My work there was practically over, as the few patients who were left could be supplied from the regular mess hall, so I returned to my home in Brooklyn.
Some days later I crossed Fulton Ferry and, to my surprise, found Broadway deserted. The draft riot was spreading. From the 13th to the 16th of July, 1863, the streets were practically given over to a crowd of hoodlum boys brandishing clubs and sticks, rushing wildly and howling “Niggers, niggers! Hang the niggers!” They did hang some to lamp posts. Negro shanties were fired and occupants driven into the flames. A colored orphan asylum was attacked and burned. One poor fellow was chased for miles, and at last he jumped into a pool of water, preferring to drown rather than to be hanged or beaten to death. This riot, the most disgraceful and cowardly of all horrible crimes that ever disgraced modern New York City, resulted in the death of nearly one thousand people, mostly negroes, and was incited by two copperheads whose names should be abhorred forever.
A handsome boy patient of about seventeen years attached himself to me, much to my annoyance, and I found it difficult to give him the attention he desired. At last, however, to my great relief, he was ordered to report to his regiment, whence he wrote frequently. About six months later, to my astonishment, he came to my home, saying, “I was so homesick I just had to come, and I ran away without asking for a furlough.” Of course he was liable to arrest as a deserter, and it cost me much persuasion and insistence at military headquarters, to convince them that the boy was ignorant of the treachery of his act. But finally, after much advice, he started for his regiment with a return pass. About a year later he wrote asking my advice as to his marrying “a very nice girl,” as he thought “an economical wife could help him to save money,”—on twelve dollars a month, forsooth!
CHAPTER IV
THE GREAT MANHATTAN FAIR OF THE U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION, 1864
“Yet Thou wilt hear the prayer we speak,
The song of praise we sing—
My children, who Thine Altar seek
Their grateful gifts to bring.
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