July 1.—Great excitement in town. News has come that the enemy is across the river, and intends shelling the place. We are having hospital flags put up, but I do not see that they will do any good, as it is said the enemy pay no respect to them. We are packing up in a hurry to move. Our hospital being near the river, we will be honored by the first shot. The house we are now in is marked by last year’s shelling. I believe the delay of the cars the other evening was owing to moving the wounded, as our army is hastily retreating.
Kate Cumming: A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.
June 29.—Another rainy day. We all feel very miserable. It is now 9 o’clock P. M., and the train from the army has not come in; many are afraid it has been captured. This anxiety is enough to kill any one. We do not know the moment that we may hear of a disaster to our army. It is supposed that Rosecrans is trying to outflank it. I do pity General Bragg from my heart. Every body now is against him. He has always had to fight under great disadvantages. He has to confront one of the best generals the Federals have, and at the present time part of his army is in Mississippi. General Morgan has gone on another raiding expedition into Kentucky. I do not like these raids; they do not seem right.
Yesterday a man died, by the name of Murphy, belonging to the Thirty-sixth Alabama Regiment; he was from Jackson County, Mississippi.
June 27.—I was congratulating myself that my brother, who had received a furlough and gone home, would miss this battle. To my surprise he arrived this morning. I asked him why he came, he replied, he could not think of being absent from the expected battle. I tried to persuade him to remain here, as from all accounts our army is retreating, but failed in doing so, and he has gone to the front. He is much improved in health. He enjoyed himself very much while in Mobile, but thought the people too gay for these war times. Mrs. May came back with him; she could not have come at a time when her services were more required; she will assist Mrs. Snow who has a great deal to do.
We have a great many wounded; the same old story—men mutilated in every possible way. In one place there are three men lying along side of each other; each has lost a leg. One has just died. I am sick at heart at these scenes, and there seems to be little prospect of a change.
Last week we had a German die, named Massinger. He left over two hundred dollars with me, to give to a friend, Robert Bolt, a member of the Twenty-fourth Texas Regiment. He gave his watch to his nurse, Mr. Byrne, who had been very kind to him.
We have been busy lately making blackberry cordial and blackberry preserves. I have made about twenty-five gallons of the cordial. I never was any place where there were such quantities of blackberries. The country people bring them in by the bushel.
June 25.—Yesterday we sent many of our sick off. To-day the hospital is again filled with wounded.
Yesterday, being St. John the Baptist’s day, the Mason’s anniversary, there was a grand picnic given by the country people to the soldiers. While in the midst of it, the enemy came upon them, and I am told we have sustained a severe loss. Our army was taken by surprise. The fight was at Hoover’s Gap. Mrs. Dr. Turner has just come from there; her husband hurried her off at l2 o’clock last night.
We are still sending the wounded away who are able to be moved, to make room for more, as the battle is still progressing.
June 23.—The hospital is again filled with very sick, sent from the army, in prospect of a battle. News has come that we gained a victory last week in Virginia.
A Federal negro has just died in the hospital; he came in very sick.
June 19.—One of our patients, by the name of Miller, died yesterday. He was a member of the Thirty-third Alabama Regiment. He came here a few weeks ago with typhoid fever; then took erysipelas, from the effects of which he died. He was perfectly resigned to his death, and left a message for his wife and children, who live in Dale County, Alabama.
The erysipelas, which is infectious, is spreading. Two of the girls in the washhouse had their ears bored, and have it very badly, taken from washing the clothes, though they are never touched by them until they are put into a large boiler and well boiled. One of the girls is a perfect sight; her face is so swollen that her eyes are closed, and part of her hair has had to be cut off.
June 9.—Yesterday my friend, Mrs. Brewer, invited me to accompany her on a visit to Lookout Mountain. There was quite a large party, and a very delighful one. It was given in honor of General McCown, who was of the number. We stopped at a very pretty house on the summit, and had an addition to our party of two very pretty girls—the Misses Cox— who are the nymphs and reign sole queens of this enchanting spot. One of them I thought perfectly beautiful. The day was cool and pleasant, and the scenery even more beautiful than when I was last there; the foliage was in its maturity, and the wind, sighing through the trees, filled me with a pleasurable sadness which I can never describe.
“Those are the haunts of meditation; these
The scenes where ancient bards the inspiring breath
Ecstatic felt, and, from this world retired,
Conversed with angels and immortal forms,
On gracious errand bent; to save the fall
Of virtue struggling on the brink of vice;
In waking whispers, and repeated dreams,
To hint pure thought, and warn the favored soul
For future trials fated to prepare.”
