disciple of old, who said, 'Master, it is good to be here,' and
wished that we might set up our tabernacle and glorify the Lord by
doing good to the sick, the lame, and those who had been in
prison."

"_December 8, 1864._

"No human tongue or pen can ever describe the horrible suffering we
have witnessed this day.

"I was early at the landing, eight and a-half o'clock in the
morning, before the boat threw out her ropes for security. The
first one brought two hundred bad cases, which the Naval surgeon
told me should properly go to the hospital near by, were it not
that others were coming, every one of whom was in the most wretched
condition imaginable. They were, therefore, sent in ambulances to
Camp Parole hospital, distant two miles, after being washed and fed
at the barracks.

"In a short time another boat-load drew near, and oh! such a scene
of suffering humanity I desire never to behold again. The whole
deck was a bed of straw for our exhausted, starved, emaciated,
dying fellow-creatures. Of the five hundred and fifty that left
Savannah, the surgeon informed me not over two hundred would
survive; fifty had died on the passage; three died while the boat
was coming to the land. I saw five men dying as they were carried
on stretchers from the boat to the Naval Hospital. The
stretcher-bearers were ordered by Surgeon D. Vanderkieft to pause a
moment that the names of the dying men might be obtained. To the
credit of the officers and their assistants it should be known that
everything was done in the most systematic and careful manner. Each
stretcher had four attendants, who stood in line and came up
promptly, one after the other, to receive the sufferers as they
were carried off the boat. There was no confusion, no noise; all
acted with perfect military order. Ah! it was a solemn funeral
service to many a brave soldier, that was thus being performed by
kind hearts and hands.

"Some had become insane; their wild gaze, and clenched teeth
convinced the observer that reason had fled; others were idiotic; a
few lying in spasms; perhaps the realization of the hope long
cherished, yet oft deferred, or the welcome sound of the music,
sent forth by the military band, was more than their exhausted
nature could bear. When blanket