al, I was burning with
fever, and became intolerably thirsty for a drink of water. No
attendants were in sight, and the candles had all gone out but one or
two, which emitted only a sort of flickering light that barely served
to "render darkness visible." My suffering became well-nigh
unendurable, and I could stand it no longer. I got up and staggered to
the door of the tent and looking about me saw not far away a light
gleaming through a tent that stood apart from the others. I made my way
to it as best I could, and went in. A young fellow, maybe an assistant
surgeon, was seated at the further end cf a little desk, writing. My
entrance was so quiet that he did not hear me, and walking up to him, I
said, in a sort of a hollow voice: "I want--a drink--of water." The
fellow dropped his pen, and nearly fell off his stool. The only garment
I had on was a white, sleazy sort of cotton bed-gown, which they garbed
us all in when we were taken to the hospital; and this chap's eyes, as
he stared at me, looked as if they would pop out of his head. Perhaps
he thought I was a "gliding ghost." But he got me some water, and I
drank copiously. I don't clearly remember what followed. It seems to me
that this man helped me back to my tent, but I am not sure. However, I
was in the same old cot next morning.

The fare at the hospital was not of a nature liable to generate an
attack of the gout, but I reckon those in charge did the best they
could. The main thing seemed to be a kind of thin soup, with some
grains of rice, or barley, in it. What the basis of it was I don't
know. I munched a hardtack occasionally, which was far better than the
soup. But my appetite was quite scanty, anyhow. One day we each had at
dinner, served in our tin plates, about two or three tablespoonfuls of
preserved currants, for which it was said we were indebted to the U.S.
Sanitary Commission. It seemed that a boat load of such goods came down
the river, in charge of a committee of ladies, destined for our
hospitals at Vicksburg. The boat happened to make a temporary stop at
Helena, and the ladies ascertained that there was at the hospitals
there great need of sanitary supplies, so they donated us the bulk of
their cargo. I will remark here that that little dab of currants was
all the U.S. Sanitary stuff I consumed during my army service. I am
not kicking; merely stating the fact. Those goods very properly went to
the hospitals, and as my stay therein was brief,