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

November 27. [Chattanooga] —W. H. Williams, one of Hardee’s body-guard, died on the 25th. Had one case of small-pox, which has been sent to the pest-house. I am told the disease is of a mild type, and very few die of it.

The enemy are preparing to give battle to the Tennessee army; Rosecrans, their ablest general, is in command. News of a battle is daily expected.

Two ladies of this place, Mrs. Brooks and Mrs. Brewer, called on us to-day. I was much pleased with them.

November 24. [Chattanooga] —The small-pox is in town. We are all ordered to be vaccinated.

Have just received a letter from Mr. M—— ;he says provisions are so high in Mobile that it is almost impossible to live, and that speculators are making piles of money out of the misfortunes of their country. It will be a curse to them and their posterity after them, for it is the very blood of their fellow-mortals they are making it out of. I little thought, when we set out, that there was one man in the whole South who could be guilty of such a base act. How can they expect men to fight for them when they are taking the lives of their wives and children? They may shudder at the accusation, but in the eyes of God they are murderers. Butt there is a day of reckoning for them, and then may God have mercy on them! for if they only suffer one half the pangs of which they have been the cause, their case will be sad indeed.

This is a land flowing with milk and honey; enough of food in it to supply us if the blockade should last forever, and be much more effectual than it is. I trust, that good men—for we have many of them—will rise in their might, and drive these wretches from among us.

November 23. [Chattanooga] —Lieutenant Chamberlain of the Twenty-fourth Alabama Regiment brought us a box of clothing, a donation from the Mobile Military Aid Society.

The day has been very beautiful. I went to the Presbyterian Church in the morning; the Episcopal Church is still closed. I regret this, as the town is full of soldiers, and churches are much needed.

November 21. [Chattanooga] —Another death occurred to-day—J. B. Little of the Eighth Mississippi Regiment.

The steward’s wife has gone; Mrs. Snow from Mobile has taken her place.

November 17.—Mr. W. James, a member of the Twenty-seventh Mississippi Regiment, died to-day.

I find I have more than I can possibly attend to. Dr. H. has written to Mrs. Ogden, requesting her to take the hospital in charge. I do hope she will come.

Sunday, November 16.—I called on Mrs. Newsom this morning, and found her cooking dinner, for about fifty men, on a small grate; she had to cook one article at a time. Mrs. N. was in distress on account of news she had just received from her home, in Arkansas. Her father, a Baptist minister, had been imprisoned and otherwise harshly treated, because he would not take the oath of allegiance to the United States government. I met a lady there, who had come to see her brother, and found him dead; she was in mourning for her husband, who died recently. Mr. Williams was holding service in the dining-room; it was filled with soldiers.

November 15. [Chattanooga] —Mr. Rally, husband of the lady who had charge of the kitchen, died this morning. He had been all through the Kentucky campaign, and had been a good and brave soldier. His poor wife is almost heart-broken. I tried to get her to stay with me, but as every thing here was connected with her sorrows, I could not prevail on her to remain. She had the consolation of being with him in his last moments—one that many a woman would give worlds to have.

Lost another patient—J. P. Allen of Milliards Legion, from Coosa County, Ala. He was a long and patient sufferer. His death was one of those we can think on with pleasure; it was that of a soldier of the cross. He met our great enemy with his armor on, and ready for the conflict. When I told him his moments were numbered, he said he was perfectly happy, and desired me to write to his wife, and tell her he hoped to meet her and his child in heaven. He made me a present of his Bible, which I shall treasure as long as I live.

All our men seem to die resigned; but it is difficult to judge of their frame of mind, as they are too far gone with disease when they come here to talk to them on the subject of death, which is another proof of the necessity of preparing, while in health, for that long journey from which no traveler returns. Nearly all of the men who have died here were in a dying state when brought from the camps.

Yesterday we had a visit from Dr. —— of Kentucky. He was on General Bragg’s staff through the Kentucky campaign. He and some others went to the house of an old acquaintance and asked for food for themselves and horses, but the man was so afraid of the Federal authorities that he refused to give them any thing. This gentleman’s daughters acted in defiance of all restraint, and gave them a cordial welcome, and entertained them by singing southern songs. Dr.—— blamed the people of Kentucky for the failure of the campaign, and says that General Bragg did not receive the aid he expected from them.

November 11. [Chattanooga] —Each corps of the army has hospitals assigned it; ours belongs to General Hardee’s. He visited it to day, and was much pleased with its order and its cleanliness. We are getting along much better in every way; have dried fruit, a few eggs and potatoes, and bettor cooks.

I went out shopping with Mrs. Newsom, and was quite amused at a bargain she was trying to make with a woman who had potatoes to sell. She tried to get them on credit; but the woman was inexorable, and would not give them; even with all the tales that Mrs. N. told of the sick men needing them. The woman said she had no faith in hospitals paying; so Mrs. N. had to come away without them, and wait till she got the money. She is expecting some—the proceeds of a concert given by the ladies of the place.

November 10. [Chattanooga] —I went with a party horseback riding to-day. General Hardee was our “pilot” and an excellent one he was. He took us to the top of a very steep ridge; there was one of the finest views from it I have ever beheld; every now and again we could see the river, as if peeping out from its many islands. Although we have had frost and snow, the trees had not shed their foliage, and were beautiful with the gorgeous hues of autumn. When we reached the summit, there was naught there save the “silent worshipers;” there was a solemnity which seemed like the “felt presence of the Deity.”

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“along these lonely regions where, retired

From little scenes of art, great nature dwells

In awful solitude.”

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As we were descending, the girth of my saddle broke; some men were near, who helped mend it. While waiting, I looked over the precipice we were near, and saw a “darksome glen,” where the “noble stag” that Fitz James so ruthlessly chased might have been “soon lost to hound and hunter’s ken.” It was a most solitary nook, by mountain and hill surrounded. The sun was setting, and

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“The western waves of ebbing day

Rolled o’er the glen their leveled way;

Each purple peak, each flinty spire,

Was bathed in floods of living fire,

But not a setting beam could glow

Within the dark ravine below.”

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The author of the “Tactics” is truly a military-looking man, and combines the fortiter in re with tho suaviler in modo. At the commencement of the war, while a colonel, he had command of Fort Morgan. He is held in high esteem by his men. Major Roy, who I believe is his adjutant-general, was with him. He is a handsome man, and has a fine address. He spoke of the general most affectionately.

On reaching home, I found that one of my patients had died in my absence. His name was Thompson, a lieutenant in the Twenty-seventh Mississippi Regiment. He was brought into the hospital, a day or two ago, in a dying state. His captain was with him, and left me his sister’s address. I have a lock of his hair, which I will send her when I write.