The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-07-15
SPIRIT OF OUR SOLDIERS.
Hospital Scenes in the Army.

Hospital Scenes in the Army.
WHAT THE SOLDIERS THINK.
Mr.. ALFRED j. BLOoR, assistant secretary of
the Sanitary Commission, has printed series
of letters written at Belle Plain, the Wilderness
and Spotsylvania. giving some account of the
scenes in the field and hospitals which passed
under his view during the receAt battles. They
are of great interest and value, as the following
extracts will show.
PATIENCE OF THE WOUNDED.
He recommends attendants to provide them
selves with but one article to serve the wound
cd with:
1t Is best for each one Of such o relief party
to cOnfine oneself 10 the distr button OF sin
gle article-the cracker man never trenching
on the lady's coffee pail, and The coffee lady
leaving the beef tea religiously to another. In
finirely more may be done by systematically
pursuing this plan of specially. If, when the
beef-tea is being ca ried round. some poor fell
low shakes his head, and imploringly asks for
water or stimulant, one must not set down the
beef-tea to be kicked over before one gets
back, and rush off to spend half an hour in
searching for water or stimulant, so depriving q
hundred men of beef-tea for the sake of try
ing to get one man something which will
probably be furnished him by the allotted wa
ter or whisky bearer in three minutes after:
One must humanely harden ones heart, ana
say with stern tenderness, Eyes, my boy, all
right, a lady will be along with some deilciouS Gus
iced water in minu'e or two" ano ne VIII
probably smile and say. tnaph yyu; s fei,o -,
rieht acrost there-that one with his leg on
and his head bound up. he belongs to my com
nanv-he amt had nothing TO eat SINCE inc gay
Retire Yesterday. guess he'd like some o.
that ere stuff. Won't you please give him
some?"
CARE FOR THE WOUNDED.
For here let me say, in opposition believe
IN the general theory at home, that all who
deal with them, the toughest men whose every
second word is an oath without their know
inc ii. and who between their battles with the
enemy, knock each other down In play TO keep
their hands in, all arc as kind and tender with
the wounded men as they are with their little
two years old girls at home, in the few days
furlough they get through the war. The
stretcher-bearers speak soothingly as they dis
locate their own arms in lifting them up from
the battle field, and break their own backs in
irving to hoist them gently up into the ambu-
lances or down from them into the surgeons
tents-U am finishing this on the 18th at spot
sylvania. and have just come in with the am
bulance people from the hospitals ana from
the field on which perhaps some hve hundred
of our men fell to-day)-the surgeons worn
down with over work. and the responsibilities
resting on the conscientious man, in whose
hands under Providence are the issues OF lie
aud death, use only SO much irmness with
their kind words as is necessary to mako them
submit to take chlOform, which some OF them
seem to dread, before being operated on the
ambulance drivers, worn down with sieepless
nights, return only the gentlest words and
most conciliatory (and false) assurances OF a
short Journey and bully" road round the
next corner, to all their reproaches tor care
lessness in driving; the cOntrabands. who carry
them along the dock, are aS amiabie and unc-
tuous as it is possible for negroes to be, which
is saying much, and when they arc s'reccneo
ont on the decks like flock OF sheep, the dc.
tailed purses-some of them little sick or
slightly wounded themselves-step among
them as gipgerly IS if they were treading on
eggs.
THE WOUNDED DEACON. srt
In one room lies grey-halred man. he
will never again look at the rising OF the sun.
which is now with lis setting beams gildns
the tree tops and falling through them, check
cred with waving shadows, on the lawn be-
meath. The wound from which most Of his
Ife-blood has flowed has left him white and
weak. but it does not pain him; SO be looks
quietly rourd. thanking one for having written
bis last letter to his 'fClks " another for shad-
ing his eyes from the sun with the fan which,
until complaining of the cold creeping over
him. had been used to cool him and another
for Offering the further assistance which he
does Lot need He is only q sergeant but
sshad Just as lief be q private in sach cause. y
He was deacon in his town, and done the
biggest part in getting up comply from 1t,
the captaincy of which had been offered him (;
but he thought he hadn't . edication enough
to do the .writin' part OF the business and ana
declined. But, thank, God, he had " edicated"
sons, and one of them, who had entered the
company with himself, had been promoted,
grade after grade from cOrporalshlp TO the
captaincy. His wife had dissuaded him from
''j'ining" the army at that time, but after the
peninsular campaign - he couldn't stand it no
longer" had helped to get up another regl-
ment In his township and now here he was.
Well, he was satisfied; he was ia the LORDS
hands. and he would die in the faith that the
Lord would stand py the Union and the stars
an stripes to the end. He hadn't spec o
doIbt about it," He'd like to know if his son,
the captain, whose regiment had been in the
fight with his own. was still alive, bat he could
not find out; aud he would give all he was
worth to see his wife and daughter once more.
But he had always told them to prepare for
this, and hoped the lord would give them
strength to bear the news. Gs 9d + ei.1 .
AN AMBULANCE DRIVER. aAe ,Ni
jumped up by the side Of one OF the ambu-
lance drivers-a youth of eighteen. and yet a
"yeteran"aike one of his comrades -now de-
tailed as o stretcher bearer-who informed me
thar he had enlisted in the West When he was
fifteen wears old, in o two years regiment had
served his time in Texas aud enlisted again,
getting bounty OF six hundred dollars, which
with the money he had saved from Ills pay, en-
abled him to buy house and lot and put some
thing away in thebank. " W";lHhn
TWO BOOMERS.
Stretched on the yielding, sweet scented
pine-boughs, which tho delightful grove IN
which the hospitals are situated yields IN aoqn,
= dance, / found couple Of young brothers ~
( ing side by side. one wonnded IN The arm yer
or twelve days ago, in one Of the fights IN tnt
Wilderness and the other, the elder one, pros
trate with fever brought on, verify pcIeve
from anxiety about his younger brother. Inc!
had enlisted together in the same company
With their widowed mothers consent, tney
said and the senior by two years had peer
charged BY her TO watch over his younger pro
Their; /" for, you see he's always been klnd .
delicate, and him and mes always been roma Q
| each other and abe knowed was strong ant