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

May 28.—Vicksburg has not yet fallen, but all think it is a matter of time, and it would not surprise us to hear of its capture at any moment, as the enemy have surrounded it with an overwhelming force; but our troops are holding it manfully. Every attack on it is repulsed with great loss to the enemy. It is said that lately the enemy attacked it with bravery and determination; advancing right on our breastworks, and were mowed down by thousands. The people in the place are suffering terribly.

I went with a party to visit a very large cave, called Nick-o’-Jack; it is some sixty miles from here, on the Nashville road, and about half a mile from the railroad. It was well worth going to see. The entrance has a magnificent arch. There is a lake running through it, which reminded me of a picture I had seen of the valley of the shadow of death. We went a great distance through it, and crept through many a small crevice, and came out with a few shades of the Ethiopian on us. Having no soap with which to remove it, we made use of clay, which we found a very good substitute. The party was a very pleasant one. We had a nice collation set on some boards for tables, and more good things than I thought were in the Confederacy.

We have received two boxes from Mobile, one filled with medicines from the military aid society; the other with cans of oysters bought with money given by Mr. Sibley.

I have just paid a visit to the Foard Hospital. It is the receiving one, and is now in a nice new building. On going in I was stopped by a guard, and had to wait till Dr. Thornton came to my rescue. The latter kindly gave me a pass to go and come whenever I please. We have many strange things to do in these war times.

Sunday, May 24.—Charles Maguire died to-day of typhoid fever; he was a member of the Eighteenth Alabama Regiment . His wife lives in Sinclair County, Alabama.

A few days ago James Barstow, one of my patients, died. He had been here for some time. He was from Yorkshire, England. He was very sad when he spoke of his home, and was grieved to think he could not let his people know where he was. He was much relieved when I informed him I knew of a way of sending letters through the blockade, and would write to his friends. The morning after this conversation, being very busy, I did not visit the wards, when, to my surprise, one of the nurses came and told me he was dead. I had no chance of asking him what part of Yorkshire he was from, so I wrote to Lieutenant Robinson, Company E, Seventh Arkansas Regiment, of which Mr. B. had been a member, to see if he could give me any information concerning his people, and also about a cousin who had come to this country with him, and had died in the service. Lieutenant R. could give me little or no satisfaction on the subject, but referred me to Mr. Tunstall, in Jackson Fort, Arkansas. He spoke very highly of Mr. B., and said he had been a good and brave soldier. The latter left over one hundred dollars, which he gave to Mr. Andrews, his nurse, who had been very kind to him. I have taken part of it, and had a nice head-board put to his grave, the best I could get in this place. On it was inscribed: “To the memory of James Barstow, Seventh Arkansas Regiment. Born in Yorkshire, England; died in Chattanooga, Tennessee, May 19, 1863, of typhoid fever, aged twenty-two years. He sacrificed his life for his adopted country, and fell a martyr for liberty.

‘Here leave the sleeper with his God to rest.'”

May 22.—All kinds of bad news is floating about; viz: Jackson, Mississippi, burnt to the ground; Vicksburg fallen, etc. The fall of Vicksburg has cast a gloom over all, but it is not the Confederacy, and the enemy will have to do some hard fighting before they take that. Many are calling General Pemberton, who was in command, a traitor.

May 20.—Last evening a friend sent me word that my brother was in the Gilmer Hospital. (It is now on the same hill as the Academy). I went there immediately, and was glad to find that he had not much the matter with him. He has a carbuncle on his arm, caused by bad food. A change of air and diet would, I feel certain, benefit him more than any thing else.

I staid all night with Mrs. Gorman, the matron of the hospital; it is a perfect treat to visit there. The hospital buildings are newly put up; they are composed of four or five two-story wards, each large enough for about fifty patients. Each ward has a small room attached to it, used as a distributing-room and pantry, and another, used as a bath-room. I went through Dr. Cannon’s ward. (Dr. Cannon is the same whom I met in Corinth.) Every thing about it was in perfect order. The bunks had on white comforts, not the least soiled, although they had been in use some time. The view from the upper part of these wards is perfectly entrancing; the trees are magnificent. I called Dr. Cannon’s attention to the scene, and asked him if there was any thing in England to equal it (he is an Englishman). He said he had seen nothing to surpass it, and that he considered the view from his window one of the finest in the world.

