Will you please tell Price to forward all letters there may be in the hospital for Berry and me. Mr. Redner has not yet called.
I hope Mr. D. will get my furlough extended, at any rate I shall stay here some time longer. We are getting along very comfortably. There is nothing particular in the way of news. Berry and I went out sailing a day or two ago.
All the good folks here beg to be remembered to you, Mr. Wade in particular. Our best regards to all our friends, Mr. D. especially, and believe us, dear Madam,
Yours very gratefully,
ALBERT A. SMITH and JOHN H. BERRY.
P. S. If you have time, in case you pass through Philadelphia, to call and see us, it will afford us much pleasure.”
On our return to New York, as in going to Philadelphia, every one wished to lend a helping hand, but Smith clung to Berry, who carried him with ease, while the crowd cheered the courageous, independent fellows. On returning them safely to the New England Rooms, I longed to rest for a few days at my home in Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, but I found at the Rooms a slowly dying woman who greatly excited my sympathy. She had been brought from Washington, where she had contracted dysentery while nursing her son, who died soon after she reached him. She was on her way to her home in Worcester, Massachusetts. There was no proper place for the poor soul, and Colonel Howe was anxious to have her reach her home before she died, so I took charge of her, and we went by the Fall River Line. I sat beside her stretcher all night in the ladies’ cabin, watching her pulse and constantly giving her stimulants or nourishment. At daybreak we reached Worcester. The man sent to assist me found an express wagon on which the stretcher was placed, and we all drove to a plain comfortable-looking house. Finding no responsible person about the place I took possession of the parlor on the second floor, ordering a bed from another room. The feeble woman was then carried up and placed comfortably at rest in her own home. The doctor came and, against my earnest protest, insisted on stopping the stimulants at once, saying he knew her constitution better than I. When her husband appeared he showed no particular interest save to take possession of her pocketbook, and I did not see him again.
A Mr. and Mrs. Green showed much interest for the woman. They kindly took me to their home for rest. Later in the day I went back to see the fast failing woman, who died two days later, a victim to the conceit of an ignorant doctor. I enjoyed for a day or two the hospitality of the Greens, and I shall never forget their home-grown strawberries and cream.
CHAPTER VII
THE UNIQUE CASE OF WILLIAM MUDGE OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS.
This narrow-breasted, delicate boy of about twenty-one years, enlisted in the Thirty-third Massachusetts Infantry, and, with his regiment, went into the battle of Chancellorsville on Sunday morning, May 2d, 1863. After once regaining the field they were defeated with considerable loss in prisoners and many wounded. Mudge fell by a shot passing entirely through his head, cutting both optic nerves. A friend in the regiment from his city, tied a handkerchief about his head and left him to die, then ran to join his regiment, fearing capture by the enemy. As soon as a chance offered he wrote to Mudge’s father, who was president of a Lynn bank, telling him that his son had been left dying on the battlefield.