agreeably. After I had gone to my room, a kind old lady came to me to
beg that I would reconsider my determination to accept the position of
matron, but, finding me firm and somewhat dignified, left me to my
fate.

The next morning, escorted by Dr. Minor, I went through the hospital.

For the first time my heart utterly misgave me, and I felt that my
courage was inadequate to the task before me. I must premise that this
was not a State hospital, but under the direction of the Confederate
Government, which, at that time, was full of perplexity and trouble,
yet, like all new governments, exceedingly tenacious of forms. Dr.
Minor told me that the time and attention of Dr. McAllister had been
fully occupied in untying, one after another, knots of red tape, and
that, so far, perfect organization had been impossible.

I entered the wards expecting to find something of the neatness and
order which in the Richmond hospitals had charmed every visitor.

Alas! alas! were _these_ the brave men who had made forever glorious
the name of Shiloh?

Hospital supplies were scarce; beds and bedding could not be often
changed. Here were rooms crowded with uncomfortable-looking beds, on
which lay men whose gangrened wounds gave forth foul odors, which,
mingled with the terrible effluvia from the mouths of patients ill of
scurvy, sent a shuddering sickness through my frame. In one room were
three or four patients with faces discolored and swollen out of all
semblance of humanity by erysipelas,--raging with fever, shouting in
delirious agony.