This little incident encouraged me greatly.  Passing on among the sick, I found no lack of work, but sadly missed the facilities, comforts, and luxuries which in Richmond had been always at my command.

Lest it seem strange that such a state of things should have existed, I will here ask the reader to remember that military movements of tremendous importance were then taking place.  An immense army was executing, “with admirable skill and precision,” a change of base.  Upon this army depended the destinies of a large portion of the Confederacy.  Means of transportation for the troops and their military supplies, including, as an important precautionary measure, medical stores, became an imperative necessity.  The wounded and sick had also been moved, and at least placed under shelter.  Surgeons, however, were unable to obtain either suitable diet or needed medicines.  Requisitions failed to be promptly filled, and hence the state of things I have tried to describe.

Dr. McAllister was absent most of the time in the interests of the unfortunates under his charge.  Meantime, I struggled to perform my duties among the sick, and to exert authority, of which, as I soon discovered, I possessed but the semblance.  Nothing was left undone by the women before referred to to thwart and annoy me.  They had evidently determined I should not remain there.  I had ample evidence that they were neglectful and unscrupulous in their dealings with the patients.

In one of the rooms, separated from the other patients, I found a man who had been brought in several days before, suffering from excessive drinking.  Not being able to obtain whiskey, he had managed to get hold of a bottle of turpentine emulsion from a table in the hall, and had drank the whole.  Dr. Minor and I worked for hours with this unfortunate and hoped he would recover, but other patients required looking after, and during my absence whiskey was smuggled in to him, of which he partook freely.  After that, nothing could save his life.  A patient suffering agonies from gastritis was also placed under my special charge.  I was to feed him myself, and avoid giving water, except in the smallest quantities.  I did my best, but he grew worse, and just in time I found under his pillow a canteen full of water, which had been procured for him by the woman who attended in his ward.  If I called for a basin of water to wash the face and hands of neglected men, one of these women would laugh insultingly and say, “Perhaps ye’ll wait till I get a nagur to bring it to you, or a silver waiter.”  They would insist that the surgeon had ordered them to do this or that, and stop to argue against my directions, until I was fain to save the sick further noise and clamor by leaving the ward.