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{
    "localId": "24325433",
    "label": "No. 80 Letters from the Army of the Potomac written during the Month of May 1864 to several of the Supply Correspondents of the U.S. Sanitary Commission",
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    "title": "No. 80 Letters from the Army of the Potomac written during the Month of May 1864 to several of the Supply Correspondents of the U.S. Sanitary Commission",
    "description": "This item is a compilation of letters, written by Alfred J. Bloor, to several supply correspondents of the U.S. Sanitary Commission while serving in the field.",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/24325433",
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        "Records of the American National Red Cross",
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    "ocrText": "in 1/1/11\nus 6090,17 cute 17\nU. S. SANITARY COMMISSION, No. 80.\nLETTERS\nFROM THE\nARMY OF THE POTOMAC,\nWRITTEN DURING THE MONTH OF MAY, 1864,\nTO SEVERAL OF THE\nSUPPLY CORRESPONDENTS\nOF THE\nU. S. SANITARY COMMISSION,\nBY\nALFRED J. BLOOR,\nASSISTANT SECRETARY.\nWASHINGTON, D. C.:\nMcGILL & WITHEROW, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS.\n1864.\n7.4.19.6 1.4.3 B\nLETTERS.\nNo. I.\nUNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION,\nCENTRAL OFFICE, 244 F STREET,\nWASHINGTON, D. C., May 14, 1864.\nDEAR MRS. - : I have just come up from the rear of\nthe Army of the Potomac; and there will, at least, be some\nvariety in my correspondence with you if I tell you what I\nsaw at Belle Plain, instead of, as usual, repeating my Oliver-\nTwistian cry of More ! more!\"\nThe day before yesterday I started from Washington with\nfour volunteers, two ladies, and two gentlemen, three of the\nparty being from your city, and several being accustomed\nto army travelling and hospital nursing. One of the ladies\nis the wife of one of our generals, and the other is the writer\nof that excellent little pamphlet 'Three Weeks at Gettys-\nburg.\" The steamer we were on was well loaded with sup-\nplies-somewhere about sixty tons-and a score or two of\nRelief Agents, to reinforce those already on the field and at\nFredericksburg. Reaching Belle Plain-so called from its\nbeing a series of high hills-just as the twilight was settling\non the beautiful and varied tints of verdure with which the\nlast week or two of summer weather have covered its slopes,\nwe found a repetition of the scenes I have before witnessed\nat the same place in the spring of last year, and at various\nother places on the Peninsula and elsewhere, during the dif-\n5\n4\nthe ascending procession of wagons filled with rations, and\nferent campaigns of the war. A couple of rudely constructed\nof infantry and cavalry that have gone to reinforce Grant,\nwharves, a mile or so apart, jut out into the placid waters\nhas been met by a parallel line, a little way off-for the im-\nof the broad creek, and lying against these, four or five\npromptu roads are too narrow to admit of vehicles passing\ndeep, are steamers and barges of all kinds and sizes, loading\neach other-of ambulances filled with wounded men; and it\nand unloading SO busily that you might imagine yourself on\nis with these men, carried on stretchers from the ambu-\nthe docks of Boston, New York, or Philadelphia. Boxes,\nlances, that the outward bound\" vessels are loaded.\nbarrels, and bales pass from the holds and decks of the ves-\nIt is indeed a sad sight; but there is a great satisfaction\nsels, on the shoulders of long strings of contrabands, or on\nin reflecting that one is standing in the midst of all kinds of\ntrucks, along the crazy wharf to the beach, and are there\ncomforts and delicacies, to reinforce the stock which has\ntransferred to army wagons, which, after being filled, join\nalready been provided for these very men, and in recog-\nthe procession of similar vehicles, each drawn by four stout\nnizing within hailing distance a handsome flag, inscribed\nhorses that, with few gaps in the long road up the ascent\nwith the words \"U. S. Sanitary Commission,\" streaming\nand along its crest, wind slowly and toilsomely, as far as\nfrom its staff, on the deck of a portly barge, comfortably\nthe eye can reach, towards Fredericksburg, and the interja-\nlined with numberless good things for wear and diet, at that\ncent camps. So far as the vessels and wharf are concerned,\nvery moment-we can imagine with a strength equal to\nthe scene resembles the unloading of vessels in a seaport\nconviction, for not even with the aid of a powerful glass\"\ntown; but in a seaport town, one does not-in peace times,\ncan our point of sight enable us to discern behind the inter-\nat least-see hosts of uniformed and armed men tramp from\nvening boxes and barrels-under process of distribution to\nthe decks along the wharves to join the hosts.preceding\nthe poor fellows, as they are carried past to the boats that\nthem; nor does one see regiments of troopers tugging at\nare about to convey them to Washington.\nthe reins of unmanageable horses, that plunge fiercely among\nIt is now dark. The rain has somewhat abated, but even\nthe swaying masses of humanity and the unflinching masses\nif it poured as much as ever, it would not be possible to\nof merchandise that line their way. But what can there be\nrestrain the ladies from entering at once on their self-\nto load vessels with in an out-of-the-way creek, running up\nimposed duties. So I help them into a boat, and we are\ninto a country from the hill of which one may look all\nrowed to the dock, and are soon on board our barge, or\nround to the horizon without one's eyes resting on a\nstore-boat as it is called. But the procession of wounded\nhuman habitation ?-a permanent habitation, I should say, for\nmen is over for the night, and those that have come before\nevery strip of land in sight that is not covered with trees is\nare on their way to Washington, while those in transitu from\ndotted with tents and bivouacs and army wagons, beneath\nthe battle-field are resting in wayside stations, or in the\nthe canvas and boughs of which are sheltered, as much as\nambulances conveying them-a poor way for wounded and\nmay be in the fast-falling rain, such multitudes of weary\nsore men to pass the night, but such as the cruel necessities\nmen as, if collected into houses and streets, would fill many\nof war render unavoidable. Dr. Steiner tells us that the\nvillages, and turn the wilderness into a populous No.\"\nnearest of the Commission's feeding lodges is some half\nThank goodness, when the spectator next watches the load-\nmile up the hill, and that its capacity will not admit of any\ning of a vessel in a commercial town, he will see nothing of\nmore attendance than that with which it is already supplied.\nwhat he now sees at this warfaring port of Belle Plain. All\nAs the ladies come to render aid where it is needed, not to\nday long, and the day before, and several days before that,\n6\n7\nsupplant that which is previously provided, they think it\ncracker man never trenching on the lady's coffee pail, and\nadvisable not to wade up to the lodge knee-deep in Vir-\nthe coffee lady leaving the beef-tea religiously to another.\nginia mud, nor do they consider that the cause of humanity\nInfinitely more may be done by systematically pursuing\ndemands the waking up of some poor fellows who are wait-\nthis plan of speciality. If, when the beef-tea is being\ning the next boat, and the administering to them of pound-\ncarried round, some poor fellow shakes his head, and im-\ncake, pies, and surreptitious draughts of bad whisky ; so we\nploringly asks for water or stimulant, one must not set\npresently get into the row-boat again, and the ladies are\ndown the beef-tea to be kicked over before one gets back,\nbefore long occupying the pilot house-the polite and ejected\nand rush off to spend half an hour in searching for water or\ncaptain seeking other quarters-while the men dispose them-\nstimulant, so depriving a hundred men of beef-tea, for the\nselves for the night upon the decks, those that have rubber\nsake of trying to get one man something which will probably\ncoats or blankets to keep off the rain, now descending faster\nbe furnished him by the allotted water or whisky bearer in\nthan ever, feeling their great advantage over those who,\nthree minutes after. One must humanely harden one's\nrubberless, vainly seek dry spots whereover there are no\nheart, and say with stern tenderness, Yes, my boy, all\nleaking places in the ceiled roof.\nright, a lady will be along with some delicious iced water in\nThe next morning-very early indeed, the sleeping accom-\na minute or two;\" and he will probably smile and say,\nmodations offering few inducements to people of sy baritie\n\" Thank you, sir, all right, I can wait. Say, mister, there's\ntendencies-the Relief Agents are almost all started for Fred-\na fellow right acrost there-that one with his leg off and his\nericksburg, and our small party enter the lists as Relief\nhead bound up, he belongs to my company-he ain't had\nAgents on the spot. The scene of yesterday is renewed in\nnothing to eat since the day before yesterday. I guess he'd\nall its details, and as the wounded men are borne in, hour\nlike some o' that 'ere stuff. Won't you please give him\nafter hour, in one long string, the pale and often blood-\nsome?\"\nstained occupant of every stretcher is furnished, according\nBut the giving of sustenance is not all the work. One\nto his needs, by one or other of the party, with crackers,\nman complains of his head being too low, and his overcoat\nbeef-tea, coffee, wine, water, or lemonade. The wine and\nhas to be rolled up-or, failing that, the straw around him\nlemonade are given only on the advice of a medical man,\nhas to be gathered up-so as to form a pillow for him. (The\nand sometimes the one is intensified into brandy, and the\npallets and bedding have given out, though the first boat\nother into the unmixed juice of the lemon. But for men\nloads sent off were as comfortably provided for as if in the\nexhausted with lying on the battle-field for many hours,\nwards of a general hospital, and the men we are tending\nsometimes for a day or two, without food or drink, thence\nare lying on the docks on straw; but tbis they count luxury\npassed to the operating table, and thence to the ambulance,\nafter the battle-field and ambulance.) Another wants a\nthe other things may be given, in most instances, in such\nhandkerchief, and another a pair of socks. This man's shirt\nquantities as they crave. Poor fellows, they clutch at\nis all torn and bloody, and must be replaced by another.\nthem-but always with a thank you \"-as if they thought\nOne man complains of the intolerable heat, and some of his\nthey could swallow the basket or bottles along with the con-\nclothing must be removed; another is shivering with cold,\ntents, but a few mouthfuls is generally all they have strength\nand more clothing, or an extra blanket, must be provided\nto manage. It is best for each one of such a relief party to\nfor him. Here is one who feels the hand of death upon\nconfine oneself to the distribution of a single article-the\nhim, and the head of that one of our party who is tending\n8\n9\nhim is bent down to catch from his white lips his last mes-\nthem, they might have been taken, SO far as dress was con-\nsage to his friends. Five minutes after, the blanket drawn\ncerned, for privates; but these insignia showed the rank of\nsmoothly over the face, and the quiet of the lately restless\na brigadier general in the Confederate service. This was\nlimbs, show that the weary soldier has fought his last battle\nGeneral Stuart, a handsome fellow, some thirty-five years\nand entered into his rest.\nold, I should judge; and who endeavored to conceal his\nContinually through the day our party has met others en-\nfeelings beneath a jaunty and somewhat defiant manner.\ngaged in a like work, but all too busy and preoccupied to\nHis older companion, wrapped up in a gray overcoat, with-\nnotice each other, unless to render some necessary act of\nout any insignia of rank visible, and whose grizzly hair\njoint assistance to a sufferer, till one is met who labored\nshowed through sundry rents the most shocking bad hat\"\nwith some of the party at Gettysburg, and perhaps else-\nI ever saw, is Major General Johnson; and the third pris-\nwhere. He joins us in our rounds, and when at night I ask\noner is his adjutant general. Being brought to a halt they\nhim if he knows what has been done with the bodies of those\nsit down on some boxes, and Johnson draws from his pocket\nI have seen die through the day on the boats and on the\na copy of the Washington Morning Chronicle,\" and,\nwharf, he tells me that he has helped that day to bury, and\npicking out the war news, reads something in a low tone to\nhas read the funeral service over-he is, or is going to be,\nStuart, who answers by a nervous laugh. Not placing im-\na clergyman-the bodies of over sixty soldiers.\nplicit confidence myself in the war news of most of our\nWe have, thus administering to the poor fellows' needs,\nnewspapers, I fancy they may have discovered some slight\ntraversed the decks and cabins and every foot of superfices\nmistake, and therefore feel no inclination to resent their\navailable for the outstretched or partially recumbent form\nraillery, but the crowd around are not SO lenient, probably\nof a man, of four vessels; and now, for some cause, there\nthinking strongly on the subject of Belle Isle and Fort Pil-\nis a lull in the arrivals and the turmoil. This gives us time\nlow, and the murmurs increase until there is, for a minute,\nto look at our watches, and to our amazement, we find it\ndanger of violence being offered to the prisoners; but a few\nis five o'clock instead of eleven or twelve, as we fancied.\nstern words from the captain of the guard and the ringing\nThereupon we apprehend that it is no wonder we are faint,\nof the bayonets of the latter soon restore order, and the\nconsidering we have been working SO hard all day on our\ngenerals and adjutant are marched quietly off to the boat\nsix o'clock breakfast of crackers and ham. A sumptuous\nthat is to convey them to Fort Delaware, or wherever else.\nrepast of crackers-not indeed the magnificent Boston edi-\nIn a little while they are followed by a multitude of rebel\nble, but a softer and inferior sort-and coffee is forth-\nofficers-four hundred in number it is said-of every rank\nwith disposed of, and during the repast we discover that\nfrom colonel to second lieutenant, but none with any marks\nthere is a suspension of ambulances and stretchers to allow\nof rank detectable, except in the few cases where the coat\nthe passage of some thousands of rebel prisoners from Dixie\ncollar was turned up, or where one or two, more dandyfied\nto the land of the free in Fort Delaware and elsewhere, the\nthan the rest, had decorated the lapels of their coats with\nfreedom of such strongholds being the kind they seem most\ntheir insignia. At first I thought they were privates, for\nto appreciate. Pretty soon there marched along, under\neven apart from their dress, they presented, in the mass,\nguard, three men dressed in rebel gray, and unarmed. Except\nlittle evidence of superiority to the rank and file of our men,\nfor the black feather, cavalier fashion, across the front of the\nbut I was told that the large body of their fellow-prisoners\nhat, and for the three stars on the upturned collar of one of\nof the rank and file who followed them-they came shortly\n11\n10\nafter, but I was too busy to look at them-were decidedly\nhe had not changed for three weeks-after washing away\nfrom a wound in his side the blood that soiled the skin look-\ninferior to them in all respects. One of them, almost a boy,\ning so fair and white beneath the sun-burnt face and neck-\nentered into a political argument with one of his guards,\nan old sergeant from New York, who stood by me, embra-\nI watched for a few minutes the scene spread out before me\nas the vessel receded from the dock. All over the water\ncing the questions of slavery, the constitutional right of\nsecession, &c., and which, notwithstanding my suggestion\ntwinkled the lights from the many vessels, some stationary\nthat if verbal argument had proved of any avail to settle\nand some steaming to and fro, while far up the hill-sides\nthe differences between the North and South they who were\ngleamed the lights through the canvas of the tents, giving\nnow disputing would not have been called upon to fight\nthe appearance of a large city illuminated for some festival,\neach other, finally grew general and warm, and was only\nthe effect being heightened by the broad blaze and high\nfinished by the party being marched off to their quarters.