The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1898-10-27
MOST FAMOUS ARMY NURSE.
An Old Auntie who Nursed and Cook
ed Through the civil War.

Just an old colored woman standing at
the door OF tent in white dress, clean
apron, ana soldiers wIde-brimmcd hat
yet this Is, perhaps, the most famous
nurse IN the army. This is "Aunuc' or
Mother" loved by dozens of boys she
brought through tortured days at Santi-
ago, blessed by scores OF feVer-strIcKen
soldiers at Montauk.
IL Is from old mat "Auntie" knows the
happenings OF the battlefield, for she
nursed and cooked through our Civil War.
and for thirty-Hve years since then she
has faced all The epidemics OF the south,
smallpox, yellow fever typhoid fever
malarial fever and come out unframed.
Not without reason is she called an i'm
mune nurse.
1 had long talks with "Auntie" during
those sad camp WikoT days, and she
gave me some OF her experiences
Il have gone through all kinds Of sick
ness" she said. Il have seen cities vast
ed by the plague. i have seen i've hund-
red men killed and wounded in a single
day. but | never saw anything like what
there was IN this war. i never saw such
suffering from neglect, such Nth. such
wei, let me give you the case Of Johnson,
the Swede.
johnson was stupid half foolish with
the fever, they get that way. When l
saw him flrSt-this was early in August
he was in the decentralization hospital,
about mile and half out of Santiago.
The heat was terrible. and he lay on his
bed as naked as the day when he was
born. / cleaned him and covered him.
but he fought the covers OF. The flies
sWarmed over his bed sores. swarmed
into his mouth, ana he would not close
H. A dozen times d day | laid a Goth
over his mouth 10 keep the flies out, but
he would throw the cloth away. The
flesh OF his upper jaw was eaten away
by the flies and their spawn until there
was a hole there you could put your
FINGER in.
That is one OF many cases. Some of
the men would shut their mouths on the
flies and We would have to go down the
line making them open their mouths
quick TO let the flies out. or else they
would have chOked. You do not know
the stupor OF that Cuban fever. I'd
rather nurse ten cases OF yellow fever
than two cases OF that fever
And the delrum-the crazy dclirium-
that Is something 10 remember. IL was
partly the fever and partly the quinine.
Always quinine. every few hours-ten
grains twenty grains-no wonder they
went mad. one night a private slashcd
his wrist across with razor and oled to
death before morning. Another man, a
doctor IN the Second Massachusetts,
sprang up one night and wanted 10 fight
everybody and then rushed out into The
bushes stark naked. screaming: The
SpanlarGs have got US; the Spaniards
have whipped US. Run. boys; run! What
a time l had getting that doctor back 10
bed.
Then there was a corporal in the
Ninth Massachusetts,. q young fellow
about twenty-five. but he looked every
Gay Of forty. There We're boys down
there who looked like old men. Well.
one night they told me the corporal was
going 10 die-he was sure TO die before
morning: and after / lay down / heard
his screams, hour after hour: 'Aa-i-e.
aa-i-e. catch him: catch that man over
IN the corner, aa-i-e.'
'The next morning found him sill
alive, and asked him why he had made
such a racket. Hs looked up out of his
poor, hollow eyes and whispered: Did