ce, joined
to that of a Confederate tenor or bass, or my own contralto, made
delicious music. Concerts, tableaux, plays, etc., were also given for
the benefit of refugees or to raise money to send boxes to the front:
at all these I assisted, but had no time for rehearsals, etc. I could
only run over and sing my song or songs and then run back to my
patients. Some money was realized, but the entertainments were never a
great financial success, because all soldiers were invited guests.
Still, some good was always accomplished. These amusements were
greatly encouraged by physicians and others, as safety-valves to
relieve the high-pressure of excitement, uncertainty, and dread which
were characteristic of the time. I was always counted in, but seldom,
very seldom, accepted an invitation, for it seemed to me like
unfaithfulness to the memory of the gallant dead, and a mockery of the
suffering in our midst. I could not rid myself of this feeling, and
can truly say that during those fateful years, from the time when in
Richmond the "starvation parties" were organized, until the end, I
never found a suitable time to dance or a time to laugh or a time to
make merry.

My own special kitchen (an immense wareroom at the back of the store,
which was used for a distributing-room) was in Newnan well fitted up.
A cavernous fireplace, well supplied with big pots, little pots,
bake-ovens, and stew-pans, was supplemented by a cooking-stove of good
size. A large brick oven was built in the yard close by, and two
professional bakers, with their assistants, were kept busy baking for
the whole post. There happened to be a back entrance to this kitchen,
and although the convalescents were not allowed inside, many were the
interviews held at said door upon subjects of vital importance to the
poor fellows who had walked far into the country to obtain coveted
dainties which they wanted to have cooked "like my folks at home fix
it up." They were never refused, and sometimes a dozen different
"messes" were set off to await claimants,--potato-pones, cracklin
bread, apple-pies, blackberry-pies, squirrels, birds, and often
_chickens_. For a long time the amount of chickens brought in by "the
boys" puzzled me. They had little or no money, and chickens were
always high-priced. I had often noticed that the men in the wards were
busy preparing _fish-hooks_, and yet, though they often "went
fishing," they brought no fish to be cooked. One day the mystery