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Page 22
On the 19th of December I reached Bowling Green, and found there a
larger army than I had before seen,--65,000 men at least,--under
General Albert Sidney Johnson as commander-in-chief, with Generals
Buckner, Hardee, Hindman, and Breckenridge on the ground. Floyd
came within a few days, bringing about 7000 more. Others were soon
added, for on the 25th of December the commissary-general issued
96,000 rations, and by January 1, 1862, 120,000 rations a day. The
number of rations shows the whole number attached to the army in
every capacity.
During the month of December, sickness in the form of pneumonia and
measles became fearfully prevalent, and by the middle of January
one-fifth of the army was said to be in the hospital. The prevalence
of disease was attributed by the surgeons to the constant rains,
the warm winter, and incessant labor day and night on the
fortifications.
Though up to this time I had enjoyed uninterrupted good health, the
pneumonia now seized me violently; and after a week of "heroic
treatment," I was put into a box-car and started for the hospital at
Nashville. This was the dreariest ride of my life thus far. Alone,
in darkness, suffering excruciating pain, going perhaps to die and
be buried in an unhonored grave, my "Christmas" was any thing but
"merry." And yet the month following my arrival in Nashville was
the most pleasant, on many accounts, that I had yet spent in Dixie.
I was carefully and tenderly nursed by Drs. Stout and Gambling and
the ladies of Nashville, who showed the true woman's heart in their
assiduous care of the poor suffering men, prostrated by disease and
home-sickness. Some of the ladies were strong Secessionists; but I
thought then, as I believe now, that most of them, not all, would
have shown the same kindness to any suffering soldiers who might
have come under their notice. I knew my mother would be a Good
Samaritan to a dying Rebel; why should not they to wounded
Unionists.
In two weeks I was convalescent, and yet I daily exhausted my
returning strength by gaining a knowledge of the Nashville
founderies, machine-shops, bridges, capitol, industry, and whatever
I thought worth visiting.
At this juncture I also found an old friend of my father's, who with
his interesting family did much to make my days of recovery pleasant
days; supplying many little things which a soldier's wardrobe and
an invalid's appetite needed. How much of a Rebel he was I could
never exactly make out, but I think his regard for my family held
deep debate with either love or fear of the ruling authorities, to
settle the question whether he should aid me to reach home. At
least, there was not in what he said in our frequent interviews that
entire outspokenness which would have prompted me to make a
confidant of him; hence I made no headway toward escaping to the
North. Indeed, I considered it the only safe way, in talking with
him, to show a guarded zeal for the Southern cause, lest, if he were
a hearty Rebel, he might betray me. I am now inclined to the opinion
that I was too suspicious of him, and that he was at heart a Union
man. At all events, I shall ever be grateful for his kindness to me.
I may as well record at this point what I know of the moral and
religious efforts put forth in the South in behalf of the soldiers,
and the effect of the Rebellion on the educational and religious
interests of the people generally. As a general truth, when the
recruits first came to the army, those with religious inclinations
or who had pious friends, brought along a Bible or Testament, but
these were in most cases soon lost or left behind, and the camps
were almost destitute of any good books. Religious publications were
not distributed to the soldiers except in the hospitals, and to a
very limited extent there. The regiments composed of Irish or French
Catholics, usually had a priest as chaplain; but I saw very few of
the Protestant chaplains who gave themselves up to the spiritual
care of their men. We had a good many ministers in the army of the
Mississippi valley, but they almost all held a commission of a
military, rather than a religious kind, and so far as I could judge,
were fonder of warlike than of heavenly ministrations. In the
hospital at Nashville, on the other hand, good men and women
endeavored faithfully to present the truths of the Bible and the
consolations of religion to the attention of the inmates. But, as I
have hinted, the army was not much benefited by the clerical
members attached to it, though their loss may have been felt by the
churches they had forsaken. There were but few of what are called
Gospel sermons, preached in the army anywhere within my reach during
my soldier life. As a consequence of the inherently demoralizing
effect of war, and this great destitution of conserving influences,
vice reigned almost unrestrained in the army. The few good and
devout men, and the infrequent prayer-meetings which were held,
seemed powerless to restrain the downward tendency of morals.
Profanity, the most revolting and dreadful, abounded, though
contrary to the Articles of War, and many of the officers were
proficient in this vice. Gambling, in all the forms possible among
soldiers, was the main amusement on the Sabbath-day. These were the
prominent vices, and, if possible, they were growing more and more
monstrous continually.
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