We attended hospital services yesterday as usual. There are
few patients, and none are very ill. On Friday night a most unexpected death
took place, under very painful circumstances. A young adjutant lost his life by
jumping out of a window at the head of his bed, about ten feet from the ground.
His attendants were a sister, brother, and two servants. His suffering with a
wound in his foot had been so intense that he would not allow any one to touch
it except the ward-master, who handled it with the greatest tenderness. Yet
while his attendants were asleep (for they thought it unnecessary to be up with
him all night) he managed to get up, raise the window, and throw himself out,
without disturbing one of them. His mind was no doubt unsettled, as it had been
before. He lived about an hour after being found. His poor sister was wild with
grief and horror, and his other attendants dreadfully shocked.
SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern
Refugee, During the War, p. 316-7
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