rd the battle, they found their
regiment stationed on a hill above them, and halting they made a fire
and prepared refreshments which they gave to all they could reach.

While working here the Surgeon of the First Division came hurrying past,
and peremptorily called on Mrs. Spencer to go and help form a hospital.
When she and Mr. Spencer found that many men of their own regiment were
in the train of ambulances which was going slowly past with the
sufferers, they followed.

They crossed to the White Church, on the Baltimore turnpike, about four
miles from Gettysburg, and reached there after dark. They had sixty
wounded undergoing every variety of suffering and torture. The church
was small, having but one aisle, and the narrow seats were fixtures. A
small building adjoining provided boards which were laid on the tops of
the seats, and covered with straw, and on these the wounded were laid.

The supply train had been sent back fourteen miles. A number of surgeons
were there, but none had instruments, and could do very little for the
wounded, and Mrs. Spencer found the stores contained in her knapsacks
and haversacks most useful in refreshing these sufferers.

In the course of a few days the confusion subsided. The hospital was
thoroughly organized. The Sanitary and Christian Commissions and the
people came and aided them, and order came out of the chaos that
followed this awful battle.

On the 5th of July, the buildings and tents which formed this hospital
contained over six hundred Union troops, and more than one hundred
wounded prisoners, and Mrs. Spencer found herself constantly and fully
employed, nursing the wounded, and daily riding into town for supplies.

It was here that she gained, and very justly as it would seem, the
credit of saving the life of a wounded soldier, a townsman of her own.
The man was shot in the mouth and throat, a huge gaping orifice on the
side of his neck showing where the ball found exit. The surgeons gave
him but a few days to live, as he could swallow nothing, the liquids
which were all he even could attempt to take, passing out by the wound.
Tearfully he besought Mrs. Spencer's aid. Young and strong, and full of
life, he could not contemplate a death of slow starvation. Mrs. Spencer
went to the surgeons and besought their aid. None of them could give
hope, for none conceived the strength of will in nurse or patient.

"Do as I tell you ----, and you shall not die," said Mrs. Spencer.