Just before the _Ocean Queen_ left, a reinforcement of ladies and
servants arrived from New York. A part of these were put on the _Queen_;
temporary quarters were found for the remainder on the _Wilson Small_.
Sick men were at this time being carted into Yorktown from the various
abandoned camps in the vicinity, and the Sanitary party going on shore
after the departure of the _Queen_, these were found lying in tiers in
the muddy streets, while tents were being pitched and houses cleared for
their accommodation. Several wagon-loads of hospital supplies were sent
to them from the store-boats of the Commission; twenty-five dollars were
given to the surgeon in charge, to be used to stimulate the exertions of
his limited force of attendants, and for the purchase of odds and ends,
and he was informed that, if more should be required, it would be
provided by the Commission, and then the company started on their little
boat for West Point, where a battle was reported in progress.
* * * * *
(M.) _West Point, May 9th._—We arrived here early this morning. The
whole field of battle is open like a map before us. A white flag flies
from a small house just below us. We are along-side a transport on which
an officer was yesterday wounded by a shell thrown from a battery which
had been concealed behind this house, upon which the same flag was then
flying. Another transport near us has a shot-hole through her
smoke-stack. There are three or four thousand men along the shore, and
more constantly arriving and disembarking by the pontoons, with
artillery and horses. As I write, a blue column is moving off, the
bayonets glistening far into the woods. We are sending off small stores,
called for by the Commission's Inspectors ashore, who are visiting the
extemporized hospitals, and are also supplying some of the gunboats'
sick-bays with fruits and ice.
Just here a steamboat, loaded with sick and wounded, came along-side of
us; a transport, made use of as a hospital on the occasion, but needing
almost everything.
The more dangerously wounded upon this transport were transferred to the
_Small_, and three ladies, with surgical dressers and servants,
beef-tea, lemonade, ice, and stimulants, went to the assistance of the
others, remaining with them till, after a transshipment at Yorktown,
they were lodged in shore hospitals at Fortress Monroe.
* * * * *
(A.) The _Small_ received the dangerous cases, several of amputation
among them; the operations had been performed on the field. One died at
midnight. I had great difficulty, at first, in our now very crowded
little boat, in restraining individual zeal within the requirements of
order and tranquillity; but I believe I succeeded, and as soon as the
women began to experience the value of the discipline, they fell into it
finely, and all behaved in the best manner possible. I put those on our
boat in watches, rigidly excluding from that part of the boat where the
wounded men were placed all who were not absolutely required on duty.
The poor fellows were nearly all soon coaxed asleep, and the man who
died passed away, and his body was removed without its being known to
his nearest neighbor. We had on board Dr. Ware and two of the students,
noble young fellows, zealous, orderly, and discreet.
I think all the men who have any chance for recovery look better this
morning. One man (amputation of thigh) who seemed nearly gone when he
came on board, staring wildly, and muttering unintelligibly, lifted his
hand toward me as I came into the cabin this morning; and smiled when I
bent over him. The nurse told me that he said to her on waking from a
sound sleep, just at sunrise, "You have saved my life for my wife, good
woman." There are several officers among them; one a hero, who led his
company against a regiment, pushing it back, but losing one fifth of his
men, and getting a shot through the lungs. There is Corporal C——, too,
who has lost his leg, and who says he bears no malice against the man
who shot him, but he hopes some day to meet and punish the wretch who
kicked him on his wounded leg, after he was laid helpless.
* * * * *
(M.) _May 11th._—Three of our wounded men died during the night.
Everything was done for them; they could not have had more care in their
own homes. Our little boat is so crowded that the well sleep on the
upper deck, all under cover being occupied by the wounded; and, the
small outfit of china, etc. being needed for the sick, we take our meat
and potatoes on slices of bread for plates, and make the top of a stove
our domestic board.
* * * * *
As intelligence had come through telegraph from Washington that the
_Ocean Queen_ had been taken on her arrival at New York, against all
remonstrance, for other purposes, the _S. R. Spaulding_, a large,
seaworthy vessel, though lamentably inferior for a hospital to the
magnificent _Ocean Queen_, was obtained in her place. She was fitted for
carrying cavalry, with stalls for horses, and at this time filled with
stable odor, and needed coal and water as well as complete interior
reconstruction.