This morning, before leaving, I paid a visit to the Academy Hospital, which is but a short distance from the other. They both belong to General Polk’s corps. Both have been put up since we came to Chattanooga. The Academy has been finished some time. It is perfect in every department. The wards are but one story high, each holding about twenty-five patients. They have a small distributing room for every two of these wards. The food is brought from the kitchen to them, and distributed by a ward matron.

They have very few patients at present . The wards are fixed up very nicely, having been newly whitewashed, and Mrs. N. has them very tastefully dressed with evergreens. The attendants sleep in tents, some of which are fixed up as nicely as any house. I visited one belonging to the druggist’s wife, who is one of the matrons. There was a place dug in the ground about three feet deep, the sides bricked around, and floored with planks, on which was a carpet . It had a chimney and fire-place; the tent-cloth was put over all, and gutters around, to keep out the rain. A very nice lady has charge of the linen room. In this hospital the patients have their clothes washed as soon as they come in. The wash-house is a little ways from the rest of the hospital; in it are large boilers, built on brick, and an ironing-room, and a shed for drying the clothes in wet weather.

There is one great drawback which we all have: the water used has to be carried from the river in barrels. The wards are at least twenty yards apart. Mrs. N. tells me that Dr. Hawthorne, the surgeon, is one of the best managers she has ever been with; but I have been told one thing about him, that proves that he is not a humane man; I refer to his method of punishing the men by bucking and gagging; sometimes he puts a bayonet in their mouth instead of a stick, and ties it so tightly that the blood gushes out. Many a time he has made the men stay in this position twenty-four hours, giving them neither food nor water. I do not think there is any necessity for going to such extremes. We have as good discipline in our hospital as there is any need for, and nothing of that kind is ever resorted to.

On my way back this morning, I called on Mrs. Brewer, and had an introduction to Major-General McCown, who is now under arrest for disobedience of orders, or, as a lady the other day told me, for giving his men coffee! I found him very pleasant in conversation; he told us he had experienced nothing here in comparison with what he had endured in other campaigns. I think he had been in the regular army, and had been at Salt Lake, or on some expedition against the Indians.

May 18.—Dr. Hunter has come back, and brought his wife with him.

News has come that there has been a destructive raid in Mississippi, and that the raiders have destroyed Jackson. Mrs. H.’s home is near there, so she is miserable accordingly. The papers are filled with accounts of raids which have taken place all over the Confederacy. Mississippi and North Alabama have suffered from these horrible scourges. The raiders burn houses and destroy provisions of all kinds, and I am told they have positive orders to destroy all farming implements. This is the way they think they will make us submit—ruin the country, and starve us. I have no fear of their succeeding by such fiendish means. There is an overruling Providence who will not permit this long. There is no doubt but we will have great suffering, but it will be of short duration. General Forrest has lately captured four times his own number of these marauders, at Rome, Georgia.

I received a letter from Mr. Davis, father of the young man who died a short time since. Poor man! he had just heard of the death of another son, who was wounded and a prisoner (he was captured at the battle of Murfreesboro), and of two others, who are very sick at Wartrace, where part of our army is at present.

I am told that Breckinridge’s command is now on its way to Mississippi, to join the army at Vicksburg, which is closely besieged. I can not see how it is possible that we are ever going to hold it against the immense power which the enemy are bringing against it.

We have more trials with our domestic arrangements. It seems that the laundresses, for whom transportation was provided, have husbands in the army, and have taken this method of getting to see them without expense. The transportation agent here found out they were at the depot, and what they intended doing. He sent word to Dr. Stout, and Dr. Hunter sent down three of our surgeons to see after them. They brought up two of them to our room; I could scarcely keep from laughing, as they looked like real prisoners of war, and the doctors like their captors. They were very nice looking women; one of them said she had never washed her own clothes, and did n’t see how she was going to wash for any one else. I felt provoked at them for being so dishonest. Dr. Stout has sent orders that they must be kept till they work out the price of their transportation tickets.

Joseph Morton died to-day; he was a member of the Second Arkansas Regiment, and was from Sylvia County, Arkansas.

