The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1904-09-15

At the commencement of the battle
Gen. Blunt had taken possession of the
farm house for hospital. ! don't know
little ceremony was used in such matters
in war times, suppose they were given
short notice to get out, and got"
We soon had the ambulances scamper-
ing over the field, picking up the wound
ed and bringing them in. The attendants
were ordered to bring in the wounded
-only-leaving the dead to be gathered up
and buried afterward-our own men first,
and the rebel wounded after.
/ took one ambulance myself and hur-
ried to the ground that had been occupied
by HOpkinSS battery, anxious to find what
had been the fate of a gallant Sergeant
whom l had seen fall while bravely hold
ing the battery's cOlOrs in q perfect shower
of shot, as it had seemed to me. From
my stand it appeared that one or two
other cOlor-bearers had been shot down
while holding that flag, for the colors
melee. l was glad to find the Sergeant
still alive, but with broken leg, and lift
ing him and several other wounded men
into the ambulance, / hurried them off to
the hospital, where we unloaded our
freight of suffering men and started the
ambulance on Tor more.
AT the hospital i found the other am
balances had already delivered several
loads of wounded-many of whom were
negroes-who were laid in rows, some in
side the house, and some outside
wherever shade could be found. In the
operating room long table was standing
in the middle of the floor. Several Sur
geons with sleeves rolled up and bloody
hands were busy cutting off legs and
VII hav So6
out in heap in front of the door.
The most seriously wounded were
picked out and attended to first. Where
limb was to be amputated, wounded
man would be brought in and laid on the
table; the Chief Surgeon examined the
wound and gave orders for the operation;
one would hold handkerchief saturated
with chloroform to the victims nose with
one hand, until insensibility was pro-
duced, while the other was feeling the
pulse; two more would bare the limb, ap-
ply ligature above the wound, to check
the flow of blood, and while one held it
the other would make the forked incisions
down to the bone all around the member:
an attendant with a sponge wrung out of
water stood by to mop away the blood so
that the operator could see what he was
doing; then the one holding the limb
would, with both hands, pull back and
hold the ends of severed fesh-or FLAPS"
as the doctors called them-while the
operator sawed the bone; the operating
Surgeon then got out a fine steel hook,
with which he picked up and drew out
the ends of the arteries, which another
tied with silk thread to stop the bleed
ing-all the while the man with the
sponge was busy hopping away the
blood, 80 that the operator could see 20
find the ends Of arteries, which he de-
tects by the little stream of blood squirting
from each. The flaps" were then
brought together over the end Of the
sawed-off bone and sewed u each other;
the stump mopped of, banlaged up, the
chloroform shut of, and the victim is car
ried away and laid in q row on the floor
with others who have been operated upon
l stood by and saw several of these am
putations performed. and although it is
wildly impressed on my memory that my
recollection Of them seems quite fresh.
There were quite a number of ampu-
tations performed, and heard it said at
terward that nearly every man who had a
limb taken off died soon after, from the
effects Of the operation. This bad re-
suit was charitably attributed to the ex-
tremeIy hot weather at the time.
1t is lamentable, but every one who wit
messed the care-or want of it, rather
that was often bestowed on our wounded
soldiers after battle, must be satisfied
that thousands of lives of brave men were
wantonly and uselessly sacrificed for
want of proper attention. fully realize
the uselessness of '.crying over split milk :"
but ! am writing my experience and i'm
pressions Of the war, and "these are of
them
Some of the subjects of amputation did
not seem to revive readily from the eff
fects or the choloroform, and probably
some never regained consciousness as. in
ha YrrGh 0f ct1py tnal
sistants had but little time to devote to
resuscitating the patients. They were sim
ply carried away from the table after
the chlorofOrm was removed from the nose
and laid in a row with others and left to
revive or not, according to the vitality of
the man.
Some. however, recovered their sensibili-
ties almost as soon as the handkerchief
was removed from their noses. This was
especially the case with
THE BATTERY SERGEANT,
After his leg was taken of, the stump
done up and the choloroform taken away,
he soon opened his eyes and remarked to
one Of the Surgeons.
"See here, Doc, if you're goin' to take
that leg off, you'd better be about tim
When told that his leg was already off
and the stump done up in a rag" he raised
himself little on his elbows to look and
see if such was really the case, remark
ing,
rs that so? I didn't know a thing
about it." And then asked. How goes the
battle?'
On being told that the rebels battery
and their flag had been captured, and that
the enemy was whipped and retreating he
shouted, GLORY to Cod" and fell back
and was carried away by the attendants.
GROWING TIRED
of looking on at this butchery, / mounted
my mule and rode out over the field, first
making for the ground fought over by the
negroes and Texans. l saw several bodies
of the blacks lying among the sumac
bushes as | rode TO the cornfield where tho
Texans had stood, but our wounded had
about all been taken in from that part OF
the field, and as the bushes obscured tho
view, the dead could only be found by
searching among the sumacs. Having fin
ished gathering in our own wounded. tn,
ambulances were now hauling in til,
wounded rebels.
When / think Of them now, there wer,
many unpleasant scenes on that little bat
tlefeld-some sad and pathetic, some hor
rible; but we got so used 10 such sight.
those days, that we became calloused an,
Indifferent often taking but slight notice o
very serious affairs.