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Fort
Delaware, Nov. 13th, 1863
My Darling Wife,
...Well
darling by this time I am beginning to feel at home...but I do not feel
Exceedingly Exalted by the position. The duties in general are not arduous,
I visit my ward of fifty patients at 8 1/2 in the mornings, at 4 in after
noon (sic) and as often between times as I feel disposed. I prescribe
for them, fix the diet table and order whatever I please in regard to
arrangement of my patients...
It
is a first rate place here to see every character and type of disease.
I told you that there were 3500 prisoners here, there are at present 660
sick, 156 cases of small pox, and a case of almost every disease ever
heard of.
Fort
Delaware, Jan. 10th 1864
My Darling Wife,
I
was particularly fortunate last week in receiving two letters from you.
I rejoice my dear wife that you have so far escaped a cold, which very
bothersome visitor has been so very free about lately. On the Island here
we have among the prisoners very many severe cases of Pneumonia, the fatality
is very great. Those poor fellows already much weakened with Scurvy, etc.,
soon succumb to an attack of inflammation of the lungs. Do what you will,
they die here daily from this disease. Among the articles of news I must
tell you that whilst we were all congratulating ourselves upon the ending
and decline of small pox, behold it breaks out with renewed vigor and...I
should not be at all surprised if it should go the rounds and leave us
all alike...
We
are still having very cold weather although today at noon it was quite
comfortable. The river here is full of ice and our steamboat is laid up
for the winter...I am certain that I cannot bear comfortably the same
amount of cold that I could a few years ago-- I have often thought of
the tramps through the snow from morning until night in early days and,
later in life, the long sleigh rides at night when I imagined it delightful--
the very thought of it makes me shiver. I declare I would not go out on
a sleigh ride just now, nor any time, I believe, for a handsome sum...
Several
of the cases in the hospital are from frozen feet and I have no doubt
that those men in the rebel barracks suffer much from the cold as the
barracks are only wooden structures and the boarding not very neatly or
closely done. Few if any of them have ever been so far North in winter,
they are principally from Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, etc.
and I cannot see how they are to avoid disease and suffering...The vaccine
arrived safely, I thought I had written in regard to it, on some it did
well, but most were failures. I have been vaccinated twice since I have
been here and was tried again today.
Fort
Delaware, March 20th 1864
My Darling Wife,
...immediately
after tea, two medical gentlemen came to my room and remained until this
minute...One of them is a newcomer here, a very gentlemanly man. Unfortunately
among the last batch of prisoners he met his own brother which of course
makes him feel somewhat unpleasant, he is trying to have him released,
to take oath, and go north, etc, etc. All very fine, but I must say I
cannot exactly see the propriety of liberating men who have been in arms
for months and years against the government, merely upon the pretext that
they are sorry for it and a promise of good behavior in future, all this
too immediately after capture. It seems to me like a very hasty repentance
for misdeeds.
Fort
Delaware, June 12th 1864
My Darling Wife,
We
have all talked of offering our services to go to the front...I assure
you my dear wife I would much prefer serving my country where I think
I could do really more service than doctoring rebels and I would gladly
go again into the field were it not for one consideration. I have yet
to see the day when I felt the duties of active duty too irksome-no fatigue-no
privation nor any exposure ever made me regret a single moment that I
was there. Neither would any consideration of the same deter me one single
instant from again starting off. I would gladly go. I would feel more
like myself and decidedly feel more at home than I do here. There is something
comforting even amid distress among the wounded and the dying. I say there
is something comforting to you to know that you are helping to relieve
them-that you are there on the spot and with the good, the brave and the
strong as well as the weak and dying, are exposed to the same trials and
privations. You feel that you can do something for them, you can do some
good. You are then identified with the cause for which they fought and
were stricken and you feel that you have the right to glory in the flag
in whose shadow you repose...but in the meantime I will to try and do
my duty here.
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