February 20.—Since my return I have visited three of the hospitals; they have very few patients. The Levert (so called in honor of the late Dr. L. of this place) is set apart for officers. Our old patient, Captain Curran, is in it, and, much to my astonishment, is recovering.
This hospital is a small one, but seems perfect in every department. The surgeon— Dr. Redwood — was captured at Shiloh, and was for some time practicing in prisons in the North, and has his hospital arranged as they have them there. A hospital like his is all very well in a place like Mobile; but I am afraid, if he had a few runs like we have had, it would not be quite so nice. Captain C. asked me if I would not like to be in such a one. I answered him no; for then I might forget we had a war on hand, with all these nice things around me. There is one room trimmed with blue, another with yellow, etc. The whole hospital is not as large as one of our wards. I asked Captain C. what he thought would become of all these “pretty things,” if some few hundreds of wounded were brought in from the field, as we have had them many a time. I think the blue and yellow spreads would be slightly soiled.
On one of my visits there, Captain Curran informed me that the day previous his surgeon had neglected to state what was to be his diet, and he had to fast all day, as the matron could not give him any thing not prescribed. To think of a wounded man, who is convalescing, fasting a whole day! I think I should have broken the rules that day. I believe in discipline; but, as I heard a friend say, we need not break the rules, just bend them a little.
A good many jokes are told on Dr. R., on account of his strict discipline. It is said, one day when the examining board met there, and one of the surgeons was taken suddenly ill, Dr. R. could not procure whisky for him until he put his name down as a patient.
The other hospital (the Canty, so called in honor of General C.) is in a very handsome building. It was the city hospital, and part of it is still reserved for the use of the sick citizens. The Sisters of Charity are its matrons, and we all know what they are in hospitals. And, by the way, why can we not imitate them in this respect, during these war times? Here one of them is a druggist; another acts the part of steward; and, in fact, they could take charge of the whole hospital, with the exception of the medical department.
My friend, Dr. Henderson, is surgeon of this hospital; he kindly took us all through it. He is making great improvements, in the way of chicken-houses, etc., but somehow I never look at these things now without thinking we are doing all this work for our foes.
Dr. H. related an anecdote about the quartermaster. He was in want of lumber, and had tried fair means about getting it till he was tired; so he made it a rule to spend every spare hour he had in the quartermaster’s office, till the latter gave him as much lumber and other material as he wanted.
I tell the surgeons here that they do not know any thing about the war, compared with those in the field, and near it. There is one thing that I have remarked: they have many more privileges than those near the front. Nearly every surgeon in Mobile boards in the hospital; whereas, with us, they were on no account permitted to do so.
The Ross Hospital, so called in honor of Dr. R. of this place, is, like the others, parfait in every respect. Dr. Needlet of Missouri is surgeon, and Mrs. Crocker matron.
The surgeon-general, Dr. Moore, is constantly issuing orders to the medical department, and the order of one day contradicts that of the day previous. The surgeons are a good deal annoyed at these orders.
While visiting the Ross Hospital, Mrs. C. showed me a book large enough to keep all of the records of the Confederacy, in which she was to note every mouthful eaten by the patients, and every drop of whisky that they drank. According to the rules in this book, she will be compelled to keep some half dozen of assistants. On looking at its size, I could not but think that paper must be much more plentiful than we thought for. The diet-lists are amusing to read. We know there are such articles as those named in them, from having seen them in good old peace times, but that is about all we know of them. The lists always put me in mind of the receipt, “First catch your hare, and then make your pie.”
