474 surgeons' keports — Minnesota — first district. 



MINNESOTA— FIRST DISTRICT. • 



Extracts from report of Dr. Edwin C. Cross. 



• * * There were examined at this office from March 9 to April 14, 1865, 



Drafted men 152 



Recruits 606 



Substitutes 7 



Total 765 



The disposition made of these men was as follows : 



Drafted men held to service 29 



Drafted men exempted for disability 87 



Drafted men exempted lor all other causes, such as over- age, alienage, &c... 36 



Recruits accepted 366 



Recruits rejected for physical disability .- '. 240 



Substitutes accepted 7 



Total, as above 765 



The First Congressional District of Minnesota comjirises eighteen pirrtiallysettled counties in 

 the southern part of the State, and embraces a population of about one liundred thousand persons. 



The counties composing it, commencing at the southeast corner of the State, and numbering 

 from east to west, are Houston, Fillmore, Mower, Freeborn, Faribault, and Martin in the first tier; 

 in the second tier, Wiuona, Olmsted, Dodge, Steele, Wase(!a, Blue Earth, and Brown ; in the third 

 tier, (leaving out Wabasha and G-oodhue in the Second Congressional District, on the east,) Rice, 

 La Sueur, and Nicollet ; and, in the fourth tier, (passing over Dakota, also in the Second District,) 

 Scott and Sibley. 



From this it will be seen the district is two counties wide on the east, and bordering on the 

 Mississippi River, and passing west three counties it extends north one county, and from the fifth 

 .county west is four counties wide. 



The two counties lying on the Mississippi River, Houston and Winona, are very much broken 

 by the Mississi[)pi bluffs, and contain much less available land than the counties farther west. 

 The next two counties are somewhat broken by the Root and Zumbro Rivers, which meander 

 through thera ; but the loss of arable land in these counties is more than compensated bj" the abun- 

 dant supply of pure water from those streams and their tributaries, and the extensive groves of 

 timber that border them. West of the two last-named counties, the country is, with the exception 

 of that portion immedialely contiguous to the Minnesota River, unitoniily level, with an adequate 

 supi^ly both of water and timber, but w-ith a soil of unsurpassed fertihly, yielding bountifully of 

 wheat, oats, barley, corn, grass, and roots of all kinds in response to the merest pretense of farming. 



The population of the district, as a wbole, is a mixed one, made up cliiefly of Americans, Irish, 

 Germans, and Scandinavians, with a i>reponderance of one or the other in the several localities. 

 In Winona, Olmsted, Dodge, Steele, Waseca, Mower, Freeborn, Faribault, Martin, and Rice Coun- 

 ties, the American element preponderates; in Houston and Fillmore Counties, the Scandinavian; 

 in Nicollet and Brown Counties, the German; and in Le Sueur, Scott, and Sibley Counties, the 

 Irish. 



The occupation of the people is almost exclusively grain-growing, but cattle and sheep raising 

 is now receiving increased attention. 



The diseases of this district are continued fevers from general causes, and inflammatory 

 diseases arising generally from the cold and changeable character of the climate. Intermittent 

 levCT is almost, and the special diseases of southern climates entirely, unknown here. 



No enrollment of this district, or any pai t of it, has been made since I have been a member of 