\nflickering flames of innumerable camp fires, like SO many\nThe arrival of the prisoners had brought a new set of\nfeux de joie. So we steamed up the quiet river, passing, by\nclaimants on the stores of the Commission, not wounded\nand by, the house of the great man, who SO toilfully won for\nnor sick, but very hungry men, who had been guarding the\nhis national children the rich heritage some of them would\nprisoners since the evening before, and many of whom had\nnow rend asunder ;-the moon-struggling every now and\nhad nothing to eat during that time. Considering that the\nthen through the clouds which still sailed across the sky-\nmission of the Commission, like that of quinine, is not only\nlooking down on the white faces and ghastly wounds of those\ncurative, but rather and mainly prophylactic, I dispensed\nwhom their brothers had stricken down. The night watch\nto them of crackers, according to their needs, but they made\nwas but a repetition of the work of the day, and during its\nno demands, of course, on the delicacies.\nweary hours the same wonderful fortitude amid their\nMeanwhile, the rest of the party had renewed on another\nwounds and sufferings was observable-hardly a groan or\nboat, which was preparing to leave, and was fast being filled up\na sigh to be heard, except from two or three who were de-\nwith fresh arrivals of wounded, their labors of the fore part\nlirious; and even as I sat by the driver on the ambulance\nof the day. It was in my programme to start for Freder-\nwhich conveyed some of them from the Washington wharf\nicksburg the next morning, but Dr. Agnew, one of the\nto the hospital to which they were assigned, I heard only a\nBoard of the Commission, who had been at Belle Plain\nlow moan now and then, as the horses struggled through\nsince our first boat got there, thought it best that I should\nthe pitfalls of the city of magnificent distances.\nget back at once to Washington to show Mr. Knapp, of\nMy next letter will be written to you, I think, from Fred-\nlarge experience in the relief work of the Commission du-\nericksburg, and I will finish this very hastily written one by\nring the Peninsular campaign, the abundant reasons for his\ncalling your attention to the care with which I have kept\nimmediately leaving the office for this field; and SO I re-\nmy promise of not asking for more.\" Nevertheless, after\nturned hither with a boat load of wounded, leaving Belle\npremising that the medico-military authorities caution us\nPlain between ten and eleven, p. m., and getting to Wash-\nnot to be too profuse at the beginning, for that the real fight-\nington in the early morning.\ning has not yet begun, I cannot do less than point my story\nWhen I left it was quite dark, and after helping my last\nwith a moral-but what the moral is I will leave to your own\ncase on board, (a handsome boy who told me he would be\napplication.\n\"seventeen come next birthday,\") and changing the shirt\nVery respectfully and truly, yours,\nALFRED J. BLOOR.\nNo. II.\nU.S. SANITARY COMMISSION,\nSTORE BARGE \"W. Kennedy,\" BELLE PLAIN,\nWednesday, 51/2 A. M., May 18, 1864.\nDEAR MISS : Yesterday morning I left Washington in\ncompany with the Rev. Mr. C*** and another gentleman,\nand after many hours' delay, occasioned by taking on a load\nof Government cavalry horses at Geeseborough Point, (de-\nriving its name, I apprehend, from its having been in old\ntimes a borough infested by people who made a point of\nshowing what geese they were in respect to the constitu-\ntional right of secession, slavery, &c.,) I got here this\nafternoon, finding Mr. Knapp in charge, and things going\non just as I described in the letter of which I sent you a\ncopy while I was in Washington.\nMrs. G and Mrs. E*** of New York, joined us\nat the Point; and on reaching Belle Plain (waiting a long\ntime outside the dock to allow the taking on board of some\nhundreds of rebel prisoners, almost all, I noticed, sufficiently\nwell shod and clothed, notwithstanding what I have heard\nto the contrary) we immediately relieved some of the Com-\nmission's regular Relief Agents, and set to work in their\nplaces.\nThe scene presented on the arrival of the wounded at\nthe Belle Plain dock after their twenty miles ride from the\nbattle-field over the corduroy roads and pitfalls of mud in\nVirginia is heartrending, and appears under present circum-\nstances to be unavoidable. If the railroad from Fredericks-\nburg were in operation the major part of this suffering in\n15\n14\nsion of maimed and wounded men we met winding up and\ntransitu might be saved, for not only could the patients be\ndown the slopes-for the whole country is a succession of\ncarried then to Belle Plain in as many minutes as it now\nhills from which the trees have been cleared for army pur-\ntakes half hours, but by having the base of supplies within\nposes, leaving, however, the stumps for the practice of the\nan hour's reach, as it would be if the railroad worked, the\nteamsters in ambulance navigation-I could but feel gratified\ninconvenience and suffering arising from the long delays\nin the reflection that the poor fellows, who, with white con-\ncaused by occasional oversights in sending articles neces-\ntracted brows and quivering fingers, held up their bloody\nsary for the restoration of wounded men in critical condition\nstumps, often undressed for several days, and crawling with\nwould be avoided, and they would commence the journey\ncorruption, to avoid the concussions caused by the jolting\nbetter prepared for fatigue.\nof their vehicles during the locomotary Pandemonium, were\nat least sure, on reaching the dock at Belle Plain, of nourish-\nFREDERICKSBURG, P. M.\ning beef soup, or stimulating wines and liquors and coffee,\nWhilst I was writing, the order came to move to this\nor cooling lemonade and iced water, to drink, or of fresh\nplace, and our party set out, one alongside each driver of\nwater, at least, to cool their wounds, in failure of time and\nas many ambulances, the same-empty-that brought the\nopportunity to dress them before reaching Washington, and,\nwounded yesterday from the field. The reason for this\nI was going to say, of kind words and tender treatment from\npartitioning of our party was to save the poor horses, worn\nour people, but that they have had all through their suffer-\nout with their hard labor of the last fortnight; but, besides\nings. For here let me say, in opposition I believe to the\nus, they had to carry a couple bags of grain for forage\ngeneral theory at home, that all who deal with them, the\nfor the army. So we passed through the usual melée of\nroughest men whose every second word is an oath without\nwounded men on litters-rebel prisoners outward bound,\ntheir knowing it, and who between their battles with the en-\nreinforcements inland bound-army wagons, horses, boxes,\nemy, knock each other down in play to keep their hands in,\nbales, contrabands, &c., and through the two ranges of hos-\nall are as kind and tender with the wounded men as they\npital tents on the hill,\" where the night before I had helped\nare with their little two-years-old girls at home, in the few\nat the dressing of the wounds of SO many poor fellows, and\ndays' furlough they get through the war. The stretcher-\nhad had the satisfaction of leaving most of them some hour\nbearers speak soothingly as they dislocate their own arms\nor so after midnight comfortably sleeping; for the surgeons\nin lifting them up from the battle-field, and break their own\nhad done everything that was possible, and the kitchen and\nbacks in trying to hoist them gently up into the ambu-\nfeeding lodge of the Commission were conveniently located\nlances, or down from them into the surgeons' tents,-(I am\nat one end of them.\nfinishing this on the 19th, at Spottsylvania, and have just\nThis ambulance journey of ten miles gave us some faint\ncome in with the ambulance people from the hospitals and\nconception of the horrors that accumulate with every rod\nfrom the field on which perhaps some five hundred of our\nto the unfortunates, who, with nerves that shrink from a\nmen fell to-day)-the surgeons worn down with overwork,\nfeather's touch, are jolted, hour after weary hour, over the\nand the responsibilities resting on the conscientious man, in\nalternate corduroy and quagmires of these horrible tracks,\nwhose hands, under Providence, are the issues of life and\nfor they cannot be called roads. In frequent danger of being\ndeath, use only SO much firmness with their kind words as\nupset, we jolted along, getting bruised at every step; and I\nis necessary to make them submit to take chloroform, which\ncould not help being gratified in reflecting that the proces-\n16\nsome of them seem to dread, before being operated on ; the\nambulance drivers, worn down with sleepless nights, return\nonly the gentlest words and most conciliatory (and false) as-\nsurances of a short journey and a \"bully\" road round the\nnext corner, to all their reproaches for carelessness in driv-\ning; the contrabands, who carry them along the dock, are as\namiable and unctuous as it is possible for negroes to be,\nwhich is saying much, and when they are stretched out on\nthe decks like a flock of sheep, the detailed nurses-some of\nthem a little sick or slightly wounded themselves-step\namong them as gingerly as if they were treading on eggs.\nTime, tide, and the mail bag wait for no man. I close\ntherefore in haste.\nYours in the good work,\nALFRED J. BLOOR.\nNo. III.\nI\nU. S. SANITARY COMMISSION,\nCAMP NEAR Spottsylvania, VA.,\nFRIDAY, May 20, 1864.\nDEAR MRS. : You have, I suppose, by this time re-\nceived the duplicate of a letter I wrote some days ago to one\nof the Commission's supply correspondents, giving an\naccount of a trip I had just made to Belle Plain with refer-\nence to the relief work of the Commission in the field.\nI left Washington again on Tuesday morning, and get-\nting to Belle Plain in company with Mrs. G**, of army\nhospital fame, and of Rev. Mr. C***, of Washington,\nand others-and there, in their company, feeding and min-\nistering to the ghastly crowds that were lifted out of the\nconstantly-arriving ambulance trains into the boats assigned\nto convey them to the hospitals in Washington-I passed\nto the hospital tents \"on the hill,\" a little way from the\ndock, two long parallel rows of them, commencing on one\nside with the kitchen and feeding lodge of the Commission,\nwhence they were without trouble constantly supplied with\nhot coffee and beef-tea, iced water and lemonade, milk\npunch, wines, and stimulants, farina, and whatever else in\nthe way of prepared sustenance was needed. Bedding,\nclothing, sponges, toweling, bandages, lint, utensils of all\nkinds, and whatever else is required in a sick tent were\nbountifully dispensed by Mr. Knapp, of long experience in\nthe Peninsular campaign and elsewhere in similar work,\nand his assistants, from the store barge a few yards off,\nalongside the dock, which barge is continually replenished\n2 L\n18\n19\nby steamers from Washington to the amount of some fifty\nwounded men. Even the store occupied by the embalmers\ntons a day. The steamer on which our people principally\nof the dead,\" has many living subjects among the dead ones;\nrelied during the Peninsular campaign-the Elizabeth-has\nthough accustomed, as they are, to death on every side, the\nbecome a household word among sanitarians, and I may\npatients do not perhaps consider the proximity in such an\ntherefore mention that (true to all the experience of the\nunfavorable light as civilians would. A few doors from the\nCommission, whether as regards the intelligent collectors\nhouse in which Washington's early days were passed, (and\nand forwarders or the inanimate vehicles of supplies, that\nthe garden of which was, I presume, the scene of the cut-\nthe feminine element is their main support) the name of our\nting of the fruit tree by his juvenile hatchet,) Dr. Douglas,\nnew boat is the Mary F. Rapley.\"\nchief of inspection of the Commission, and the volunteer\nIt was an hour or two after midnight before I had gone\nladies and gentlemen who SO zealously assist in the good\nthe rounds of the hospitals, and then I had the satisfaction\nwork, have their quarters, and thither, on the day I was\nof leaving most of them comfortably sleeping, after the re-\nthere, a number of patients requiring the constant super-\nfreshment of having their hunger and thirst assuaged, their\nvision of some of them had been removed. Through the\nwounds dressed, and above all, perhaps, the cessation from\nopen windows of the rear rooms float the odors of the flow-\ntheir horrible journey over the rutty hills and interlying\ners of early summer to the patients within, and those whose\nquagmires between the battle-fields and their present place\ncool pallets are in the wide hall, with its old-fashioned pan-\nof rest. By six o'clock the next morning (after a night\nelling of wood meeting the wooden block cornice of the\nmainly occupied, SO far as I was concerned, in strenuous\nceiling, look out through the open back-door upon a wilder-\nefforts to go to sleep in the midst of the hubbub, and in in-\nness of roses, a large basket full of which has just been dis-\nvoluntary listening to the extraordinary remarks of the\ntributed to the poor fellows throughout the town-most of\ncontrabands, who kept up a constant stream of boxes, bar-\nthem grasping at them more eagerly than at the milk punch-\nrels, conversation, and guffaws past the place where I lay on\nby one of the kind-hearted gentlemen of our party. If their\ndeck) we began the journey to Fredericksburg ourselves in\ntime were not SO much more valuable by the side of the im-\nempty returning ambulances, and as the hours and our\npromptu cooking affairs and couches they have evoked from\nbruises increased, we had an opportunity of testing the\nchaos, the roses should of course have been presented by the\nprobable feelings of wounded men undergoing such an\nladies; but at all events they came originally from a lady,\nordeal. But the fault is in the roads, not the vehicles. I\nnot one of our\" women, but the owner of the house, a\nthink the four-wheeled ambulances as good a compromise\nwidowed gentlewoman who sighs that such evil days should\nas possible between the conditions desirable for wounded\nhave fallen on the close of her eighty years' pilgrimage, and,\nmen, and the impossibility of using lighter springed wagons\nlike Washington's mother, thinks that it may perhaps be a\nover army roads.\ngrand thing to be a great general, but that for her part she\nArriving at Fredericksburg in the middle of the day we\nthinks that Lee and Grant had both much better be at home\nfound it one vast hospital. Its principal street is some mile\nattending to their farms than engaged in such dreadful do-\nor more in length, with several parallel and a number of\nings. The North and South have lived in peace all these\ncross streets, and nine out of ten of the houses and shops,\nyears, and why can't they continue to do so? What dreadful\nand all the churches and public buildings that are not de-\nthings she could tell me of the division of families caused\nmolished by shell or riddled by bullets, are filled with\nby this wicked war. So and SO has two sons in the Confed-\n21\n20\nWe are in one of the church hospitals, we will suppose.