Three Years Summ'd Up.
— During my past three years in Hospital, camp or field, I made
over 600 visits or tours, and
went, as I estimate, among from 80,000 to 100,000 of the wounded and sick, as sustainer of spirit
and body in some degree, in time of need. These visits varied from an hour or two, to all day or
night; for with dear or critical cases I always watch'd all night. Sometimes I took up my quarters
in the Hospital, and slept or watch'd there several nights in succession. Those three years I
consider the greatest privilege and satisfaction, (with all their feverish excitements and physical
deprivations and lamentable sights,) and, of course, the most profound lesson and reminiscence,
of my life. I can say that in my ministerings I comprehended all, whoever came in my way,
Northern or Southern, and slighted none. It afforded me, too, the perusal of those subtlest, rarest,
divinest volumes of Humanity, laid bare in its inmost recesses, and of actual life and death, better
than the finest, most labor'd narratives, histories, poems in the libraries. It arous'd and brought
out
and decided undream'd-of depths of emotion. It has given me my plainest and most fervent views
of the true
ensemble and extent of The States. While I was with wounded and sick in
thousands of cases from the New England States, and from New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania, and from Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and all the Western States,
was with more or less from all the States, North and South, without exception. I was with many
from the Border States, especially from Maryland and Virginia; and found, during those lurid
years 1862-65, far more Union Southerners, especially Tennesseans, than is supposed. I was with
many rebel officers and men among our wounded, and gave them always what I had, and tried to
cheer them the same as any. I was among the army teamsters considerably, and, indeed, always
found myself drawn to them. Among the black soldiers, wounded or sick, and in the contraband
camps, I also took my way whenever in their neighborhood, and did what I could for them.
