The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-07-09

hospital steward. A sergeant OF our reg
iment promptly made out a list of the
Is who were able to move and urged or
ordered that they should act as nurses.
In small space at the rear end Of the
cabin table was set for the boatmen,
and those who had money and could get
to it could buy meal for 90 cents. l
managed to swallow cup of coffee and
one biscuit, then rushed to the guard
and contributed my so 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
the 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 a 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 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 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 a 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 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 general panic
was added to our other miseries Yet
was compelled to eat and compelled to
sleep or die. bought plateful of pro-
visions and tin cup of coffee and this
time took the precaution to stand out
on the guards in the cold wind to eat,
oo1 5koiI xr-ifI, (Nro,,nI,inrr
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, 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 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.
/ need not repeat the oft detailed
story of the hospitals-the long wards
filed with wounded and sick, the dread
full operating table, the cries and shrieks
of some and 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 well ap-
pointed hospital and a Christian coun-
try, where all the people stood ready to
supply what the medical stores lacked
and save the dreadful amputations, the
horror of which cannot be mitigated.
Life was not altogether miserable.
formed many pleasant acquaintance,
some among the wounded rebels captured
at Shiloh. The delusion of the days just
after Fort Donelson was all dissipated
now, and the men of both armies settled
down doggedly to the conclusion that it
was to be long war and light to the
finish. In our discussions in the days of
convalescence each side held its own
tenaciously, but good humoredly. "You
cannot conquer the south-no, sir, new
erp' was the continuous refrain of the
Johnnies, as about that time we began to
call them. And "This rebellion must
and shall be put down and the Union re-
stored was the conclusion of every ar
gument on the part of the blue.
may, in conclusion, give one expert
ence which may seem trivial, but as it
was matter was very curious about
before the war others may be curious
about it now. When / enlisted, had
seen but one person die and had never
once looked on really CHASTITY wound.
During the battle 1 only saw two men
killed. One of these was apparently
shot through the heart, and the other
was struck in the head by shell which
exploded just as it struck him.
Il 4