\nerate army, and two in the Federal. Such a happy family\nThe pews are set two together, and the backs taken off\nthey were once, and now trying to take each other's life;\nwhen necessary, to form couches for the patients. The ves-\nand for her part she has been stripped of almost everything-\ntry is turned into an operating room. In one corner of the\nthe houses and stores in the town from which she derived\nchurch is a good woman who has not quitted the half-deli-\nher income, have been destroyed or are appropriated to\nrious patient, whose brow she is bathing with bay-water,\ntheir own uses, without payment, now by one army and\nfor one hour in the last twenty. The altar is put to one\nnow by the other. I heard similar talk in Culpepper while\nside, and in its place two pews cradle a young boy who\nour army held it, and one hears it everywhere throughout\ndoes not seem to be over fifteen years old. He was brought\nthe border States; and it is only here that the full horrors\nin, it was supposed, in a dying condition; but the good\nof this cruel war\" can be appreciated. It is impossible-as I\nSamaritan, who is just directing to the Far West a letter he\nthink it would be unnatural-for the majority of the old peo-\nhas written to the boy's mother at his dictation, has, with\nple either South or North to take the partizan view which is\nhis good things and better words, brought such a light into\nnecessarily, for the purposes of Providence, taken by the\nthe boy's eyes that he expresses the utmost confidence that\nyoung and middle-aged in the two contending sections.\nhe will be able to write to his mother himself the next day,\nRound the corner from the poor old lady's house is the\nand tell her that he is safe from the effects of this wound,\nstorehouse of the Commission, besieged every day on the\nand ask her to pray that he may be spared in future battles,\narrival of our wagon loads of supplies-generally some\nand rejoin her and his sisters and brothers in their happy\ntwenty-from the base, with such crowds as compel an officer\nWisconsin home when his time is out.\"\nof the Commission to enter by the back way, if he wants to\nFurther down the town, and not far from the unfinished\nget in without waiting for an hour or two. Next door to\ntomb of Washington's mother, standing ostensibly as a\nthis is a large store used as a hospital by one of our volun-\nmonument to her worth, but practically as a monument to\nteer ladies, and at the back of both, conveniently accessible\nthe genius of the universal Yankee nation for chipping and\nto both supplies and patients, is the tent she uses as a cook\nwhittling, is a large, old-fashioned mansion, rich in paneled\nhouse. A door or two off is a shop used as an office by the\nwainscoting, carved wooden chimneys, plaster arabesqued\nrelief force, of which there are at present distributed\nceilings and tablets, and landscaped wall-paper, and in one\nthroughout the army of the Potomac some two hundred\nof its rooms lies a gray-haired man, looking dreamily out\nmembers, under the superintendence of Mr. Fay, of Massa-\nthrough the open window, by which his pallet is set, on a\nchusetts, a volunteer throughout the war in such work.\nbeautiful lawn, thickly shaded with fine old trees, that\nSeveral other ladies and a number of physicians from civil\nlife have charge of hospitals in different parts of the town,\nslope down to the swampy meadow and heights beyond,\nwhich drank up SO much precious blood in the terrible\nunder the auspices of the Commission, and the relief agents\nzealously assist them in their labors, which are Herculean, as\ncharge of December, 1862. Perhaps the fair scene before\nhim is like that on which he has so often looked from the\neach fresh train of ambulances arrives from the field; and in\nthose hospitals where the Government supply of surgeons\nporch of his quiet home, on his far-off little Vermont farm.\nBut he will never look on it again, at least with his earthly\nis generally equal to the demand on their skill, they-the\neyes. He will never again look at the rising of the sun,\nrelief agents-still continue such ministrations as may be\ncarried on without medical co-operation-and these are\nwhich is now with its setting beams gilding the tree tops,\nmany.\n23\n22\nand am now seated a few rods from the headquarters of\nand falling through them, checkered with waving shadows,\nGrant and Meade, in front of the tent of a hospitable young\non the lawn beneath. The wound from which most of his\nofficer from your city. At this time yesterday the woods\nlife-blood has flowed has left him white and weak, but it\naround reverberated with the cannonading and musketry\ndoes not pain him; SO he looks quietly round, thanking\nof the fight on the right of our line between General Tyler's\none for having written his last letter to his \"folks,\" another\ndivision and the enemy, and to-day the surgeons have been\nfor shading his eyes from the sun with the fan which, until\nbusy with several hundred wounded men. Another letter\ncomplaining of the cold creeping over him, has been used\neither to yourself or in copy, when I get back to Washing-\nto cool him; and another for offering the further assistance\nton will tell you something more of what I have seen.\nwhich he does not need. He is only a sergeant, but had\njust as lief be a private in such a cause.\" He was a deacon\nVery truly and respectfully, yours,\nALFRED J. BLOOR.\nin his town, and \"done the biggest part in getting up a\ncomp'ny\" from it, the captaincy of which was offered him;\nbut he thought he hadn't \"edication\" enough to do the\nwritin' part of the business,\" and declined. But, thank\nGod, he had edicated his sons, and one of them, who had\nentered the company with himself, had been promoted,\ngrade after grade, from the corporalship to the captaincy.\nHis wife had dissuaded him from \"j\"ining\" the army at\nthat time, but after the Peninsular campaign he couldn't\nstand it no longer,\" had helped to get up another regiment\nin his township, and now here he was. Well, he was satis-\nfied; he was in the Lord's hands, and he would die in the\nfaith that the Lord would stand by the Union and the stars\nand stripes to the end. He \"hadn't a speck o' doubt about\nit.\" He'd like to know if his son, the captain, whose regi-\nment had been in the fight with his own, was still alive, but\nhe couldn't find out; and he would give all he was worth to\nsee his wife and daughter once more. But he had always\ntold them to prepare for this, and hoped the Lord would\ngive them strength to bear the news.\nI had intended to tell you of many other incidents which\nwould interest you, but time fails. A mail carrier is about\nto take his chance of rebel scouts and guerrillas and this will\ngo with him. If you get it, I will ask you to return me\na copy, when I let you know that I have got back to\nWashington.\nI left Fredericksburg yesterday morning by day-break,\nNo. IV.\nCAMP NEAR SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE, Va.,\n5TH Corps, ARMY OF THE PoToMac,\nMay 20, 1864.\nDEAR MISS -: You have no doubt by this time\nreceived the copy of a letter I wrote to one of my corres-\npondents, as the first of a series which I design to send\nthem from the field, in a short campaign I propose to make\nwith the Army of the Potomac en route for Richmond;\nhaving made up my mind that I can in no other way so\nwell collect the information in regard to the operations of\nthe Medical Department and its satellite, the Sanitary Com-\nmission, in the field, for which I have been and am-\nnotwithstanding Reporter and Bulletin-so constantly asked\nby those to whom the Commission is so largely indebted\nfor its continued existence; and which, in the informal and\nindividualistic shape that alone is satisfactory to most un-\nprofessional persons-and especially to women-has so long\nbeen a desideratum. Whether I am in the least competent\nto supply this desideratum is very questionable, but at all\nevents I have set out with the intention of doing my\nendeavors.\"\nA letter I began this morning, a copy of which I will\nsend you, along with any others I write on the way, when\nI get back to Washington, will give you an idea of what I\nsaw in Fredericksburg.\nWhat I see at this moment, as I look up from the box-lid\non which I am writing-the empty box itself forming my\n26\n27\nseat-is an undulating field, skirted on one side by a forest,\ncloud when the evening camp-fires are lighted, emerged a\nthrough the branches of the front trees of which gleams\nhost of armed men, some on horse but most on foot, and\nthe tent occupied as headquarters by Generals Grant and\nswept in two living lines, perhaps a mile long, past us, a\nMeade, while those of lesser dignitaries are scattered around\nfew hundred yards off, pushing along the level places and\nthem. A cluster of tents, the yellow flags floating over\nthe slopes to the northward-lying strip of wood, above\nwhich indicate that they are used for hospital purposes,\nwhich rose the thick smoke of our artillery planted on this\nstands near them; and around that by which I am sitting\nside of it. And right past our tent, touching his hat in\nare ranged a hundred or more of ambulances and army\nreturn to our salute, rode General Hancock, the leader of\nwagons, the horses and mules attached to which are tethered\nthese men, with his staff, doubtless leaving the direct line\nto the poles or to the wheels. The dignity of a separate\ntaken by his command, to stop at army headquarters on his\nstake driven into the ground, and of a greater length of\nway to the field. In retaliation of an attempt made the\nrope than usual, is assigned to one of the mares; and the\nnight before, by our people, to turn the enemy's flank at one\nfavoritism is accounted for by the presence of a young colt\nend of the line, they were making a desperate attempt to\nfrisking around her, which is the pet and plaything of all\nturn ours at the other end, but were repulsed, with the loss\nthe soldiers and teamsters in the neighborhood. In the\nof several hundred men on both sides. It had been my de-\nabsence of the little sons and daughters, and brothers and\nsire to go on the field with the ambulances sent thither to\nsisters they have left at home, they are much addicted to\nfetch away the wounded, intending to aid them in such\npets. One sees them pass on a march with pet dogs follow-\nsmall ways as I might; but, owing to some wrong informa-\ning them, or with pet squirrels and rabbits, and even kittens\ntion given me, I had no opportunity to go till after the first\non their shoulders, or peeping out from under their jackets.\nload of wounded had arrived and been deposited in the hos-\nA little squirrel picked up in the Wilderness, where it was\npitals. Then, jumping up by the side of one of the ambu-\ncowering on the battle-field, terrified at the sound of the\nlance drivers-a youth of eighteen, and yet a veteran,\"\nartillery, belongs to one of the officers with whom I mess,\nlike one of his comrades-now detailed as a stretcher-bearer\nand divides attention with the colt.\n-who informed me that he had enlisted in the West, when\nA mile or two off towards the west, a large house, sur-\nhe was fifteen years old, in a two years' regiment-had\nrounded by a fine plantation, is burning slowly away. It\nserved his time in Texas, and enlisted again, getting a bounty\nhas been burning most of the day; but except that the\nof six hundred dollars, which, with the money he had saved\ndome of fire formed by the flames meeting round and lap-\nfrom his pay, enabled him to buy a house and lot and put\nping over the cupola has been occasionally admired, the\nsomething away in bank;-jumping up alongside of these\ndestruction of the home of some once happy family has ex-\nspecimens of military Young America, I was carried along\ncited no remark. It is only one of the daily bonfires with\npast camp-fires around which stood or sat the sleepless guard,\nwhich an army lights its way wherever it moves. A couple\nin every possible attitude of unconscious picturesqueness-\nof miles southward, on a lower and flatter plateau of land\nhowever hot the day, the nights are always cold in the fields\nthan that on which is our encampment, stands a city of\nof Virginia;-among sleeping men, stretched in their blan-\ntents, from which, last evening, as the sun sunk in the west\nkets on the ground, with or without the little strips of shel-\nand the full moon rose in the east, both red and large and\nter tents over them; over fields, ploughed or unploughed;\ndim, amid the smoke that circles the horizon like a rising\nacross bridged or unbridged streams; through the under-\n28\n29\nbrush and tree-stumps of so-called roads in the woods, till\nfourteen graves, side by side, as neatly made as the others,\nwe came to an upland field, where the white rays of the full\nbut without head-boards, for they were those of rebels, and\nmoon fell on the greensward, reddened here and there with\nour men who had buried them did not know the names of\nthe stains that told where the sandy soil beneath had sucked\nthe strangers. So we left those who had taken each other's\nup the blood of the brave; and on clumps of bushes-parti-\nlives lying quietly within a few paces of each other.\ncularly where they grew in little dips and depressions of the\nTo-day I have seen some of the wounded of last night in\nsoil, offering some security from missiles-among which the\nthe hospital tents, as well as others who were wounded a\nmortally wounded had crawled to die, and where they now\nweek ago or more in the Wilderness. Stretched on theyield-\nlay, the death-damps mingling with the dews of the evening\ning, sweet-scented pine boughs which the delightful grove,\non the livid features-some placid and serene, with the eyes\nin which the hospitals are situated, yields in abundance, I\nclosed as if in quiet sleep, and some distorted, as if in agony-\nfound a couple of young brothers lying side by side, one\none clutching, with stiff, immovable fingers, at his beard,\nwounded in the arm ten or twelve days ago in one of the\nand staring with wide-distended, glassy eyes at the moon,\nfights in the Wilderness, and the other, the elder one, pros-\nas if in mute appeal to Heaven against the horrors which\ntrate with fever, brought on, I verily believe, from anxiety\nhad left him there to die. But the wounded had all been\nabout his younger brother. They had enlisted together in\ncarried away before we got there-some two dozen ambu-\nthe same company, with their widowed mother's consent,\nlances, I suppose, accompanied us-and SO we started to\nthey said, and the senior by two years had been charged by\nreturn, the rough teamsters stepping softly past the dead,\nher to watch over his younger brother; for, you see he's\nand now and then quietly straightening some distorted limb\nalways been kind o' delicate, and him and me's always been\nor covering their faces with their hats-one, however, sub-\nfond of each other, and she knowed I was strong and hearty,\nstituting his own worse for the dead man's better-but ran-\nand so she gin me charge of him like, and I promised to\nsacking the knapsacks and overcoats, &c., which lay scat-\ntake him back safe to her if we was both spared; and when\ntered among the bullets and pieces of shell. On our way\nhe was wounded I tell you I felt bad, for we had to be sep-\nback we overtook numbers of the wounded who were able\narated-he was took to the hospital, and I had to stay in the\nto walk, as we had also met them on our way out. To-day,\nfight-and what with more fighting and marching, and one\nin company with an officer who was in the engagement, I\nthing and another, I did not see him again for three days,\nhave ridden over its whole line, what I saw last night being\nand I did'nt durst to write to mother, for I did'nt know as\nbut a small portion. The fight took place just outside our\nhe was going to live, and couldn't git no certain news of\nbreastworks, in strengthening which I saw hundreds of\nhim, and when I did see him he looked SO awful bad and\nour men busy. During the night, and early this morning,\nwas fretting SO much because he could not git word to me,\nthe dead were buried. In one field I counted thirty-two\nthat I come very near crying. Well, then I had to leave\ngraves in a row, with three separate ones; and in the next\nhim and wrote to mother the best way I could-for she'd\nfield I counted a row of twenty-seven. Carefully shaped,\nmade us promise to write her always the bad news as well\nsmooth-spaded mounds they all were, with a head-board\nas the good. Well, I worried and fretted, and at last I was\nlegibly inscribed with name, company, and regiment to\ntook with a fever, but I'm glad I was, for I got the doctor to\neach. On the slope of a hill near by, from which the\nlet me be in the same place with my brother, and he says\nenemy's tents could be plainly seen through a glass, were\nwe're gitting along right smart, and he'll let us out at the\n30\nsame time. So I wrote to mother, and I guess she'll be\neasy now in her mind.