University of Virginia Library

LETTER II.

Dear Mother,—It is evening; I am obliged to
write now, for I have no time in the day, as a general
thing, nor much at night. To-day my ward was washed

from one end to the other; I superintend and assist
in various ways; just think of moving fifty-one beds
out and in again! After supper I had to give out
clean under-clothing to all the patients. I wonder
what a mother, who thinks it is something to look after
two or three, would say to forty-four; I said so to one
of my patients; the idea, differently expressed, amused
him. I am told that the ward will be filled to its utmost
capacity presently. There are fifty-one beds in
it now, and there can be more, though I hope not;
fifty-one wounded men are about enough for one ward.
Several of the forty-four now here are convalescent,
but some suffer very much. I go round at night seeing
to them, covering them up, and the other night
I came to one poor boy, badly wounded and sick; as
I laid the clothes over him he half opened his eyes to
see who it was, and when he saw me, gave such a
pleasant smile it quite went to my heart; he laid his
head down again as if entirely satisfied. He does not
get well very fast, and I am afraid he is going to have
more trouble. His wound is a musket-shot in the
shoulder, and the Doctor is obliged to take out pieces
of diseased bone or splinters of bone: I dread the
sight of the instruments; he is a mere boy. They
seem so much pleased when they wake and find me
bending over them,—it is not much I can do, but that
is something. These wounds are trying to the poor
fellows. I have all sorts of characters, and several
nations in my ward. The Doctor came to my door
just now to make his night's tour among the patients;
I attend him, candle in hand. My ward is now arranged
for the night, and I am going to make my last round.

Sunday Morning. My ward is all in order, waiting
for the inspectors who are performing operations elsewhere.
After it was in order I sat down and read a
little while; now I am writing for a few minutes. I
do not want anything done on Sundays that can be
helped; that is the reason I am able to sit down a
little while.

The Doctor spoke hopefully of my worst case this
morning, and I am now in hopes he will save his arm,
but he suffers a great deal; this morning, when I was
washing it for the surgeon to apply the dressings, he
could hardly bear the sponge, the arm was so sensitive;
three ball-shots through it. He is very patient and
good; I took him some Cologne the other day and it
refreshed him very much. Mrs. Sampson Reed and
Mrs. Worcester asked me to apply to them for what I
needed; will you ask them if they would like to send
me some Cologne water; when the men are faint and
sick after the surgeon has left them, it is very refreshing.
I have sent my orderlies for dinner, and am
expecting it every minute.

Afternoon. Instead of dinner, they sent me two
cases from the operating room; they put a damper
on my dinner. The poor fellows are quiet now, considering
what they have gone through. One of them
was suffering extremely; a fever-heat had come on in
the wounded arm; I put a cold water compress on, and
in a few minutes he felt better, and then fell asleep;

so I sat by him to keep the flies off, and presently
in came the surgeon. I had to assist him in dressing
one of the men, then he left, and the work went
on. I feel very much afraid of failing at some point,
it is such a responsibility, and, as one of the ladies
remarked to me, we were never "out at service" before.
I have two charming friends here, Miss Spaulding
and Miss Mary Hill. I enjoy them very much; they
are the only friends I have here with whom I have any
intimacy; I am so busy that I have no time to go out
to see any one, so they come to see me, when they can.
I have plenty of fresh air from windows and doors, to
say nothing of cracks which are to be boarded in by
and by. My dinner consists of government soup,
bread, and perhaps a little rice, or sometimes there are
more Isabella grapes than my patients can eat. Breakfast
and supper, bread and milk; my breakfast has to
be taken in such a hurry that I do not eat more than
is necessary. I take supper a little more leisurely.
You have hardly a conception of the wants of a ward
full of patients. And then the ward has to be kept in
such a state of order,—the beds must all be made after
one particular order and pattern; then they must all
be Exactly in a line or my surgeon finds it out; he
stands at one end of the ward and looks down, if one
bed is in the least projecting an orderly has to fly
down and push it in. Then they every now and then
find some new way of making the beds a little more
symmetrical than the previous; I have been taught my
third arrangement to-day. Imagine arranging the
covers of forty-four beds. As my Doctor is a man of
genius he may think of another way before the week
is out. Some of the men make their own beds, but I
have to arrange them afterwards, also examine them
in search of contraband articles of food under the
pillows; I found a quantity of cheese under one. The
Doctor immediately confiscated it in great indignation,
it not being good for sick people. Close by me is Miss
Spaulding's ward; between her Doctor and mine is quite
a rivalry as to which ward looks the best. We do not
care an atom, and so we have a good deal of amusement
over it. The two doctors survey each other's wards,
and then each declares his own the best looking. I
have not had time to see my friend's yet, but am
going some day; in the mean time she comes in and
reports to me the remarks of our two housekeepers,
as we call them.

We are having a very high wind, and the barn-like
building rocks like a cradle, or rather creaks like one.
We had a tempest the other day and night; my friends
asked me the next day if I was not afraid the building
would blow over; I told them, no, I did not think
that anything would be allowed to happen to so many
helpless people; so I slept in peace, feeling that they
took care of me and I of them, under Higher Power.