38 



AEMY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



attention was paid to ventilation, and it was 

 obvious in some cases that the men suffered in 

 health in consequence. The Sibley tent is 

 more convenient for ventilation, and cannot as 

 well be tightly closed as the wedge form. It 

 is now found that typhus is occurring more 

 frequently in the regiments occupying these 

 tents than in those that have the Sibley the 

 ratio being 29.5 to 23. The Massachusetts 

 Seventh Volunteers, Colonel Davis, Surgeon 

 Holman, is the only volunteer regiment re- 

 ported, in which a thorough ventilation of the 

 wedge tent had been generally established. It 

 was here induced by the occurrence of typhoid 

 fever, and by this, prominently among other 

 means employed for the same end, the unusual 

 result of banishing this formidable disease has 

 been obtained. The inspectors have advised the 

 striking of each tent once a week, for the pur- 

 pose of giving it a perfect cleansing and airing. 

 Fifty-eight per cent, of the regiments had 

 been provided with the wedge tent, ten with 

 the wall tent, seven with the bell tent, nine- 

 teen with the Sibley, others not stated. Ninety 

 per cent, of these were made of good canvas ; 

 the remainder were of twilled cotton or drill- 

 ing, or so old as to be leaky. 



Twenty-four per cent, of the regiments were 

 provided with tent flooring of boards, twenty 

 per cent, with india-rubber cloth ; in twenty- 

 one per cent, straw or branches were used for 

 this purpose, and in thirty-five per cent, the 

 men slept on the ground. 



The following table shows the relative pro- 

 portion of these several kinds of flooring in the 

 three great divisions of the army. 



The important influence it will be doubtless 

 found to exert on the health of the men, justifies 

 especial inquiry into the subject : 



The following table shows the ratio of sick 

 men per thousand, in regiments which had 

 been supplied respectively with india-rubber 

 blankets ; wooden tent-floors ; straw, fir boughs, 

 or cedar boughs; and in those which have 

 been sleeping on the bare ground. The data 

 are taken from the returns of 120 regiments, 

 and chiefly in November : 



As the forces in "Western Virginia were, as 

 a rule, unprovided with rubber blankets, and 

 as they have suffered special hardships in other 

 respects, they are excluded from the compari- 

 son in the second column. 



A limited examination of the diseases of the 

 army indicates that the largest proportion of 

 those of typhoid type occur with regiments 

 sleeping on rubber blankets, the least with 

 those on straw or boughs ; the largest propor- 

 tion of catarrhal with regiments on wooden 

 floors, the least with those on the ground ; the 

 largest of rheumatism with those on wood, 

 the smallest with those on straw or boughs ; 

 the largest of malarial with those on the 

 ground, the least with those on straw or 

 boughs. 



As had been presumed by the commission, 

 it has been proved that the best bed for sol- 

 diers in camp can, with a little skill, be formed 

 from fir or cedar spray, whenever it can be ob- 

 tained in sufficient quantity. It should be fre- 

 quently removed and burned, after a thorough 

 cleansing of the tent floor, the tents being 

 struck for the purpose. 



Experienced officers generally object to the 

 board floors in tents. They are thought to be 

 more damp than the ground itself, and they 

 offer an opportunity for the collection of rub- 

 bish and dirt, and make them difficult of re- 

 moval. 



Privies had been established in all the camps 

 inspected, except those of two or three regi- 

 ments recently mustered in. 



In eighty per cent, of the camps, they are 

 reported to be properly arranged and kept in 

 proper order, no offensive odor drifting from 

 them. In twenty per cent, proper attention 

 was not given to them, and the health of the 

 men was more or less seriously endangered in 

 consequence. 



In sixty-eight per cent, of the camps, the 

 men seemed to be effectively restricted to the use 

 of privies. In thirty -two per cent, the proper 

 prohibition was found by the inspectors not to 

 be strictly enforced. 



In seventy-seven per cent, of the volunteer 

 camps, slops, refuse, and offal are systematically 

 removed to a distance from camp by a daily 

 detail of men. 



In twenty-three per cent, this duty was per- 

 formed irregularly or very imperfectly. In 

 nineteen of these twenty-three camps, the in- 

 spectors found odors of decay and putrefac- 

 tion perceptible in and about the tents and 

 streets. 



The shirts used by the men were found to 

 be of poor quality, in twenty-six per cent, of 

 the regiments examined. In seventy-four per 

 cent, they were of the Regulation quality. In 

 ninety-four per cent, the men had been pro- 

 vided with two shirts each. In four and a half 

 per cent, they had but one each, and in the re- 

 mainder only a part were supplied properly. 



Eighty-two per cent, of the regiments were 

 well supplied with overcoats, and seven per 