\" I asked them if they knew where\nthe clean shirts they had on came from. \"O yes and\nthey pointed to the stamp-\"it was printed on them; they\ncome from the Sanitary.\" They got some \"bully\" things\nfrom the Sanitary, and thought it must be a big thing.\"\nNo. V.\nThey, the Sanitary, always had houses, and tents, and wag-\nons and stores wherever they, my interlocutors, had been\n-\nwith the army in Virginny. Could'nt I tell them something\nabout it ? Which I did.\nIn another of the tents was a man belonging to one of\nUNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION,\nthe Union Maryland regiments. He was wounded in an en-\nON THE MARCH FROM SPOTTSYLVANIA TOWARDS THE NORTH\ngagement with a rebel Maryland regiment, in which were\nANNA RIVER, Va.,\ntwo of his cousins, \" the same as brothers to him-they had\nSUNDAY, May 22, 1864.\nall gone to school together, and lived on the next farm to\neach other all their lives, till the war broke out.\" I asked\nDEAR MISS : I have been bewailing the loss of a\nhim if it would not have been very disagreeable to him if\nsaddle horse I had expected to ride, on this march; but\nhe had learnt that either of them had been shot by a bullet\n(besides the honor of occupying the same seat as that from\nfrom him. \"No,\" he answered savagely, he was on the\nwhich Mrs. Lincoln saw Hooker's grand review) a staff\nlook out for them all the time, SO that he might aim at them.\nwagon presents advantages for purposes of correspondence\nHe was hoping and praying all the time that his shot might\nquite above those to be derived from the back of a restive\nby chance reach them. He would ask for nothing better\nanimal; and a halt, which promises to be a long one, being\nthan to shoot them, or to stick them with his bayonet-\nordered by the officer in command of the ambulance train,\ncurse the traitors.\" This is but one of many instances I\nthe fortunes of which I am now sharing, bringing my\nhave seen. When thrown together on picket or in hospital,\nvehicle to a little eminence, under the thick shade of a large\nthe Yankee boys from Massachusetts or Ohio, and the\ntree, through the branches of which sweeps a delicious\nJohnnys from Alabama and Mississippi are the best of\nbreeze unknown to the torrid temperature a dozen feet off,\nfriends; but the loyal Virginian scowls darkly on the rebel\neach side of me, I improve the opportunity to give you a\nVirginian, and the rebel Tennesseean has only a curse for\nword or two from the field, presuming that you have received\nthe loyal Tennesseean, and so of all the border States.\na copy of a letter I wrote from Washington, before starting\nWhen you will get this depends upon the army mail-bag,\na second time for Fredericksburg.\nthe guerrillas, the movements of Generals Grant and Lee,\nMost of the wounded of Thursday's fight had been carried\nand on Providence. Perhaps I may write you again before\nto Fredericksburg, to go thence to Belle Plain, and thence\nI get \"out of the Wilderness.\"\nto Washington, when, yesterday morning, on rising with\nthe sun, I found the city of tents on the left of the army had\nVery respectfully and truly, yours,\ndisappeared, and shortly afterwards orders were received by\nALFRED J. BLOOR.\nthe officers whose mess I am sharing, to be ready to march\n32\nin an hour and a half. The interval allowed I employed in\nvisiting the hospital tents a few rods off. They were set in\na charming grove of trees, opening on an open space, cov-\nered with grass and herbs, across which, and through the\nopen leaves of the large airy tents, floated every breath of\nair. Under the canvas, upon pliant beds of fragrant pine\nboughs, lay stretched the victims of the late fights in the\nWilderness. The surgeon in charge, followed by steward\nand nurses, was going his rounds, speaking cheerfully to\nthe men, most of whom looked comfortable enough in their\ncool, clean shirts and drawers, marked with the omnipresent\nwords, U. S. Sanitary Commission,\" and generally the\nname of the contributing branch or society in addition. By\nthe way, one of the surgeons-worn, haggard, and dirty the\nnight before, after the labors of the day, eighteen hours\nlong, upon the poor fellows who had been mangled in the\nfight of Thursday evening, but now looking refreshed and\nstrong again, after a few hours' sleep and a good bath-\nlaughingly showed me the mark on his own shirt, and asked\nif I would report him for misappropriating our stores. His\nonly shirt was being washed of the filth and blood of ten\ndays' marching and operating, and he had borrowed a \"San.\nCom.\" one till it should be dried. What better use could\nbe made of it than this temporary \"misappropriation ?\"\nWould any woman, if she reflects that, during the alternate\nmarching and fighting of a campaign, during which every\nounce of transportation, even for clothing, food, or medical\nstores-for anything except for what deals death-is grudged,\neven to a general; during which men and officers alike are\nfrequently reduced to the condition of gypsies or wandering\nArabs-would any such woman grudge the shirt she has\nmade for a wounded soldier, to the temporary use of the\nman who is to save that wounded soldier's life, if his own\nbe secured to him ? A clean shirt on the surgeon's back,\nin place of one stiffened with blood, filth, and vermin, may\ngo far towards saving the life of both doctor and patient.\nIn one of the wards is a young boy seventeen years old,\n33\nhe says, supported against a pillow of pine boughs, with his\novercoat for a pillow-case, holding in his single hand,\nbrowned and freckled with the sun, but small and finely-\nformed, a small photograph hanging by a piece of string-\nthe ribbon that first held it has played out,\" he says, and\nhe has not succeeded in getting another piece-from his\nneck. As I speak to him he lifts up a very handsome face,\nand as I pass my hand over his smooth white brow-for the\nvizor of his cap has saved it from the sun, that has burnt\nthe rest of his face-and through his soft curly hair, his\nwhite lips quiver, and tears fill his blue suffering eyes. It is\nnot his sweetheart's likeness, he says sadly, he was not old\nenough to keep company\" when he left home-it is his\nmother's. He would not care if it were only his left hand;\nand as he lifts up the stump of his young delicate arm I\nnotice, alas! that it is his right one. He has sent most all\"\nhis pay to his mother and \"reckoned on\" supporting her\nwhen he should get back from the war, for his mother is a\nwidow, and he is the oldest of the family. She is not fit for\nwork-\" she had everything comfortable while father lived,\"\nand now- He is nearly breaking down, but conquers\nhimself as he looks down on the others around him, and goes\non nervously. He can't even write to his mother now to tell\nher what has happened, and he has always written to her\ntwice a week, and she will think he is dead, and-and-.\nHe nearly breaks down again. I tell him I will write his\nfirst letter for him, and that he will find plenty of kind wo-\nmen and men in the comfortable hospital to which he will\nbe assigned as soon as he can bear removal, who will be only\ntoo glad to write as often as he likes to his mother, and\nthat Uncle Sam, and San. Com., and other kind friends\nwill take good care of him, and that people soon learn to\nuse their left hands when their right ones are gone, and\ntheir feet when both are gone-that I have seen a man\nwithout arms, write, and cut watch papers, and sew, and\ndo many other things with his feet-and that the good\npeople in the Pennsylvania town where he came from will\n3 L\n34\n35\nfind something for the left hand of a good son of a good\nhalts of five, ten, or fifteen minutes in the long train of wag-\nmother to do, &c., &c. So I leave him quite happy, and dis-\nons and ambulances, to allow time, I suppose, for some re-\nposed to consider a duality of hands, and particularly the\narrangement in front, or for the passage of a regiment or\nright side of the duality, as rather an anomoly and incum-\nbrigade across our line, and in these pauses I watch the pro-\nbrance than otherwise.\ncession of equestrians and pedestrians on each side of me.\nIt is a little after nine when our division\" of the 5th\nHow bravely the poor fellows, with their knapsacks on their\ncorps begins to move, but according to military usage, we\nbacks and their muskets slung across their shoulders, com-\nonly move a few rods and then rest for an hour, for no cause\nmence the march, and how they droop and wilt in an hour\nperceptible to the outsider, but doubtless well considered in\nor two beneath their heavy burdens, in the fierce sun-rays,\nthe sacred precincts of headquarters. While we wait, Gen-\nwhen they cannot get into the shelter of the woods. How\nerals Grant and Meade ride past with their staffs, accompa-\noften the canteen of water is applied to the mouth, and how\nnied by Headquarters\" Guard, partly cavalry (or \"calvary,\"\ninvariably, when they come to any sort of aqueous manifes-\nas with unconscious irreverance it is called in the rank and\ntation, no matter how muddy, they stoop down to see if the\nfile,) and partly infantry, the latter a detachment of Zouaves\nwater is drinkable, and cooler than that they already have in\nin red trowsers and fez caps, and otherwise very showy and\ntheir canteens. If so, they go at-once through the process\npicturesque uniform; and very fine it all is, with flags and\nof emptying and re-filling. Here comes an officer on horse-\nguidons streaming, and music sounding. We begin fairly to\nback, holding the reins loosely with one hand, and wiping\nmove at last, and slowly we move along for several hours,\nthe perspiration from his forehead with the other. Behind\nI do not know in how long a procession, but certainly as far\nhim is his orderly, a young porker confiscated at the last\nas my eye can reach both before and behind. Our road is\npast farm-house squeaking on one side of his saddle, and\non the skirt of woods most of the way, and sometimes\ntwo or three confiscated chickens cackling on the other.\nthrough them rough clearings have been made in advance\nA confiscated bunch of Virginia tobacco is under his arm,\nby an engineering party, to save long distances by the turn-\na confiscated peacock feather waves from his hat, and a\npike and for the same reason, or because the bridges have\nhuge bunch of confiscated roses adorns his button-hole.\nbeen burned by the enemy, there are temporary bridges of\nHere comes a couple of young soldiers-brothers evidently,\nlogs over runs and streams. Corduroy roads also abound.\nfor they look so much alike, that is in features. Otherwise\nThe country is not so hilly as that I have heretofore passed\nthey differ very much. The elder is strongly built and ro-\nover in Virginia, and in some places where the army has not\nbust; the younger looks weak and delicate. I have passed\nyet been, the well-fenced fields ripening with corn and\nthem, or they have passed me a dozen times during the\ngrain of all kinds remind one of the thrifty farms of the\nmarch, and every time they have been together, and the\nnorthern States. But one is soon recalled in looking at\nelder has been carrying the knapsack, and sometimes the\nthem, from one's visions of peace, by the booming of can-\nmusket of his younger brother. There they are at this mo-\nnon every now and then, where some distant portion of our\nment the younger one is lying down by the fence under\nforce is contesting the ground with the enemy, or by the\nthe shade of the large tree on the rubber blanket which his\nsmoke and flame ascending from some burning farm-house,\nbrother has spread for him, and is waiting for the draught\nor by the rattle of musketry where the skirmishing lines of\nof fresh spring water with which his brother is filling his\nourselves and the enemy have met. There are frequent\ncanteen at the foot of yonder little hillock. Here comes a\n36\n37\ndonkey led by a soldier, and laden with the box, the sack,\nthe frying-pan, the kettle, and the etceteras which comprise\nfor a little while before recommencing the tramp of their\nthe establishment of the officers' mess, to which he is cook\nexhausting march.\nand here is a small drummer boy, his red-covered ragged\nOur march yesterday continued till the afternoon, and\nlittle legs bestriding at right angles to its broad back the\nthen we halted for several hours in a beautiful open\nhuge ox which is to be converted into beef for his regiment,\ngrassy space opposite Massaponax Church, running into\nand which he guides with admirable dexterity by a rope\nthe woods like a bay into the land. And then the stretch-\nfastened to each of its horns, and a switch he carries in his\ning out beneath the trees and wagons, the cooking of coffee\nhand. Now there gallops by in hot haste, with some mes-\nand munching of hard tack, the search for spring water in\nsage from headquarters, a young staff officer, followed by\nthe forest, the musket shots startling us at first, as we thought\nhis orderly, proudly conscious that all have to stand aside\nthem a surprise of the enemy, and turning out to be but the\nto let him pass. Close behind him follows a dilapidated\ndeath-stroke to certain pigs and goslings in a grotesque chase\nsteed, evidently under the impression that its broken-\nafter them for fresh food, the hurried burial of the blanket-\nwinded shamble is nothing less than the stately gallop of\nceremented and uncoffined body of the soldier who had died\nits former days, and as his accoutrements-amid the wrecks\non the way in one of the ambulances; what was all this\nof chickens, leeks, and tobacco leaves—rebound from the\nin our little camp-world in the wilderness but a repetition\npommel and back of his riderless saddle against his\nof the game of life in the great world ? Starting again be-\nflanks, I fancy I recognize among them the coffee-pot and\ntween four and five, p. m., we journeyed on between our\nfrying-pan, on which my gastronomic destiny has lately\nskirmish lines and the noise of cannon seldom out of our ears\nhung. Sure enough, I soon recognize a well-known voice\nfor fifteen minutes at a time, till one clock in the morning\nbehind me-\" Stop dat hoss-lorra-gorry ! stop dat dar hoss.\"\nbrought us to a halt, with orders to move again at four, a. m.