Hospital Life In Winchester, Va.

Still there are some Union ladies even in Winchester. God bless those dear ladies! They have done everything for us they were able. Although the country around here has been fairly skinned, yet with a noble generosity, twice a day have they come around bringing baskets of provisions, coffee, tea, and other delicacies which they thought we might relish. Quite a number of them are Quakers. I have fallen in love with one elderly lady with the most beautiful silver hair, whose presence here is perfectly refreshing. She is a gay body and loves fun. Already she calls me “Cousin David” from fancied resemblance to a relation – I hope he is good looking, she says he is “clever” – and I call her “Anne Brown” I “thee” it and “thou” it much to her amusement. Yes, and we do have young lady callers too. What is still better, or just as well – some of them are by no means destitute of personal attractions. You know I have intended for some time to marry in Ohio. I am not sure but it’s a good thing for me that as soon as I get well enough to travel I am going to have a furlough for a couple of months, and am going back to the Buckeye State.

I must not forget to record the generosity of the colored people of this city, who have contributed liberally of their store for the relief of the wounded. What they have brought have usually been well timed and acceptable. This war is fast converting soldiers into Abolitionists. Everywhere we have been we have found friends in the negroes. Two colored girls have just come on and are in the room while I am writing, having brought with them custards and other nice edibles. If they wanted a passage on the Underground Railroad I am sure no Fugitive Slave Law would prevent me from aiding them. I have for years been a sort of quasi Abolitionist. Since I came to Virginia I have become a full fledged one. – This tramping around, lying in the mud, sleeping in the open air, crossing ice cold streams in the early morning and above all having a half ounce ball in my leg, is by no means favorable to conservatism. I have become a thorough radical. –{Cor. Cleveland Herald.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 26, 1862, p. 2