The _Daniel Webster_, arriving at Yorktown on her return from New York,
could not get into the wharf-berth which had been secured for her near
the hospital; a tug was consequently procured, which being run
alternately with the _Small_, between sunset and twelve o'clock at
night, two hundred and forty sick and wounded were taken off and put
comfortably to bed. After this her hospital service was reorganized so
as to transfer from her all the force that could possibly be spared, and
to put on her any of the company whom it was necessary to part with. An
estimate was made of the stores requisite for her home trip, and at
daylight what she could spare was put on board the _Small_, and she
steamed off on her second trip to New York, eighteen hours after she
arrived. Everything is noted as going on admirably in the loading of the
_Webster_, each man knowing his place, and not trying to do the duty of
others. The discipline maintained by Dr. Grymes was most satisfactory,
and the corps of ladies and nurses work as if they had been doing this
thing wisely and well all their lives.[3]
Footnote 3:
Since the above was written, we have heard with deep regret of the
death of Dr. Grymes. Wherever he served, his labors were singularly
wise and efficient; with exceeding gentleness and quietness of manner
he combined much energy of will, and to thorough skill was added a
loving heart, and a rare devotedness of purpose.
At 9 A. M., the _Webster_ started on her second trip, and there was time
to look after the other vessels which were being fitted for the service.
One company had been put at work on the _Elm City_, and another on the
_Knickerbocker_, both these river boats having been handed over by the
Quartermaster's Department to the Commission, to be fitted for hospital
service. Stores had also been ordered to the _State of Maine_, a
government hospital in need. All was found proceeding well with the
limited force on the _Elm City_; but the _Knickerbocker_, where was she?
* * * * *
(M.) _Steamboat Knickerbocker, May 13th._—If my letter smells of Yellow
B, it has a right to, as my paper is the cover of the sugar-box. Since I
last wrote, we have been jerking about from boat to boat, fitting up
one, and starting her off, then doing the same by another. We came on
board this boat Saturday night. She had then about two hundred wounded
men on board, taken from the Williamsburg fight, and bound for Fort
Monroe, two of the ladies and assistants to look after the sick during
the few hours' run, and others to get things on hand, and fit up the
wards. We had fifty-six Commission beds made on the upper ward floor
that night, and were ready to go on shore at Fort Monroe after the three
and a half hours from Yorktown. Dr. C. came on board and had all the men
carefully removed to the Hygeia Hospital, and we improved the
opportunity to get some roses from the garden for our wounded men left
on the _Small_, and to see Mr. Lincoln driving past to take possession
of Norfolk. We lay at the fort all night, and were blown awake the next
morning by the explosion of the _Merrimack_, when I found to my
amazement that along-side of us lay the _Daniel Webster_, No. 2,
Government hospital, with four or five of our Commission company on
board, whom we had left at Yorktown. She ran, in passing, along-side our
supply ships, (all our boats of the Sanitary Commission are known by
their flags,) just after we came away, and begged for help. Mr. A.
tossed on board everything necessary, including two ladies, two
surgeons, and blankets, and started them off after us to the Fortress,
with two hundred badly wounded men. They had been wholly uncared for
till our people got on board. They did all they could for them in so
short a time, washed them, gave them good suppers and breakfasts, and
Drs. W. and W. dressed the worst wounds, watching them all night as
tenderly as women could. This boat was all the next day unloading her
sick; they were miserably wounded, and had to be lifted with great care.
We on the _Knickerbocker_ started up the river again, and anchored off
Yorktown.... We wanted a stove for our hospital kitchen on board, which
has to be kept distinct from the kitchen of the ship's crew; so we went
ashore with —— to seize upon anything we could find; poked about in all
the rebel barracks, asked all the soldiers we met about it, and finally
came upon the sutler's hut,—sutler of the _Enfans Perdus_, who was
cooking something nice for the officers' mess over a stove with _four_
places for pots! This was too much to stand, so under a written
authority given to "Dr. Olmsted" by the Quartermaster of this
department, we proceeded to rake out the sutler's fire and lift his pots
off;—and he offered us his cart and mule to drag the stove to the boat,
and would take no pay! So, through the wretched town, filled with the
_débris_ of huts and camp furniture, old blankets, dirty cast-off
clothing, smashed gun-carriages, exploded guns, vermin and filth
everywhere,—and along the sandy shore covered with cannon-balls, tossed
into the river, and rolled back,—we followed the mule, a triumphant
procession, waving our broken bits of stove-pipe and iron pot-covers. I
left a polite message for the "Colonel perdu,"—which had to stand him in
place of his lost dinner,—and I shall never understand what was the
matter with that sutler, whose self-sacrifice secured our three hundred
men their meals promptly.
