AM PLACED IN AUTHORITY.
On Monday morning I sent for Dr. Porter, and stated the trouble about
nurses shirking. He had them all summoned in the front end of the large
room, and in presence of the patients, said to them:
"You see this lady? Well, you are to report to her for duty; and if she
has any fault to find with you she will report you to the
Provost-Marshal!"
I have never seen a set of men look more thoroughly subdued. There were
eleven of them, and they all gave me the military salute. The doctor
went off, and I set them to work. One middle-aged Irishman had had some
experience as a nurse; could dress wounds--slowly, but very well--was
faithful and kind; and him I made head-nurse up stairs, where there were
fifty-four patients, and gave him three assistants, for whom he was to
be responsible. After Patrick's note, I calculated my resources, and got
ready for a close siege. As I sat on that little stationary bench,
making an inventory, I heard shrieks, groans and curses, at the far end
of the room; ran to the place, and got there in time to see the surgeon
of the blankets tearing the dry dressings off a thigh stump! Coming up
behind him, I caught him by both ears, and had my hands full, ordered
him to stop, and said:
"You had better go back to your room and smoke."
Again I sent for Surgeon Porter, and in less than two hours that little
wretch, with his orderly, packed up his blankets and I saw him or them
no more. I had never dressed a thigh stump, but must dress a good many
now; I rolled that one in a wet cloth, and covered it carefully, to let
the man get time to rest, while I got rid of his horrid tormentor. When
there was so much to be done, I would do the most needful thing first,
and this was ridding the wounds of worms and gangrene, supporting the
strength of the men by proper food, and keeping the air as pure as
possible. I got our beef into the way of being boiled, and would have
some good substantial broth made around it. I went on a foraging
expedition--found a coal-scuttle which would do for a slop-pail, and
confiscated it, got two bits of board, by which it could be converted
into a stool, and so bring the great rest of a change of position to
such men as could sit up; had a little drain made with a bit of board
for a shovel, and so kept the mud from running in at the side door;
melted the tops off some tin cans, and made them into drinking cups; had
two of my men confiscate a large tub from a brewery, set it in the
vestibule to wash rags for outside covers to wounds, to keep off chill,
and had others bring bricks and rubbish mortar from a ruin across the
street, to make substitutes for pillows.
I dressed wounds! dressed wounds, and made thorough work of it. In the
church was a dispensary where I could get any washes or medicines I
wished, and I do not think I left a worm. Some of them were over half an
inch long, with black heads and many feet, but most were maggots. They
were often deeply seated, but my syringe would drive them out, and twice
a day I followed them up. The black and green places grew smaller and
better colored with every dressing. The men grew stronger with plenty of
beef and broth and canned milk. I put citric acid and sugar in their
apple sauce as a substitute for lemons. I forget how many thigh stumps I
had, but I think as many as twelve. One of them was very short and in a
very bad condition. One morning when I was kneeling and dressing it, the
man burst into tears, and said:
"You do not seem to mind this, but I know you would not do it for
anything but the love of God, and none but He can ever reward you; but if
I live to see my wife and children, it will be through what you have
done for me, and I will teach them to bless your name!"
He quite took me by surprise, for I seemed to have forgotten any other
life than that I was then living; and dressing the most frightful wounds
was as natural as eating. I felt no disgust, no shrinking, and mere
conventional delicacy is withdrawn when the Angel of Death breathes upon
it.
The man we stepped over at the back door, proved to be a student from
the Pennsylvania Agricultural College, shot through the alimentary
canal, near the base of the spine. For him there was no hope, but I did
what I could to make him less uncomfortable, and once he said:
"This is strange work for a lady."
"You forget," I said, "that I am surgeon in charge, that you and I were
made of the same kind of clay, in much the same fashion, and will soon
turn into just the same kind of dust." How my heart was wrung for him,
with his refined face, dying for a country which sent its bayonets to
stand between him and the armful of straw, with which I might have
raised him above that muddy floor. He had no knapsack to serve as a
pillow, no blanket, no cup, and his position across the doorway was cold
and uncomfortable; but even after I had made a better place for him, he
objected to leaving two companions, who lay next to him, and I could not
find room for all three together, even on that dirty floor. He himself
always dressed the wound where the bullet entered, and was most grateful
for the means of doing so. I cared for that one through which Death's
messenger made its exit, and although he knew its condition, he did not
know the certainty of a fatal result, and resented any intimation that
he should not recover.