It was sunrise when I again emerged from Ward No. 9. Hastening to my
room, I quickly bathed and redressed, returning to my office in half
an hour, refreshed and ready for duty.

The necessity for breakfast sufficient to feed the hungry patients
recalled to me the improvidence of my action in giving away so much
bread the night before. It had gone a very little way toward supplying
the needs of so large a body of soldiers, and now my own needed it.

There was no quartermaster, no one to issue fresh rations. Again I had
the cows milked, gathered up all the corn-bread that was left, with
some hard-tack, and with the aid of the few decrepit nurses before
mentioned made a fire, and warmed up the soup and soup-meat which had
been prepared for the convalescent table the day before, but was not
consumed. My patients, comprehending the situation, made the best of
it. But the distribution was a tedious business, as many of the
patients had to be fed by myself.

I had hardly begun when some of the men declared they "heard guns." I
could not then detect the sound, but soon it grew louder and more
sustained, and then we _knew_ a battle was in progress. For hours the
fight went on. We awaited the result in painful suspense. At last the
ambulances came in, bringing some of the surgeons and some wounded
men, returning immediately for others. At the same time the hospital
steward with his attendants and several of our nurses arrived, also
the linen-master, the chief cook, and the baker. With them came orders
to prepare wards for a large number of wounded, both Confederate _and
Federal_. Presently a cloud of dust appeared up the road, and a detail
of Confederate cavalry rode into town, bringing eight hundred Federal
prisoners, who were consigned to a large cotton warehouse, situated
almost midway between the hospital and the railroad depot.

My terrible anxiety, suspense, and heavy responsibility was now at an
end, but days and nights of nursing lay before all who were connected
with either the Buckner or Bragg Hospitals. Additional buildings were
at once seized and converted into wards for the reception of the
wounded of both armies. The hospital attendants, though weary, hungry,
and some of them terribly dirty from the combined effect of
perspiration, dust, and gunpowder, at once resumed their duties. The
quartermaster reopened his office, requisitions were made and filled,
and the work of the different departments was once more p