for
the wounded, which they handed over to the Commission.

"Twice a day the trains left for Baltimore or Harrisburg, and twice a
day we fed all the wounded who arrived for them. Things were
systematized now, and the men came down in long ambulance trains to the
cars; baggage-cars they were, filled with straw for the wounded to lie
on, and broken open at either end to let in the air. A Government
surgeon was always present to attend to the careful lifting of the
soldiers from ambulance to car. Many of the men could get along very
nicely, holding one foot up, and taking great jumps on their crutches.
The latter were a great comfort; we had a nice supply at the Lodge; and
they traveled up and down from the tents to the cars daily. Only
occasionally did we dare let a pair go on with some very lame soldier,
who begged for them; we needed them to help the new arrivals each day,
and trusted to the men being supplied at the hospitals at the journey's
end. Pads and crutches are a standing want,--pads particularly. We
manufactured them out of the rags we had, stuffed with sawdust from
brandy-boxes; and with half a sheet and some soft straw, Mrs. ---- made
a poor dying boy as easy as his sufferings would permit. Poor young
fellow, he was so grateful to her for washing and feeding and comforting
him. He was too ill to bear the journey, and went from our tent to the
church hospital, and from the church to his grave, which would have been
coffinless but for the care of ----; for the Quartermaster's Department
was overtaxed, and for many days our dead were simply wrapped in their
blankets and put into the earth. It is a soldierly way, after all, of
lying wrapped in the old war-worn blanket,--the little dust returned to
dust.

"When the surgeons had the wounded all placed, with as much comfort as
seemed possible under the circumstances, on board the train, our detail
of men would go from car to car, with soup made of beef-stock or fresh
meat, full of potatoes, turnips, cabbage, and rice, with fresh bread
and coffee, and, when stimulants were needed, with ale, milk-punch, or
brandy. Water-pails were in great demand for use in the cars on the
journey, and also empty bottles to take the place of canteens. All our
whisky and brandy bottles were washed and filled up at the spring, and
the boys went off carefully hugging their extemporized canteens, from
which they would wet their wounds, or refresh themselves till the
journey ended. I do