\nA glance round the corner of the wagon now reveals the\nMany preferred sleep to food, and flung themselves down on\nunsaddled rider, despair on his sable countenance, and his\nthe ground in their blankets, among the hoofs of the horses\ngrizzly wool upright with terror. But the frantic charger\nand mules. But for those who preferred food first a hun-\nis caught, and the bow-legged rider limps up, obsequious\ndred camp fires, made of the rails from around the ploughed\nexplanations of the accident addressed to the military pub-\nfield in which we were packed, sent up their flames in the\nlic at large, mingling with objurgatory remarks to the\ntwinkling of an eye ; and the mules welcomed with dis-\nhorse, and tugging at the rope bridle; and amid the accla-\ncordant melancholy cry, their half rations of grain. The\nmations, ironical or otherwise, of his fellow-contrabands, is\nnext morning at day-break all was ready for the march, but\nwith much labor hoisted up to his former place in the sad-\nthere we waited, no one knew why, the fierce rays of the\ndle. And SO we move on again, between two rows of\nsun reflected from the sandy field and almost blinding us,\nskirmishers-soldiers in single file, five or six feet between\ntill past one, p. m. And now here we are, not many miles\neach man-in the woods or fields at our side; and under\nfrom the North Anna river, where it is expected the enemy\nthe shade of every tree or bush, in every angle of the snake\nwill make a determined stand against the further progress of\nfence, or out of it, almost in the middle of the road, lie\nthe 5th corps. In the wide field to our left, so near that I\ngroups of weary men, their heads pillowed on their knap-\ncan almost see their features, a large body of our men, a\nsacks or their muskets, many of them asleep, and all resting\ndivision I suppose, is drawn up in line of battle, and what\nthe day may bring forth God only knows.\n38\nThis will be in readiness for any courier that may leave\nfor the rear, but perhaps I may be in Washington (or Rich-\nmond) long before you get it, and perhaps you will not get\nit at all.\nVery truly and respectfully, yours,\nALFRED J. BLOOR.\nNo. VI.\nUNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION,\nIN BIVOUAC NEAR JERICHO FORD, NORTH ANNA RIVER, Va.,\nTuesday, May 24, 1864.\nDEAR MISS : Leaving, yesterday morning, our pleas-\nant bivouac in the pine grove near St. Margaret's Church, a\nquaint, hundred-year-old building, with a wing jutting out\nfor the use of the negroes while worshipping-our weary\nmarch, under the burning sun and over the dusty roads of\nVirginia, had brought us to the close of the third day, when,\nlast evening, about five o'clock, we halted in a ploughed\nfield, (\"as usual,\" the drivers angrily remarked,) and I had\njust made myself as comfortable as possible on the seat of\nthe staff-wagon I had been riding, and had begun a letter to\nyou, when I observed that the intermittent cannonading\nwhich had accompanied us throughout our march was suc-\nceeded by a steady booming, accompanied by an unceasing\nfire of musketry, and on looking up I perceived an unusual\nstir and excitement around me. Speedily discovering what\nwas the state of the case, I made my way through a strip of\nwoods into a field beyond, where I found a large body of\nreserve troops waiting the word of command to advance\ntowards the scene of action. This was presently given; and\nas they filed off to the right, I joined them, and found myself\nin the road from which my wagon had a short time before\nturned aside. The fields on the right side of this road were\nfilled with large bodies of troops, screened from the enemy\n40\n41\nby two intervening hills. As the fight progressed, this\nnearly in line of battle, I suppose, as the trees would permit-\nreserve was led off to the field by regiments, as they were\nwere our men, loading and firing so quickly that, though\nneeded. Ascending the slope, I found myself on the crest\nmany dropped dead or wounded to the ground-several I\nof a hill which I afterwards discovered to be the best position\nsaw leaping high up into the air before reaching it-the\nfor observing the conflict; but, anxious to get as near to it\nrattling of musketry broke sharply on the air, not in a series\nas possible, I went on, keeping on the field side of the fence\nof concussions, but in one prolonged roll that mingled with\nSO as to be out of the way of the hurly-burly in the road.\nthe far heavier booming of the cannon, almost as incessant,\nIn my descent I met many wounded men, those who were\nand with the less frequent, rocket-like whiz of the shells\nunable to assist themselves being carried in stretchers on the\nthat burst in the air with a flash and small thick cloud of\nshoulders of six men, and those who were able to do so\nsmoke that slowly diffused itself in space, or fell to the\nwalking by themselves or by the assistance of each other.\nground and exploded, with an outbreak of flame and smoke\nSome of the cavalrymen were still able to bestride their\nand fragments and earth, first ploughing up the ground and\nhorses. Pointing out to them where to find a surgeon on\ntossing up the soil to each side as if they were huge moles.\nthe top of the hill, and occasionally refreshing those who\nBut, beneath all these sounds and the Ha! ha ! of the war-\nwere ready to faint with-water from a borrowed canteen, I\nhorses as they smelt the battle and pawed in the valley, swal-\npushed on, stopping every now and then to watch the quick\nlowing the ground with fierceness and rage, and rejoiced in\nfire flashing and the thick smoke rolling up from the bat-\ntheir strength and in the glory of their nostrils, which was\nteries on the hill before me across the river, or to wonder\nterrible\"-and beneath the dull measured tramp of the de-\nwhat thoughts were passing through the brains of those\ntachment I had accompanied, as it filed off into the woods,\nwho, with compressed lips and fixed onward gaze, tramped\nthe impression left on my mind was not one of noise and\nforward with heavy, steady tread to their doom. By their\ntumult, but rather of intense stillness. The soldiers, as\nside I reached the foot of the hill, and after wading through\nthey marched past, held their breath; the few orders of the\na lane of mud, turned suddenly to the right, along the course\nofficers were given in undertones, but they sounded, never-\nof the river, and so, through a covered way by the side of an\ntheless, as clear and distinct as if uttered at the top of the\nold mill, gained the pontoon-bridge-planks laid on canvas,\nvoice-the few groups of officers scattered about (I saw no\nstretched over wooden frames shaped like boats-with which,\none in civilian's clothes but myself) spoke in whispers if at\nin their crude condition on a couple of frame carts, the march\nall-the gunners worked as noiselessly as swiftly at their\nhad rendered me repeatedly familiar. Scrambling over the\nposts-the wounded men who emerged from the wood and\nbridge, another steep lane of mud presented itself, and this\nstraggled off, limping and holding their hands, when their\nachieved, found us on the top of a sort of bluff, stretching\nuse was left to them, against their wounds, in broken irregu-\nback on the level to where the woods skirted it, some distance\nlar file, towards the shed, where, as I afterwards found, the\noff. Between the top of the eminence and the woods was\nfirst surgical operations were performed, spoke no word\nplanted the battery-perhaps there was more than one-of\nand uttered no sound-even the many birds that stunned\ncannons, the operations of which I had watched from the hill\nby the reverberations among the woods and along the hill,\nacross the river; a considerable way off within the woods\nand driven downward by the thick smoke above, swept in\nthemselves the rebels glanced and dodged among the trees like\nlong circles close to the ground, did SO without chirp or\nso many gray squirrels; and a short distance within them-as\ntwitter, only their wide opened eyes expressing their terror.\n42\n43\nNeither did the sense of danger impress me, except when\nwith his hat, weighting it with a stone; and had just risen\nthere was really none-when I started for the field. The\nfrom my stooping posture beside him when I caught the eye\nnearer I advanced the less I thought of it, except to reflect\nof a man, who sitting against the stump of a tree, had been\nnow and then that as long as I kept out of the range of the\nwatching me, and patiently waiting till I had got through\nenemy's musketry I was tolerably safe from musket shot,\nwith the dead. Going up to him I found he had tied, with\nand that the chances were many to one against my being\nthe help of a comrade whom he had left in the ranks, a\nhit by a cannon ball or shell. But others did not seem\npiece of his overcoat and a very dirty rag which he called\nto think so, for while I was still intent on observation a\nhis handkerchief, round the fleshy part of his arm, and he\nstaff officer stepped out from a group surrounding a gen-\nshowed me a minié ball which he said had passed through it.\neral, and premising that, perhaps, as a civilian and unaccus-\nHe complained of being \"kinder faint,\" and wished to pull\ntomed to this sort of thing,\" I was not aware of the great\nthe stauncher off his arm \"it hurt him SO bad\"-but I dis-\nrisk I was running, advised me to get back at least as far\nsuaded him from doing this, although sorely tempted to replace\nas a certain range he indicated and trust to a glass to see the\nthe abominable rag by one of your clean handkerchiefs, a\nrest of the affair. Thanking him for the caution, but de-\nsmall stock of which I had in my pocket; and a little color re-\ntermined, now that my curiosity was satisfied, not to lose\nplaced the lividness of his cheeks and lips after I had emptied\nsight, which in the excitement I had done, of my principal\ninto them some precious drops from a small flask which\nobject, viz. to test how far, without foolhardiness, I could,\nI had secretly borne in the bottom of a capacious pocket\nin a small way, carry the succors of the Commission into an\nthroughout my campaign, in anticipation of just such a use\nengagement-I retreated, but presently struck off a little to\nas this. Another pocket contained soft crackers, and a few\none side, and crossing a fence, found myself in a pretty safe\nmouthfuls of this and some sweet chocolate-cake as a relish,\nposition, in a depression, almost a ditch, behind it. Here,\ntogether with a draught of water, so completely set him\nafter startling away several rabbits and squirrels which had\nup,\" as he termed it, that with my assistance, in giving him\nsought the same shelter, the first thing that struck my eyes\none shoulder to lean upon and carrying his knapsack on my\nwas a figure lying face downwards near a clump of bushes,\nother, I speedily got him into the file of rearward-straggling\namong which it had evidently intended to crawl. Going\nwounded, and consigned him to the sympathy-if not to the\nforward to it and turning the face up I found it to be that\nefficient care, the other being nearly as badly wounded-of\nof a young soldier, dead. A small orifice in the forehead,\na comrade, by whose side he had been fighting, and whom\nwith scarcely a trace of blood around it, was all the wound\nhe hailed with infinite and mutual delight; but not before\nvisible. The letters on his hat lying beside him indicated\nhis comrade had shared in the strength of my pockets, and\nthat he belonged to a Wisconsin regiment, but I searched\nin my promise to hunt them up in the hospitals that night\nhim in vain for any clue as to his further identity; and,\nor next morning, which I did, and found one with his right\nunless afterwards recognized by some of his living com-\narm off, and the other with his left, but both very jolly at\nrades, he doubtless lies buried in the same trench with the\nfinding their lives were not in danger and at being permitted\nother unnamed demigods,\" (as Kossuth called the rank\nto stay together. Before they left me, and almost before I\nand file of the Hungarian patriots with whom he fought,)\nhad finished setting up\" the last one, they were both, as\nwho gave their lives for their country on this battle field by\nthey expressed it, completely taken down\" by the gift of\nthe North Anna river. Giving up the fruitless search I\none of your handkerchiefs between them; for, knowing\nstretched his arms by his side and covered his upturned face\n44\n45\nwhat great demands there would be on my small stock, I\nment produced by the reverberations of the artillery, which\ncould afford them only one, and they marched off to the\nsounded even more terrific than when I was close to the\nhospital, or operating shed I should call it-the locality of\ncannons, while the sulphurous smoke rolled across the val-\nwhich I had by this time found-with many one-handed\nley and floated up, growing thinner and thinner, till it met\nflourishes of the clean handkerchief, the like of which they\nand mingled with the dense, compact little clouds emitted\nhad probably not seen since their last furlough, and numer-\nfrom the bursting shells. Across the fields was stretched a\nous applications of it to their foreheads and noses.\nline of mounted men, with drawn sabres, to turn back run-\nI had by this time given up my intention of going quite\naways and stragglers from the infantry, and on talking to\nup to the line of battle, for I found that my work was really\nseveral of them I found that the duty assigned to them was\nwhere I was, and I desired, moreover, to leave myself time\nexceedingly distasteful to them. Large detachments of men\nto get back to bivouac before it should be quite dark, lest in\ncontinued to pour forth along the road, from the reserve\nmy citizen's clothes I should have trouble with the guards\nstationed behind the hill on its right side, but the shades of\nand sentries. Accordingly I made the best of my way back\nevening were now beginning to close in and they were\nacross the pontoon bridge, helping the wounded along with\nprobably too late to share in the engagement that night.\ncheerful words and the contents of my flask and pockets\nOn the crest of the hill on the right side of the wood, and\nand partly by bribery and partly by assuming the exercise\nbut a few yards from it, was an old house, SO broken down\nof a military authority to which I had no right, I impressed\nand full of holes that any amount of shells, if they had\na number of idlers, (it is astonishing how many idlers collect\nreached it, could certainly have made but little difference in\naround any scene of excitement, even a far-away battle field,)\nits appearance. On its broken door-step sat an old woman-\nchiefly negroes, belonging to the country round or the ser-\nrejoicing, I found, in a name SO picturesque that I am greatly\nvants of officers, into the service of the exhausted men, by\ntempted to intrude on her privacy by repeating it-who rocked\ngetting them to carry the knapsacks and muskets-though\nherself to and fro as she bemoaned the probable loss of her\nmost of the muskets had been thrown away-and lend the\ntenement by shell and fire. She was a widow, she told me,\naid of their arms and shoulders to the clinging grasp of the\nand had not seen her son for four years a'most-did not\npoor fellows. I thought of a similar experience I had had\nknow where he was\"-which in the Confederate vernacular,\ntwo years ago, when the trains brought in the wounded from\nmeans that all the men of the family are in the rebel army.\nFair Oaks to White House; but I must do the negroes and\nI had discovered a little in the rear of the house, under a\nwhat few whites there were the justice to say that in both\ntree by the fence, the surgeon who, in himself, formed the\ninstances there were large numbers, perhaps most, who\nhalf way hospital between that on the field and the tent hos-\nrequired neither money nor threats, but only a little direc-\npitals that, as I learned, were being established in a field\ntion, to give their help heartily to the wounded men.