Adelaide W. Smith

“ Telegrams were slow in those days, so it was not till the afternoon that the terrible, cruel tragedy was announced at the hospital camp. The shock was paralyzing, and a sombre silence spread over the wards containing the men who had learned to love this great soul. Men and women as well as soldiers wept together as for a loved, indulgent father, who had borne his crushing responsibilities without a murmur or a cry for help. A few copperhead patients dared to approve of the murderous act, but they were soon beaten into silence with the crutches of the indignant crippled convalescents. ”

“ The magnetism of a home-going victorious army spread like a prairie fire, not only from regiment to regiment, but extended to every individual in their presence, while a roar as if of ocean waves spread over the sea of happy men and women.
This was a day of great rejoicing and enthusiasm among soldiers and Northerners, never to be forgotten. Taking leave of our polite escort, and thanking General Wilcox for his kindness, the mounted party took a spirited gallop back to hospital camp. ”

“ With other State Agency ladies, I was anxious to break the long strain of caring for sick and wounded patients amid scenes of the horrors of war and bloodshed. Nine thousand men, at different times, filled this well-organized camp. Mangled bodies were brought directly in from the battle-fields where they had fallen, by means of temporary rails, on rough bare sand cars, on which they were piled like so many logs, one upon another, so great was the need of haste to get them to the hospital. ”

“ Night had now fallen as all joyfully congratulated the noble looking, happy pair. They walked arm in arm, man and wife, back to our tents, where we quietly followed, no rumor having reached the alert ears of the poor weary fellows, anxious for a break in the monotony of hospital life.
The guests at the reception in our large tent consisted only of our own little party, and the refreshments were composed of a couple of bottles of Sister Painter’s home-made wine, and a “wolverine” cake, hastily made by Mary Blackmar’s willing hands. ”

“ We then drove a short distance to General O. B. Wilcox’s headquarters, so near Petersburg that, with the General’s glasses, I could distinctly see the people in their houses at their daily work, though the cannons on both sides were replying with a formality as if war was a matter of etiquette. There seemed to be only women in the town, going about their home duties, quite unconscious of shells falling into their doomed city. ”

“ Surgeon Porter gave me charge of the officers’ ward, of perhaps forty or more patients. Each officer having his own orderly in attendance, and the hospital being in very good running order, there was no unpleasant work for me to do. So at first I saw only the romantic side of “bathing feverish brows,” and giving comforting words, with some specially prepared diet.
Not caring for society, or mere sentiment, I soon resolved to ask for a ward of private soldiers, who did not presume upon equality, though many of them were as truly gentlemen as were their officers. ”

“ In making the rounds among my scattered patients I stopped to speak to Major Prentiss, of a New York regiment, who had captured his wayward young brother—​a Captain in the Sixth Maryland Confederate Infantry—​now lying in the same ward quite near, having lost a leg. The Captain, a handsome, cheerful youth, whose happy jokes and stories kept his neighbours quite diverted from the tedium of convalescence, was recovering slowly; but the Major had been shot through the lung, and one could hear the air passing through the unhealed wound. ”

“ David’s Island, on the Sound, had a finely conducted hospital, with a diet kitchen in charge of ladies. There I saw hundreds of well-fed, happy Confederate patients, so many, indeed, that they could not be supplied at once with proper clothing, and so made a unique appearance as they walked about in dressing gowns, white drawers, and slippers. They were soon to be exchanged for our own poor skeleton “Boys” who were coming home slowly and painfully, some dying on the way, to be met by kindly hands and aching hearts eagerly awaiting them. ”

“ In passing we saw a group of cabinet officers and a number of ladies with Mrs. Lincoln, who was gowned in white satin with a deep black thread lace flounce over an expansive skirt, in the style of that day; and she wore her favorite head dress, a wreath of natural pink roses entirely around her plainly dressed hair.
The President’s band played stirring airs in an adjoining room, while crowds of every grade passed on, some in dashing uniforms, some in evidently fresh “store clothes,” others in gorgeous costumes, and the good women from the country in sensible black,—​with ill-fitting gloves. ”

“ On our return to New York, as in going to Philadelphia, every one wished to lend a helping hand, but Smith clung to Berry, who carried him with ease, while the crowd cheered the courageous, independent fellows. On returning them safely to the New England Rooms, I longed to rest for a few days at my home in Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, but I found at the Rooms a slowly dying woman who greatly excited my sympathy. She had been brought from Washington, where she had contracted dysentery while nursing her son, who died soon after she reached him. ”

