rom the Chickahominy to Harrison's
Landing, Mrs. Harris was an active and deeply interested witness; she
remained at Savage Station caring for the wounded, for some time, and
then proceeded to Seven Pines, where a day was passed in preparing the
wounded for the operations deemed necessary, obtaining, at great
personal peril, candles to light the darkness of the field hospital, and
was sitting down, completely exhausted with her trying and wearisome
labors, when an army chaplain, an exception it is to be hoped to most of
his profession, in his unwillingness to serve the wounded, came to her
and said, "They have just brought in a soldier with a leg blown off; he
is in a horrible condition; could you wash him?" Wearied as she was, she
performed the duty tenderly, but it was scarcely finished when death
claimed him. Her escape to White House, and thence to Harrison's
Landing, was made not a minute too soon; she was obliged to abandon her
stores, and to come off on the steamer in a borrowed bonnet.

At this trying time, her constitutional tendency to despondency took
full possession of her. "The heavens are filled with blackness," she
writes; "I find myself on board the Nelly Baker, on my way to City
Point, with supplies for our poor army, if we still have one; I am not
always hopeful, you see. * * * Alarming accounts come to us. Prepare for
the worst, but hope for the best. We do not doubt we are in a very
critical condition, out of which only the Most High can bring us." This
is not the language of fear or cowardice. There was no disposition on
her part to seek her own personal safety, but while she despaired of
success, she was ready to brave any danger for the sake of the wounded
soldiers. This courage in the midst of despair, is really greater than
that of the battle-field.

The months of July and August, 1862, except a brief visit home, were
spent at Harrison's Landing, amid the scenes of distress, disease,
wounds and suffering, which abounded there. The malaria of the
Chickahominy swamps had done much to demoralize the finest army ever put
into the field; tens of thousands were ill with it, and these, with the
hosts of wounded accumulated more rapidly than the transports, numerous
as they were, could carry them away. Their condition at Harrison's
Landing was pitiable; the medical bureau seemed to have shared in the
general demoralization. The proper diet, the necessary hospital
arrangements, everything required for t