8th. Thursday. Marched on towards Cowskin Prairie. A little skirmish on the road. Our course lay mostly among the Ozark Hills. A rich country and beautiful scenery. Reminded me of Vermont scenes. Enjoyed the ride much. As we struck Cowskin Prairie, a little beyond Elk Mill, we saw a band of thirty armed and mounted men. When we learned they were rebels, we followed, Co. “G” pursuing on their track, and Co. “A” going around a piece of timber. They had too much of a start and escaped. Exciting time. Scouts and spies of the enemy out in every direction. The Major said after we had rallied, that our squad, who had gone three miles farther than most of them, had been within a mile of a camp of 400 men. We were fourteen miles from Marysville where Coffee with 1,000 men was reported. We were in the Cherokee nation. Fine country. Enjoyed it well.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
8th.—I spent this day chiefly with other Surgeons and Assistants in getting the wounded to the river and on transports. My former estimate of the casualties was certainly not an exaggeration, and I now think the loss to the two armies is not much short of 18,000. We hear that General Franklin had a fight with the enemy near West Point this afternoon, and was repulsed, The hope that he would intercept and destroy the army is blasted.
May 8. Our city life is about over; we have orders to break up housekeeping here tomorrow and go on a rusticating tour in the country. Among the boys all is speculation as to where we are going and what our errand is.
Georgeanna’s journal.
Lenox Hodge happened to have come over from his hospital station on shore to call on us, just as the first patients arrived for the Ocean Queen, and, being the only doctor on hand at the time, was pressed into the service. He superintended the lowering into the forward cabin of all the very sick. He told us to have wine and water ready for the weakest, and I in the front cabin, and E. in the back, went round with brandy and water and gave it to every man who looked faint. By the time this was done, the gruel was ready, and it was good to see how refreshed the poor fellows were. E. and I were almost alone at the time these first men came. Messrs. Olmsted and Knapp were away on business, and the two young doctors had gone ashore; we should have been completely at a loss without Len. Tug after tug followed, and 800 men were put on board in the next three days.
May 8.—A number of men, wounded in a skirmish, have been brought in to-day. The surgeons dressed their wounds; there is always plenty for us to do without that. We wash their hands and faces, which is a great treat to them, as they are covered with dust; we bathe their wounds, which are always inflamed, and give them something refreshing to drink.
O, I do feel so glad that I am here, where I can be of some little service to the poor fellows; and they are so grateful for every little attention paid them.
We get up before sunrise in the morning; take a cup of coffee, as the doctors inform us that unless we do so we will be sick. We then give the men their “toddy;” wash their faces and hands, and then furnish them their breakfast.
May 8.—Nine Union regiments, under Generals Milroy and Schenck, fought fourteen thousand rebels, under General Jackson, at McDowell, in Virginia, from six till nine P.M., when they fell back to the town of Franklin in good order. (Doc. 10.)
—The bombardment of the rebel batteries on Sewell’s Point and Craney Island was actively carried forward by the Monitor, the Naugatuck, and other vessels of the fleet. The Merrimac finally appeared, but as she evinced a disinclination to come out into the roadstead, and the National vessels were equally disinclined to go up to her, the combat ceased. The scene was an exciting one for some time, and was witnessed by President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton.— (Doc. 26.)
—Messrs. Richardson, Knapp, and Robinson, of Illinois; Law and Voorhees, of Indiana; Allen, White, Noble, Pendleton, Morris, and Vallandigham, of Ohio; Johnson and Ancona, of Pennsylvania, and Shields of Oregon, issued an address to the Democracy of the United States, setting forth party organization as a positive good and essential to the preservation of public liberty. —Cincinnati Gazette, May 9.
—Four companies of the Seventh Illinois cavalry, under command of Major Aplington, when reconnoitring within a mile and a half of Corinth, Miss., discovered two rebel regiments of infantry in position on both sides of the road. Major Aplington gallantly charged upon them, but fell pierced by a ball through the brain. Four of the Union troops were slightly wounded; the rebels suffered the loss of thirty killed and wounded, and four prisoners.
—The United States Senate passed a bill establishing Beaufort, S. C, as a port of entry.
—The iron-clad gunboats Galena, Aroostook, and Port Royal left Fortress Monroe and started up James River, at six o’clock this morning. Immediately after their departure, the rebel tug, F. B. White, came out from Craney Island, having left Norfolk this morning with a crew and two citizens on board, on a mission to Tannery Point, but they run over to Newport News, and surrendered to General Mansfield!—Baltimore American, May 9.
—Three brigades of General Buell’s army seized the portion of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad between Corinth and the Grand Junction, and thus cut the communication between those points.—Chicago Times, May 9.
—Governor Clark, of North-Carolina, in response to a demand of the confederate government for more troops and transportation, informed that government that it “had received all the aid from North-Carolina that it could expect, and that no more troops would be permitted to leave the State.” —N.Y. Herald, May 19.
