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- Jan 7, 2013
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- Long Island, NY
Still reading E.P. Alexander's Personal Memoirs. Found this interesting incident from Alexander's account of July 3, 1863. This was the morning of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. I was surprised that the doctor in question got off easier because he was using opium instead of alcohol. Anyone know why being stoned was better than being drunk?
I recall one incident of a ride this morning to our extreme right flank, to visit the guns assigned for its protection. I came upon two lieutenants, of a Miss. regt., apparently robbing the dead body of a Confederate officer, lying in the road. I stopped to reproach them & they said, “He is not dead, dam+ him, he is drunk. It is our surgeon & he is drunk too off whiskey issued for the wounded; and it’s not the first time, either. We are just taking his instruments to take care of them.” I said, “Toss him about! Roll him! Shake him! See if you can’t arouse him.” They did so but he would no more arouse than a dead man. Then I said, “Every officer owes it to discipline to report such a case. Give me all your names.” When we returned to Virginia I preferred charges against the surgeon. He was left in Pa. in charge of our wounded, at houses near the battlefield, when we retreated to Virginia, & the case only came on for trial, by our military court, next spring in East Tenn. The poor fellow’s friends had prevailed upon the two lieutenants to say that it was possible he might have only been under the influence of opium, & not drunk; & in spite of my testimony the court, I am exceedingly glad to say, divided, which operated as an acquit[ t]al. Three judges composed the court, but only two were present. I am very grateful for the result because I had perhaps too much youthful indignation at a crime to which I never had any personal inclination, and I had made the charges too severe: “Misbehavior before the enemy,” or something like that, which might even have allowed him to be shot.
Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander (Civil War America) (p. 253). The University of North Carolina Press. Kindle Edition.
I recall one incident of a ride this morning to our extreme right flank, to visit the guns assigned for its protection. I came upon two lieutenants, of a Miss. regt., apparently robbing the dead body of a Confederate officer, lying in the road. I stopped to reproach them & they said, “He is not dead, dam+ him, he is drunk. It is our surgeon & he is drunk too off whiskey issued for the wounded; and it’s not the first time, either. We are just taking his instruments to take care of them.” I said, “Toss him about! Roll him! Shake him! See if you can’t arouse him.” They did so but he would no more arouse than a dead man. Then I said, “Every officer owes it to discipline to report such a case. Give me all your names.” When we returned to Virginia I preferred charges against the surgeon. He was left in Pa. in charge of our wounded, at houses near the battlefield, when we retreated to Virginia, & the case only came on for trial, by our military court, next spring in East Tenn. The poor fellow’s friends had prevailed upon the two lieutenants to say that it was possible he might have only been under the influence of opium, & not drunk; & in spite of my testimony the court, I am exceedingly glad to say, divided, which operated as an acquit[ t]al. Three judges composed the court, but only two were present. I am very grateful for the result because I had perhaps too much youthful indignation at a crime to which I never had any personal inclination, and I had made the charges too severe: “Misbehavior before the enemy,” or something like that, which might even have allowed him to be shot.
Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander (Civil War America) (p. 253). The University of North Carolina Press. Kindle Edition.