Under the guns : $b A woman's reminiscences of the Civil WarWittenmyer, Annie
History
Under the guns : $b A woman's reminiscences of the Civil War
Wittenmyer, Annie
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
And he thrust his hand down under his pillow, and drew forth a letter
which she read with tears.
“What shall I say to her?”
“Tell her that the surgeons think that I may live a week or two yet.”
“Oh! but you may get well.”
“No; I can never recover. I have a fatal disease.”
“Shall I ask your mother to come to you?”
“No; she cannot come. She is too poor, and she can’t leave the younger
children; but she is praying for me.”
“Would you like to have me to pray for you?”
“Yes, miss, if you will.”
Lizzie B---- took one of his thin, cold hands in her own and knelt
beside his cot, and offered up one of those low, sweet, sympathetic
prayers that come from the heart and ascend straight to the throne of
mercy.
When she arose, every man who could leave his bed was standing about
the cot, and many were wiping away the tears they could not restrain.
“Would you like to have me sing something?” she questioned, looking
kindly into their faces.
“Oh! do--please do,” they all urged; and she sang one of the sweet
songs of the gospel that she could sing so well.
Of course they were all delighted, and begged that she would come
again.
“I have a melodeon,” she said, as she left them; “and I’ll come
to-morrow and have that brought into the ward, if the surgeon says I
may.”
As they looked wistfully after her, one of the soldiers, wiping the
tears from his eyes, said,--
“She looks like a woman, but she sings like an angel.”
The next day the little melodeon was carried into that ward, and Lizzie
B---- sang for them, and the surgeon in charge was one of the auditors.
He was so delighted with the influence of her singing, that he gave
orders that she be allowed to sing in all the wards of that hospital.
From that time on, she devoted her time to the service of song, till
all the hundreds in that hospital had been cheered again and again by
her tender words and sweet, sympathetic voice.
The effects of her singing were so uplifting and comforting that I
extended her field, and had an ambulance placed at her command that she
might visit other hospitals. After that she made the rounds among the
hospitals at Washington, going day by day from one hospital to another.
Everywhere her coming was hailed with joy. Mothers and wives who were
watching hopelessly beside their dying ones were lifted in heart and
hope towards God and heaven. Men who had been strong in battle to do
and to dare, but who now lay sorely wounded and weak, and heart and
flesh well-nigh failing them, were lifted on billows of hope and faith
and felt strong to live and to do, or to suffer and die.
Thousands were cheered and saved from despair by this wonderful singer
of the hospitals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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