The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-07-01
MRS. SWISSHELM ON THE RAM
PAGE.
Sister Jane on Miss Dix's Female
Nurses.
An Old Maid Of Sixty no Judge Of
Character.
FfCrl, the New Nation.
FREDERIcKsBuRG, Va,
Friday noon, Nav &c.

aH' MISUNDERSTANDING, Va,
Friday noon, May &c.
MIR. EDTTOR-I have just returned from a
tour of inquiry regarding our colored troops.
/ have been assured, by surgeons of the 9th
corps, to which they belong, that no colored
wounded have been sent here. As all the suf
ferers that could be recovered from the enemy
and conveyed were brought here from the front
up to the twentieth, this appears to be conclu-
sive evidence chat these troops were not in ac-
tion at Spetsylvania Courthouse or at any time
previous. niii' i." -
The sufferings of our men are said not to be
greater than after any other battle; but wheth-
err this is so or not, the nation has a terrible
account to render on this score to Him who is
now sweeping our land with the bosom of de-
struction tor our national sins. What our men
have suffered here from want of care is simply
indescribable uncomfortable, while those
whom the government and Miss Dix have
graciously permitted to come to their aid have
generally worked to the limit of human EN-
brace. 1t is 3 terrible burlesque on
woman to have one of their number
placed, by the government, as a break
water against which the high tides of
maternal sympathy break in their strong
efforts to come to the starving tortured and
maggot eaten men who look eagerly ND and
wall out " Mother!" in their binding, madden.
ing anguish. No man in this or any other
government could have stood between The be-
reaved mothers of this land and the sons they
have borne and given to their country-stood
between them through the past terrible three
weeks; and SO the responsibility has been
thrown on Miss Dix, who has been fully eoual
to the occasion. To those who have 6epyed
with tears and prayers that might melt stone
for the privilege OF coming to minister to their
dying hours, che has presented thereto her
insurmountable objection of the yaIue of
/ n onHS
OF pounds Of crackers and beef have
lain untasted on the filthy floors. and been
scraped up and thrown into sinks and cesspooJs
because those to whom they were issued were
100 weak to raise them to their furnishing lips
The reason given for not permitting female
nurses to aid the men, unless commissioned by
Miss Dix, is to prevent women of bad charac-
ter getting into the army. Since coming here
have been more or less intimately associated
with full twenty ladies laboring in various
ways to ameliOrate the suffering. Of these
only two were Miss Dix's nurses. One of these
is o self conscious, simpering, black-eved.
pesky-nosed widow whose every word and
motion invites admiration. The other is a
buxom red-faocd lass of thirty-tive, with OPAQUE.
insincere, brown eyes, almond-shaped, and
who slept in the state room of a half.drunk
steamboat captain, 10 whose arms surprised
her next day while the boat was covered with
its grooming mass of mangled bodies and the
other lady-nurses slept, what little they did
sleep, together, in the ladies' cabin, where
there were six empty berths. These are the
only two women have meet here, nursing
soldiers, who did not appear to be actuated by
the purest motives, and to be beyond the
reach of suspicion; yet they alone were &C.
lected by Miss Dix, and these are by no means
the only in which her selections have been un-
fortunate in this respect. But how could any
one expect.a maiden lady of sixty to be a Judge
of character in this particular, of which she
is constituted inspector general? That
clement of suspicion which makes her
look upon youth and beauty as evidences
of deprayity shows want of comprehen-
sion of her own sex which must make her
the dupe of cant and all manner Of matured
designing women. That thousands and thou
sands of soldiers have died of neglect occasion
ed by want of sympathy with their sufferings
and insight into character, am fully satisfied
Age and ugliness are no tests of efficiency and
purity. God bless the fair young faces who
are lighting these melancholy death-beds and
shedding their drops Of comfort into this ocean
of human agony! watch some of them go
through their afduOus work with an enthusi-
asm and consciousness which cannot fail to
bring all within their reach into nearer COM
muniop with the angels disembodied.
JANE G. SWISSHELN.