The next morning the _Knickerbocker_, to the surprise of the Commission,
was not to be found. They searched the fleet twice through for us, but
in vain, and finally heard at the Quartermaster's office, that a
requisition had been received at midnight for a boat to go at once to
the advance of the army, on the Pamunkey River, and the _Knickerbocker_
had been taken for it, the fact of her having been assigned to the
Commission being entirely forgotten. The only mitigation of the
anxieties of those who remained, for the ladies on board, was the
assurance that the boat would soon return. Meantime, we, on board,
sailed up the Pamunkey, getting a fine chance to perfect the hospital
arrangements. We unpacked tins and clothing, filled a linen closet in
each ward, had beds put in order for three hundred, got up our stove,
set kitchen in order, filled store closets, and arranged a black-hole
with a lock to it, where oranges grow, and brandy and wine are stored
box upon box; and on reaching Franklin's head-quarters, the messenger
transacted his business, we landed a file of soldiers and a surgeon of
the division, who had shown us great kindness on the voyage, and were
allowed to push off again unmolested. The army lay all along the shore,
and General Franklin's head-quarters were in a large storehouse back
from the river. We found on our return to Yorktown every one at work
fitting up the _Spaulding_.
* * * * *
An order had been obtained from the Quartermaster for the planks and
boards of some rebel platforms, with which to put up bunks, etc., and a
gang of contrabands were set at the business. While this was going on, a
visit was made to the surgeon in charge of the shore hospitals, with
whom, after debate, it was agreed that the _Elm City_ should be made
ready by two o'clock to take on the sick who were waiting transport near
the shore. The _State of Maine_ was at the same time to be supplied and
made ready to follow without delay. Going on board the _Small_ again to
carry out these arrangements, A. was met by a note from the
Quartermaster enclosing a telegram from the Medical Director of the army
at Williamsburg, demanding a boat provided with "_straw and water to be
ready to take on two hundred sick and wounded within two hours at
Queen's Creek_." The despatch concluded, "This is of the utmost urgency.
See the Sanitary Commission." The only boat in the fleet that had a fair
supply of water on board was the _Elm City_, already assigned for other
duty, and she had no stores of food. There was about one day's supply of
provisions for two hundred men on the _Small_, and A. wrote at once to
the surgeon in charge of the shore hospitals, that, to meet an order of
the Medical Director, it had become necessary to change the arrangements
just before made with him. He would have to withdraw the _Elm City_, but
as supplies could be sent immediately to the State of _Maine_, she could
be got ready before night to take her place. The _Small_ was then put in
motion, and first the _Elm City_ was hailed in passing, with orders to
"fire up and heave short, and be all ready to move in half an hour,"
thence to the _Alida_, which was sent with the supplies to the _State of
Maine_, and then back past the _Elm City_, ordering her to follow, and
so in good time up to the mouth of Queen's Creek, by the side of the
_Kennebec_, loading with wounded Secession prisoners, brought out of the
creek by light-draft stern-wheelers. The process of embarkation,
witnessed at a point some distance up the creek, was rude, careless, and
quite unnecessarily painful; the miserable wretches of rebels being made
to climb a plank, set up at an angle of forty-five degrees, which they
could only do by the aid of a rope thrown to them from the deck. Strange
to say, they themselves made no complaint, but appeared to think that
they were well treated. So much for habit. The only assistance the
Commission could render was to make the pathway less slippery by nailing
cleats closely together across the steep planks. To do this, nails were
bought of an old man near by, who at first asserted decidedly that not a
nail could be found on his premises, until he was offered one dollar for
twenty-five, when an abundant supply was discovered.
