| | 1 | Author: | Moore
Frank
1828-1904 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Women of the War  | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | NO page in the history of the bloody war which has
just now come to an end is so brilliant as that illuminated
by a record of the noble sacrifices and exploits of
heroic women. Dear Friend: There is one of my comrades in the West
Philadelphia Hospital (Ward H) by the name of Harry
Griffin. I wish you would be so kind as to call and see
him as you make your daily rounds. Madam: The joint resolution of the House of Representatives
authorizing the secretary of the interior to grant
permission to erect a building on Judiciary Square for the
purpose of a library for the use of the soldiers, &c., has
just passed the Senate. Kind and highly-esteemed Friends: Though two, yet I
will address you as one, for you are one in every good work,
and in devotion to the interests of the soldier. Dear Madam: We now hasten to express to you our
thanks for the numerous luxuries and kind services we
have received from you, as from the hands of our own
kind mothers, for which we shall ever feel grateful to you. After I left City Point for Baltimore wish my dear son,
I arrifet safe home, only wish a broken hart, on the 11th in
the morning. We cept him till the 12th in the evening,
and took him up to Pansilvaniae, to hes broter and sisters.
The 15th, in the morning, he arrifet saf at hes stat of rest.
Rev. D. Izenbury atent the funerl, and Bregt, hes text John
11th and 11th, and a great many tears has being shatt for
hem. I arrifet at My home the 17th in the morning. I
am so troubelt in my Mint and Week that I could not rite,
and ask for barten me and excus me for not ansern zuner.
My humbel dank to your Virtues and faver which you
showed to me. I would ask your Kindness, if you ples.
I wase so trobelt to see to every ting, namely my Son hat
a very good Watch, and I would lik to have that for Membery,
ples, and ask Mr. Geo. W. Low, Company F. 190th
Penn. Vols. Fifth Core Hospital City Point Va. My Love and
best Respect to Mrs. Hart and Mrs. Polk and Mrs. Ashe. I had not received the painful intelligence of my beloved
son's death until Friday afternoon. My heart is filled with
sorrow; my grief I cannot express. You have a beloved
son in the army. Dear Thomas told me of you and of your
son in one of his letters. He told me there was a woman
in the hospital by the name of Mrs. Lee; he said you were
as kind to the soldiers as a mother, and that they all loved
you as a mother. He said you were an angel. I wrote to
him that I was happy to hear him say that there was an
angel in his tent; for I never ceased to pray to God, my
heavenly Father, that he would send his holy angels into
his tent, to guide him by day and guard him by night.
He wrote me, the day he went into the hospital, that he had
the rheumatism in his arms and legs, but thought he should
be able to go back to his regiment. I did not feel much
alarmed about him. He then wrote to me he had the
measles very lightly, but the cough hung on, as it always
does. I have read of things terrible and heartrending, but
never heard anything to equal the sounds which a rebel in
15
the third story sends forth. I was sitting by my table,
reading, when a sharp cry of pain startled me, followed by
earnest pleadings for mercy from our divine Father. Then,
in a few moments, shouts of praise, cursing, raving,
shrieks, fiendish laughs, growls like an enraged animal,
and every feeling it is possible to express with the voice,
followed each other in quick succession. When I first went through the wards of this hospital, I
found a German woman sitting by her husband in ward
one. This ward contains all the worst cases, and the smell
of the wounds made me sick and faint before I was half
through. But I learned that this woman had been sitting
in her chair there, beside her husband, for two weeks, day
and night. For recreation, she would walk out into the
city, and buy some crackers and cheese, upon which she
subsisted. Her face was colorless, and her eyes had a
sunken, sickly look. I was carrying a bottle of excellent
cologne and a basket of handkerchiefs. I saturated one
with the cologne, and gave her husband, and left the bottle
with her. She was very grateful, and told me that she was
compelled to go out and vomit three or four times every
day, so great was the nausea caused by the impure air. I
arranged for her to sleep at the Commission Rooms, which
are near here, on Spruce Street, and we gave her her meals
from the kitchen. This is against the rules of the hospital;
but the surgeon says he will shut his eyes and not know
we are doing it, if we will not do it again. Until to-day
we have had no doubt of his recovery; but to-night she
came to me in great alarm, saying her husband had a chill.
I have never yet known a person with an amputated limb
to recover after having a chill. This man looks so strong
and well, that I hope he may be an exception. The German in ward one is dead. On Wednesday morning
I went down very early to see him, and found the cot
empty. I asked for his wife, and they said she had gone
out in town. At the door I met her. She threw up her
arms, and cried in piteous tones, "He's gone! O, he's
gone! and I'm alone — alone!" She supposed he would
be buried that day, and walked out to the cemetery — more
than a mile — and found he was not to be buried until the
next day. She asked me if I would not go with her on
Thursday. I complied, and accompanied her, with a delegate
of the Commission and his wife. As the coffins were
taken one by one from the ambulance, it was found that
her husband's was not there. The chaplain kindly proposed
to wait until the ambulance could return to town; and
while waiting we went to a farm-house near by, and made
a bouquet for each of us. As we stood, with bowed heads,
looking into the graves while the chaplain read the funeral
service, she grasped my hand convulsively, whispering,
"It's so shallow! O, ask them to take him out, and make
it deeper!" Our nostrils had evidence of the shallowness
of the graves every time the breeze swept over them. The
"escort" fired their farewell over the "sleeping braves,"
and as the smoke cleared away, the bereaved wife dropped
her flowers upon the coffin, and we wearily returned, — she
to take the next train for the North, and we to our sad
work. This evening, while busy preparing supper, we were
startled by hearing a heavy fall on the pavement, outside
of the window. We rushed to it, and found that a man had
jumped from the third story porch. He was sitting up,
looking about him with a bewildered look, when we reached
him. The doctor says he has broken open an old wound in
his side, and will not recover. He says he had been thinking
all day how long he would have to suffer if he got well,
and then thought he might suffer for weeks and months,
and then die, and he determined to end his misery at one
leap. The nurse caught him just as he was going over, but
was not strong enough to hold him. He talks very quietly
about it, and wishes he had not done it, or had succeeded
in ending life and physical pain at once. He died two
days afterwards. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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