“Will you, indeed?” I replied, “I think I have fixed you. Now you may go,” and he lost no time in going.
The laughter in the next tent must have reached him as he darted out and across the road to the hospital headquarters, where he exclaimed breathlessly: “D—— that Miss Smith. When I thought I had her all right she kept me on nettles for an hour, and then showed me an order from General Grant ranking me.”
This soon became camp gossip, and he was jeered from one side to the other of the hospital.
CHAPTER XVII
THANKSGIVING, 1864
UNDER FIRE AT DUTCH GAP, VIRGINIA
Greatly needing a day’s rest from hospital work, I ordered an ambulance, good government horses and driver, and invited my guest, Miss Bain, and two reliable officers of the Corps d’ Afric, stationed at General Grant’s headquarters, City Point, to accompany us, and accept an invitation to dinner.
We started for the renowned “Dutch Gap,” which had been excavated under the supervision of General Benjamin Butler, then in command of the Army of the James, and it was intended to compel the enemy to make a complete change of base.
A ride of seven or eight miles, through woods and over bumping corduroy roads and ditches, brought us to the James River, where we had been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner of goose (save the mark) on a commissary barge then anchored opposite the Gap. To my annoyance and Miss Bain’s consternation, as she was interested only in Captain Eden, then at the front, we found ten or twelve officers in full dress waiting to receive us formally on the barge, when we arrived. It took a great deal of courage and not a little tact to get through that dinner creditably, while every man craved special attention.
After dinner we rowed on the narrow river to the monitor Onondaga and another war vessel near by. On board the Onondaga we encountered another crowd of naval officers, and were urgently invited to inspect these wonderfully constructed vessels which were stationed here to protect the Gap, and to prevent the rebel gunboats coming down the river.