As we looked down at the plain beneath, I asked one of the gentlemen if he thought a cannon-ball fired from there could reach us. He said no; he did not think it possible. After partaking of a very fine lunch, we started to pay a visit to Rock City, some two miles distant from the Point of Rocks; but found it was too late, as it would be impossible to descend the mountain after dark. I was disappointed, as I had heard much of this natural curiosity. I have been told it has trees, castles, and mountains of solid rock, cut by Nature’s masonry.
We stopped a few hours at a very large house, built for a hotel, but then empty. It is owned by Mrs. Colonel Whitesides, who was of the party. We procured some very delicious water from a spring on the brow of the mountain, which abounds in
“Story-telling glens, and founts, and brooks.”
Sunday, June 7.—Have had quite a number of men die to-day. I have not been very well for some days, and hence have not visited the sick. Mrs. W. has been paying them all attention. She has told me about two, whom she has been attending in the room near ours. One was a Mr. Allison from Louisiana, between sixty and seventy years of age. He was a substitute; and has left eight children, the most of whom are in the service. The other one, Mr. Johnson, in the next bunk to him, was in his seventeenth year. About the same time the spirits of the aged pilgrim and youthful martyr were wafted to realms on high, where I trust they are now at rest in the “balm-breathing presence of God.”
We have a very nice lady, Mrs. Ellis, wife of one of the officers, in the hospital, who takes charge of the linen department, and is of great assistance.
A chaplain preached this afternoon in one of our wards; his text was, “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven.” The sermon was a very impressive one. The men listened to it with the most profound attention. I have observed that soldiers generally are very attentive listeners during divine service. I should have enjoyed the sermon much better if my attention had not been drawn to the extravagant dress of the Speaker. I could not but think, if he had worn a gown to hide it, that it would have been much more in keeping with his priestly office. His uniform was one of the most showy I have ever seen worn by any of our officers since the war; it was of the finest black broadcloth, cut “a la militaire,” with the usual amount of gilt buttons. As I gazed at him, I thought, with Cowper,
“A heavenly mind
May be indifferent to her house of clay,
And slight the hovel as beneath her care;
But how a body so fantastic, trim,
And quaint in its deportment and attire
Can lodge a heavenly mind, demands a doubt.”
I am told he is much beloved in the army, and has been the means of doing a great deal of good. His clothes were presented to him by his brigade, for his kindness to the men; but I do wish he would not wear them, especially at this time, when such clothes are certain to be the subject of remark, worn by any one, but much more by an embassador of the lowly Jesus. I often wish I was not quite so prejudiced against these things. Affectation in dress I dislike, as much as in manners.
“In man or woman, but most in man,
And most of all in man that ministers
And serves the altar, in my soul I loath
All affectation; ’tis my perfect scorn.”
June 6.—All kinds of rumors are coming in daily from the army. A battle is expected momentarily.
We have had a great deal of rain lately, which makes it sickly and otherwise disagreeable.
Vallandigham passed through here a few days ago. He had little or no notice taken of him, as he is not a southerner; but still clings to the delusion that the Union can again be restored. What madness in any sane man! That can never be until the terrible past is wiped out, and sinks into oblivion; or until the many thousands who have been slain shall be brought to life, and the outrages which have been committed on our people undone. I can not but admire him for his independence of character in defying Lincoln and his minions. Would that we had many more like him in the North, then our hopes of peace would be bright indeed. Many think if we can only hold out a little longer, that the peace party there will rise in its might, and demand of the black republicans to desist from this unholy strife.
June 1.—Have been to Dr. Thornton’s funeral. He was buried from the Presbyterian Church. A large concourse was in attendance.
There has been a desperate battle at Port Hudson. It is said that our forces were attacked by negro troops, and the slaughter of the latter was terrible.
I have a young cousin, Edwin Lessel, there in our army, who I am anxious to hoar from, he is a native of Nova Scotia, and when the war broke out, as he had only been a short time in this country, I told him he had better go home, as he could not have the same feeling toward the enemy as the southerners. He answered me, that was all a mistake; that from the time he was a little boy his highest ambition was to have a shot at them; and now the chance had come, he had no idea of throwing it away. He enlisted as a private in the “Scotch Guards,” which is now in the Second Alabama Regiment.
