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

January 29.—We are sadly in want of comforts, cotton to make mattresses, spoons, knives and forks, and in fact every thing. Many of our men have to eat their food with their fingers.

A few days ago I went up to Atlanta with the hope of getting some of these things from Dr. Blackie, our medical purveyor, but he had gone to Montgomery. I went into one of the stores to see at what price I could buy them. The commonest kind of knives and forks were one hundred and fifty dollars per dozen; the same for common spoons, and cups and saucers.

I see by the papers, that the people in Atlanta are raising large sums of money to equip General Morgan’s cavalry.

General M. is at present in Richmond, and has had great honors showered on him. He has visited Libby Prison, and says the contrast of our treatment of prisoners with that of the northern people is very great, and he does not wish us to imitate the latter in their severity. There is not much fear of our doing so.

January 25.—I sat up last night until 12 o’clock, with the corpse of a young child, daughter of a Mrs. Shivers. Others were there, and they had quite a political discussion, a lady taking the lead. She denounced President Davis, and said Stephens should be in his place. I sometimes think it is such a pity, that women are not allowed to hold office, as they seem to know exactly how things should be managed.

Colonel I. T. Berry of the Sixty-sixth Georgia Regiment was there. He is lame from a wound received at one of the battles in Virginia. He had served under Jackson, and said he did not admire him as a commander, as he was entirely too reckless. Colonel B. is a very handsome man, of a well-informed mind and fine conversational powers. He is a graduate of West Point.

Sunday, January 24.—The Coweta House is now a ward in the Bragg Hospital for the accommodation of Florida troops. Mrs. Harrison and a friend of hers, Mrs. Harris, from Florida, are its matrons.

This morning Dr. Adams, an assistant surgeon, who is a deacon in the Episcopal Church, had prayers in one of the rooms. The service was attended mainly by refugees, as there has never been an Episcopal Church in this place. There is a Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian Church here. Dr. Gamble, Mrs. G., and Mrs. Harrison, are members of the Episcopal Church, and also some of the officers who are stationed at the post, and their families.

January 20.—A beautiful day. I have received a letter from my brother. As usual, it is filled with bright hopes of the future—pictures of the enemy flying in dismay and confusion the next time they meet, and wiping out the disgrace of Missionary Ridge. He says they are in comfortable winter-quarters, having built log-cabins. He had a nice Christmas dinner sent from home.

In a letter from Mrs. Dr. Burt, who is now living with her father, in the upper part of Georgia, among the mountains, she says the people there are almost starving, and that our cavalry behave very badly, taking every thing they can lay their hands on; and that her mother and self are compelled to hide their jeans from them. I regret hearing of our own people doing such things.

Sunday, January 17.—Went to the Methodist Church, now reopened for service. Mr. Holland, a young man, apparently not over eighteen years of age, from Kentucky, preached. To all appearance his sermon was extempore. His language was most eloquent, and he spoke with great fluency. His subject was prayer, and he discoursed on the mysterious power of that great moral lever with all the clearness and force of an able and experienced divine. He is certainly a young man of extraordinary abilities.

In the evening Mr. Moore preached an excellent sermon in a ward filled with patients. We burn tallow-candles, and we always carry ours with us to light up the ward, as well as we can.

I often think of these meetings, and how strange every thing has turned. The ward is usually filled with men dressed in all kinds of uniforms, and some, unable to be up, are in their bunks. The ward is dimly lighted, but not too dim to prevent us distinguishing the faces of the men, and see the eagerness with which they listen to the expounding of the word of God, and the words of comfort in the solemn prayers which are offered up in their behalf, and frequently in behalf of our cruel enemies.

January 15.—The weather has cleared off, and all seem glad of the change.

Mr. Bradley has had his arm amputated; he came here with a slight wound on his elbow, made by an ax. Gangrene got into it, and could not be arrested. It eat so rapidly that the joint was nearly destroyed.

January 11.—The weather still bad. We had five of Scott’s cavalry dine with us to-day. They are friends of Dr. H. and Miss W., and are Louisianians. They are very hopeful of our cause, but we seldom meet a soldier down-hearted. It is only the home folks who grumble.

Miss W. is one of the most enthusiastic southerners I have met. She is from Louisiana, and, like Governor Brown about Georgia, thinks the other states all very well in their way, but they are not Louisiana.

These gentlemen informed her of a friend in Louisiana who had married a Federal general. They were all a good deal annoyed that this lady had lowered herself in such a manner. I told Miss W. that no Alabama girl would be guilty of such a disgraceful act. She replied, that the girl was so ugly that no Confederate would marry her.

Miss W. is the daughter of a wealthy planter, and, like many of the rest of our ladies, is determined to be independent of foreign manufacture. She has three pretty homespun dresses of different colors, which she manufactured herself, out of the raw cotton. She has also knit a number of pairs of socks for the soldiers.

January 4.—It has rained so hard today that I have been unable to visit the wards.

It is rumored that there will be a raid here soon, from Rome. No one seems to give the rumor credit. There is a direct road from here to that place.

Had a visit in the afternoon from Drs. Reesse and Burks. Dr. B. was in Columbus when Mrs. Ogden went there, and said he never regretted any thing more than her leaving that place. He said the Mobile ladies had done much good during their short stay there.

Sunday, January 3.—Part of our hospital was destroyed by fire last night. It originated in the officers’ quarters of the Buckner Hospital, through the negligence of a negro servant. I have been told that some of the officers who were wounded nearly lost their lives. We lost two buildings; they had few patients in them, and no one was hurt. But a short time since they were filled with badly wounded, who, fortunately, had been removed.

We had stores and every thing else moved from our rooms. Among them were two barrels of whisky, a box of coffee, the latter just received from Wilmington, and many other valuables. We lost nothing except a quantity of hospital clothing.

Mr. Sparks is injured. He was not near the fire, but became very much alarmed, and is now suffering very much.

We have no fire-engines, and all did their part in arresting the flames. Dr. Hughes is an old gentleman, but worked harder than any one.

A number of parties have been given here lately. Miss W. cried out: “O, if the people would only keep from dancing, we would not have this trouble.” I believe I echoed her sentiments.

Mrs. J. visited the wards with me this afternoon. The men, with the exception of one or two, are doing well.

Mrs. W. always spends Sunday in the wards, and benefits the men much by talking to them.

After we had left Chattanooga, on a visit there, I met one of the nurses who was with us in the Newsom Hospital, and he was very low with typhoid fever. He inquired anxiously after Mrs. W., and said that, since lying on his sick-bed, he had often thought of her, and all he had heard her say to the patients, and wished he had profited more by her counsels. He was removed from Chattanooga to Ringgold. Mrs. W. went to see him, and he told her he had resolved to lead a new life, and that her teaching had been the means of converting him. This is not an isolated case, by any means.

I am often afraid that Mrs. W. will injure herself with work. She never sees a man with ragged clothes but she mends them for him, and many a night 12 o’clock does not find her in bed.

I often think of how much good the ladies of this place could accomplish in this respect. Many a man goes back to the front as ragged as he came from it. I had determined to let this subject drop, but somehow I always get back to it. I can not help losing my temper when I see so many idle women unwilling to do any little thing for these heroes, who have suffered so much.

I hinted to some of the ladies about having tobacco bags made, as the tobacco gets scattered all over the beds, but none offered to make them; some were kind enough to give me the pieces to have them made. After the labors of the day are past, Miss W. and myself make as many as we can.