Notwithstanding the Medical Director's telegram, that the case was one
of the "utmost urgency," no sick men were found at the place of
embarkation on the creek, nor could any be heard of nearer than at
Williamsburg. Proceeding thither, with great difficulty,—passing on the
way directly through the field of the late battle,—A. inquired of the
first man he met after entering the town, "Where is the hospital?" "The
hospital, sir? Every house in the town is a hospital; you cannot go
amiss for one." And this seemed to be literally true. Finding the
Medical Director, he learned that he thought it important to relieve the
hospitals by transportation as fast as he, in any way, could; but not
supposing it possible that the telegraphic order could be literally
complied with, he had taken no measures as yet to send the two hundred
patients in question to the place appointed for embarkation. It was
agreed, however, that a convoy of ambulances should be started at
daylight, and A. returned to the mouth of Queen's Creek, and despatched
B. with the _Small_ to Yorktown to bring up additional stores from the
_Elm City_, upon which the half-completed work of filling bed-sacks and
other preparations also continued through the night. With the first
boat-load of the wounded brought off in the morning, arose one of those
conflicts of authority which so often embarrassed the Commission at this
time in its work.
* * * * *
(A.) At the first step I was met by a Brigade Surgeon coming on board
from the _Kennebec_, who went about giving orders over my head, changing
my arrangements. As he persisted, and refused to compromise after I
showed my written authority from the Medical Director, I told him that I
should allow no sick to come on board until I was satisfied with the
arrangements. He then declared that he should go to the Medical
Director. "The very thing I want, and I will go with you. Meantime the
sick, if any arrive, shall come on board, and Dr. Ware, here, will see
to their disposition, if you please." He assented, and we then went to
the landing and saw the lighter again loaded with sick, in the same
manner as yesterday. When she was full, the surgeon said he should
return upon her to the _Elm City_, "But I thought we were to go together
to the Medical Director, sir!" "I have concluded not to do so, but have
written to inform him that my authority is questioned." I deemed it
best, after this, to go again to the Medical Director myself, and, after
a tedious delay, got passage on a forage-wagon loaded with oats. What
with the continuous atmosphere of thick yellow dust, and the jar of the
heavy wagon over execrable roads, this was a hard ride.
I found the Medical Director, got a copy of an order which the Brigade
Surgeon should have received yesterday, but which had failed of
transmission to him, which failure justified officially his assertion of
authority over _any_ transport coming at that time to that anchorage.
Returned to the landing, and, the lighters having grounded, waited
there, on the bank of the creek, with a hundred sick men, being devoured
by mosquitoes and sand-flies. On reaching the _Elm City_, found that,
owing to the conflict of authority, and consequent imperfect system, as
well as to the insufficient number of attendants, the sick were but
slowly and with difficulty taken care of. Including the hundred coming
off with me, the number on board was already over four hundred, or twice
as many as the Medical Director had estimated, or I had had reason to
calculate on in the supply of water, medicine, and stores.
After sunset I went again up the creek, and found eight men on the
beach, left there sick, without a single attendant or friend within four
miles, while, only the night before, two of our teamsters had been
waylaid and murdered, as was supposed, by the farmers of the vicinity,
(guerilla fighting as they call it,) in the edge of the neighboring
woods. After taking them on board the small boat, I asked who had charge
of the party, wishing to make sure that no stragglers were left. A man
was pointed out, who, because he was stronger or more helpful than the
rest, seemed to have been regarded by them as their leader, though he
had no appointment. He was able to answer my inquiries satisfactorily,
and then as he sat by my side, while I steered the boat, he told me
about himself. His name was Corcoran. After the battle of Williamsburg
he felt sick. There was an order to march, but his Captain said, "Good
God! Corcoran, you are not fit to march. Go into the town and get into a
hospital." He walked three miles carrying his knapsack, and when he came
to a hospital the surgeon told him he must bring a note from his
Captain, and refused to receive him. He went out, and, as he was now
very ill, he crawled into something like a milk-wagon and fell asleep.
