The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1863-01-20
A Soldiers Letter, No. IA.
} MT, Pleasant Hospital,
CAMP COMMISSIONERS, Jan. Is

have written you anything that fear i shall
have to consider myself stranger to your read
ss again and commence my acquaintance anew.
believe promised in my last, which was as long
age as last September, that would give an &C.
count Of the pending campaign, in Maryland,
but that promise did not fulfill and perhaps
eve an apology for not keeping my word. De-
slining health, a misfortune which but few sold
iers can prevent, rendered me, physically, iucapa-
bic of enduring another march and obliged me,
with nHmber Of my comrades, to seek tenn
porary asylum in enc of our Army Hospitals.
have noticed great deal Of comment in the news
papers, pro and con, in regard to the management
and care Of the rick in these hospitals and pre-
sumo enough has been said toacquaint every one
With their proceedings in these places, but l Of
ten receive questions from those having friends
here, who are anxious to know in regard to their
welfare, SO proposst to give few observations,
frsm my own experience. shall disclose moth
ing new or startling, nor do | propose to enter
into any profound reasoning whereby you may
base the presumption that the suffsrings and ca
lamties of this war are soon to close. Any one
who has read my former letters knsws better
than to expect any such thing. lam a common
soldier belonging to the rank and file, and who
ever reads my letters must expect to find them
fu! of nothing but soldiers talk. Just bear this
in mAd, kind reader and then your disappoint-
msnt will be less keen il your patience allows you
to follow me through to find in my letter so little
that caa interest you.
My destination, after leaving the regiment, on
this occasion, happened to be at the Mt. Pleasant
Hospital, which is situated the best part efa mile
northward from the heart of the city of Wash
inston, between Seventh and Fourteenth Streets.
This hospital is, indeed, situated in pleasant place,
but the altitude Of the situation is hardly sufi.
Gent TO deserve even the abbreviated title of
mountain. The building, itself, contains ten wards
besides the cook-room laundry, store-room, dis
psnsary, &c. These wards branch off from the
main building or s. hall "at right angles like the
wings Or L part of dwelling. At first view,
rom the outside, spectator would suppose that
the wards were two stories high the height of
the buildings and their having two rows of in
dows would Justify such conclusion. But, on
entering them, he finds the space vacant of all
partitions or ceilings, from the floor to the roof,
making room at once spacious, airy and we'll
lighted. A large water tank, elevated high above
the hospital, supplies every part with pure water.
Excellent facilities are afforded each ward fer
washing and bathing, and the rules of cleanliness
are trictly enforced. Those too feeble to help
themselves we're waited upon by the nurses.
Each ward contained about fifty beds, making
not far from five hundred beds, in all. The bed
steads were light iron frames admirably adapted
for hospital purposes, and each bed was provided
with good mattress or straw-bed, and every one
had plenty of bed clothes. Besides these wards
there were between fifty and sixty triple tents
containing eighteen beds each. So the whole
concern made provisions for some fifteen hundred
men. The tents are intended for convalescents
and those less seriously ai!ing, while the wards are
reserved for those requiring greater care and at
tention. These are sent to the tents, as fast as
they are able, to make room for fresh arrivals
Such was my fate after the first month.
On the 10th of September, Ammo Domni Eigh-
teen Hundred and Sixty-two, your humble SER
want was introduced into one of these wards, to be
treated as patient. AS my comrades and had
made our way to the hospital through the exer'
ciss of the powers of locomotiou which Nature has