In Their Own Words

"Still the battle continues ... the grape and canister fill the air as they go screaming on their fearful errand; the sight of that field is perfectly appalling; men tossing their arms wildly calling for help; there they lie bleeding, torn and mangled; legs, arms and bodies are crushed and broken as if smitten by thunderbolts; the ground is crimson with blood; it is terrible to witness..." Emma Edmonds, Union field nurse, Battle of First Manassas, Va., July 21, 1861
 
"The theater of the bloody drama was almost a wilderness....At no time ... were the conveniences for the establishment of large general hospitals to be found; in fact, the drugs, medicines and hospital stores absolutely essential for the field were with difficulty obtained..." Surg. John Brinton, Med. Dir., Army of the Tennessee, at Ft. Henry, Tn., Feb. 15, 1862
 
"...Washington looked like a mammoth masquerade. Spanish hats, scarlet-lined riding cloaks, swords and sashes, high boots and bright spurs... The men rode as if the safety of the nation depended on their speed alone." Louisa May Alcott, Nurse at the Union Hospital in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., Jan. 18, 1863
 
"The stench from the hospitals ... is almost insupportable.... The board of health believes that the great number of cases of fever now in Danville proceeds from the cause above...." Petition of the citizens of Danville, Va., to the Confederate Secy. of War, to remove the prison hospital from that city, Feb. 1, 1864
 
"In two or three open sheds and in one railroad building were six hundred men without even straw for bedding, and no blankets to protect them from the rain which soaked through these long wards of misery.... There were moanings and cries for help, to all of which it was impossible to respond...." Wm. H. Reed, Union Nurse, at Burke's Station, Va., following Gen. Lee's surrender to Grant, April 10, 1865
 
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