SEPTEMBER 28, 1862:
Kate
Cummings, a nurse in the Confederate Army hospital in Chattanooga, writes in
her journal of her concerns:
“The great cry of our
sick is for milk. We could buy plenty, but have no money. We get a little every
day for the worst cases, at our own expense. I intend letting the folks at home
know how many are suffering for want of nourishment, for I feel confident that
if they knew of it they would send us means…Last week, in despair, I went to
Dr. Young, the medical purveyor, and begged him to give me some wine; in fact,
any little thing, I told him, would be acceptable. I did not come away
empty-handed. He gave me arrow-root, sago, wine, and several kinds of spices,
and many things in the way of clothing...In every hospital there is invariably
a fund; there is none at present in this. The reason, we have been told, is
because the hospitals at this post are in debt to the government, by drawing
more money from it than their due, and until it is paid we will get no more. .
. .There are quite a number of soldiers in the place who can not get on to
their commands, as the country is filled with bushwhackers, and it is dangerous
for them to go through it unless in very large bodies...I am a good deal
worried about my brother, as I have not heard from him since the army went into
Kentucky.”
On this same day, Union Army surgeon Alfred L. Castleman
records a disturbing experience as he rides to Sharpsburg:
“Rode to Sharpsburg
to-day to procure some medicines, of which we are sadly deficient. Found a
purveyor there, but he had no medicines except morphine and brandy. I passed
over Antietam battle-field. The smell was horrible. The road was lined with
carriages and wagons conveying coffins and boxes for the removal of dead
bodies, and the whole battle-field was crowded with people from distant States
exhuming and removing the bodies of their friends. ‘Twas a sad, sad sight, and
whilst the world is calculating the chances of war, and estimating its cost in
dollars, I am dotting down in my memory the sad scenes I witness as small items
in the long account of heart-aches.”
.jpg)
