Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1902-04-10
KINDNESS RETURNED
by Ill. 1. Cleveland.

IT was toward the close Ol Lhe clNll
war that l was placed in charge Of the
officers hospital at Hampton, Va, and
just back of Fortress Monroe. | found
a good many invalid Union officers IN
the hospital, and there were between
fifty ana sixty Confederate officers
there, all i'll and all prisoners. My in
structions in regard to the care and
feeding of them were to take the same
care Of their living as was given to the
Uuion men | attempted to carry out
these instructions in spirit as well as
letter.
There was another Chicago surgeon
at the hospital besides myself, but he
was under me My work was agree
able, and | found the Confcderates a
gentlemanly set Of fellows who had
done their duty as they saw it, suffered
and were now about ready to begin to
prepare for better kind of living than
making war Among them was n
young lieutenant Ellis Lewis, to whom
took quite a fancy.
zone day in making my rounds and
OIL reaching the Confederates | found
them pale. trembling, unnerved. In en-
deayoring to ascertain what was wrong
with them | found that they had not
had meat for more than a week, that
their rations were being kept from
them Lieutenant Lewis said this had
been going on for some time.
still said |, 4 have given explicit
orders that you shall be fed the same
as the Union officers here, and have
given no orders that meat shall be kept
from you
But we get no meat answered
Lewis.
Il called up the Chicago man who
was in charge of the feeding Of the
prisoners and who is now a prominent
citizen, and | asked him if he was re-
sponsible for depriving the COnfeder-
ate officers of meat. He said he was.
asked him why he did this when | had
given contrary orders.
"'Do you suppose he asked, 1 am
going to give these men any more than
can help when their government is
starving our people in Libby and An
dersOnyille|
"'That has nothing to do with this
case said. You will feed these men
as | have directed or one of US will
leave this hospital Charges will be
preferred against you, and | will make
them We will have humanity here or
| will know why
"The meat came after that.
shortly after this incident took
place | learned that charges had been
preferred against me to General But
Ter. | was accused of favoring the
Confederates. That was a pretty seri-
Gus charge in those days. but ! was
compelled to laugh when | found out
, that the charges were based upon my
having required that Confederate and
Union sick should be fed alike.
Colonel Schaeffer of General But
! ler's staff was directed to visit me
with board of inquiry and investi-
! gate the matter. | saw Schaeffcr be-
| fore the board commenced work, and
| he said to me
This Is very serious business. doc
| tor. You are charged with favOring the
Confederates. and General Butler
wants all the facts
"'My Instructions | replied, have
! been to discriminate against none in
| this hospital. | do not understand that
| am to feed Union men and starye
| Confederates. | do not understand
| that course is justified by any rules Of
| warfare What the Confederates them
| selves are doing does not concern me
! so far as the conduct Of this hospital is
| concerned. | am not here to slaughter
! prisoners. You 90 back and ask Gener-
al Butler if it is desired by him that
shall make this hospital a halfway
| ground between a battlefield and a
! graveyard. BY -, if it is I'll fight the
| proposition"
| Colonel Schaeffer posted off to Cen
| eral Butler at once and told him what
! / had said and also my detailing the
circumstances of the meat order. Old
Ben was a pretty shrewd man and sa-
gacious in many things. When Schaef-
fer had finished. he looked up and re-
marked:
81 guess we had better let Rush
alone
"And they did.
Some time after this n new batch OF
| prisoners was brought to US and lodged
in the same part of the hospital the 9th
er Confederatcs were in. They had only
| i'm
night Lieutenant Lewis, sick, barefoot
| ed, hatless, made his way to my head
| quarters and reused me.
Doctor he said, you have been
right with us, and we wish to show
you that we can reciprocate. The new
prisoners that have come in are armed.
| They purpose in the night to overcome
| the guard, kill him and get away. |
come to warn you, but you must pro
tect me, for if they know had betray-
ed them they would kill me-
81 had only Il single guard at the hos
pltal and an escape meant the ruin of
my reputation. | got Lewis into a safe
place and telegraphed Fortress Monroe
for troops to be sent as fast as they
could come | made it n rush message,
and / got them fast. The hospital was
surrounded, and in due time the new
prisoners We're disarmed and the escape
prevented.
Il shivered through until | had
enough soldiers on hand to save myself.
1t was too close a call. If the prisoners
had escaped, | could never have eX-
planned the matter, especially in view
of the fact that | had stood out for
treating them with humanity at time
when most sane men were strongly
prejudiced against acting toward the
south with any mercy."-Chicago Rec.
ord Herald.
A Mans Success.
Ever think what success in life
means to a man? That he work like
u dog as long as he lives and send his
wife abroad and his children away to
school. Then when he dies he must
| Ii,