I take my hospital duty in the morning. Most persons prefer
afternoon, but I dislike to give up my pleasant evenings. So I get up at five
o'clock and go down in my carriage all laden with provisions. Mrs. Fisher and
old Mr. Bryan generally go with me. Provisions are commonly sent by people to
Mrs. Fisher's. I am so glad to be a hospital nurse once more. I had excuses
enough, but at heart I felt a coward and a skulker. I think I know how men feel
who hire a substitute and shirk the fight. There must be no dodging of duty. It
will not do now to send provisions and pay for nurses. Something inside of me
kept calling out, “Go, you shabby creature; you can't bear to see what those
fine fellows have to bear.”
Mrs. Izard was staying with me last night, and as I slipped
away I begged Molly to keep everything dead still and not let Mrs. Izard be
disturbed until I got home. About ten I drove up and there was a row to wake
the dead. Molly's eldest daughter, who nurses her baby sister, let the baby
fall, and, regardless of Mrs. Izard, as I was away, Molly was giving the nurse
a switching in the yard, accompanied by howls and yells worthy of a Comanche!
The small nurse welcomed my advent, no doubt, for in two seconds peace was
restored. Mrs. Izard said she sympathized with the baby's mother; so I forgave
the uproar.
I have excellent servants; no matter for their shortcomings
behind my back. They gave me all thought as to household matters, and they are
so kind, attentive, and quiet. They must know what is at hand if Sherman is not
hindered from coming here — “Freedom! my masters!” But these sphinxes give no
sign, unless it be increased diligence and absolute silence, as certain in
their action and as noiseless as a law of nature, at any rate when we are in
the house.
That fearful hospital haunts me all day long, and is worse
at night. So much suffering, such loathsome wounds, such distortion, with
stumps of limbs not half cured, exhibited to all. Then, when I was so tired
yesterday, Molly was looking more like an enraged lioness than anything else,
roaring that her baby's neck was broken, and howling cries of vengeance. The
poor little careless nurse's dark face had an ashen tinge of gray terror. She
was crouching near the ground like an animal trying to hide, and her mother
striking at her as she rolled away. All this was my welcome as I entered the
gate. It takes these half-Africans but a moment to go back to their naked
savage animal nature. Mrs. Izard is a charming person. She tried so to make me
forget it all and rest.
SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 324-6
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