I was sick
yesterday. Last night took an opiate. This morning, when I awoke, I turned over
and looked upon a dirty tin cup, and a greasy tin plate, sitting on a chair
beside my bed. It required quite a rubbing of the eyes to recall my faculties,
so as to realize where, and what I was. But at last I awoke fairly to the
contrast between what I looked on, and the little waiter with its spotless
napkin, its cup of beautiful drab-colored coffee, and its nicely browned toast,
presented to me by loving ones who had sometimes watched over my restless
slumbers in sickness, and waited at early morn with these delicious antidotes
to the prostrating effects of opiates. Had there have been "music in my
soul" I should have sung, "Carry me back, oh! carry me back.” But I
arose, went to work, and am better to-night. I think, however, that it will be
some time before I hunger for another meal from a tin cup and tin plate.
Received to-day,
from Miss M. H. C., a draft on New York for fifty dollars, to be used for the
relief of the sick under my care. This is a bright spot in the darkness around
me.
“How far that little
candle throws its beams!”
SOURCE: Alfred L.
Castleman, The Army of the Potomac.
Behind the Scenes. A Diary of Unwritten History; From the Organization of the
Army, by General George B. McClellan, to the close of the Campaign in Virginia
about the First Day January, 1863, p. 12-13
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