"There are general instructions to boil all water, whether filtered or not. In the only regiment where I could be sure the order was actually enforced (Eighth Massachusetts), no typhoid has yet been recognized, and although the camp is very low and wet and remittant fever has occurred within the last fortnight, the general sick rate is only 2.56 per cent."
Under sub-heading "Character of Troops" he says:—
"The dirty camps are the sickly camps here as elsewhere. But discipline and intelligence have their reward also. Without specifying instances low in the scale, attention is invited to the Eighth Massachusetts, already cited, where the positive enforcement of orders by punitive measures when necessary has resulted in the actual use of only boiled water for drinking, with exemption from typhoid fever and a low sick rate as a probable consequence."
Again, under the heading "Third Division, First Corps" he says:—
"The Eighth Massachusetts, whose discipline is good and which boils its water, has a sick rate of 2.56, although its camp site is bad."
Some of the volunteers were handicapped by the qualities of their officers. The American soldier responds to sympathetic leadership, but not to the sympathy that expresses itself in exaggeration of his hardships, and in frequent reference to his woes. This kind of talk destroys the back bone of resistance, and makes a company a mob of weaklings.
It is easy enough to be pleasant
When life moves along like a song,
But the man worth while is the man with a smile,
When everything goes dead wrong.