May 11.—I note this as being one of the gloomiest days since the war. News has just been received that one of our brightest stars has left us; he has gone to shine in a more glorious sphere than this. The good and great General Stonewall Jackson has fallen; he was wounded at the battle of Chancellorsville, and lived a few days afterward. When I first heard of it I was speechless, and thought, with the apostle, “how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways are past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord.” Dark and mysterious indeed, are his ways. Who dare attempt to fathom them, when such men as Jackson are cut down in the zenith of their glory, and at the very hour of their country’s need?

The honor of taking this great man’s life was not reserved for the foe, but for his own men, as if it were a sacrifice they offered to the Lord, as Jephtha gave up his daughter.

“Is there one who hath thus, through his orbit of life,

But at distance, observed him through glory, through blame,

In the calm of retreat, in the grandeur of strife,

Whether shining or clouded, still high and the same.

O no, not a heart that e’er knew him but mourns

Deep, deep o’er the grave, where such glory is ‘shrined,

O’er a monument Fame will preserve, ‘mong the urns

Of the wisest, the bravest, the best of mankind!”

May 10.—A member of the Thirty-sixth Tennessee Regiment, Mr. Pike, has just died. He left a message with me for his wife, who lives in Smith County, Virginia. He told me to tell her he was perfectly happy. The nurses have informed mo ho was a most patient sufferer, and prayed nearly all the time.

We have a number of returned prisoners; I believe they are General Churchhill’s men, who were taken at Arkansas Post. Some of them have told me that the ladies in the North treated them with a great deal of kindness, for which they have my blessing. Among our patients we have a colonel, who seems to be much of a gentleman, and is a Christian; he tells me that General Bragg, that best-abused man in the world, has a personal dislike for him, and tries to annoy him in every possible way. I regret hearing any thing like this about one so high in command, as I think it shows a littleness of mind, and makes us lose confidence in him.

May 9.—We are in daily expectation of a battle; and we are completely out of rags—a very necessary article at this time. We have just received two boxes, both from Mobile. The good people of that place could not have sent us any thing more acceptable. We also received a dispatch from there requesting transportation for some laundresses, who are coming on. We are much in need of them. There are numbers of poor people here, but many seem to be unfit for any thing. They are the most miserable looking beings I have ever met. Reading or writing with them is out of the question. I expect, if I were to ask them about education, they would scarcely know what I meant. I hope the people we see here are not a fair specimen of the poorer class of country people in Tennessee. I also received a letter from a relative, informing me that the military aid society had some medicines they would send us, if we needed them. I asked Dr. Patterson, and he replied that nothing would be more acceptable, as many of our men have died for want of them.

Strange to say that although the government does not provide near enough of medicines, it will not permit us to spend our hospital fund for them, and we find it impossible to spend what we have on edibles, as they are not to be bought.

May 5.—I had quite a treat to-day— have been with a party, horseback riding, to the top of Lookout Mountain. I do not know how many feet its elevation is, but the road we took was four miles from the base. It is a made one, and many parts of it is cut out of solid rock; some portions are very narrow, and it made me quite nervous and giddy to look back.

“Now wound the path its dizzy ledge

Around a precipice’s ledge;

Sometimes in dizzy steps ascending,

Sometimes in narrow circuit bending,

Sometimes in platform broad extending,

Its varying circuit did combine.”

When we reached the summit, the view from it was really entrancing.

We sat on the Point of Rocks, which is the furtherest point of the mountain, under the shade of some magnificent trees. The scene presented below was one of the most beautiful pictures I ever beheld. The Tennessee River, with its various windings, made the plain beneath look like many islands, on which were

“Deep waving fields and pastures green,

With gentle slopes and groves between.”

We sat for some time in perfect silence; I was completely awed; I thought of our Savior when he preached his memorable “sermon on the mount.” I am afraid we have not profited much by it, or we would not be as we are now.

I am told that on a clear day, with a good glass, seven states can be seen from the top of this mountain.

As we came down, a Mr. Chandler, who was with us, took us to a natural stone bridge, which was about a hundred feet high. A very fine spring of water gushed from the side of the rocks forming this bridge, making a perfect waterfall. The whole scene was like fairy land. I do not think that Switzerland or Scotland has any finer scenes than we have here. Had this country only poets to sing her beauties, I have no doubt they would be as famous as any in the old world.