Our wounded are now coming in fast, under the direction of the
Ambulance Committee. I give passports to no one not having legitimate business
on the field to pass the pickets of the army. There is no pilfering on this
field of battle; no “Plug Ugly” detectives stripping dead colonels, and, Falstaff
like, claiming to be made “either Earl or Duke” for killing them.
So great is the demand for vehicles that the brother of a North
Carolina major, reported mortally wounded, paid $100 for a hack to bring his
brother into the city. He returned with him a few hours after, and,
fortunately, found him to be not even dangerously wounded.
I suffer no physicians not belonging to the army to go upon
the battle-field without taking amputating instruments with them, and no
private vehicle without binding the drivers to bring in two or more of the
wounded.
There are fifty hospitals in the city, fast filling with the
sick and wounded. I have seen men in my office and walking in the streets,
whose arms have been amputated within the last three days. The realization of a
great victory seems to give them strength.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the
Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 140-1
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