\nsome half mile to the rear, and had replenished the ex-\nGetting back to the top of the eminence from which I had\nhausted supply of old linen in his saddle bags with the single\nfirst witnessed the fight, I found it occupied by a number of\nroll of bandage I had left, and which Ihad brought with me all\ngeneral and staff officers, with field-glasses in their hands\nthe way from Belle Plain. But seeing the look of disappoint-\nand cigars in their mouths; their horses, held by a crowd of\nment that overspread his face-notwithstanding the cheerful,\norderlies, tossing their manes and pawing the ground as\nkind, and encouraging words with which he always spoke to\nthey smelt the battle afar off, and trembled with the excite-\n46\n47\nhis patients of their wounds-at their invariable negative\nam told that the Yankee boys have lately got into the habit\nanswer to his question as to whether they had any water left in\nof mocking the peculiar cry of the rebels) may have been\ntheir canteen for him to sponge and dress their wounds, deter-\nuttered by our men, or perhaps by both, just as the last\nmined to see whether this want could not be supplied. after\nshadows of twilight melted into night, the artillery and\nsetting a couple of negroes to the work of pointing out the\nmusketry fire suddenly ceased-that is the prolonged fire,\nsurgeon's nook to the wounded men, I ingratiated myself\nfor occasionally the roll of a cannon or a discharge of mus-\nwith the old woman, and entered into business relations SO\nketry continued to be heard. So I turned my face towards\nsatisfactory to her that she not only showed me the spring a\nmy quarters, intending first to see the tent hospitals that, I\nfew paces off, where she drew her water, and placed her\nheard, were being put up-but what with being stopped by\nwater pail and gourd in the hands of the two boys whom I\nwounded soldiers for various purposes, and guiding ambulance\nengaged to supply the doctor, as well as the wounded men's\ndrivers with loads of wounded through a pieee of woods,\ncanteens for their refreshment, but offered me the hospitali-\nthe rough cleared path across which, having gone over it\nties of her home and furniture on similar terms. The\nwhen I started for the field, I knew better than they did\nwhole of the latter consisted of one ricketty table with some\nwho had been over it only in the dark, and trying to find\ntin pans and broken crockery on it, the bench on\nsurgeons for several who seemed to be dying, and pur-\nwhich stood her water pail, the inevitable spinning\nsuading soldiers to rise from their sleep in the dust or mud-\nwheel, a bed with the inevitable check coverlid, and two or\nboth at once are common in Virginia roads—to put their\nthree broken chairs. On the chairs I installed as many men,\nshoulders to the wheels of ambulances stuck in pitfalls, and\nwho said they could not walk to the rear hospitals without\nfinally with finding my quarters, which had been moved\nresting first, and they sank to sleep with their heads leaning\nback a mile since I left them; what with all this, it was too\nagainst the wall, in a moment. On the bed we laid a young\nnear midnight, and I was too much worn and sleepy to get to\nsergeant from a Pennsylvania regiment, who said he had\nthe hospitals-so, after a supper of hard-tack and unlactified\nnot had any sleep for thirty-six hours, and his head did not\ncoffee, and exchanging notes with the messmates who for SO\ntouch the pillow before he was sleeping profoundly, but\nmany perilous hours had been \"all scattered in fight,\" I laid\nstill mechanically holding up the finger and thumb which\nmy blanket down in a spot where my head at least would\nthe surgeon had just dressed. Having got things into this\nbe safe from the hoofs of the horses and mules, and wonder-\nsatisfactory train, I accepted the old lady's invitation to go\ning how many such scenes of carnage, on the same field, the\nup to the top of the house to \"see the fight,\" and ascending\nstars that twinkled down on me had looked upon in the past\na ricketty staircase and ladder, and threading several rooms\nages, when the red man and his predecessors occupied the\ncontaining only cobwebs and the corn-cobs with which I\nsoil, I fell asleep.\nobserved her making a fire on the hearth of the big\nI have made the round of the hospitals this morning, and\nchimney below, I passed through an upper floor into a cock-\nwitnessed many interesting incidents; but I must reserve\nloft, from the unglazed window in the gable end of which\nthem for another letter, not only because I am afraid I have\nI watched through my glass the last of the engagement-\nalready bored you with this long one, but because I can no\nfor in a little while, after a prolonged cheering, or rather\nlonger have the use of the single bottle of ink; and after\nyelling, which I took to be that of the Confederates, but (as\nthe enjoyment of such a dignity I cannot immediately\ndescend to pencil. It would perhaps be wiser for me to keep\n48\nit in my pocket till I get to Washington, but I think I will\nrisk it in the Army mail-bag; and if you do not get it for\nfive or six weeks, I hope you will at least have the satisfac-\ntion of finding it post-marked ' Richmond, 4th of July.\"\nVery truly and respectfully, yours,\nALFRED J. BLOOR.\nNo. VII.\nIN BIVOUAC NEAR THE NORTH ANNA RIVER, Va.,\nMay 24, 1864.\nDEAR MRS. : My last letter (a copy of which I will\nsend you, along with the others I have written from the\nfield to my several correspondents, when I return to Wash-\nton) gave an account of the way in which I assisted,\" as\nthe French would say, at the fight between the forces of\nGeneral Warren of the 5th corps with the help of part\nof the 6th, and the rebel General Hill, on the evening\nof yesterday, the 23d inst. After our day-break breakfast\nthis morning I made my way to the hospitals, which\nhad been established while the engagement was going on,\nin an open grassy space interspersed with bushes and young\ntrees, and skirting the road which crossed the North Anna\nRiver about a mile and a quarter (I should think) ahead.\nThey consisted of a number of good sized tents spread with\npine boughs, and scattered about the grounds were the oper-\nating tables, portable dispensaries, &c. I met a number of\nthe wounded men I had helped along the night before, and\nwas glad to hear many of them express their appreciation\nof the kindness and care with which they had been attended\nto by the surgeons. These latter had been up all night, but\nthere was as yet no relaxation to their labors, for the ambu-\nlances were still coming in with the wounded. I do not\nknow that I shall have a better opportunity than the pres-\nent, and I desire therefore to record here my conviction-\nin opposition, I think, to the general impression in the\n4L\n50\n51\ncommunity, and particularly the female portion of it-that\nwas for his pipe, but he had no hand in which to carry it, SO\nthere is nowhere to be found a body of men who, as a class,\nhe desired it to be put in his mouth; and, carrying it between\nare more untiring, devoted, and self-sacrificing in the dis-\nhis lips, was himself borne to the operating table.\ncharge of their duties-the most responsible, exacting, and\nOne young lad I found reading a hymn-book, which he\nexhausting-than army surgeons. There are exceptions, too\nsaid had probably saved his life the night before. It was in\nmany of which I have encountered in an official intercourse\nhis waistcoat pocket during the engagement, and a minié\nwith them of three years' standing; but during that time\nball, which would otherwise have gone into his breast, had\nmy estimate of them as a body has steadily increased, and\nglanced against its cover and fallen to the bottom of his\nthis my last experience with them in the field has con-\npocket. He showed me the ball with much satisfaction,\nfirmed and heightened all my previous good impressions. I\nand told me he hoped he should live to get back to Wiscon-\ntake pleasure, as a non-medical man, in expressing emphat-\nsin and show it to his mother, who had given him the hymn-\nically my opinion as to the high standard of mental and\nbook. He had, however, a few minutes afterwards been shot\nmoral qualities they apply to their professional duties,\nin the leg. A man lying, with one of his arms off, next the\n(without being competent to judge of their professional\nnarrator, was very anxious that I should provide him also\nqualities pure and simple,) the more SO because my official\nwith a hymn-book; but whether he was influenced most by\ncorrespondence has shown me how much they have been\npiety or by prudence I shall not pretend to say. There was\nsuspected and undervalued by the home-staying commu-\none young fellow from your section of country, though I\nnity; while in general culture they compare most favorably\ncannot recall the name of the town or village he mentioned-\nwith any class of officers in the army.\nhe was severely but not painfully wounded-who, seeing\nThanks to the untiring zeal of the surgeons and their as-\nsome clean linen rag which one of the doctors had left on the\nsistants, and to their being well stocked in the field with\nground a little distance off, asked me to tear him off a piece\nGovernmental medical supplies, those of the patients who\nthat would serve him as a pocket handkerchief. Thinking\nhad been already operated upon were lying on the fresh,\nthe surgeon might have set apart the linen for some special\nsoft, fragrant, pine boughs, with which the tents were\npurpose, and preferring in any case to give him a bona fide\nthickly strewn, in a condition of tolerable comfort, those at\nhandkerchief if I had one left, I felt in my pocket, and there\nleast whose wounds admit of any comfort, and fortunately\nat its bottom was the last of my small store. It was rather\nwhere well cared for, these are the majority. Well washed\na nice affair; the cambric not of the finest, but with quite a\nand dressed in clean shirt and drawers-every one marked\nstylish border round its edge, and he pronounced it \"bully\"\nwith the U. S. Sanitary Commission\" stamp, for the lack\nas I handed it to him. The outside fold had, as usual, the\nof these was one of the gaps we had bridged over-and\nCommission's stamp, but it soon appeared that there was still\nmany of them enjoying their pipes or cigars, and chatting\nanother mark on it, for he had scarcely unfolded it and held\nover their experience in the eminent deadly breach\" of the\nit out for an admiring inspection, before he uttered quite a\nevening before, the scene of the whole, however terrible,\nshriek of delight, and asked me if I knew his folks at home,\nwas not altogether unrelieved in parts. It is amusing to\nand if they had given me the handkerchief to hand to him.\nsee the affection they bear for their pipes. One man I saw\nIt appeared that besides our mark there was worked in\ngrievously wounded in most of his limbs, lifted out of one\nthread the name of the relief society in his native place, and\nof the ambulances that had just arrived. His first thought\nhe gave sundry reasons for his positive assertion that the\n52\n53\nmarking must have been done by none other than his little\nit is ready, then lean on their spades and uncover their\nsister Lizzie. Without, perhaps, fully appreciating his\nheads. We also uncover, and one of the chaplains reads\narguments, I saw no good reason for disturbing his impres-\naloud from his little pocket Bible, \" Now is Christ risen\nsion, and left him quite happy in its indulgence.\nfrom the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept\nPassing from one tent to another, I found a chaplain\n-for since by man came death, by man came also the res-\nstanding by two stretchers, the occupant of each lying with\nurrection of the dead,\" and the rest of the chapter. He is\nstiff out-stretched limbs, and the quiet, upturned face cov-\nfollowed by the other chaplain in a short address, followed\nered with the blanket which was now to serve as a winding\nby a prayer; then the uncoffined forms are lowered, the fresh\nsheet. Another chaplain appeared in a moment, with two\nearth covers them more closely (and more kindly it seems to\nmen bearing another stretcher, the corpse covered with the old\nme) than a wooden box would-the empty space left by their\ngray overcoat which had shielded its wearer from SO many\nside for whoever shall come next-wooden boards inscribed\nstorms and served him so often for blanket or pillow. The\nwith their names, companies, and regiments, are placed at\nbearers pick up the stretcher, and they, the two chaplains\ntheir heads, and there we leave them to their long rest, one\nand myself are all that follow the warriors to their grave.\nwrapped in his blanket, while the other-\nA few paces off in a little space between two clumps of\nbushes and saplings, the wide grave is being dug-there is\n\" lay like a warrior taking his rest,\nbut one for the three comrades in battle and death-by three\nWith his martial cloak around him.\"\nmen who take their turn in digging and resting beneath the\nburning rays of the unclouded overpowering sun. It is\nComing out of the enclosure, I stopped to talk to several\nevidently a matter of pride and conscience with them to dig\nof a crowd, some three hundred, of rebel prisoners, who\ndeep, and make, as one terms it, a handsome grave.\" Their\nstood or sat in two groups under guard, some of them in\noaths and rough talk are silenced. The youngest of them,\ngreat trepidation lest the shells sent by their own people\nrather a smart young sergeant, is obviously bent on making\nshould reach them. (The shelling and musketry, but more\na good impression on the chaplains, and talks somewhat\nespecially the cannonading, goes on more or less all the\nlearnedly and sentimentally on the way in which they must\ntime.) One of them was a South Carolina Colonel-named\nhave received their wounds, and on our all having to come\nBrown, I am told-who sat on the ground whittling a piece\nto this, on the field or in our beds, he does not see that it\nof stick with his penknife, which induced a fat officer who\nmakes much difference; but he talks quietly and soon stops,\nstood over him, and probably resented the cutting down\nworking steadily with the others, who have nothing to say\nfrom its maximum proportions of even a piece of wood, to\nexcept to interchange some undertoned remark as to the\ninform him that he would certainly be taken for a Yankee\nearth being loose in this spot, or a stone being in the way\nif he persisted in whittling. The Colonel only grinned,\nthere. Just as they are giving the finishing strokes, some\nhowever, and went on paring; perhaps beginning to enter-\none hurries up, claims one of the bodies to be sent home to\ntain the idea that worse things might befall him than to be\nfriends, and the two men with him carry it off. The diggers\ntaken for a Yankee. One of them, an innocent-looking,\nagree to leave a third of the space unfilled with soil, for some\nmild-eyed young lad-as many of them are-is the son of the\nother body -\" there will be a many graves wanted through\nwoman who lives in the log cabin by the side of which I\nthe day\"-they leap up from the grave and tell the chaplains\nam now writing, and is now therefore a prisoner within a\n54\nfew yards of his mother's house. The poor woman has been\nto see him, and declares, with many tears, that he was led\naway by his neighbors against her entreaties. Her trouble\nis shared by the boy's grandfather and by several young sis-\nters, very pretty and delicate looking, notwithstanding that\nNo. VIII.\nthey have no shoes, and wear such uncrinolined gowns of\nstriped home-made stuff as a biddy would scorn to use for a\nscrubbing cloth in the North, and live in a cabin of two rooms,\nlog-ceiled, and log-walled inside as well as outside, and with\nhardly anything in it but an old wardrobe, a ricketty table,\nUNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION,\na couple of beds with the inevitable counterpane of check-\nCENTRAL OFFICE, 244 F STREET,\nered stuff, and the equally inevitable spinning-wheel.\nWASHINGTON, D. C., May 30, 1864.\nAn ambulance train, loaded with wounded, leaves here\nprobably this afternoon for Fredericksburg or Port Royal,\nDEAR MRS. : The hills and woods along the North\nwhichever way is most free from guerrillas, and by this, if it\nAnna river, some distance to the left of the place where the\ngoes, I shall seek an outlet from the field; but I shall trust\nengagement of the previous evening took place, every now\nthis to headquarters' mail bag rather than carry it myself\nand then gave back the echoes of the cannonading that\nto Washington, for I think it likely it will thus pass through\nindicated how General Hancock was fighting his way to-\nthere on its way to you sooner than I shall reach the place.