The National tribune., 1910-04-21
THE FAITHFUL NURSE.
A True Story of the Days That Tried
the Souls of Women as Well as Men.

the House of Representatives in WASH
| ington and one of the most popular.
During n period of upwards of so
years he has been guarding the door of
| the committee room of the statesmen
who have charge of Military Affairs
when the Congress is in session.
Hugh Lewis flaps an empty sleeve
where once there was Il strong right
arm. He is one of the rapidly dimin-
| ishing number of soldier heroes who
went to war almost half a century ago,
| and he is a modest one. too. The mar
rator has known this griZZled veteran
for more than 20 years, and during
that period has not been able to learn
the story of his last battle.
Recently, however, he concluded to
tell the story, and it is one worth wait
ing long to hear. He said:
Il don't like to talk about the war in
which L was engaged for many rea-
sons. In the first place, the young men
of the present day don't care for us
old soldiers, nor for what we did They
would rather read of Valley Forge and
Yorktown or stories of Indian wars.
We veterans of the armies that pre-
served this great Union. we soldiers
who gave our blood and our lives that
this Government might continue as il
is, we are sneered at by the second
generation after that war. Our only
happiness is in remembering the days
when we went forth in stalwart young
manhood to face death for our coun-
try, and in the memories of the DAYS
when we came back home, welcomed
as the heroes of the country. We men
VINO offered our lives in our youth feel
that we have lived too long for the
stories of the deeds done, the suffer-
ings endured and bereavements. the
trials and triumphs of those days, are
no longer appreciated.
Il was only 19 years old. strong
husky. ambitious and a daredevil sort
of boy" says Col. Lewis ''and cared
nothing for the din and terrors of bat
tie. 1t never once occurred to me that
could be wounded or killed. Conse-
quently when a Confederate bullet
struck me and clipped off my right arm
L suffered surprise first and pain after
wards.
II was private soldier in the I'd
Wis. and our regiment was being
forced back by overwhelm numbers
Of the enemy. I was jumping over a
stone fence. with my back to the foe.
when bullet tore into and thru my
right arm just above the elbow. The
arm fell limp, and / grabbed it with
my left hand. Some of the boys in my
company tore off the cord from my
hat and bound it tightly around my
arm above the wound. That stopped
the rush of blood so / took my right
arm in my left hand and marched on in
the retreat. Thus for 16 miles |
marched until we halted for the night
Then / lay down on the ground and
went to sleep from sheer exhaustion
Just before dark a Surgeon came and
cut off INV arm, seWed and bound it up
and went away. Then | went to sleep
again. and slept until sunup the next
morning. We marched about eight
mi lac. Il
boys put me on freight car, and that
afternoon about o'clock l landed in
Washington. not far from the north
end of the old Long Bridge.
'On the street / met a little boy. who
gave me drink of water from a pump
and bought a sandwich for me. Then
the boy showed me the way up Sixth
street to a hospital. 1t was on the cor
ner of Sixth and ID streets. 1t had been
used as a church, and had been taken
possession of by the Government as
military necessity and turned into a
hospital. i staggered into the front
door, and dropped onto a cot not far
from the door. An orderly came to
me, and said that | was On the cot of
the head nurse. and that / must get up.
was trying to tell him that ] could
not get up and stand on my feet, when
the head nurse came up. and she said
that 1 must remain right where / was
on her cot.
Then I became unconscious. l have
often wondered how l managed to keep
up for "a hours. When / awoke it was
about IL o'clock, and the head nurse
was beside me. She told me that she
had been watching me for an hour
waiting for me to awaken, for she
would not arouse me. She asked me If
had had any supper. and i told her
that i had had only a ham sandwich
that nay Then che nd
came back in a few minutes with a
bowl of soup for me. After / had eaten
enough she covered me over. and told
me to go to sleep again. l did So and
slept until about o'clock in the morn
ing. The first thing that l observed
was that the head nurse was lying on
the edge of the cot. fast asleep. / was
burning up with thirst. but my graft
tude to her was so great that kept up
my nerve and lay there quietly for al
most an hour. Then she got up. and
brought me glass of water without
any request on my part.
Now you must have a BATH she
said. She took me to a bathroom,
called an orderly. and told him to
bathe me carefully. She told him that
| was her boy, and that she was espe-
cially interested in me. You can't i'm
agine how much good that did me.
When looked at the dirty. muddy and
clOtteQ suit or ciOlneS that had been
taken off of me 1 wondered that she
had allowed me to lie on her cot in
that condition. She told me afterwards
that l would have died of exhaustion
if l had not been allowed to lie there
where j fell and have my sleep. She
said also that, altho / needed a bath
that night, she felt that 1 needed the
soup more. and i could not have both
at once without danger.
'HThep came a loDp siepe Of iIIpacc
and exhaustion. I fell away almost to
a shadow; but my nurse. God bless her,
was true Christian Scientist. My
nurse kept on telling me that 1 should
her. How like an angel she looked to
me when / was in delirium or half
conscious When she was not with me-
or when 1 was sleeping, she was In the
choir loft of the church hospital, where
she could look all over the place. She
mended socks and other little things
for the boys, as she sat there oversee
ing her great work.
Il had often noticed, and so had the
other patients, that every morning
about 10 o'clock the pastor of that
church came into the hospital. went to
the office of the Surgeon in charge, and
then went to the cots of the soldiers
who were regarded as being near death
With them he talked and prayed, and
they invariably died during the day or
the night of his pastoral visits 1t was
regarded as the mark of death to have
that man pay a personal visit to a sick
soldier.
We'll, one morning when he came
In as usual and went to the office of