LETTER XLII.
Benton Barracks Hospital,
May 12.
Dear Kittie,—I thought you would like to hear
from me. I am going on in my usual routine among my
sick. I think you would be interested in our colored
boys, they are trying hard to learn to read and to write;
I tell them I am very glad, the more they know the more
of men they will be; yes, they say, they know that;
but it pleases them to have it said to them. They are
quite a religious set, and on Sunday, those who can
read, are quite diligent over their Bibles. The other
Sunday I took my Book of Psalms into one of the
wards and read to those who were sick in bed; I
read those comforting promises, and then told them
these words were for all of us, and how near the Lord
was to them; that when they were off in camp again,
or fighting for the old flag, he was close by ready to
help them whenever they asked Him. It was a very
pleasant thought to them. I told them also how He
loved them. The poor souls have not had much love
shown them in this life and it is very pleasant to them to
think of such love being all ready for them, now and
hereafter. The colored female nurses are improving
and are of much use. They have a table to themselves,
and this morning I was quite amused to find a wail
coming up because they did not have corn bread and
fried meat; the frying pan and corn bread are necessaries
of life to the negroes. I reported to Dr. Russell
who desired me to draw up a bill of fare in accordance
with their peculiar dietary views and have it
carried out in their kitchen. I have done so and
hope they will be satisfied and I shall not be informed
again they have "nothing fit to eat," because they
have flour bread and boiled beef. I was visiting the
patients this morning and came to quite a forlorn
specimen. Did he want anything? "Yes, an apple."
I asked the nurse if the Doctor let him eat apples;
"Yes, and he has one now," and turning down the bed
clothes there was an apple half eaten in his hand.
The rogue had got one out of the nurse and meant
to get another out of me. We had a good laugh over
him, in which he could not help joining. One man
here, a white man, wants raw onions every day, and I
have been trying hard to supply him. They are mostly
out of the market now. The other day, in his gratitude,
he told me that when he got some
pickled peaches
he meant to give me one. If there is anything I abhor
it is a pickled peach, but I did not tell him so.
On May 18 there was in St. Louis, a Fair
for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission. My
daughter speaks of it as magnificent; as the finest
she ever saw; and as very successful pecunarily.
In several of her letters she gives many details
of it, some of which might be amusing, but I
do not see that they differ from the accounts
of other large Fairs, and I do not insert them
here.
About this time the character of the Benton
Barracks Hospital began to change. It soon became
rather a house of refuge for refugees, than a
hospital for sick and wounded soldiers. Under
date of June 2, she says.
