the youngest patients, or those requiring
constant supervision. I seem to see them now, lying pale and worn,
their hollow eyes looking up at me as I fed them or following with
wistful gaze my movements about the ward. Some bear ghastly wounds,
others sit upon the side of the bed, trembling with weakness, yet
smiling proudly because they can do so much, and promising soon to pay
me a visit downstairs, "if I can _make_ it; but I'm _powerful weak_
right _now_." I remember two brave Texas boys, brothers, both wounded
at Murfreesboro', who lay side by side in this ward. One of them was
only fifteen years old. When he was brought in, it was found that a
minie-ball had penetrated near the eye, and remained in the wound,
forcing the eye entirely from the socket, causing the greatest agony.
At first it was found difficult to extract it, and it proved a most
painful operation. I stood by, and his brother had his cot brought
close so that he could hold his other hand. Not a groan did the brave
boy utter, but when it was over, and the eye replaced and bandaged, he
said, "Doctor, _how soon can I go back to my regiment_?" Poor boy! he
_did_ go back in time to participate in the battle of Chickamauga,
where he met his death. Twenty years after, I met his brother at a
reunion of Confederate soldiers, in Dallas, Texas, and he could hardly
tell me for weeping that Eddie had been shot down at his side while
gallantly charging with the ---- Texas Cavalry. Another youth, ----
Roundtree, of Alabama, lingered in that ward for many weeks, suffering
from dysentery, and, I believe, was finally discharged.

Dr. Gore, of Kentucky, took the deepest interest in my nursery, and
sometimes asked permission to place young friends of his own there, a
compliment which I highly appreciated. Dr. Gore was one of Nature's
noblemen. In his large, warm heart there seemed to be room for
everybody. His interest in his patients was very keen, and his skill
greatly enhanced by extreme tenderness and unfailing attention. He was
an earnest Christian (a Methodist, I believe), but upon one occasion I
saw him so excited and distressed that he "fell from grace," and gave
vent to a fearful imprecation. He had brought to me a boy of seventeen
very ill of dysentery. For days it seemed that he must die. Dr. Gore
and I watched him and nursed him as if he had been very near and dear.
A slight improvement showed itself at last, and of course his craving
for food was insatiate.