fellows come and beg almost on their
knees for the first chance to have an arm taken off. It is a scene of
horror such as I never saw. God forbid that I should ever see another."

Again, the same officer writing a day or two later, says, "It is
fearful. I see so many grand men dropping one by one. They are my
acquaintances and my friends. They look to me for help, and I have to
turn away heartsick at my want of ability to relieve their sufferings.
Captain Walker of the Seventh Maine is dying to-night. He is a noble
good man, and he looks in my face and pleads for help. Adjutant Hessy
and Lieutenant Hooper of the same regiment died last night. All were my
friends, and all thought that I could save them. General Sedgwick is
dead, and General Getty and General Torbert are my patients.... Mrs.
Lewis has just come; what a blessing her presence will be to the
colonel, who bears the loss of his arm so bravely. Colonel Barney of the
Sixth Vermont died yesterday, and Major Fryer of the Forty-third is
dying. The major says, 'Doctor, can nothing be done?' Major Dudley lies
in the room where I am writing, seriously wounded.... I have to-day sent
sixty officers of the Sixth corps to Washington.... Oh! can I ever write
anything beside these mournful details? Hundreds of ambulances are
coming into town now, and it is almost midnight. So they come every
night."

For a time it was almost impossible to obtain sufficient supplies either
of food or dressings. Everything that could be spared from the field had
been sent, but in the field they were still fighting terrible battles,
and there was little to spare. Food was obtained in very limited
quantities in town, and men went to the houses of citizens and demanded
sheets, which were torn into bandages.

But large supplies were sent from Washington by the government in a few
days, so that all necessary articles were furnished in abundance, with a
profusion of lemons, oranges and canned fruit. The Sanitary Commission
was also on hand with large supplies of delicacies, which were joyfully
received by the wounded heroes, who not only relished the luxuries, but
remembered that they were the gifts of friends at home, who had not
forgotten the soldiers.

Many of the people of Fredericksburgh exhibited the most malignant spite
against the "Yankee wounded;" but others, while they claimed no sympathy
with our cause, showed themselves friends of humanity, and rendered us
all the assistance in the