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75 [stamp] 510. A.G.O. [left margin] Brigadier General E. D. Townsend, Adjutant General of the Army, Washington, D. C.

General:

         I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of May 21 ' 73., in which you state the fact that the Descriptive List of Deserters from the 10th Infantry, for the month of March received at your office, shows eighty five desertions for that month.  You also state the desire of the Secretary of War, that an investigation be made that the cause of so large a number of desertions may be discovered, with a view of applying whatever remedy may be necessary.
         By referring to the Regimental Return of the 10th Infantry, for March 1873., I find that seventy three of the desertions referred to, were from a detachment of Recruits enroute to the Regiment from Newport Barracks, Ky., and that these desertions occurred before the detachment reached the Regiment.  The regimental administration therefore cannot in any respect be held responsible for them.  The causes of these desertions will be found - I think in the history of the journey of this detachment from Newport Barracks, Ky., to this place and their detention in camp there.  This is given in full in the endorsement of Surgeon Hammond, Medical Director of the Department.
         A month's confinement in an isolated camp, all intercourse with outsiders being prohibited, even with every comfort possible, will try the patients of the best of old soldiers.  Its effect upon a party of Recruits in a strange country, with no Espirit-de-corps, or common bond of sympathy to keep them together, can easily be imagined.  The result was that nearly one half deserted.  The sole reason assigned for these desertions, and I believe the true one, was the impatience of restraint, their isolation and the apprehension that they might themselves become victims of the small pox.
         Strange as it may appear to Surgeon Eben Swift, U.S.A., the civilization of the Nineteenth Century and the humanizing influence of a purer Christianity seem to have lost their hold upon this detachment of Recruits on this occasion.