The ambulance and
driver were placed at my disposal this P.M., and I visited Hospital No. 1. I
find changes here, but mostly for the better. Some have recovered sufficiently
to be sent North. The "Alabamian," as he was called, who together
with "William" was placed in my care, I am grieved to learn has
"crossed the lines." He was getting better I was told, until one
night he died suddenly of an ulcer on his lungs. William is dressed and walks
around is surely getting well, and talking of going home. Has had a letter
written to his father and received a reply. Seems very grateful. The German
suffered no more pain from the amputation, and is hopeful. The Norwegian has no
gangrene in his arm now, and it is fast healing.
I find two or three
new cases of interest. One is a middle-aged man who is suffering greatly from
ulcers caused by scurvy. It is thought that he cannot live long; and he tells
me that he isn't ready to die that he has "been a bad man, that if the
Lord will only spare him this time, he will live a different life."
Another, a young man with fair skin, red cheeks and bright eyes, the victim of
consumption, was moaning,
"Only to die at
home with mother!"
SOURCE: Elvira J.
Powers, Hospital Pencillings: Being a Diary While in Jefferson General
Hospital, Jeffersonville, Ind., and Others at Nashville, Tennessee, as Matron
and Visitor, p. 60
