborn attached them to a better disciplined 

 regiment. The weather during December became extremely cold 

 and an epidemic of typhus fever accompanied by pneumonia raged at 

 all three stations. Two hundred deaths occurred among sixteen 

 hundred soldiers quartered at Burlington. The disease then spread 

 among the inhabitants of the town of whom seventy-three died within 

 a month. On December 10, more than one-third of the three regular 

 regiments stationed at Plattsburg were reported unfit for duty. . The 

 mortality at that post and at Greenbush was proportionately as gieat 

 as at Burlington, making the total number of deaths about five hun- 

 dred or practically fifteen per cent of the entire force, f 



Yet great as the ravages of disease actually were, they were much 

 exaggerated by current reports and numerous bitter complaints of 

 neglect and ill treatment found their way into the Federalist news- 

 papers. 



*Edward Doyle to Lieut. Colonel Neil McLean, Nov. 29 

 fMann, Medical Sketches of the War, pp. 10, 39, 45 and 199. 

 Note. — Plattsburg, December 10, 1812. 



6th U. S. Infantry, fit for duty, 203, sick, 138. 



15th " " " "' 330, " 235. 



16th. " " " 216, " 120. 



839 493 

 Sec II, 1913—11 