He was awakened by a man who pulled him out by his feet, so that he fell
heavily on the ground and was hurt. He begged the man—a Secessionist, he
supposed—for some water, and he gave him some; and when he saw how sick
he was, he said he would not have pulled him out only that he wanted to
use his wagon. Corcoran then tried to walk away, but had not gone far
when he fell, and probably fainted. By and by a negro man woke him up,
and asked if he should not help him to a hospital. The negro man was
very kind, but when they came to a hospital the doctor said he could not
take him in, because he "hadn't a bit of a note." Corcoran said, "For
God's sake, Doctor, do give me room to lie down here somewhere; it's not
much room I'll take anyhow, and I can't go about any longer!" It was
then three days since he had tasted food. The doctor told him he could
lie down, and he had not been up since till to-day.
I have repeated the whole of this story as I heard it, while we were
floating slowly down the river, because the poor man who told it me died
soon after we got on board, kindly attended in his last moments by our
Sisters of Mercy. A letter to his mother was found in his pocket, and
one of the ladies is writing to her.
This morning we returned to Yorktown, and took on the _Elm City_ thirty
more sick from a steamboat which had brought them from Cumberland on the
Pamunkey.
At ten o'clock the _Elm City_ left for Washington with 440 patients....
After noon I went ashore, called on the surgeon in charge of the
hospitals and the Military Governor, made our arrangements for a trip up
the river to collect scattered sick, and to tow our _Wilson Small_ up to
West Point for repairs. She has been knocked into and run against by all
the big boats till she is completely disabled. Returning on board for
this purpose, was met by an officer with a telegram, begging that a boat
might be immediately despatched to Bigelow's Landing, where an
ambulance-train master had reported that "a hundred sick had been left
on the ground in the rain, without attendance or food, to die."
Bigelow's Landing being up a narrow, shoal, crooked creek, we ran about
the harbor looking in vain for a boat of sufficiently light draught to
send there. At length we determined to take our whole Sanitary fleet to
the mouth of the creek, and, leaving the _Alida_ and _Knickerbocker_
outside, try to get up with the _Elizabeth_, for we had no single
vessel, large or small, in itself, suitably provided.
We ran to the _Knickerbocker_, but before we could get her under way a
steamboat, in charge of a military surgeon, came along-side, and a
letter was handed me, begging that I would take care of one hundred and
fifty sick men who had been taken on at West Point early in the morning,
and who had had no nourishment during the day. It was sunset, stormy and
cold. I at first hesitated, on account of the greater need of those at
Bigelow's Landing, but the surgeon in charge having induced me to take a
look into the cabin, I changed my mind. The little room was as full as
it could be crammed of sick soldiers, sitting on the floor; there was
not room to lie down. Only two or three were at full length; one of
these was dying,—was dead the next time I looked in. It was frightfully
dirty, and the air suffocating.
We immediately began taking them on board the _Knickerbocker_.... It is
now midnight. B. and Dr. Ware started with a part of our company and the
two supply-boats, five hours ago, for Queen's Creek, with the intention
of getting them to the sick at Bigelow's Landing, if possible; if not,
to go up in the yawl and canoe with supplies and firewood, and do
whatever should be found possible for their relief. Two of the ladies
went with them. The rest are giving beef-tea and brandy and water to the
sick on the _Knickerbocker_, now numbering three hundred.
(M.) The floors of lower and upper decks are covered with beds. The men
all have tremendous appetites, lazily sleeping and eating,—never miss a
meal three times a day. If it were possible to have great eating-houses
and wayside places, where volunteers could break down and sleep and doze
for ten days or so, the men forced upon us by the medical authorities
here and sent North would be doing good work in their regiments,—a good
bath, seven days' rest, and twenty-one good meals are all they need. ——
is housekeeper on this boat, and great pails of tea and trays of bread
and butter, and rice and sugar, go all around the decks for breakfast.
Good thick soup and bread for dinner, and breakfast repeated, at
tea-time. "Peter," with six long-shore Maryland oyster-men (darkeys)
runs the hospital kitchen, and has a daily struggle for the daily bread
with the incorrigible fellows who shirk work, and for each meal protest
against everything, and have three times a day to be brought round by
highly colored blandishments. The sickest men, especially the one
hundred and fifty last taken on, have plenty of beef-tea and cool
drinks, made in the ladies' pantry, and all of them are now undressed
and in clean, comfortable beds.