“ There was no sound of exultation over the conquered enemy among the Northern men and women standing quietly near to see them pass. Some even saluted the defeated Confederate officers. None showed the slightest disrespect to those unfortunates who had not only lost, in a futile war against their own nation, the “Flower of their Chivalry,” but their broad acres were devastated and had become battle fields of frightful carnage and struggle, and their homes were also wrecked, leaving many without shelter, and thus depriving hundreds of any present means of support. ”

“ Such was the magnetic tone and touch of that rare spirit that carried hope and trust to the hopeless sorrowing, the great heart that could with truth and sincerity enfold not only his own country, but the whole human brotherhood of the world, and caused him to reply in effect to those who wished him to subscribe to some special creed: “When I can find a church broad enough to take in the whole human race, then I will join it.” ”

“ MISS JONES, OF PHILADELPHIA
How few, even of the army veterans, remember the sacrifices of the “Women of the War” in hospitals, homes and elsewhere! In the many G. A. R. annual Memorial services held since the war, when they are received in churches to hear their heroic deeds extolled, never have I heard a chaplain or minister give a thought of the women workers, by whose faithful care many of these brave soldiers were nursed back to life, and restored to their anxious families and to the country. ”

“ We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be by the better angels of our nature.”—​Abraham Lincoln. ”

“ Meanwhile the people grew tired of the continual demand for supplies, toward which the hospital contributed very little, though it drew regularly from the government “rations” in the form of thirty-seven cents per day for each man. Consequently public contributions became very meagre.
Then in the autumn came ninety-one sick and wounded soldiers, who stood—​or dropped—​on the grass plots surrounding the hospital while waiting to be enrolled. A procession of grey skeletons, they were ghastly, dirty, famished, with scarcely the semblance of men. ”

“ Two or three high cavalry saddles were altered so that women could ride, uncomfortably, on them. I once rode a horse from General Russell’s headquarters at the Point, and found the animal quite unmanageable. He at once started for a run and it was impossible to check or hold him. I barely managed to hold on, winding the reins about my hands, and bracing myself in the too small saddle. We passed a hotel on the road where many officers were sitting, then General Grant’s tent, and then dashed down the road over a pile of logs, nearly upsetting some soldiers at work there. ”

“ We gave the sick rebel prisoners the same attention as our own boys. One asked why we were so kind to them, and I replied—​“Why, don’t you know we’re feeding you up to make you well and then send you back so we can fight you over again.” This greatly amused them.
A rumor spread through the camp that the rebel gunboats were coming down the James to capture the hospital. Much excitement followed as to what we women would do; should we try to escape or should we remain with the sick? ”

“ Our kitchen was generally run by Hannah, a rather incompetent contraband, with great wondering eyes and slipshod feet. There were many such about camp, girls and women as well as men and boys—​anxious to work for shelter and food, but without knowledge of the value of money, which they generally squandered at the sutler’s for some trifle such as candy, or something to eat. Sufficient for the day was their evil tempter.
A good cooking stove was a great comfort, and Doctor Painter, an excellent cook, made our mess appetizing. ”

“ When Abraham Lincoln, with superhuman courage, made that moral stroke of the pen that gave freedom to millions of slaves, then was born at last a free country, not only in name, but in the glorious fact that had blotted out from our country’s escutcheon the shame of human slavery that had so long branded our vaunted freedom as a disgrace. ”

“ The number of runaway slaves to the fort “increased to $60,000 worth of negroes,” who were put to work for the Union army,—​many of whom enlisted and served faithfully till the end of the war.
At that time I was the only white woman in camp, waiting for orders to report to the New York State agency in Washington. A kind motherly old colored “auntie” seemed to consider me merely a child, and constantly followed me about, watched over me, and became my general guardian. General Russell kept a guard of four colored soldiers, with stacked arms, night and day, about my quarters for my safety. ”

“ Convalescent soldiers did police, ward, nurse and kitchen duty. There were hundreds of wards with stockade sides, covered with canvas roofs upheld in the usual manner by ridge and tent poles, each containing probably fifty or more bunks or cots. A perfect system of order and policing by convalescent men was enforced, and not a particle of refuse or any scrap was allowed to lie for a moment upon the immaculate streets or avenues of the “Sacred Soil,” which was generally beaten hard and dry, though in wet weather this was a problem to try men’s souls and women’s soles too. ”

