The boys in white : $b The experience of a hospital agent in and around WashingtonWheelock, Julia S. (Julia Susan)
History
The boys in white : $b The experience of a hospital agent in and around Washington
Wheelock, Julia S. (Julia Susan)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Hospitals
Brother was wounded late in the afternoon of September 1, and lay
on the field until the evening of the 5th, arrived at Alexandria
on the morning of the 6th, and died on the 9th. Before leaving the
battle-field he seemed to realize that he could not live, and committed
to the keeping of young Downey photographs of his family which he had
carried with him since first entering the service, saying, “Should
I not recover, please send these to my wife.” The request has been
granted. He saw him as he was put into the ambulance, after the
amputation of his limb, for that painful ride to Alexandria, a distance
of twenty miles or more. Noble boy! I shall ever hold him in grateful
remembrance for his kindness to my dying brother.
Hundreds of others were brought in that night in the same way. Oh, what
untold suffering those long weary miles witnessed! During that tedious
journey, at all hours of the night, whenever the train halted for a few
moments’ rest, two ministering spirits might have been seen going from
ambulance to ambulance with canteens of water, bathing inflamed wounds,
adjusting the little cushions under bleeding “stumps,” administering
some gentle stimulant to those weak and exhausted from the loss
of blood, speaking words of encouragement to the desponding, and
commending the dying to the Saviour. These were the Rev. Mr. Hopkins,
chaplain of the Mansion House Hospital, and Mrs. Munsell, a lady whose
soul seems absorbed in her work for the soldiers--a Southern lady, a
native of South Carolina, but loyal and true. They were returning from
the battle-field, where they had been working night and day among the
wounded and dying.
* * * * *
As the cold weather set in unusually early, and continued for some
time, the number of sick increased very rapidly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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