Hospital transports : $b A memoir of the embarkation of the sick and wounded from the peninsula of Virginia in the summer of 1862Olmsted, Frederick Law
History
Hospital transports : $b A memoir of the embarkation of the sick and wounded from the peninsula of Virginia in the summer of 1862
Olmsted, Frederick Law
Hospital ships -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Hospital ships -- Virginia -- History -- 19th century; Medical personnel -- United States -- Correspondence; Peninsular Campaign, 1862; Transports -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Transports -- Virginia -- History -- 19th centur
I attended this afternoon to the systematic arrangement of the
commissariat stores down aft, sent a telegram for more supplies to
Baltimore, arranged for stowing the contrabands and putting bunks in the
new deck-ward, and then put two ladies and a nice supply of oranges,
tea, lemons, wine, &c., &c. on a small boat, and started them with —— to
Ship Point Hospital, where four poor fellows died last night. Of course
there is that vitally important medical etiquette to observe, here as
elsewhere, and we must approach carefully, when we would not frustrate
our own plans;—and so it is. "——, suppose you go ashore and ask whether
it will be agreeable to have the ladies come over and visit the
hospital,—just to walk through and talk with the men." So the ladies
have gone "to talk with the men," with spirit-lamps, and farina, and
lemons, and brandy, and clean clothes, and expect to have an improving
conversation. After the party was off, sent orders to Fort Monroe for
special supplies; received Dr. Tripler, who dined with us; furnished
wine, tea, bread, to a surgeon who had been told that the Commission's
flag was flying here, and had come seven miles across the swamps, and
rowed out to us in a small boat to try for these things.
* * * * *
(M.) By dark the _Wilson Small_ came along-side with our first patients,
thirty-five in number, who were carefully lifted on board and swung
through the hatches on their stretchers. In half an hour they had all
been tea'd and coffeed and refreshed by the nurses, and shortly after
were all undressed and put to bed clean and comfortable, and in a droll
state of grateful wonder; the bad cases of fever furnished with sponges
and cologne-water for bathing, and wine and water or brandy-toddy for
drinking, and a man to watch them, and ward-masters up and down the
wards, and a young doctor in the apothecary's shop, and to-day (May 3d)
they are all better....
Meantime additional supplies arrived from Washington, Baltimore, and
Fortress Monroe, and a surgeon and nurses of our company were busy daily
on shore at the Ship Point Hospital, dispensing stores, and doing what
they could for the poor fellows there, who seemed to us in want of
everything.... One hundred and ninety patients have now come on board;
eighteen miles some of them say they have been brought in the ambulances
(large statement of exhausted fellows jolted over corduroy roads).... We
ladies arrange our days into three watches, and then a promiscuous one
for any of us, as the night work may demand, after eight o'clock. Take
Sunday, for instance.
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