Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1863-11-13
THE ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND
About Our Sick ana wounded soldiers
-WOnans Work of Love and Mercy.
Army OF THE CUMBERLAND,
October %, 1863.

AD0ut OUR sick ana WOuuut0 EOtOIcTh
-Womans work OF Love and Mercy.
Correspondence Of the Chicago Journal.
Army OF THE CUMBERLAND,
October %, 1863.
Before this letter reaches you, the splendid
project Of the Women Of the Northwest will be
blossomng in full beauty. They viii have
thronged to the city of the Great Lakes alike
doves to their windows" their hearts and offer
ings in their hands; and Art, Eloquence and
Song the grand pageant, the classic tableau, the
exquisite device, the glowing thought will have
been hallowed to the sweet uses Of Mercy. The
lips Of the marble images at Mecca were worn
away, they say, by the kisses of the pilgrims,
but how must The delicate touch of true and low
ing women smooth and beautify the iron fate Of
our glorious Boys in Bluel
Close beside the scene that brghtens your
city like carnival garlanded with flowers and
glad with sunshine see a shadow strange and
sad. i am not sure that the laughing girls who
make Sharon of the Soldiers Fair discern how
heavy the borders of that night whence comes
the dawn they smile in. am not sure / can
do better than TO give an unstudied story of the
unseen side of that golden shield of theirs--no
silvcr side, alasl but dark, dull iron. The Ohio
at Louisville behind you, southwark across Ken
lucky and Tennessee you look upon a region in
the rear of the Army of the Cumberland, n
breadth of 30S miles to the spurs of the noun
tans. That area once so lovely is dappled with
those shadows strange and sad-the Hospitals
of the Federal Army. At Chattanooga at
Bridgeport, at Stevenson, at Oowan, at Decherd,
at Murfreesboro, at Nashville, strown all along
the way, are focks of tents sacred to mercy and
the soldiers sake. / wish l could bring you
near enough to see them; that j could lift aside
a fold in Ward A here, or Ward b there that
you might see the pale rows, each man upon his
little couch, the white sheet setting close to the
poor, thin limbs like the drOpery of the grave.
1t would wonderfully magnify, 1 think, the
work you are doing, my Sisters.
| would not take you to the Surgeon quar-
ters when the battle is beginning; when he lays
off the green sash and tinseled coat and rolls up
his sleeves and spreads wide his cases filled with
glittering silver, and makes ready for work.
/ They begin to come in slowly at 6rst-one man
nursing shattered arm, another borne by his
comrades, three in an ambulance, one on a
stretcher; then faster and faster, lying here,
lying there, waiting each his terrible
turn. The silver steel grows cloudy and lurid;
true, right arms are Topped like slips of golden
willow; feet that never turned from the foe, for
ever more without owner strow the ground
The knives are busy, the saws play; it is bloody
work. All, the Surgeon with heart and head
with hand and eye fit for such place is prince
among men; cool and calm, quick and tender
I he feels among the arteries and fingers the ten.
dons as if they were harp-strings But the
cloud thunders and the spteful rain patters
] iOuueT anu MERCER, anu lne poor leIlOWS come
creeping away in broken ranks like corn beaten
down with the fails of the storm. "My God, "
cried a Surgeon, as, looking up an instant from
his work. he saw the mutiated crowds borne in;
''my God! are al my boys cut down." And yet
it thundered and rained. A poor fellow wrthes
and a smothered moan escapes him. "Be patient
Jack, says the Surgeon, cheerfully; I'll make
your all right in minute" And what mean
ing there was in that call right" Itwas right
arm to come off at the elbow and "Jack" slipped
off a ring that clasped one of the poor, useless
| fingers that were to blend with the earth of AL
ALBANIA, and put it in his pocketl He was max
ing ready for the 'all right" Does alabama
mean "here we rest?" If so how sad yet glori-
Gus have our boys made it,
| twho sink to rest,
With all their country's wishes blest"
Another sits up while the Surgeon follows the
bullet that had buried itself IN his side; it is
! the work of an Instant no solemn council here
no lingering pause; the Surgeon is bathed in
patriot blood to the elbows, and the work goes
on An eye lies out upon CHASTITY cheek, and
silently the sufferer bides his time. "Well
! Charley" says the Doctor (he is dressing
wound as he talks, "what's the matter?" "Oh
not much Doctor, only hand of" Not unlike
was the answer made TO me by poor fellow a
Bridgeport, shattered tree is by lightning
"How are you now?" / said Bully" was tn
reply. You should have heard that word as h
said it; vulgar as it used to seem, it grew man
ly and noble, and l never shall hear it agaiI
without thought of the boy that uttered it, OF
the dusty slope of Tennessee; the boy-must
say it--that sleeps the soldiers sleep within al
hundred rods of where l found him. And so i
is everywhere; not whimper nor plant. On
ly once did hear either. An Illinois Leuen
ant as brave a fellow as ever drew sword, haC
been shot through and through tho
thighs. fairly impaled by the bullet-the uglies
wound btit I Eipbt 1axye bafor
he weighed one hundred and sixty. Then, h
could not have swung one hundred and twent,
clear ofthe floor. He had Just been brought ov
er the mountain; his wounds were angry wit
fever; every moment was torture; they wer
lifting him as tenderly as they could; they le
him slip and he fell, perhaps six inches But
was like dash from precipice to him, and h
walled out like little child, tears wet his pale
thin face, and he only said, my poor child hoy
will they tell her2" 1t was only for an instant
his spirit and his frame stiffened up together, an,
with half smile he said, "dont tell anybody
boys, that made fool ofmyselfl" The Lieu
tenant sleeps we'll" and alas, for the "poo
child"--how did they tell herr
! A soldier fairly riddled with bullets like on
of those battle-hags of Illinois, lay on blanke
gasping for breath. "Jemmy," said a comradC
and a friend before this cruel war began, wit
one arm slung up in sling, and who was goin
home on furlough, "Jemmy, what shall te
them at home for your" "Tell them said h
"that there isn't hardly enough left of me 10 sa
H. but-hold down here minute-tell Kat
there is enough left of me to love her till die.
! JENNY got his furlough that night, and left tn
|, ranks forever. 1t seems to me that all true wo
men must envy that girls fate. Shot away a
but his heart, that still beat true who would nc
be the dead soldiers bride forever2 Oh ther
e is nothing anywhere here to make you blush fo
0 human weakness; the rebel bullet is not mould
ed that can kill western manhood.
? want to say here, in a paragraph by itsel
that the surgeons should be compelled to repo
to the WOMEN; if they do their duty, they hav
to perform in large measure woman's work.
They need more than skill and scalpels; the
want woman's fortitude, tenderness and faith
, There are the nOblest of men among the Surge
ons in the Army OF the Cumberland, who do nc
halt at the letter of duty but go on cheerfully {
the spirit, and there are-God save the markl-
} men among whom faithless is the mildest emph
: emism. ! must tell one instance; contract
Surgeon--if you know what that is-went OF
on pleasure ride within the hours o'clock
that two hundred sick and wounded men can
into his ward. He returned at sunset, and O
; being reminded of his neglected duty, flippani
ly replied, "Oh, III do them in half an hourl'-
1 What, think you, would "do' him and do hil
e iustice2 For one should be quite content
trust his fate to the verdict of jury of the 10y
al women of the Northwest, to whom be glor
and honor everlastingl
/. Remember, lam writing only of the days aftt
. the battles of Ohicamauga--only of Zone scene
q this tremendous tradegy. l have followed Ii
\ wounded and the languishing to tho Surgeon
q quarters at the edge of the field, aud now come
a that journey over the mountain roads to Bridg'