(A.) I am quite at a loss to know what I shall do to-morrow. Unless
additional force arrives we certainly cannot meet another emergency. It
will not be surprising if this letter is found somewhat incoherent, for
I have fallen asleep several times while writing it, hoping all the time
that B. might arrive. We have a cold northeast storm and thick weather,
and I conclude that his expedition is unable to get down, and I may go
to sleep for the night. I have just been through the vessel, and find
nearly all the patients sleeping quietly, and with every indication of
comfort.
_May 16th._ I fell so soundly asleep, that, fifteen minutes after I
finished writing the above last night, it had to be several times
repeated to me before I could understand where I was and what it all
meant when the officer of the watch came to tell me that the supply
boats were making fast to us, with over a hundred more sick. Anchoring
the _Alida_ at the mouth, B. had attempted to get up the creek with the
_Elizabeth_, but, as I had feared, she went aground. Going on with the
yawl, he found one of the steam-lighters at anchor with over a hundred
sick and wounded men lying on the deck, who were soaked, not merely with
rain, but from having been obliged to wade out to her in water
knee-deep. He learned that, further up the creek, a few men, too badly
wounded to stand, or too weak to wade off to the boat, had been left
behind. No persuasion could induce the captain to return for them, but a
threat to report him at head-quarters, at length made him fire up and go
back. Eight were found just where I found eight on my night trip up the
same creek a few nights before, some in a nearly dying condition. Having
brought them off to the lighter, and served stimulants to them, she was
run down the creek to the supply-boats, the freight-rooms of which had,
in the mean time, been as well as possible arranged to accommodate the
patients.
* * * * *
One of the ladies engaged in this night expedition of the _Elizabeth_
gives the following account of it in a letter to a friend.
* * * * *
(N.) Not a moment is lost,—Mr. B. would not even let me go for a
shawl,—and the tug is off. The _Elizabeth_ is our store-tender or
supply-boat; her main deck is piled from deck to deck with boxes. The
first thing done is to pick out six cases of pillows, six of quilts, one
of brandy, and one cask of bread. Then all the rest is lowered into the
hold. Meantime I make for the kitchen, where I find a remarkable old
aunty and a fire. I dive into her pots and pans, I wheedle her out of
her green tea (the black having given out), and soon I have eight
buckets full of tea, and pyramids of bread and butter. The cleared
main-deck is spread with two layers of quilts, and rows of pillows a
man's length apart.... The poor fellows are led or carried on board, and
stowed side by side as close as can be. We feed them with spoonfuls of
brandy and water; they are utterly broken down, wet through, some of
them raving with fever. All are without food for one day, some for two
days. After all are laid down, Miss G. and I give them their supper, and
they sink down again. Any one who looks over such a deck as that, and
sees the suffering, despondent attitudes of the men, and their worn
frames and faces, knows what war is better than the sight of wounds can
teach it. We could only take ninety; more had to go in a small tug-boat
which accompanied us. Mr. B. and the doctor went on board of her, to
give sustenance to the men, and in the mean time the _Elizabeth_ started
on the homeward trip. So the care of her men came to me. Fortunately
only a dozen or two were very ill, and none died. Still I felt anxious;
six of them were out of their mind, one had tried to destroy himself
three times that day, and was drenched through, having been dragged out
of the water, into which he had thrown himself just before we reached
him. When we reached the _Knickerbocker_, Dr. Ware came on board, and
gave me some general directions, after which I got along very well; my
only disaster had been that I gave morphine to a man who actually
screamed with rheumatism and cramp. I supposed morphine would not hurt
him, and it was a mercy to others to stop the noise, instead of which I
made him perfectly crazy, and had the greatest trouble in soothing him.
We did not move them that night, and the next morning, after getting
them all washed, I went off guard, and Mrs. M. and Mrs. N. came on board
with their breakfast from the _Knickerbocker_, where the one hundred and
eighty men were stowed and cared for. Soon afterwards my men were
transferred to her. She still lies along-side, and we take care of her.
