"John Boykin died in a Yankee prison. He had on a heavy flannel shirt. They were lying on an open platform car, on their way to their cold prison on the lakes. A Federal soldier wanted this shirt. Prisoners have no right, so John had to strip it off and hand it to him. So that was his death. In two days he was dead of pneumonia. Maybe frozen to death.
One man said, 'They are taking us there to freeze.' But then their men will find our hot sun in August and July as deadly as their cold Decembers &c&c are to us. Their snow and ice finish our prisoners at a rapid rate, they say. Napoleon's soldiers found out all that in the Russian campaign."
Showing posts with label disease. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disease. Show all posts
Friday, October 16, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015
23 August 1861, Richmond
"Have been with Mrs Randolph to all the hospitals.
I can never again shut out of view the sights I saw of human misery. I sit thinking, shut my eyes, and see it all. Thinking—yes, and there is enough to think about now, God knows. Gillands was the worst. Long rows of ill men on cots. Ill of typhoid fever, of every human ailment—dinner tables, eating, drinking, wounds being dressed—all horrors, to be taken in at one glance. That long tobacco house!...
Then we went to the St Charles. Horrors upon horrors again—want of organization. Long rows of them dead, dying. Awful smell, awful sights.
A boy from home had sent for me. He was lying in a cot, ill of fever. Next him a man died in convulsions while we stood there.
I was making arrangements with a nurse, hiring him to take care of this lad. I do not remember any more, for I fainted. Next that I knew of, the doctor and Mrs Randolph were having me, a limp rag, put into the carriage at the door at the hospital.
Fresh air, I dare say, brought me to. First of all we had given our provisions to our Carolinians at Miss Sally Tompkins's. There they were, nice and clean and merry as grigs.
As we drove home, we brought the doctor with us, I was so upset.
He said: 'Look at that Georgia regiment marching there. Look at their servants on the sidewalk. I have been counting them—making an estimate. There is $16,000—sixteen thousand dollars worth of negro property which can go off on its own legs to the Yankees whenever it pleases.'
We saw among the wounded at the Federal hospital a negro soldier. He was with the others, on equal terms—and a sister was nursing him."
I can never again shut out of view the sights I saw of human misery. I sit thinking, shut my eyes, and see it all. Thinking—yes, and there is enough to think about now, God knows. Gillands was the worst. Long rows of ill men on cots. Ill of typhoid fever, of every human ailment—dinner tables, eating, drinking, wounds being dressed—all horrors, to be taken in at one glance. That long tobacco house!...
Then we went to the St Charles. Horrors upon horrors again—want of organization. Long rows of them dead, dying. Awful smell, awful sights.
A boy from home had sent for me. He was lying in a cot, ill of fever. Next him a man died in convulsions while we stood there.
I was making arrangements with a nurse, hiring him to take care of this lad. I do not remember any more, for I fainted. Next that I knew of, the doctor and Mrs Randolph were having me, a limp rag, put into the carriage at the door at the hospital.
Fresh air, I dare say, brought me to. First of all we had given our provisions to our Carolinians at Miss Sally Tompkins's. There they were, nice and clean and merry as grigs.
As we drove home, we brought the doctor with us, I was so upset.
He said: 'Look at that Georgia regiment marching there. Look at their servants on the sidewalk. I have been counting them—making an estimate. There is $16,000—sixteen thousand dollars worth of negro property which can go off on its own legs to the Yankees whenever it pleases.'
We saw among the wounded at the Federal hospital a negro soldier. He was with the others, on equal terms—and a sister was nursing him."
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
August 1861,
Sally Louisa Tompkins
"Went to Miss Sally Tompkins's hospital.* There I was rebuked. I deserved it.
Me: 'Are there any Carolinians here?'
Miss T: 'I never ask where the sick and wounded come from.'"
*After the Battle of First Bull Run, Sally Louisa Tompkins outfitted an old Richmond house as a hospital at her own expense. When the government took over private hospitals, she was allowed to maintain hers. Jefferson Davis commissioned her a captain, making Tompkins the only woman known to hold military rank in the Confederacy.
Me: 'Are there any Carolinians here?'
Miss T: 'I never ask where the sick and wounded come from.'"
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| Sally Louisa Tompkins (1833-1916) |
*After the Battle of First Bull Run, Sally Louisa Tompkins outfitted an old Richmond house as a hospital at her own expense. When the government took over private hospitals, she was allowed to maintain hers. Jefferson Davis commissioned her a captain, making Tompkins the only woman known to hold military rank in the Confederacy.
5 August 1861, Richmond
"Dr Gibbes is a bird of evil omen. Today he tells me eight of our men have died at the Charlottesville hospital. It seems sickness is more redoubtable in an army than the enemy's guns. There are 1100 there hors de combat, and virulent typhoid fever along with them. They want money, clothes, nurses.
So I am writing—right and left the letters fly, calling for help from the sister societies at home. The good and patriotic women at home are easily stirred to this work."
So I am writing—right and left the letters fly, calling for help from the sister societies at home. The good and patriotic women at home are easily stirred to this work."
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