Following the American Civil War Sesquicentennial with day by day writings of the time, currently 1863.

Post image for Kate Cumming: A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

Kate Cumming: A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

January 18, 2013

Kate Cumming: A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

January 18.—I arrived in Atlanta, in company with Mr. and Mrs. Brewer, at 3 o’clock A. M., too late to make the connection with the West Point train. As my health did not improve in the hospital, I was advised to try a change, and accordingly left Chattanooga yesterday for home.

We are at the Atlanta House, kept by a Mr. Thompson, quite a jolly landlord, and our fare is very good, considering the times.

This is a very cold and bleak day. I went out shopping with Mr. and Mrs. B. They bought a handsome velvet mantle, for which they paid one hundred and fifty dollars. Mr. B. had a very fine shawl stolen from him; it was taken out of the parlor at the hotel; they say this city is a den of thieves. Mr. B. insisted on paying my hotel bill, which was five dollars, for two meals and two hours’ sleep. We expect to leave on the cars by 6 o’clock, P. M.

Atlanta is in DeKalb County, Georgia; is seven miles south-east of the Chattahooche River; one hundred miles west north-west of Macon; one hundred and seventy-one miles west of Augusta; one hundred and thirty miles from Chattanooga; seventy-five miles from West Point. It is the terminus of four railroads: the Augusta, the Macon and Western, the Atlantic and Western, and the West Point. It is elevated, and quite a healthy place. I have been told that the wounded improve more rapidly here than at any other point.

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