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
The 16th of July I was called to Washington, where I received
instructions to go to Baltimore, as many of the wounded had arrived
there from Gettysburg. I was greatly disappointed, for I had earnestly
hoped to be sent to Gettysburg, believing that I could do vastly more
good there than any where else at that particular time. However, on
the morning of the 18th I took the eleven o’clock train for Baltimore.
On the way I fell in company with a lady who called herself Jimmeson,
though her true name, she told me, was Frank Abel. Her story was indeed
a strange one. It was as follows: Her husband entered the service with
the rank of captain in a Kentucky regiment of cavalry, and she as his
first lieutenant. Her husband was killed at the first battle of Bull
Run, after which she was employed as a scout by General Sigel. She had
endured many hardships, visited several battle-fields, and assisted--as
she belonged to the medical staff--in performing amputations and
dressing wounds. She was once captured by the Rebels and confined
in Libby Prison several weeks; but at the time of which I write she
claimed to be a Government detective in the City of Washington, and was
then on her way to Baltimore to arrest a woman with whom she had had a
quarrel. What became of her after we parted at Baltimore, whether she
found her victim or not, I never learned, for I have neither seen nor
heard of her since.
Arriving in Baltimore, I proceeded directly to the Rev. Mr. Reid’s,
where I obtained board. This was the same Christian family by whom
sister and I were so kindly and hospitably entertained when we first
arrived in Alexandria on our sad mission.
There were six hospitals in Baltimore, situated from one to four miles
apart. As a general thing I found them more comfortable than any I had
previously visited; and yet there was much suffering which the most
tender care could not alleviate. I will give a single extract from my
journal which will convey something of an idea of the sad, distressing
scenes there witnessed:
_July 28th._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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