October 28—On my way to the wards this morning I was annoyed at something which happened. I had made up my mind to leave the hospital, but on entering the wards all of this feeling vanished. When I saw the smile with which I was greeted on every side, and the poor sufferers so glad to see me, I made up my mind, I hope for the last time, that, happen what may, nothing will ever make me leave the hospital as long as I can be of any service to the suffering.
The surgeons have told me it is impossible for Mr. Groover to live. I have written to his wife, and told her of his condition. Poor man! he cried like a child when spoken to about his wife, and begged me not to let her know how badly he was wounded.
We have a badly wounded man, named Robbins; he has always a smile on his face and a joke for every one. He sings hymns all the time, and I am told on the battle-field he was as cheerful as he is now.
We have two lads severely wounded; one named Moore, from North Carolina, wounded in the lungs. He is as patient as if he were an old man. The other, named Seborn Horton, from Alabama; ho is not more than sixteen years of age. He is a great sufferer. Nothing pleases him better than to have ladies come to see him, and I beg all the girls, little and big, to come. One day I took some ladies to see him, and there was a crowd of little girls standing around him. I remarked that he would be pleased now. He answered that he was, but he was afraid the girls would not come back again. They had brought him a bouquet, which he prized very highly. Our men all seem fond of flowers.
We have numbers of Texas soldiers, members of Hood’s division. They are a fine-looking lot of men, and seem brave enough to face any danger. I have had not a little quarreling with them. They will have it that this army is not to be compared with the one in Virginia for bravery. I do not agree with them, for I have always heard it said that up here we have the flower of the North with which to contend. But these things do for something to talk about. It is amusing to hear the men abusing the different states. Of course it is all in jest, but sometimes they wax quite warm on the subject.
When our army was in Mississippi, had I believed one half the stories told of the people, I should have thought it the meanest state in the Confederacy.
While in Tennessee the same story was told; and now that we are in Georgia, it is honored by the same cognomen. I have come to the conclusion that where our army is that by it the country is injured, and that makes the people do things they otherwise would not. This the soldiers do not think about.
It is reported that General Thomas has superseded General Rosecrans, and that at Chattanooga we have the enemy completely hemmed in.
Our army is on Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, and we have possession of the Nashville Railroad. The enemy have to haul their supplies from a great distance. On this account it is rumored that they are starving in Chattanooga. But I have heard some say that, with all their drawbacks, they are not only not starving, but are being heavily reinforced. It seems like folly to listen to any thing. I hope and pray that General B. will not feel too secure, and that he will be on the alert. Nearly all the defeats we have ever had have been from our want of caution.
