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![handle is hein.usccsset/usconset32820 and id is 1 raw text is:
54TH CONGRESS, SENATE. REPORT
18t ssion. No- 1.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED SIATES&
DECEMBER 10, 1895.-Ordered to be printed.
Mr. PEPPER, from the Committee on Pensions, submitted the following
REPORT:
[To accompany S. 480.]
The Committee on Pensions to whom was referred the bill (S. 480),
granting a pension to William B. Matchett, have had the same under
consideration and beg leave to report as follows:
This case was examined by your committee during the last session of
Congress and recommended its passage. The bill passed the Senate,
but was not reached in the House of Representatives.
We adopt our former report, which is as follows:
[Senate Report No. 907, Fifty-third Congress, third session.]
The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the bill (S. 2696) granting a
pension to William B. Matchett, have examined the same and report:
The petitioner says in his petition that he was enrolled as chaplain of the Tenth
Regiment New York Volunteers (McChesney's Zouaves) in April, 1861, after having
helped to raise the regiment, and his commission was dated May 15, 1861. That after
a time spent at Sandy Hook, New York Harbor, he went with the regiment to Fort-
ress Monroe, Va., and encamped at Hampton on the Roads for a few months, and
was then ordered to the Fortress, which the regiment garrisoned about eleven months.
There being no chaplain at the post, the petitioner occupied the pulpit of the church
where the general command attended, first under Gen. B. F. Butler and Colonel Dim-
mick (of the Regular Army), then General Wool, and subsequently under General
Mansfield, all now deceased. That while at Camp Hamilton the command was vis-
ited by terrific rain and wind storms from Hampton Roads, so that the tents were
carried away in the night, the camp flooded with water, and the exposure bropght
on malarial fever from which he did not recover for several months. The petitioner
had a fall which placed him in the fort hospital, under Surgeon-General Cuyle, for
several weeks.
After partial recovery he was called to New York to bury Lieutenant-Colonel Elder,
and the funeral occurring in the most inclement weather, he was continually wet to
the skin, being on horseback. That with the exposure consequent he was again
attacked with malarial fever, followed by chronic diarrhea, and from in uries sus-
tained during the seven days' fight before Richmond and the scant supply of food.
He was then taken to General McClellan's headquarters and attended by Surgeon
McClelland for several weeks, in June and July, 1862, and by the hospital reports it
is clearly shown was treated for chronic diarrhea at Trinity General Hospital at
Washington, D. C., under charge and care of J. W. Hatch, M. D.
Before his entire recovery from this, in April, 1863, and while still suffering from
weakness incident to several previous attacks, and while in Washington attend-
ing to busined in connection with the regiment, the petitioner was arrested
illegally, and by some authority not disclosed was immured in the old Capitol
prison, and could not learn the cause and could not get the charges, and was held
there in close confinement for two months, in May and June, 1863, in hot weather. in
a small back room with a southern exposure, with guards stationed at the premises
with orders to shoot prisoners appearing at the windows, one of whom was shot,
S. Rep. 1-1](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.usccsset/usconset32820&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)