Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1863-03-04
Hospital soeno--Boart-rending Sights.
MrRrREEspoRo, January 4, I863

:
HAVE in my communications thus far
given you a faint idea Of the terrific slaugh-
tel. we have endured in our division, which
will; no doubt, be mentioned in the official
report, bat I have said nothing Of the horri-
BE aud ruournfuI scenes which meet the eye
at the hospitals of the field Of battle. On
the morning of January 3, l visited the hos
pitaI tents of the Eleventh Brigade, formerly
commanded by Colonel Beatty. Of Stark coun-
ty; and although I had nerved myself to
witness any amount of suffering, it made me
sick of life and disguised with humanity. In
close proximity 10 a large tent, l saw nearly
a cord of amFutated legs, arms and feet, in
terpersed with slices ofhuman flesh, lacera-
ted and torn by shells and cannon balls-it
made the heart grow sick and laint. Every
few moments men would arrive with a
wounded man, and dump him down as if he
were a mere log Of wood. Such is war.
The finer feelings Of human nature are blunt
ed by the frequent occurrences Of death and
suffering, and if you have no intimate friend
or companion who has in former times mess
ed with you, and are mutually pledged TO
see that You are tenderly taken care of in
case of casualties, you win stand poor
chance after hard fought battle. You in
the North who have neither seen nor felt the
realities of a sanguinary war; know nothing
about it, neither can you realize it. Sho'd a
sad calamity occur in one Of your neighbor
hoods, by which fifty or sixty of your friends
were hurried from time to eternity, and a
number more wounded and muimed, all the
sympathies of your nature would be aroused,
and no earthly exertion would be wanting in
rendering aid to those who We're suffering.
But in war it is different The surgeons,
with few honorable exceptions) the very
men who are appointed, sent, and paid by
the Government, to alleviate the suferings Of
the sick and wounded. soldiers become so ac-
customed to sickness and suffering, that they
are a hardened and callous as neither mill
stone-no words of coincidence, sympathy or
encouragement ever escape their lips. have
visited the numerous hospitals in Nashville,
and have witnessed the patients called up and
prescribed for by the shoulder-strapped gen
tlemen, who glory in the name of Major"
and I know what I say, Reader, did you
ever visit a hospital, or.what they call hos
pital in Dixie?' If you have not, I will try
to describe one; and with few exceptions,
they are all alike, especially in Nashville,
where at the present time there are over
s, 900 sick soldiers. .-.. ...,. ,..e s..
TheHGovernment, or rather the officials
will appropriate building for hospital, and
they generally take the largest in the city,
For instance, it is large warehouse or store
house, of three or four stories. They make
miserable hunks and place them three or four
feet apart along the walls, until they reach
clear around the room, the length OF the
building; and on the wall Immediately above
each bunk they put the number, the head Of
the patient to the wall When that is filed,
they make two more rows in the center Of
the room, heads in the middle, and feet to-
wards the feet of those lying next to the
walls, with the numbers pinned on the head
of each bunk. The sick and suffering and
dying soldier is never personally attended by
the physician in charge of the hospital; his
name even is unknown; it is only his nun
Be:, and when he dies, it is said such mum