"[416]
[Footnote 416: _Burton to Loudon, 27 Aug. 1756_.]
The prejudice of the regular officer may have colored the picture, but
it is certain that the sanitary condition of the provincial camps was
extremely bad. "A grievous sickness among the troops," writes a
Massachusetts surgeon at Fort Edward; "we bury five or six a day. Not
more than two thirds of our army fit for duty. Long encampments are the
bane of New England men."[417] Like all raw recruits, they did not know
how to take care of themselves; and their officers had not the
experience, knowledge, or habit of command to enforce sanitary rules.
The same evils were found among the Canadians when kept long in one
place. Those in the camp of Villiers are reported at this time as nearly
all sick.[418]
[Footnote 417: _Dr. Thomas Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 28 Aug.
1756_.]
[Footnote 418: Bougainville, _Journal_.]
Another penman, very different from the military critic, was also on the
spot, noting down every day what he saw and felt. This was John Graham,
minister of Suffield, in Connecticut, and now chaplain of Lyman's
regiment. His spirit, by nature far from buoyant, was depressed by
bodily ailments, and still more by the extremely secular character of
his present surroundings. It appears by his Diary that he left home
"under great exercise of mind," and was detained at Albany for a time,
being, as he says, taken with an ague-fit and a quinsy; but at length he
reached the camp at Fort Edward, where deep despondency fell upon him.
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