oat that
night and the following day, reaching the wharf at the foot of Sixth
Street in Washington about sundown. By this time I was suffering
considerably. Because of the nature of my wound I was the last man
removed from the boat, it then being nine o'clock. It was decided that
the best way to handle me was to carry me on the mattress, so a number
of men held it over the stair-well, as I was on the upper deck, while
others took it from below. The journey in an ambulance through the
streets of Washington, then not paved, was a painful one. I finally
reached the Seminary Hospital at Georgetown, where I was bathed and my
soiled clothing replaced by clean linen, and placed in a comfortable cot
which I occupied for nearly four months.

There were, during that period, usually six wounded officers in the room
at a time. Dr. Ducachet was the surgeon-in-chief and Dr. Finn the
assistant surgeon; the latter had charge of me. He took good care of me,
and I am doubtless greatly indebted to him for my recovery. For three
weeks repeated attempts were made to find the ball by probing, but
without success. One day a large swelling appeared on my back, and in
turning me over in bed to dress the wound a sudden discharge occurred
with great force, whereupon the surgeons were summoned and concluded
that this violent discharge must have forced the ball from its lodgment,
which had been beyond the reach of their longest probe, and it was
decided to attempt to get the ball out. After sundown, when the day was
cooler, the weather at that time being excessively hot, the operation
was successfully accomplished. The ball was flattened against my ribs;
two of them were splintered, and pieces of them occasionally worked out
through the wound during the ensuing eight months. Because of the
fracture of my ribs and the wound in my back, I was obliged to lie on
one hip, with the result that I suffered from severe bedsores, and for
weeks was able to get sleep only by taking morphine.

In October of that year the surgeons decided that it would do to remove
me to my home at Dobbs Ferry on the Hudson.

During the following winter I was confined to my bed at intervals by
abscesses forming preliminary to their discharging pieces of bone or
cloth, the last particles coming out the following March or April. The
wound healed in June, though my body was bent and one leg contracted.
Hence I was obliged to walk with a cane for nearly another year,
although I w