"J.P.C. McMahon was filling in as the doctor while the Fort's doctor was on a year long vacation. As it turns out, he had to perform all of the hospital's duties due to staff drunkenness. He wrote in his log: There cannot be found in this regiment a single non-commissioned officer or private possessing sufficient sobriety, honesty, capacity, and honesty to fill a station of such comparative irresponsibility. So extensive is the empire of drunkenness that until other troops arrive, I need hope for no relief. An empire of drunkenness! And, as a bonus: the fort's first doctor took the job purely for the money, and died an alcoholic." Source: a plaque on the wall of Fort Snelling