She is beautifully in order; everything right and orderly. It is a real
pleasure to give the men their meals. The ward-masters are all
appointed, and the orderlies know their duty. She will probably leave
to-morrow.... As for the ladies, they are just what they should be,
efficient, wise, active as cats, merry, lighthearted, thoroughbred, and
without the fearful tone of self-devotedness about them that sad
experience makes one expect in benevolent women. We all know in our
hearts that it is thorough enjoyment to be down here; _it is life_, in
short, and we wouldn't be anywhere else (in view of our enjoyment) for
anything in the world. I hope people will continue to sustain this great
work. Hundreds of lives are being saved by it. I have seen with my own
eyes, in one week, fifty men who must have died anywhere but here, and
many more who probably would have done so. I speak of lives saved only;
the amount of suffering saved is incalculable. The Commission keep up
the work at great expense. It has six large vessels now running from
here. Government furnishes these, and the bare rations of the men, (or
is supposed to do so,) but the real expenses of supply fall on the
Commission; in fact, _everything_ that makes the power and excellence of
the work is supplied by the Commission. If people ask what they shall
send, say, "Money, _money_, stimulants, and articles of sick-food."
* * * * *
(A.) I went through the _Elizabeth_ soon after she came along-side, and
all who were awake were very ready to say they wanted for nothing. We
concluded to let them remain where they were for the rest of the night.
They had been on the creek shore from ten to fourteen hours, without a
physician or a single attendant, a particle of food or a drop of drink,
and this on a cold, foggy day, with rain and mist after nightfall. With
half a dozen exceptions, they are marvellously well this morning, and
profoundly grateful for the kindness which, I need not say, the ladies
are extending to them. I am as yet unable to make up my mind what to do
with them. The cold northeasterly storm continues.
_May 17th._ Our poor little _Wilson Small_ since her first patching has
been run into again and again, and for some days has been so broken up,
that the poor little thing can't raise steam even. We have been towed
about by our supply-boats, and to-day shall quit her while she goes to
Baltimore for repairs. We can't leave her without real regret, even to
go temporarily on board the _Spaulding_, one of the finest vessels of
her size that I ever saw. We go on slowly with our fittings, having but
poor lumber and only four carpenters. We have had, however, a detail,
ordered by the military governor, of the "Infant Purdys," as the boys
call the _Enfans Perdus_, to fetch and carry, and shall have the
_Spaulding_ after next filling the _Daniel Webster_ and the _Elm City_,
both which should be here before to-morrow night. We sent off the
_Knickerbocker_ this morning at daylight to Washington, with two hundred
and seventy sick and wounded. There are two ladies for each watch, and
the value of their service in the minor superintendence is incalculable.
The twenty ladies who came from New York were really a great godsend,
although at first, with no boat to assign them to, we did not know what
to do with them. They have all worked like heroes night and day, and
though the duty required of them is frequently of the most disagreeable
and trying character, I have never seen one of them flinch for a moment.
Yesterday, I chanced to observe, _apropos_ to an excessively hard
night's work, that all our hardships would be very satisfactory to
recall by and by, when Miss M. said earnestly, "Recall! why, I never had
half the present satisfaction in any week of my life before!" and there
was a general murmur of concurrence. If you could see the difference
between the men on our transports, and those on the vessels managed
directly by government,—rude as the means at our command are, and
although we do all we can to aid the latter,—you would better understand
the incentive and the reward of exertion.... The conduct of the patients
is always fine;—patient, brave, patriotic. I am surprised and delighted
by it. We have sent details of the ladies with every vessel, and have
now remaining with us only four, besides the hired Crimean nurse, Mrs.
——.
Captain ——, whom I spoke of as mortally wounded, and whom we had kept in
the cabin of the _Wilson Small_ since our visit to West Point, we sent
off this morning on the _Knickerbocker_ feeling quite jolly and with a
fair prospect of speedy recovery. I don't doubt he would have died but
for good nursing and surgery, as he had exhausting internal hemorrhages.
We had two deaths on board last night,—one a fine fellow of sixteen, of
pneumonia, in the lower deck ward, and a convalescent in the upper after
ward. The latter came out of his room, saying he was faint, and wanted
water, and, while the attendant turned for it, sprang over the guards
into the water below. A boat was lowered, and efforts made to find him,
but he must have struck his head, and, being stunned, did not rise.