The want of system cannot be charged to the fault of the organization of
the rebel Bureau of Medicine, for that was well arranged and strictly
governed.
It may partly be ascribed to the general carelessness of the officers in
charge, and partly to the desire of the rulers that the numbers of
prisoners should decrease, and consequently their labors should diminish,
no matter how, nor how quickly.
That there were men in charge of the patients who were destitute of all
moral scruples, of all refined and humane sentiments, there can be no
doubt, but there were a few men who did not partake of the general madness
of the spirit of destruction, and who exhibited a tender regard for the
sufferings of their fellow-men. The names of Thornberg and Head will
always be preserved as among the only few redeeming acts in the story of
the great wrong. The sympathy of these men was undisguised, and when
protest failed to produce kindly impressions, or to bring alleviation to
misery, they secretly sought to succor the dying men from their own scanty
store at the peril of their lives.
Dr. Head was not only threatened with death by the brutal Wirz, but he was
actually imprisoned for a short time for giving to the dying some
vegetables which he had gathered from his little garden. "Sire," said the
noble Surgeon Larry to Napoleon, "it is my avocation to prolong life, and
not to destroy it."
Let no man attempt to recall the scenes that took place in this wretched
enclosure, which was falsely called a hospital; let no man attempt to lift
the veil of darkness which now obscures the acts or the animus which
governed and directed this mockery of philanthropy, for the human mind
already staggers under the load of horror which is imposed by the events
of every-day life, and advanced civilization has no desire to renew the
recollection of the atrocities of the dark ages.