\nwards Richmond, when early in the afternoon of Tuesday,\nthe 24th of May, in company with an officer who, in charge\nVery respectfully and truly, yours,\nof some men that represented a regiment twelve hundred\nALFRED J. BLOOR.\nstrong three years before, and now reduced to little over\na hundred, was on his way to Washington to be mus-\ntered out, and thence North to return to civil life, I\nstarted from the front for the base, with a train of some\nthirty ambulances and some wagons filled with the wounded\nfrom yesterday's field, in charge of one of the officers with\nwhose mess I had been on the march. The fiercest rays of\nthe sun mingled with the hot breath that floated across the\nfields from a burning mansion some little distance off, as we\nslowly moved off, under the escort of a body of cavalry, to\nour unknown destination, for it depended upon the move-\nments of the enemy, and upon the conditions of the respec-\ntive routes as to guerrillas, whether we should journey to\nthe old base of Fredericksburg or the proposed new one of\nPort Royal, the latter place some thirty miles lower down\nthe Rappahannock river than the former. We moved on\n56\n57\ntherefore, only so far as our road led to both points, and\nones, startled us from our troubled slumbers, and proclaimed\nthen waited for further orders. Then came a short military\nthat we had come to a halt. It seemed to me that, as I was\ndelay of only a couple of hours or so, during which my\nwaking up, I heard the voice of a driver, in answer to a re-\ncompanion and myself, desiring to leave as much accommo-\nquest for tobacco, say, don't use tobaccy, Ned, in no\ndation as possible for the wounded men, shifted our quarters\nshape. Didn't you know that but, reasoning with myself,\nfrom the seats of an ambulance to the hay and bags of grain\nwith as much self-severity as a due indulgence towards my\nof an army wagon, to the manifest delight of the little squir-\nsemi-somnolent state would allow, I decided that such an\nrel, heretofore mentioned as picked up from the field during\nanomaly as that of a man in the army, guiltless of tobacco\none of the engagements in the Wilderness, which he was\nin any shape, could not by possibilty exist; and when,\ncarrying to Philadelphia as a gift and pet from its owner to\nthrough the day, I occasionally recurred to my impression,\nsome young fair one, and which evidently considered the\nI rejected it as the hallucination of an unwaked, wagon-\nwide and moreover edible range of the wagon's hay and\njarred brain. The next night, however, as I sat with my\ngrain a great improvement over the narrow, barren, and in-\nparty round our camp-fire at Port Royal, I gave loud ex-\nhospitable, however dignified and shining, black leather of\npression to my astonishment at discovering that no less than\nthe ambulance. Finally the word came for an advance to\nthree persons round it repudiated tobacco in any form, when\nPort Royal, and we recommenced our slow progress, extend-\nfrom a group of teamsters about the next fire came the voice\ning the hospitalities of our vehicle shortly afterwards to a\nof my supposed dream, crying, Here's another man that\ngentleman belonging to the Christian Commission and to a\ndon't use tobaccy in no shape.\" If ten righteous men\nsoldier-not wounded, but not well-who would otherwise\nsufficed to save a city full of wicked ones, shall not four es-\nhave been obliged to join the pedestrian throng of stragglers\nchewers of tobacco in the 5th corps of the Army of the\nof all kinds who, as usual, were taking advantage of an\nPotomac avail to save the chewers from reproach\nescort to traverse the dangerous roads. So we went slowly\nWhen the sun rose we found our train parked on a large\non, the scorching day in an hour or two yielding to the\nfield skirted on one side by the road and sloping down on\ncooler shadows of the evening, and those to night, when we\nthe other to a ravine from a brackish spring at one end of\ntook such snatches of sleep as we could for the jolting and\nwhich tolerable drinking entertainment was procurable for\npouncing (with occasionally a round among the ambulances,\nman and beast, while several very fair sized houses stood\nto see if the inmates were properly supplied with water to\nnot far off, and scattered among them were the tents of\ndrink and pour over their wounds by the men detailed to\nthe remnants of several homeward-bound regiments whose\nfill their canteens from the springs and streams on our way)\ntime was out.\nuntil the stoppage of our wagon, after some uneasier lurches\nOne of the wounded men had died through the night,\nthan usual, the scraping of wheels, the cracking of whips,\nand there in a corner of the field where it began to slope\nthe strong language of teamsters and drivers, the stamping\ntowards the little valley, before the first rays of the rising\nof hoofs, the shaking and jingling of harness, and above all,\nsun had had time to dry up the heavy dew-drops that lay\n\" the quartermaster's call,\"-that is, the many-keyed, gro-\nthickly on the sod as the delvers marked it out with their\ntesquely-sad cries emitted by the mules when the end of a\nspades, the grave of the soldier was dug, while the young\njourney and the beginning of their feed-troughs are reached\nofficer in command of the party sat on a log by its side, and\n-all these Babel-like sounds, and many other indescribable\ncarved his name, regiment &c., with penknife, on a piece of\n58\n59\nplank. Some officers from the neighboring tents stood un-\nwounded men, and don't care a curse whether we go starv-\ncovered among the group of men from our train while fitting\ning or not. I guess I'll stick myself, and come in for a\nservices were said by our Christian Commission friend-a\nshare of the petting.\"\nclergyman ;-then, wrapped in his blanket, the soldier was\nWithout heeding anything of this, however, we proceeded\ncovered with fresh cut branches of pine and various bushes,\nin the work of feeding-that is, our friend of the Christian\nthe earth was thrown over them, the head-board put in place,\nCommission, the attendants who preferred working for the\nand we turned from the dead that knew no more pain in\nsick to idling and grumbling at them (who were very grate-\nthe body, to the living that lay in every form of corporeal\nful for our aid) and myself. While he made coffee after\nanguish around us.\nhis own recipe, and the attendants cut up some meat, I went\nCrackers and coffee, I was told by some of the detailed\nround with the cracker-pail and promises of the approaching\nattendants, had already been carried round to the wounded\nother things. As a delicacy, some soup made of beef-stock\nmen; but the round I made revealed the fact that there had\nwas prepared for the very sick, who refused the other nour-\nbeen an insufficiency of the first, and that the latter had\nishment; but either they were too sick to relish anything,\nnot been fit to drink-\" dirty water,\" one man told me,\nor there was some fault in its components, for it was not\n\"with some grounds at the bottom.\" An examination and\ngenerally acceptable. With many of the men I had become\ntasting of the rejected remains of the coffee showed that\nacquainted in the hospital tents, and with some I had still\nthis definition was hardly an exaggerated one.\nstronger ties, dating from the battle-field, and these latter\nThere was some grumbling when the blame of this neg-\nwere especially glad to see me whenever I made my appear-\nlect was impliedly brought home to those who deserved it,\nance by their ambulances. One of them, a poor fellow shot\nand a half drunken stream of invective was noisily poured\nthrough the windpipe, was evidently dying; and when in\nout on the wounded men-several of whom were dying.\nthe course of the evening he died, I was glad that I had\nThey were discontented and exacting, it was said, and so\nbeen instrumental in acceding to his wishes at this time.\nconceited that they were not satisfied with what pleased\nSeeming to be pretty strong and comfortable when he left\ntheir betters-just as if a well general might not, when\nthe hospital, he had been placed in one of the wagons, and\nhungry, eat or drink, without repugnance, what the deli-\nhad now written on a slip of paper, which was handed to\ncate, morbid stomach of a sick private would reject. But\nme, these words: I can neither eat nor talk. The jolting\nI let these criticisms go for what they were worth, knowing\nof the wagon makes me feel very bad. Please move me to\nthat charges of discontent are generally brought without\none of the ambulances,\" signed with his name and, as al-\nreference to its manifestation or retention, against those\nways with soldiers, his regiment and company. So I made\nwho are known to have abundant cause for it, and that they\nthe necessary arrangements with the surgeon who was in\nare always repeated with most virulence, by the very ones\nmedical charge of the train, and, with the aid of a stretcher,\nwho feel most guilty in giving cause for its just indulgence;\nhad him moved to an ambulance driven by an old Irish-\nand knowing too that accusations of egotism are, quite as\nman, whose favor I had propitiated during a ten mile drive\noften as otherwise, mere attempts to cover the counter\nwith him the first day of my entrance into the army.\negotism and superadded jealousy of the accuser. \"By\nIt takes a long time to attend to a mass of wounded men,\nit's enough to make a fellow turn disloyal,\" was one of the\nbut at last all had been fed, and the surgeon had ceased his\nremarks I overheard, to see how they fool with these\nvisitations; SO we renewed our journey about 9, a. m., our\n60\n61\ntrain swelled by the addition of several wagon loads of con-\nwhole of one side of the building had been torn down to\ntrabands, who sought freedom with an eye on our cavalry\nlight the fire that blazed on its wide hearth, and its ruddy\nescort, and took into their sable protection, before we had\ngleam fell on the kind woman's face that bent over the\ngone many miles on our journey, two more-a small boy of\nkettles that hung over it, and on the agents that assisted\nseven, with a little stick and a bundle of the smallest dimen-\nher or bustled about from barrel to box as they filled their\nsions, and a youth of fifteen, his \" guide, philosopher, and\npails, and on way-worn or wounded soldiers, who sat with\nfriend,\" a mentor of highly senior-fraternal air, but who in-\ntheir backs braced against the wall, and their legs-some-\nformed me that the small boy, of inky features, white-\ntimes only one to a man-stretched out on the floor, while\nrolling eyes, and snowy, grinning teeth, was not his brother,\nwith heads thrown back they slept the blissful, unjoggled\n\" wasn't of no account to him as a relation, but that he had\nsleep of those who slumber not in wagons on the move; or\nknown him ebber since he was done born, and that they\neyed the preparations for supper with the happy conscious-\ncome from the same plantation.\"\nness that their turn for the good things would come in due\nThe turnpike we traveled on all day, with but one short\ntime, and their patience be rewarded. All this showed like\ncorduroy exception, was a very good one, for which, on be-\na picture through the wide-spread joists, stripped of inside\nhalf of the occupants of the ambulances, I blessed Provi-\nand outside covering; and through them the light from the\ndence. It was lined on each side by good fences, enclosing\nhearth flickered out into the damp night, and fell on the\nrich fields of grain, now trampled down where the hoofs of\nmotley scene outside, and where a little apart lay the three\nthe horses of our escort made a narrow track on each side,\nheaped-up blankets, whose dim rough lines suggested, rather\nor the equestrians, not on guard, shot across the intervening\nthan shaped themselves to, the still, stiff forms of those who\nspace to the flocks of sheep, the herds of swine, and the\nhad died on the way since the morning.\npoultry-yards, that tempted their powers of appropriation.\nThe next morning I rose from the ground and thankfully\nAbout 1 o'clock we passed through Bowling Green, between\n'assisted\" at a breakfast of chicken, confiscated and cack-\ntwo files of female unsympathizers, and as it was beginning\nling the day before, and therefore fresh, if tough and still\nto get dark, we entered Port Royal. The enemy had evac-\nfeathery; and of fresh milk-not the condensed article, but\nuated the place, I was told, in the middle of the day, and an\ngenuine cow-milk not ten minutes old, and honestly pur-\nhour or two after there steamed up to the wharf the little\nchased of a friendly negro whose cottage stood by the field\nfleet of the Sanitary Commission, consisting of twosteamers\nwhere we were posted. I assisted\" the more thankfully\nand several barges and tugs, loaded with supplies of every\nbecause under the fond delusion-derived from information\nkind, in charge of Mr. Anderson, with some seventy or\nreceived the night before-that I should find a boat for\neighty Relief Agents to prepare and distribute them to the\nWashington at an early hour; so, after going the round of\nwounded men as fast as they should arrive. Our train was\nthe ambulances and finding that our people had been up all\nthe first to get there, and the ambulances and wagons were\nnight with the wounded, including those brought by other\nscarcely parked before the agents were swarming about\ntrains which had arrived during the night, I made my way\nthem with pails full of soft crackers, coffee, farina, milk-\nto the provost marshal, who had established himself in a\npunch, beef-tea, &c. With the help of a lady, these things\ntumble-down, once-nice house, (like most of the houses in\nwere being prepared in an old house at the other end of the\nthe place,) standing, with others, well separated, at each side\nfield where the train was parked. The clapboards from the\nof it, on a beautiful natural terrace of the greenest sward,\n62\n63\noverlooking the river and sentinelled at its edge with a long\nkept carefully closed, SO that it should not be spoilt by use,\nrow of the decayed trunks of what had once been poplar\nI presume, during the heavy rain-and gazing gravely from\ntrees. Like my convoys, the Christian Commissioner and the\nbeneath the spectacles perched on his sable nose, which\nmilitary man, I got a pass for Washington easily enough;\ngave the finishing touch of dignity to a deportment sugges-\nbut the possession was like having a saddle with never a\ntive of decorum in every fibre of the body, and to a visage\nhorse to put it on, for the early boat turned out to be the\nunctuous in every line, with such a perfection of respecta-\nmerest myth, and there was not the faintest prospect of one\nbility as no white man could by possibility attain to-seeing\nbefore the middle of the day. Neither could I, for some\nhim gaze gravely at these bonneted young women, I asked\nhours, get aboard the Mary F. Rapley,\" our headquarters'\nhim if he approved of such vanities He answered with\nboat, which lay out in the stream. The interval I employed in\nasperity that \"sich frolickin's and cuttin's-up\" were highly\n\"taking a look\" at the town or village, whichever it calls itself;\nobnoxious to him ; and he was particularly severe on two\n-the larger houses, deserted of all save the negroes, telling\ngirls who had come from the same plantation as himself,\nof ancient opulence, or at least great comfort, and of present\npathetically lamenting the \" unconvenience\" to which his\ndecay, like most in the small towns and villages of eastern\ntwo late young ladies would be subjected for want of the\nVirginia. But