The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1897-03-25
could see the steamer Ohio No. 8 as it

must be largely left to the imagination.
1t was literally jammed with the sick,
and Of all that number only 13 were
able to about. Every stateroom
was packed, and ON each side of the
cabin lay men in close order, their feet
toward the center, leaving just room for
n to pass between, and not one able
to rise or help himself ven i'll the most
necessary Offices. To take care of this
boatload of utterly helpless men there
were just two ablebodied nurses and n
hospital steward. A sergeant of our reg
iment promptly made out a list of the
- who were able to move and urged or
ordered that they should act as nurses.
In q small space at the rear end of the
cabin a table was set for the boatmen,
and those who had money and could get
to it could buy a meal for 90 cents. /
managed to swallow a cup of coffee and
one biscuit, then rushed to the guard
and contributed my 80 cent breakfast to
the muddy Tennessee-an experience
repeated more than once on the trip.
The whole voyage remains in my
mind as a horrid nightmare. In that
solemn hour between waking and sleep
ing, when the mind seems to gain fresh
retrospective power while the body sinks
to rest, the whole scene rises before me.
I see especially that poor Nebraska boy
who lay on his back in the corner near
tho door, insensible, his eyes rolling and
his hands perpetually moving as If he
were trying to fend off something from
his face. For 80 hours he never once
ceased this motion, then gasped twice
and was dead. Another dying man kept
up q continuous automatic moaning,
which seemed to rise and sink like the
signing of a wind in the forest. By
next morning the cabin was so noisome
that one could scarcely abide in it, and
yet there had been no deaths, though at
least a dozen were evidently dying.
Most Of the sick were coughing and ex-
pectorating dreadfully, but it was i'm
possible for us TO take the usual precau-
lions, and the whole floor was a sight
to have made the strongest man sick.
We lay at Paducah all day. while the
surgeon vainly sought for a vacant
house. But the report came that the
place was already quite overcrowded
with sick, and at night we were ordered
to move on to Evansville.
1t was q night Of horror. The worst
cases commenced dying as we showed
Off, and as fast as they died they were
carried out and laid on the open deck
forward, wrapped in their blankets. A
fearful storm came on, and in two
hours there was a heavy, driving snow,
which covered the corpses as we laid
them out. 1t was soon discovered, also,
that there were five bad cases of small.
pox on the boat, and a general panic
was added to our other miseries. Yet ]
was compelled to eat and compelled to
sleep or die. I bought a plateful of pro-
visions and a tin cup Of coffee and this
time took the precaution to stand out
on the guards in the cold wind to eat,
and it staid with me-. Crouching down.
in the corner of the cabin-they had
moved the sickest men to the front, and
the rear space was almost tolerable-
with my back against the wall, l man.
aged to get some hours of troubled sleep.
The morning was intensely cold, but we
had reached the welcome shore Of In
diana at last, and plying friends came
to carry our helpless men to the Evans
vile hospitals. They have since told me
that when they entered that cabin they
could hardly believe that healthy men
could have lived in it one night. Espe-
cially pitiable was the sight of a pile of
corpses ON the front deck, apparently of
no more consequence than so much cord
wood stacked there, covered with snow
and seeming to be partly frozen.
I need not repeat the oft detailed
story of the hospitals-the long wards
filled with wounded and sick, the dread.
full operating table, the cries and shrieks
Of some n the groans of many, the
wearisome days in the lonely wards and
the nights of feverish sleep haunted by
dreams of the dead. Yet, when the worst
was passed, convalescence was delight
full, and the natural gayety of young
men reasserted itself. When the wound
ed arrived from the battlefield Of Shiloh,
convalescents and all had wearing work
for awhile. But we were in o we'll APP
pointed hospital and a Christian u
try, where all the people stood ready to
supply what the medical stores lacked
and save the dreadful amputations, tn
horror Of which cannot be mitigate
Life was not altogether miserable.
formed many pleasant acquaintance,
some among the wounded rebels captur' ]
at Shiloh. The delusion of the days just
after Fort Donelson was all dissipat, c
now, and the men Of both armies settled
down doggedly to the conclusion that it
was to be a long var and a fight - the
finish. In our discussions In the DAYS of