From the Richmond Dispatch, 4/30/1862, p. 2. Letter extract from "Medicus"
"Medicus," under dates of April 28th, in a note treating of the evil of officers drawing pay for laboriously doing nothing, asks leave to call the attention of the authorities to the fact that at Chimborazo Hospital there are a Barracks Master and Assistant, each drawing his respective salary for the laborious occupation of doing nothing. When the buildings which compose this Hospital were first erected, they were intended for a barracks, and a Barracks Master was appointed to take care of them; now these houses are all filled with sick, and their care, as well as that of the sick, come under the supervision of the surgeons. Then, why is a Barrack master paid to employ an assistant to help him in the monotonous[?] and laborious business of doing nothing and growing fat on Government pay[?]