a tremendous fall of rain put a stop to my\nbonnets the former were sporting. He furthermore informed\nantiquarian investigations, and I sought the provost mar-\nme that though his late 'mas'r'' was a tol'ble easy man-\nshal's again, where I watched and talked with some seven\nnot a Christ'n-did'nt go to church scursly never-though\nor eight score of contrabands, who had followed the various\nsometimes he listened to his (the speaker's) preachin'-he\nfragments of the army, from different points, that now filled\nfelt a call to preach sometimes to the colored brethren and sis-\nthe town. Some of the rooms in the house had been\nters-though mas'r was tol'ble easy, he nevertheless thought\nallotted to the women and children, but numbers of both\nit no more nor right to come away when he had a chance\nsexes and all ages had collected under a large shed a little\nter; the Scripters told us to be cunning as a sarpent as well\nway off. There were many staid-lòoking matrons, with the\nas harmless as a dove, but he should keep on prayin',\ndecorous colored handkerchief wrapped round their heads;\nmornin' an' night, that his mas'r might be brought to be a\nbut the girls and younger women-without exception, I\nChrist'n, an' he should continny, as long as he was with 'em,\nthink-had topped their often shoeless feet and their tight-\nhis spirit'al ministrations to the foolish chil'en who had took\nfitting ragged dresses of dirty, striped homespun (though\ntheir young missus's hats,\" and he wiped his oily forehead\nhere and there one wore silk and lace throughout) with the\nwith a cambric handkerchief which had evidently belonged\nmost elegant bonnets and round hats of silk, and velvet, and\nto his master, and concluded by offering to sell me some\nstraw, streaming with ribbons, laces, and feathers. Seeing\nmore of the Confederate money which he had seen me pur-\nan old man habited in an overcoat that descended to his\nchasing from the other contrabands. When he had taken\nheels and remained demurely buttoned up after the sun\nhimself off, which he soon after did, with others who were\nshone out again with renewed and intensified fierceness,\ncarried down to a Government boat, and with a very pretty\nsolemnly relieved at the neck by a white cravat and sur-\nyellow girl-with not only a silk bonnet but a silk dress pen-\nmounted by the only stove-pipe hat I had seen since leaving\ndant from it-leaning confidentially on the arm he extended\nWashington, supporting himself on the huge umbrella-also\nto her, with an air of mingled sanctimoniousness and gal-\nunique in the Army of the Potomac, and which had been\nlantry, I was quite prepared to find that he had \"sold\" me,\n64\n65\nin a double sense, as regarded the Confederate currency I\nhad taken from him.\nstarve, and those who give to-day know that their turn for\nAfraid to lose sight of the shipping, lest my opportunity\nasking may come to-morrow. The agents of the Commission\nfor returning to Washington should slip through my fingers;\naway from their stores, are as often obliged to live on others,\n(in the army a movement is as likely to be made three hours\nas others are on them when with their stores. Before leaving this\nbefore the time anticipated as three days after,) I could not\nsubject, I will revert to two other points of a like nature, both\ngo back to the place where the ambulance trains were con-\naffording examples of the ease with which stories are got about\ntinuing, as I heard, to arrive, to help our people with the\naffecting the reputation of the Commission's agents for honesty,\nwounded; and in the exhaustion of my writing paper, was\nsobriety, and rectitude of appropriation.\nreduced to studying the likenesses of public buildings in\nI will first premise that we succeeded, in the middle of\nthe city of New York, with which the whole house was im-\nThursday, May 26, in getting on board a Government steamer,\nloaded with some four hundred wounded men from Fredericks-\npartially wall-papered-not cuttings from illustrated week-\nlies,\" but bona fide paper-hanger's repetitions, as gorgeously\nburg that Dr. Harris, one of the Sanitary Commission, stored\ncolored as the subjects would admit of-Trinity, St. Paul's,\nit well with supplies, which, however, owing to the want of\nsufficient stove accommodation on board, were cooked-those\nand Grace church, the Exchange, Custom House, City Hall\nthat required cooking-slowly and with much extra trouble\nand Stewart's marble palace, the latter painfully suggestive\nof Delmonico's opposite, for it was now high noon, and our\nthat instead of hurrying on to Washington, as the condition\nof the wounded demanded, we lay in the stream, owing to\nfive o'clock breakfast had been tough, hurried and meagre.\nsome conflict of authority between the captain and the medical\nBut now, as kind fortune would have it, an opportunity pre-\nofficials on shore, all that day and the following night, when\nsented itself for gaining the Mary F. Rapley, and hurrying\nit rained heavily ; that after sending ashore to be buried,\ndown to the wharf and into a row boat,we-my traveling com-\nunder charge of a chaplain, the bodies of five men from our own\npanions and myself-were soon on board, and at the board\nvessel and from another one alongside, we steamed off abouteight\nof the welcoming commander, in company with officers, sol-\no'clock on the morning of Friday, in consort with the other ves-\ndiers, newspaper reporters and other hangers-on of thearmy.\nsel, passing several fine houses and estates, especially one with a\nAnd were they fed luxuriously on crackers, tough beef, ham\nlarge and elegant modern structure on a fine lawn and two or\nand coffee from the stores of the Commission, furnished by\nthree dozen comfortable two-story houses-negro quarters, I\nthe liberality of the public Certainly. Would the public\npresume-ranged along the river's bank; steamed through Ches-\nhave them starve? No, but had they not money in their\napeake Bay in the twilight; passed the bar in the Potomac about\npockets ?-could they not buy ? In the village? No, be-\nnine o'clock, (during which I had to put out the lights carried\ncause it is a deserted one; there are neither sellers nor goods\nby the attendants, to prevent their constant collision with the\nin it, and one's money is of as little use as if one were in an\nirascible captain, whose eyes were dazzled by the shifting glare\nuninhabited island. From the Commission's agents? No,\nfrom the lanterns as he was sounding, and who rightly, if petu-\nbecause the Commission has nothing to sell it has only to\nlantly, opined that it was better the patients should be clumsily\ngive. Besides, in the army, and especially in the van of the\nwaited on in the dark for half an hour than that they should\narmy, before the supplies have come up, the law of теит\nbe subjected to the risk of going to the bottom,) and finally\nand tuum is necessarily almost abrogated, by common con-\nreached Washington about two o'clock in the morning of Sat-\nsent, otherwise those who have not food with them would\nurday, the 28th, where I found our people on the dock in\nreadiness to receive the wounded, and supplement the excel-\n5 L\n66\n67\nlent arrangements as to feeding and carrying provided for by\nand canned peaches which he saw prepared-but if he did he\nGovernment. and where I bade good bye to the German sur-\nwas disappointed, for they were only for the sick.\ngeon in charge-a civilian and volunteer-with the highest\nOne other kindred instance. I had been down stairs, while\nrespect for the untiring and sleepless devotion with which he\nwe were steaming down the Rappahannock, initiating the prep-\nhad fulfilled his terrible duties, and in which with one excep-\naration of sundry gallons of tea for the sick, when, on reas-\ntion, (but that one enough perhaps to give a bad impression of\nscending to the upper deck, I found several of the men drink-\nall to a casual or careless observer,) his assistants had borne a\ning the beverage out of their tin cups. Wondering where\nmost creditable part-duties involving immense mental, moral,\nthey had got it, I made inquiries, and found they had bought\nand physical labor, with little reward in thanks or reputation,\ntheir portions for ten cents from the hands of the cook-house\n\"and are as water spilt upon the ground, which cannot be\non board the boat. I therefore explained to them that every-\ngathered up again.\"\nthing distributed by the Sanitary Commission was absolutely\nWhat I was going to say is this One of our lady agents,\nfree, but that its agents had no more power to prevent the\nafter living on crackers and dirty lukewarm river water for a\nboat hands from selling of their own stock than they had to\ncouple of sleepless, hard-working days and nights among the\nprevent the soldiers from buying. Yet I do not doubt that\nwounded on board this boat, owing to her conscientious scru-\nthe careless, the gossiping, and the malicious, among those men,\nples against appropriating to her own use anything that might\nhave circulated the report that the Sanitary Commission sells\nbe acceptable to the sick, came to me and confided the fact\nits tea to sick and wounded soldiers at ten cents a cup.\nthat she had become SO weak and faint for want of nourish-\nTaking into consideration the acknowledgments I have al-\nment that she at last felt it to be her duty to take a hearty\nready received of the previous letters of this series, I am\nmeal of substantial food. I recommended her to continue the\ncertainly not without encouragement to commence future\npractice every few hours, and I could but think that it would\nones from other portions of the field, worked by the Commis-\nhave been much better, both for herself and those she waited\nsion, and perhaps opportunities may serve for my doing so.\non, if she had arrived at this sense of duty before allowing\nMeanwhile, I am, as always, very truly and respectfully,\nherself to become exhausted, and perhaps lay the foundation\nyours,\nof illness which might prevent her pursuing her self-imposed\nALFRED J. BLOOR.\nduties in the future. There was also on board a gentleman\nconnected with a benevolent organization for the behoof of\nthe army, who was for the greater part of the trip very indig-\nnant that the nurses were allowed to partake of the stock of\nthe Commission, and expressed his determination to report to\nthe public the misappropriation, as he termed it, of their stores,\nbut his zeal abated, and his charity (towards himself at least)\nincreased as the hours waxed and his haversack became\ndepleted, and before we reached the end of our voyage he sat\nmeekly among the \" pampered' agents of the Commission, and\nwas fain to eat in silence, and I hope in gratitude, the soup\nand beef and crackers with which they broke their long\nhalf-fast. Mayhap he eyed wistfully the farina, and milk punch,\nAPPENDIX.\nThe following statement, extracted from the sixteenth num-\nber of the Sanitary Commission Bulletin for June 15, 1864,\nshows the issues made by the United States Sanitary Commis-\nsion to the armies operating before Richmond during the month\nof May, 1864, the same in which the foregoing letters were\nwritten :\n130 air cushions\n12 shaving brushes\n3,582 lbs. corn starch\n10 air beds\n12 razors\n13 bbls corn meal\n3,541 bed ticks\n127 lbs. lard\n2 bbls. dried peaches\n265 bed pans\n67 prs. cotton pants\n2,628 bottles ext. ginger\n2,932 blankets\n6,403 cotton shirts\n6,480 lbs. farina\n271 chambers\n19,507 woolen shirts\n24 packages gelatine\n312 candlesticks\n472 shoes\n48 bottles gin\n2,508 combs, coarse\n2,909 slippers\n62 bottles jellies and pre-\n1,720 \" fine\n3,208 cotton socks\nserves\n5,817 cushions\n9,451 woolen socks\n408 boxes lemons\n110 head rests\n648 wrappers\n600 bottles lemon syrup\n376 lanterns\n695 pails\n1,854 lbs. maizena\n315 medicine cups\n67 canes\n350 lbs. mustard\n288\n\"\ntubes\n6 pocket flasks\n20 lbs. nutmegs\n268 pcs. mosquito netting\n30 cots\n2,344 lbs. oat meal\n162 rolls oil silk\n39 bbls. ale [See por-\n942 gals. pickles\n3,394 pillows\nter]\n70 bbls. porter\n1,424 pillow cases\n144 bottles ale\n60 \" potatoes\n3,300 pillow ticks\n181 bbls. dried apples\n400 lbs. rice\n1,203 quilts\n100 lbs. arrow root\n12 bottles N. E. rum\n654 ring cushions\n8,165 lbs. beef stock\n1,068 '' Jamaica rum\n1,416 sheets\n2,514 bottles brandy\n11,868 lbs. sugar\n265 spittoons\n4,532 lbs. canned meat\n119 lbs. spices\n494 spit cups\n2,254 lbs. canned fruit\n5111 gals. tamarinds\n7,798 towels\n4,252 lbs. canned vegeta-\n1,488 lbs. black tea\n7,406 tin cups\nbles\n1,200 lbs. green tea\n1,225 tin wash basins\n312 bottles cherry rum\n3,306 lbs. tobacco\n1,893 tin plates\n326 lbs. cocoa\n258 gals. vinegar\n262 urinals\n8,584 lbs. sweet choco-\n24 bots. raspberry vine-\n144 mattresses\nlate\ngar\n1,114 knives and forks\n1,266 lbs. extract coffee\n3,960 bots. foreign wine\n2,905 spittoons\n[See Coffee.]\n119 coffee pots\n45 stretchers\n949 lbs. dried beef\n2 bbls. flour\n100 dippers\n22 hammers\n13 reams wrapping paper\n3,427 prs. cotton drawers\n40 axes\n182 gals. molasses\n12,304 pairs woolen\n18 hand saws\n17½ gals. kerosene oil\ndrawers.\n44 hatchets\n1 chisel\n14,991 handkerchiefs\n405 lbs. nails\n1 screw-driver\n2,950 forage, (oats) bush-\n38 shovels\n12 gimblets\nels\n9 spades\n975 bottles domestic wine\n15,000 lbs. hay\n3,106 lbs. ground coffee\n3,520 bottles whisky\n6 bbls. salt beef\n18,912 lbs. condensed\n23 gals. whisky\n6 cases dessicated veg.\nmilk\n280 bottles alcohol\n1,857 lbs. ham\n353 bbls. crackers\n38 bbls. bandages\nAPPENDIX.\n699 bottles bay rum\n70 lbs. pepper\n24 dressing fauceps\n1,047 body bands\n22 tin pans, for washing\n16 papers tacks\n5 boxes books\ndishes\n100 yards wire\n620 bottles cologne\n1,483 lbs. salt\n6 door mats\n2,843 crutches\n54 boxes oranges\n1 gross needles\n7,750 fans\n100 camp kettles\n55 lbs. mutton tallow\n51 games\n17 frying pans\n1 piece sheeting\n21 bbls. lint\n44 rolls adhesive plaster\n1 refrigerator\n29 bbls. old linen\n4 nutmeg graters\n2 stove boilers\n2,266 slings\n30 camp stools\n20 boxes chlorinium\n953 lbs. soap\n12 baskets\n6 boxes clothing\n3091 lbs. sponges\n6,000 feet lumber\n6 rocking chairs\n1,945 lbs. candles\n16,000 lbs. straw\n57 bottles cider\n3,858 lbs. butter\n24 china plates\n12 faucets\n1,645 lbs. cheese\n20 yards oil cloth\n2 faucet augers\n2,619 doz. eggs\n200 cathartic pills\n1 pump\n5,387 loaves bread\n6,000 opium pills\n224 canteens\n735 papers pins\n2,000 opium and camph.\n72 boxes blacking\n21,325 envelopes\npills\n362 boxes sardines\n320 bottles ink\n60 smoked tongues\n300 paper bags\n58 reams writing paper\n221 rubber blankets\n3 washing machines\n5,328 pencils\n252 open links\n12 blank books\n1,288 pen holders\n14 feed troughs\n971/2 tons ice\n1,288 pens\n9 boxes splints\n12 bottles copperas\n1,300 lbs. oakum\n36 gross matches\n3 bottles chloride soda\n4,000 pipes\n682 yards rubber cloth\n2 medicine chests\n540 lbs. chloroform\n17 oz. morphine\n6 stove brushes\n45 spirits camphor\n20 yards white flannel\n1 bbl. salt pork\n12 cook stoves and fix-\n1,870 lbs. chloride of\n12 stew pans\ntures\nlime\n12 frying pans\n17 wall tents\n31 lbs. ligature silk\n2,200 lbs. fresh beef\n1 quire sand paper\n150 haversacks\n36 four-horse wagons,\n9 can openers\n84 blowers\nwith harness, whips,\n491 lbs. twine\n100 hospital car loops\nextra whiffletrees, &c.,\n40 corkscrews\n8 water coolers\ncomplete\n242 pairs scissors\n2 lbs. bromine\n156 two-horse wagons,\n8 pepper boxes\n50 lbs. patent lint\ndo.\n10 lbs. saleratus\nThe following anti-scorbutic stores were sent from New\nYork and stored in Baltimore : One-third of these were loaded\non board the Ridley, and taken to Norfolk in tow of the Kent.\n4,291 galls. pickled tomatoes.\n51,812 lbs. canned tomatoes.\n1,106 galls. curried cabbage.\n671 bbls. dried apples.\n15,168 galls. saur kraut.\n4,162 galls. pickles.\n3,580 galls. pickled onions.\n12,060 lbs. apple pulp.\n2,400 boxes portable lemonade.\n1 tub apple butter.\n1 doz. ginger wine.\nU. S.\nSanitary Commission.\nNo. 80."
}