Part 2 (2/2)
”As I write this, in May, 1863, the wounded have begun to arrive from Hooker's co the first arrivals The e of them told me the bad cases were yet to coh You ought to see the scene of the wounded arriving at the landing here foot of Sixth Street at night Two boat-loads caht, it rained a long and violent shower The poor, pale, helpless soldiers had been debarked, and lay around on the wharf and neighborhood anywhere The rain was, probably, grateful to them; at any rate they were exposed to it
”The few torches light up the spectacle All around on the wharf, on the ground, out on side places, etc, theon blankets and old quilts, with the bloody rags bound round heads, arht few outsiders also,--only a few hard-worked transportationto be corow callous) The men, whatever their condition, lie there, and patiently wait till their turn co in clusters, and one after another is called to back up and take its load Extreenerally roans that cannot be repressed, and occasionally a scream of pain, as they lift a man into the ambulance
”To-day, as I write, hundreds more are expected, and to-morrow and the next day more, and so on forenerally supposed,--I should say nine tenths are native-born Ae proportion of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois men As usual, there are all sorts of wounds Some of the men are fearfully burnt fro row of officers, soly hurts Yesterday was, perhaps, worse than usual A wounds As you pass by, you uard where you look I saw, the other day, a gentleman--a visitor, apparently, from curiosity--in one of the wards stop and turn a , etc He turned pale, and in a moment more he had fainted away and fallen on the floor”
An episode,--the death of a New York soldier:--
”This afternoon, July 22, 1863, I spent a long tiood deal from time to time, named Oscar F Wilber, company G, 154th New York, loith chronic diarrhoea, and a bad wound also He asked me to read him a chapter in the New Testament I complied, and asked him what I should read He said: 'Make your own choice' I opened at the close of one of the first books of the Evangelists, and read the chapters describing the latter hours of Christ and the scenes at the crucifixion The poor, wasted youngchapter also, how Christ rose again I read very slowly, as Oscar was feeble It pleased him very much, yet the tears were in his eyes He asked ion I said: 'Perhaps not, my dear, in the way you ' He said: 'It is my chief reliance' He talked of death, and said he did not fear it I said: 'Why, Oscar, don't you think you will get well?' He said: 'I may, but it is not probable' He spoke caled much Then the diarrhoea had prostrated hi He behaved very ave hiave hany post-office, Cattaraugus County, New York I had several such intervieith him He died a few days after the one just described”
And here, also, a characteristic scene in another of those long barracks:--
”It is Sunday afternoon (middle of suh the ward I ay Near where I sit is a suffering rebel, fro He has been here a long ti aht opposite me is a sick soldier boy, laid doith his clothes on, sleeping, looking much wasted, his pallid face on his ar on his jacket that he is a cavalry boy He looks so handsoo nearer to him I step softly over to him, and find by his card that he is named William Cone, of the 1st Maine Cavalry, and his folks live in Skowhegan”
In a letter to his mother in 1863 he says, in reference to his hospital services: ”I have got in the way, after going lightly, as it were, all through the wards of a hospital, and trying to give a word of cheer, if nothing else, to every one, then confining my special attention to the fehere the investment seems to tell best, and ant ityou that I have the consciousness of saving quite a nuood deal with them The men say it is so, and the doctors say it is so; and I will candidly confess I can see it is true, though I say it myself
I know you will like to hear it,the worst fevers and wounds with i the so without apprehension, and so I go: nobody else goes; but, as the darkey said there at Charleston when the boat ran on a flat and the rebel sharpshooters were peppering them, '_somebody_ must jump in de water and shove de boat off'”
In another letter to his mother he thus accounts for his effect upon the wounded soldiers: ”I fancy the reason I auishi+ng, and wounded boys, is that I areat wild buffalo with much hair Many of the soldiers are from the West and far North, and they like a man that has not the bleached, shi+ny, and shaved cut of the cities and the East”
As to Whit fro an account of an interview he had with Senator Preston King, to who a clerkshi+p in one of the depart, or anything for you? How do I know but you are a secessionist? You look for all the world like an old Southern planter,--a regular Carolina or Virginia planter”
The great suffering of the soldiers and their heroic fortitudeof ordinary misfortune seems as it used to, and death itself has lost all its terrors; I have seen so ain: ”I go to the hospitals every day or night I believe no men ever loved each other as I and so men love each other”
Whitan to tell seriously upon his health in June, 1864, when he had ”spells of deathly faintness, and had trouble in the head” The doctors told him he must keep away for a while, but he could not Under date of June 7, 1864, he writes to his mother:--
”There is a very horrible collection in Ar (in Armory Square Hospital),--about two hundred of the worst cases you ever saw, and I have probably been too h to melt the heart of a stone Over one third of thehaone at last: (he is the 82d Ohio boy, wounded May 3, '63) I have written so much of him I suppose you feel as if you almost knew hi He was more composed than usual; could not articulate very well He died about two o'clock Sunday , very easy, they told me I was not there It was a blessed relief His life has been misery for months I believe I told you, last letter, I was quite blue frohopes of their getting up Things are going pretty badly with the wounded They are crowded here in Washi+ngton in immense numbers, and all those that calected and in such plight it ful (those that were at Fredericksburg, and also from Belle Plain) The papers are full of puffs, etc, but the truth is the largest proportion of worst cases get little or no attention
”We receive them here with their wounds full of worms,--some all swelled and inflaain One new feature is, thatThey have suffered too e that they are out of their senses Mother, it is most too much for a fellow, and I sometimes wish I was out of it; but I suppose it is because I have not felt firstrate myself”
Of the Ohio soldier above referred to, Whitman had written a few days before: ”You reht in I thought hi Western iant in size, and alith a s been very irritable to every one but me, and his frame is all wasted away”
To his brother Jeff he wrote: ”Of the many I have seen die, or known of the past year, I have not seen or known of one who ood part of the afternoon with a young man of seventeen named Charles Cutter, of Lawrence City, 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, Battery M He was brought into one of the hospitals ht to ht to be a relief to his folks, after all, if they could see how little he suffered He lay very placid, in a half lethargy, with his eyes closed; it was very war the sweat
At length he opened his eyes quite wide and clear, and looked inquiringly around I said, ”What is it, ood-natured s around to see ith , yet he lay so peaceful in his dying condition He seeood-natured, with a pleasant, ho Without any doubt, he died in course of the night”
Another extract from a letter to his mother in April, 1864:--
”Mother, you don't knohat a feeling a hts and influences of the ca he never experienced before,--the flag, the tune of Yankee Doodle, and sis, produce an effect on a fellow never felt before I have seen tears on the men's cheeks, and others turn pale under such circued to one of our cavalry regiments,--presented to me by one of the wounded It was taken by the rebs in a cavalry fight, and rescued by our men in a bloody little skir four by three Our men rescued it, and tore it froetting their little banner back again The ot it was very badly wounded, and they let hiive ave me the little banner as a keepsake
IThere isn't a regiment of cavalry or infantry that wouldn't do the same on occasion”