n
changed the aspect of affairs, and though the malarial fever still
raged, there was a better chance of recovery from it, and the sick men
were as rapidly as possible transferred to a better climate, and a
healthier atmosphere. In the latter part of August, the Army of the
Potomac having left the James River for Acquia Creek and Alexandria,
Mrs. Lee returned home for a brief visit.

On the 5th of September, she started for Washington, to enter again upon
her chosen work. Finding that the Army were just about moving into
Maryland, she spent a few days in the Hospital of the Epiphany at
Washington, nursing the sick and wounded there; but learning that the
Army of the Potomac were in hot pursuit of the Rebel Army, and that a
severe battle was impending, she could not rest; she determined to be
near the troops, so that when the battle came, she might be able to
render prompt assistance to the wounded. It was almost impossible to
obtain transportation, the demand for the movement of sustenance and
ammunition for the army filling every wagon, and still proving
insufficient for their wants; but by the kind permission of Captain
Gleason of the Seventy-first Pennsylvania Volunteers, she was permitted
to follow with her stores in a forage wagon, and arrived at the rear of
the army the night before the battle of Antietam. The battle commenced
with the dawn on the 17th of September, and during its progress, she was
stationed on the Sharpsburg road, where she had her supplies and two
large tubs of water, one to bathe and bind up the wounds of those who
had fallen in the fight, and the other to refresh them when suffering
from the terrible thirst which gun-shot wounds always produce. As the
hours drew on, the contents of one assumed a deeper and yet deeper
crimson hue and the seemingly ample supply of the other grew less and
less. Her supply of soft bread had given out, and she had bought of an
enterprising sutler who had pushed his way to a place of danger in the
hope of gain, at ten and twenty cents a loaf, till her money was nearly
exhausted; but to the honor of this sutler, it should be said, that the
noble example of Mrs. Lee, in seeking to alleviate the sufferings of the
wounded so moved his feelings, that he exclaimed, "Great God! I can't
stand this any longer; Take this bread, and give it to that woman,"
(Mrs. Lee), and forgetting for the time the greed of gain which had
brought him thither, he lent a helping hand most zealo