Memories - A Record of Personal Experience and Adventure During Four Years of War by Fannie A. Beers
page 47 of 362 (12%)
page 47 of 362 (12%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
glittering bayonets and gay flags of swiftly-passing soldiery. The air
was flooded with music until the last strain died away, and the calm which preceded a terrible storm of battle fell upon the city. The glorious scenes of the past few days had engendered a sense of protection and security. All felt that this splendid army _must_ prove invincible. In the Valley of Virginia brave troops under Stonewall Jackson were actively engaged in keeping the enemy at bay. Forced marches, insufficient food, the want of tents to shelter them from the weather while they slept, continually decimated this army. The number of wounded in our wards increased daily. Sick men poured into the hospital. Often they came too late, having remained at the post of duty until fever had sapped the springs of life or the rattling breath sounded the knell of hope, marking too surely that fatal disease, double pneumonia. Awestruck I watched the fierce battle for life, the awful agony, trying vainly every means of relief, lingering to witness struggles which wrung my heart, because I could not resist the appealing glance of dying eyes, the hoarse, whistling whisper that bade me stay,--because I must try to comfort the parting soul, must hope to catch some last word or message to comfort the loved ones at home. Since then I have witnessed every form of suffering and death, but none more appalling than the fierce struggle for breath, when the lungs are filling up by sure degrees, in the last stages of the disease. Never has the Death Angel seemed to me more merciful than when he took in his icy grasp the fevered hands wildly beating the |
|