, and the few wounded in the siege of Yorktown, were, after the
battles of Williamsburg and West Point crowded with such of the wounded,
both Union and Confederate soldiers as could be brought so far from the
battle-fields. She spent two or three weeks here, aiding the noble women
who were acting as Matrons of these hospitals. From thence she went on
board the Vanderbilt, then just taken as a Government Transport for the
wounded from the bloody field of Fair Oaks.

She thus describes the scene and her work:

"There were eight hundred on board. Passage-ways, state-rooms,
floors from the dark and foetid hold to the hurricane deck, were
all more than filled; some on mattresses, some on blankets, others
on straw; some in the death-struggle, others nearing it, some
already beyond human sympathy and help; some in their blood as they
had been brought from the battle-field of the Sabbath previous, and
all hungry and thirsty, not having had anything to eat or drink,
except hard crackers, for twenty-four hours.

"The gentlemen who came on with us hurried on to the White House,
and would have had us go with them, but something held us back;
thank God it was so. Meeting Dr. Cuyler, Medical Director, he
exclaimed, 'Here is work for you!' He, poor man, was completely
overwhelmed with the general care of all the hospitals at Old
Point, and added to these, these mammoth floating hospitals, which
are coming in from day to day with their precious cargoes. Without
any previous notice, they anchor, and send to him for supplies,
which it would be extremely difficult to improvise, even in our
large cities, and quite impossible at Old Point. 'No bakeries, no
stores, except small sutlers.' The bread had all to be baked; the
boat rationed for two days; _eight hundred_ on board.

"When we went aboard, the first cry we met was for tea and bread.
'For God's sake, give us _bread_,' came from many of our wounded
soldiers. Others shot in the face or neck, begged for liquid food.
With feelings of a _mixed_ character, shame, indignation, and
sorrow blending, we turned away to see what resources we could
muster to meet the demand. A box of tea, a barrel of cornmeal,
sundry parcels of dried fruit, a few crackers, ginger cakes, dried
rusk, sundry jars of jelly and of pickles, were seized upon,
soldiers and con