Tales, Traditions and Romance of Border and Revolutionary TimesEllis, Edward Sylvester
History
Tales, Traditions and Romance of Border and Revolutionary Times
Ellis, Edward Sylvester
Frontier and pioneer life -- United States -- Anecdotes; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Anecdotes
"I now occupied myself through the day in attending to the wounded; I
made them tea and coffee, and often shared my dinner with them, for
which they offered me a thousand expressions of gratitude. One day a
Canadian officer came to our cellar, who had scarcely the power to hold
himself upright, and we concluded he was dying for want of nourishment;
I was happy in offering him my dinner, which strengthened him, and
procured me his friendship. I now undertook the care of Major
Bloomfield, another aid-de-camp of General Phillips; he had received a
musket-ball through both cheeks, which in its course had knocked out
several of his teeth, and cut his tongue; he could hold nothing in his
mouth, the matter which ran from his wound almost choked him, and he was
not able to take any nourishment except a little soup, and something
liquid. We had some Rhenish wine, and in the hope that the acidity of it
would cleanse his wound, I gave him a bottle of it. He took a little now
and then, and with such effect that his cure soon followed: thus I added
another to my stock of friends, and derived a satisfaction which, in the
midst of suffering, served to tranquilize me.
"One day, General Phillips accompanied my husband, at the risk of their
lives, on a visit to us. The General, after having witnessed our
situation, said to him, 'I would not for ten thousand guineas come again
to this place, my heart is almost broken.'
"In this horrid situation we remained six days; a cessation of
hostilities was now spoken of, and eventually took place. A convention
was afterward agreed on; but one day a message was sent to my husband
who had visited me, and was reposing in my bed, to attend a council of
war, where it was proposed to break the convention; but, to my great
joy, the majority were for adhering to it. On the sixteenth, however, my
husband had to repair to his post, and I to my cellar. This day fresh
beef was served out to the officers, who till now had only had salt
provisions, which was very bad for their wounds. The good woman who
brought us water made us an excellent soup of the meat, but I had lost
my appetite, and took nothing but crusts of bread dipped in wine. The
wounded officers, my unfortunate companions, cut off the best bit, and
presented it to me on a plate. I declined eating any thing, but they
contended that it was necessary for me to take nourishment, and declared
they would not touch a morsel till I afforded them the pleasure of
seeing me partake. I could no longer withstand their pressing
invitations, accompanied as they were by assurances of the happiness
they had in offering me the first good thing they had in their power,
and I partook of a repast rendered palatable by the kindness and
good-will of my fellow-sufferers, forgetting for a moment the misery of
our apartment, and the absence of almost every comfort.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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