From the National Archives, RG 109, Ch. 6, Vol. 707-709; “Letters Received and Sent,
Chimborazo Hospital. 1861-64.” 3 Vols.: Vol. 707.
p. 46
Chimborazo
Hospital, No. 4
March 14, 1862
Doctor,
I have
the honor to report to you that on the 12th inst. a Mr. Peters, who
has been acting as Master of Ambulances, approached me in my sick ward, and
stated that he had some negroes who had been employed in Government work and
were now on sick list, for whom he was seeking accommodation in Chimborazo
Hospital, in accordance with an order from Genl Winder – Said Peters produced
no written order and did not profess to have any verbal order specially
addressed to me.
I stated to this Ambulance Master
that I could not with propriety receive these servants in No 4, whereupon he
became pettish and disrespectful, stating that this Chimborazo Hospital had no
head, and was therefore in bad repute with the Medical Department.
I dismissed him with a few curt
remarks, and did not receive the servants in question.
You will recollect that you had
directed me to prepare at once for one hundred soldiers. In obedience to this
order I had new cots furnished with new beds & bed clothing, placed in the
houses. If I had received the negroes I should have been obliged to give to them
these accommodations [page break] to
the exclusion of an equal number of soldiers, and to the annoyance of a larger
number, as my Hospital buildings are in close proximity. I have no isolated
building, fit for negro ward.
Submitting this matter to your
consideration,
I am very respectfully
Yr
Obdt Servt
Wm. A. Davis, Surg
in
charge Chimborazo No 4
J. B. McCaw
Surg. In Chief
Chimborazo Hospitals
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