Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-06-18

Der of unused buildings were thrown
open.
/ remember. especially. the ST. Charles
Hotel. a gloomy place, where two young
girls went to look for a member of their
family reported wounded. We had tramp
ed in vain over pavements burning with
the intensity of the sun, from one scene
of horror to another. until our feet and
brains alike seemed about to serve US no
further. The cool of those vast dreary
rooms of the st. Charles was refreshing,
put such a spectacle. Men in every stage
of mutiation lying on the bare boards,
with perhaps a haversack or an army
blanket beneath their heads-some dying.
all suffering keenly. while waiting their
turn TO be attended to- To be there
empty-handed and impotent nearly broke
our hearts. We passed from one TO the
other, making such slight additions to
their comfort as were possible, while
looking in every upturned face in dread
to find the object of our search. This sor-
row, l may add, was spared, the youth
arriving at home later with slight flesh
wound.
The condition of things at this and
other improvised hospitals was improved
next day by the offerings from many
churches of pew cushions. which. sewn
together, served as comfortabl beds !:
and for the remainder of the war their
owners thanked God upon bare benches
for every misery missed that was
mercy gained
To supply food for the hospitals the
contents of larders all over town We're
emptied into baskets: while cellars long
sealed and cobwebbed, belonging to the
old Virginia gentry who knew good Port
and Madeira. were opened BY the Thur
iels spear of universal sympathy. There
was not much going to bed that night.
either, and / remember spending the
greater part of it leaning from my win
dow TO seek the cool night air. while
wondering as to the fate of those near
to me. There was summons to my
mother about midnight. Two soldiers
came to tell her OF the wounding of one
close of kin: but she was already on
duty elsewhere tireless and watchful as
ever.
Up TO that time the younger girls had
been regarded as superf1uities in hospital
service. but on Monday two of us found
couple of rooms where fifteen wounded
men lay upon pallets around the floor.
and offering our services TO the
surgeons in charge were proud to have
them accepted and to be installed as re-
sponsble nurses. under direction OF an
older and more experienced woman. The
constant activity our work entailed was
relief from the strained excitement of
life after the battle of Seven Pines.
When the first furry Of distress was
over. the residents OF those pretty houses
standing back in gardens full of roses
set their cooks to working, or, better
still, went themselves into the kitchen.
to compound delicious messes for the
wounded. after the appetizing old Nlr-
ginia recipes. Fitting about the streets
in the direction of the hospitals were
smiling whte-jacketed negroes. carrying
silver trays with dishes of fine porcelain
under napkins of thick white damask.
containing soups. creams, jellies thin
biscuit eggs la creme. broiled chicken,
hy cii FRESHLY
gathered flowers. year later We had
cause to pine after these culinary g1ories
when 1t came to measuring out. with
sinking hearts. the meager portions of
milk and food we could AFFORD to give
our charges.
AS an instance. however. that quality
in food was not always appreciated by
the patients, my mother urged upon one
of her sufferers "a gaunt and soft voiced
Carolinian from the 'piney woods dis
trict." delicately served trife from some
neighboring kitchen.
X
"Jes ez you say. old MISS" was the
weary answer; II amt a-contradictin' you.
1t mout be good for me, but my stomick' S
kinder sot agin it. There amt but one
thing I'm softer yarnin' arter. an that's
a dish o. green's en- bacon fat. with few
molarses poured onto it
From our patients, when they could
syllable the tale, we had accounts of the
fury of the fight, which were made none
the less horrible by such assistance as
Imagination could give to the facts.
remember they told us of shot thrown
, from the enemy's batteries that plowed
their way through lines of flesh and
blood before exploding in showers of
, musket- balls to do still further havoc.
Before these awful missiles, 1t was said,
. our men had fallen in swaths. the living
. closing over them to press forward in
the charge.
II was at the end of one of these mar
rations that piping voice came from
a paIlet in the corner: They fit right
I smart, them Yanks did. tell you. and
: not TO laugh was as much of an effort
as II had Just been not to cry.
, From one scene of death and suffering
TO another we passed during those days
of June, Under a whitening heat that