I go around from
one case to another. I do not see that I do much good to these wounded
and dying; but I cannot leave them. Once in a while some youngster
holds on to me convulsively, and I do what I can for him; at any rate,
stop with him and sit near him for hours, if he wishes it.
Besides the hospitals, I also go occasionally on long tours through
the camps, talking with the men, &c. Sometimes at night among the
groups around the fires, in their shebang enclosures of bushes.
These are curious shows, full of characters and groups. I soon get
acquainted anywhere in camp, with officers or men, and am always well
used. Sometimes I go down on picket with the regiments I know best.
As to rations, the army here at present seems to be tolerably well
supplied, and the men have enough, such as it is, mainly salt pork
and hard tack. Most of the regiments lodge in the flimsy little
shelter-tents. A few have built themselves huts of logs and mud, with
fire-places.
BACK TO WASHINGTON
_January, '63_.--Left camp at Falmouth, with some wounded, a few days
since, and came here by Aquia creek railroad, and so on government
steamer up the Potomac. Many wounded were with us on the cars and
boat. The cars were just common platform ones. The railroad journey
of ten or twelve miles was made mostly before sunrise. The soldiers
guarding the road came out from their tents or shebangs of bushes with
rumpled hair and half-awake look. Those on duty were walking their
posts, some on banks over us, others down far below the level of the
track.
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