“ God bless you!” Owing to the lieutenant’s crutch I was obliged to take his left arm which brought me on the outside away from the President. I attempted to pass with a bow, but he stood in my way, still holding out his large hand, until I released mine and gave it to him, receiving a warm, sympathetic grasp. Then I saw that wonderful lighting of his kindly beneficent grey eyes, that for a moment often beautified as with a halo that otherwise plain, sad face. As we moved on, the lieutenant exclaimed in happy exultation, “Oh! I’d lose another leg for a man like that!” ”

“ In her earnest devotion, Miss Gilson remained too long ministering to typhoid patients from whom she contracted the fever, and at last was compelled to leave her chosen work and go to her home, still hoping to recover and to return to the patients of her corps. Her strength was not equal to the waste of that burning fever, however, and she died in her early womanhood, a sacrifice to her benevolence and patriotism as truly and honorably as the men who died on the field of battle. ”

“ Miss Jones, on arriving at City Point Hospital, at once took up the rough camp life in an army tent with earth floor,—​often damp and wet,—​a little cot, an apology for a table, barrel chairs, the usual chimney built roughly of logs and mud with barrel top, the plain and sometimes distasteful food, and the atmosphere of the sick wards. ”

“ We rode over the fields of the last skirmish, torn ground, destroyed entrenchments, the “Cheveaux de frieze,” broken and scattered among clothing, canteens and the general debris of a battle-field. At the outskirts of the city we saw great “gopher holes” dug in the sides of hills, where the inhabitants crowded daily to escape the shells that were constantly falling into the doomed city. In these holes they were safe until nightfall, when firing usually ceased and the weary women and children returned to their homes to sleep until another day. ”

“ What could be done? Away we sped and my perplexity increased, for I well knew that none but the Church of England service could give sanction to this pair in matrimony. “O, I have it, drive to the Christian Commission.”
In fifteen minutes we found Mr. Houghton, head of this commission. “Do you know,” I cried breathlessly, “you are to be best man at a wedding this afternoon, and I’m to be first bridesmaid, and—​well—​there is no Episcopalian clergyman in this camp? You must help us out of this dilemma. Will you not ask one of your ministers to perform the service by the Episcopal form?” ”

“ With permission of Surgeon Porter, and with his ambulance and an orderly, I rode a few miles to a camp of the 37th New Jersey Infantry, in the woods, which was composed entirely of boys and officers of not more than twenty or twenty-four years of age.
The little “dog” or A tents allowed only one to crawl in on either side of the tent pole, and lie on his blankets on the bare ground with knapsacks for pillows. No wonder malaria made havoc in their ranks! ”

“ Virginia was stripped of her artificial culture and bore on her bosom the scourge of war in the form of burned and felled woods, torn and altered roads, plantations deserted and laid waste, deeply furrowed fields turned into stony roughness and corduroy unevenness, which resisted even the indentation of wheels, and threatened frequent overturns. ”

“ One poor fellow was chased for miles, and at last he jumped into a pool of water, preferring to drown rather than to be hanged or beaten to death. This riot, the most disgraceful and cowardly of all horrible crimes that ever disgraced modern New York City, resulted in the death of nearly one thousand people, mostly negroes, and was incited by two copperheads whose names should be abhorred forever. ”

“ On arriving in that city we went to a small hotel, where we met some Western friends, and found there also a former patient from City Point, Lieutenant Gosper, who had lost a leg in the skirmish before Petersburg, and was now convalescent. He manifested the usual cheerfulness of wounded men, while waiting to have an artificial limb adjusted,—​a free gift from the government.
We had secured tickets and good places to see the official ceremony; but the surging mass of humanity crowded us quite beyond hearing. ”

“ I was finally placed in charge of the Confederate wards, and there saw that grandest of men, President Lincoln. This was after the last assault on Petersburg, and men horribly wounded and sick, from both armies, were rushed into our camp hospital at City Point. I was given especial care of the private Confederates, and my companion, that fine, grand woman, Miss Vance, took charge of the Confederate officers. I had only an orderly to assist me—​a boy about sixteen,—​and what with the cleaning and caring for each sick, torn body, our powers were strained to the utmost limit of endurance. ”

“ More than once we started quickly to the seeming motion of life, hoping it might be real, but the pure spirit had passed on, while the frail body rested with a pleasant smile, calmly, as if tended by the friends of home and the formalities of a last funeral service for the dead. ”