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
I found her afterwards in other work, equal to the management of large
interests. She could have taken charge of a special-diet kitchen, but
I have always thanked God that her time was given instead to songs in
the hospitals. She has changed her name since then. She is now the wife
of a Congregational minister; but her voice still holds, by its sweet,
sympathetic cadences, the listening congregations.
A YOUNG NURSE AT GETTYSBURG.
Little Sadie Bushman, who was not quite ten years old at the time of
the battle of Gettysburg, proved herself a little heroine. Mr. and
Mrs. Bushman, learning that the battle would rage in all probability
on or near their premises, sent this child with her brother to her
grandmother’s, two miles away, while the parents gathered up the other
children and undertook to follow.
Sadie took hold of her brother’s hand, and they hurried on as fast as
their feet could carry them. But it was not long before their pathway
led them into the thick of the fight along Seminary Ridge. The roar of
the artillery was continuous, but they could not retreat. There came
a blinding flash and a deafening roar. A shell whizzed past them. A
gray-haired officer seized the children, and hurried them down the
ridge toward their destination.
But scarcely less danger awaited them there, as their grandmother’s
house and yard was converted into a hospital. The first work of the
child when she reached this place was to hold a cup of water to a
soldier’s lips while one of his legs was sawed off.
She was separated from her parents two weeks before they knew she
was alive, but all that time she was ministering to the wounded
soldiers. She carried soup and broth, and fed those who could not
help themselves. She worked under the orders of the surgeons, and
was furnished with supplies by the Christian Commission as long as
the hospitals were kept open in Gettysburg. She is now a married
woman--Sadie Bushman Junkerman--and lives near Oakland, Cal.; but the
scenes of the Gettysburg battle years ago are vividly remembered by
her.
A BUT’FUL GUV’MENT MULE.
After the fall of Richmond it was found that the people were in a very
destitute condition, many of them being almost in a state of starvation.
Every agency was at once used to furnish them with food.
The government issued rations as they came in, and the Sanitary and
Christian Commissions distributed large supplies.
Among those who assisted in distributing the supplies of the Christian
Commission was the Rev. John O. Foster, now living in Chicago, Ill.
Each day the supplies would be issued according to the amount on hand
and the number standing in line.
Slowly the procession would march up with baskets to get what was
offered; black and white, rich and poor, old and young, all fared and
shared alike.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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