What They Saw, From Wagons Splashing Through Blood- Our Gettysburg Nurses

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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Using this, from Gettysburg College's Special Collections, because some of the shambles described in caught, because it is haunting, because the faint image of a woman is inside the gate, right and because an ambulance there could only mean another wounded man had died. We forget, maybe, the battle's horrific aftermath.

In the excellent book " Our Army Nurses ", compiled by Mary A. Gardener Holland, those who survived were asked to write accounts of their experiences during the war. A few state they simply could not speak of them. They had reason.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn3c8f;view=2up;seq=8

We know what happened at Gettysburg 150 years ago. Getting tougher to visualize, navigating between Thai food take outs, being stopped cold by hot asphalt, in one's quest for a moment of respect, at Camp Letterman and understanding somewhere, beneath learned arguments taking place between pizza slices, lay men whose last sight of a hot, hazy sun was July, 1863.

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From " Our Army Nurses ", I think this is Sophronia Bucklin- who scraped time together, to see the battlefield.

So remembering becomes more important. Have a feeling we continue to gloss over the battle's aftermath, for whatever reason. If we did not, no one would discuss lunch perched over soldier' remains or tolerate commerce where a giant, canvas hospital once overlooked a shattered town- a symbol of healing.

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Christian Commission

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Christian Commission




Blood was spilled there in such copious amounts, wagons splashed through it, as aid came their way. That story is from Father Burlando's little band, Sisters of Charity on the way to St. Francis Xavier and the Methodist's church, the horses plunging side to side, trying to avoid bodies, blood and the horrors animals instinctively find terrifying. The Bliss barn was still smouldering. JPK, only man killed when his company was sent from the 126th NY, to clear out snipers July 2nd, maybe not buried, nor David Adam, 11th PA, killed Day 1. Uncles, neither identified when reinterred, unknowns in the National Cemetery. We think.

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In the shambles, who knows? Our nurses came anyway. Some were already here.

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A mile and a half. Of stretchers. Think of that. While hundreds lay there, bodies were created of wounded by swollen creek waters- wounded too weak to move, drowned, with no one to rescue them.

The Lancaster Ladies, who seem to have made the decision to COME HELP, because they simply could not stand so much suffering, so close to home, wrote much.

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Very brave and patriotic women! It must have been a calming experience (psychologically so) for many dying men and boys to be treated and comforted in their final hours by ladies who reminded them of mothers and wives back home. It was likely the only tenderness they’d experienced since leaving home.
 
Think what always, always bothers me is, this is 1863. We'd been at it awhile but each battle was the same- civilian organizations supporting Army medical aid, the former rushed into place because the latter was so overwhelmed, and always as if the governments had forgotten how awful was the last battle.

It remains so baffling. Gettysburg citizens were hitching up wagons a week later to bring in wounded men. " Gettysburg ", the battle, had been brewing for so long, with Lee's invasion and intent clear, that there was time to call up, outfit and train militia. Despite all the warning, men died out in the open, lay on straw on barns ( if they were lucky ) and simply vanished into the carnage. Crazy stuff.
 
There are truly no words to express the gratitude deserved for those who freely gave these works of mercy.


You're so correct, thank you! Have more than several surreal accounts of women who came looking for a loved ones. sons, husbands, brothers, fathers, who died- then stayed as nurses, to ensure other women did not lose theirs. Chills.
 
One cannot read these words, written by eyewitnesses to the horror, without understanding that war is born in the pit of hell. Surely, surely, surely there are saner ways of settling differences!!
 
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