a week he left his bed, and the devoted pair proceeded thither to renew
their services, where they were then so greatly needed.

Mrs. Holstein's first night in this town was passed upon the parlor
floor of a hotel, with only a satchel for a pillow, where fatigue made
her sleep soundly. The morning saw them at the Field Hospital of the
Second Corps, where they were enthusiastically welcomed by their old
friends. Here, side by side, just as they had been brought in from the
field, lay friends and enemies.

Experience had taught Mr. and Mrs. Holstein how and what to do. Very
soon their tent was completed, their "Diet Kitchen" arranged, the
valuable supplies they had brought with them ready for distribution, and
their work moving on smoothly and beneficially amid all the horrors of
this terrible field.

"There," reports Mrs. Holstein, "as in all places where I have known our
brave Union soldiers, they bore their sufferings bravely, I might almost
say _exultingly_, because they were for 'The Flag' and our country."

The scenes of horror and of sadness enacted there, have left their
impress upon the mind of Mrs. Holstein in unfading characters. And yet,
amidst these there were some almost ludicrous, as for instance, that of
the soldier, White, of the Twentieth Massachusetts, who, supposed to be
dead, was borne, with two of his comrades, to the grave side, but
revived under the rude shock with which the stretcher was set down, and
looking down into the open grave in which lay a brave lieutenant of his
own regiment, declared, with grim fun, that he would not be "buried by
that raw recruit," and ordered the men to "carry him back." This man,
though fearfully wounded in the throat, actually lived and recovered.

The government was now well equipped with stores and supplies, but Mrs.
Holstein writes her testimony, with that of all others, to the most
valuable supplementary aid of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions,
in caring for the vast army of wounded and suffering upon this dreadful
field.

By the 7th of August all had been removed who were able to bear
transportation, to other hospitals. Three thousand remained, who were
placed in the United States General Hospital on York Turnpike. The
Second Corps Hospital was merged in this, and Mrs. Holstein remained as
its matron until its close, and was fully occupied until the removal of
the hospital and the dedication of the National Cemetery.

She then returned home, but af