ant, and the camp was warmed by immense burning log heaps,
which were the only fire-places or cooking-stoves of the camp or
hospitals. Men were detailed to fell the trees and pile the logs to heat
the air, which was very wintry. Beside these fires Mrs. Bickerdyke made
soup and toast, tea and coffee, and broiled mutton without a gridiron,
often blistering her fingers in the process. A house in due time was
demolished to make bunks for the worst cases, and the bricks from the
chimney were converted into an oven, where Mrs. Bickerdyke made bread,
yeast having been found in the Chicago boxes, and flour at a neighboring
mill which had furnished flour to secessionists through the war until
that time. Great multitudes were fed from these rude kitchens, and from
time to time other conveniences were added and the labor made somewhat
less exhausting. After four weeks of severe toil all the soldiers who
were able to leave were furloughed home, and the remainder, about nine
hundred, brought to a more comfortable Field Hospital, two miles from
Chattanooga. In this hospital Mrs. Bickerdyke continued her work, being
joined, New Year's eve, by Mrs. Eliza C. Porter, who thenceforward was
her constant associate, both being employed by the Northwestern Sanitary
Commission to attend to this work of special field relief in that army.
Mrs. Porter says that when she arrived there it was very cold, and the
wind which had followed a heavy rain was very piercing, overturning some
of the hospital tents and causing the inmates of all to tremble with
cold and anxious fear. Mrs. Bickerdyke was going from tent to tent in
the gale carrying hot bricks and hot drinks to warm and cheer the poor
fellows. It was touching to see the strong attachment the soldiers felt
for her. "She is a power of good," said one soldier. "We fared mighty
poor till she came here," said another. "God bless the Sanitary
Commission," said a third, "for sending women among us." True to her
attachment to the private soldiers, Mrs. Bickerdyke early sought an
interview with General Grant, and told him in her plain way, that the
surgeons in some of the hospitals were great rascals, and neglected the
men shamefully; and that unless they were removed and faithful men put
in their places, he would lose hundreds and perhaps thousands of his
veteran soldiers whom he could ill afford to spare. "You must not," she
said, "trust anybody's report in this matter, but see to it yourself.
Disguise