“A Woman's Recollections of Antietam,” September, 1862

By Mary Bedinger Mitchell

Mary Bedinger Mitchell was the eleven-year-old "Minnie" on September 17, 1862, the day of the Battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg, called the bloodiest day in American military history with over 23,000 casualties. The battle was of enormous significance in the Civil War in that Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee later considered this Maryland campaign his best chance at forcing a negotiated separation from the United States. Instead, Antietam gave President Abraham Lincoln a tenuous victory that forced Lee out of Maryland, and a politically viable moment in which to announce the Emancipation Proclamation, making the war, henceforth, one about slavery. Moreover, it is believed by many that a greater general than Gen. George McClellan could have ended the war at Antietam thirty months earlier. Lee's Lieutenant, Gen. James Longstreet, in fact, states in his memoirs that a force of 10,000 Federals could have defeated the decimated Confederate army on the morning of September 18th, when McClellan had 40,000 men available to fight. McClellan’s bout of dysentery cancelled a plan to attack again.

Minnie Bedinger was, by other published accounts, indeed helping the wounded brought to Shepherdstown, which totaled as many as 8,000 and were overwhelmingly Confederate soldiers. She proves the adage that sensitive, intelligent children can sometimes be the best observers of an event, being allowed to move freely about with fewer expectations placed on them than grown-ups.

Her account runs from Sunday, September 14th, when the town began receiving wounded from battles at Turner's Gap, Fox's Gap, and Crampton's Gap on South Mountain. She accurately notes Harper's Ferry being under siege briefly, Monday, September 15th. Antietam/Sharpsburg occurred Wednesday. On Saturday, September 20th, Gen. A. P. Hill counter-attacked an unsuccessful attempt to pursue his army at Pack Horse Ford. Men from the 118th Pennsylvania Corn Exchange Regiment suffered some 260 losses largely because they were issued a defective supply of false Enfield rifles.

This battle and surrounding towns witnessed the birth of the American nursing profession as middle class women stepped in alongside surgeons, stanching wounds. Clara Barton and her supply wagon were busy for days at the battlefield as she signaled the first appearance of what would become the American Red Cross.

Mary Mitchell lived in a home immediately south of the Shepherdstown Junior High School with her mother, Caroline, the widow of the area's one-time Congressman, the eloquent and very popular Henry Bedinger; her young brother, Henry; and younger sister, Caroline, nicknamed "Danske." Danske is the "mere child" sent back-and-forth on Route 480 to get a strip of flannel. The "old blue factory" stood where today's Blue Moon Cafe stands at the northeast corner of High and Princess Streets. The drill room is the two-story brick home facing the Farmer's Market on the west side of King Street. The unfinished Town Hall is today's McMurran Hall. The "indescribably steep" street to the river is, of course, Princess Street, that at that time had three large warehouses at river's edge. Only one, the tobacco warehouse, stands today.

The soldiers suffering from "gaunt starvation" and "cavernous eyes" were in the division under Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson while they were hurrying to Harper's Ferry to take their position on Bolivar Heights, and thus complete a three-sided encirclement that led to its capture by Confederate forces, two days before the greater battle in Sharpsburg. While most freed white men in Shepherdstown had enlisted into Co. B of the 2nd Virginia Infantry in the "Stonewall Brigade," they specifically had been ordered to remain in Martinsburg and guard prisoners there. They did not participate in either the capture of Harper's Ferry or Sharpsburg/Antietam, a fact which Ms. Mitchell apparently did not know. Henry Kyd Douglas, however, who grew up at Ferry Hill, the large stately home overlooking the river directly opposite the Bavarian Inn, was active at the battle, carrying orders as the youngest member of Jackson's staff. Evidence puts Douglas on the short list of persons suspected of having lost the famous Special Order 191 of Gen. Lee’s which Gen. McClellan recovered and could have used to historic advantage against Lee.

A poll late in the 19th century of living Confederate generals found that they, as a group, did not rank Jackson as the best Confederate general, primarily, they said, because he treated his men so neglectfully. Ms Mitchell echoes this sentiment. (The Generals chose Joseph Johnston).

Ms. Mitchell perhaps misreads the motivations of the many members of the black community in Shepherdstown when they moved in numbers and encamped for days outside of town. This was a time when enslaved persons customarily attached themselves to passing Federal armies, thus freeing themselves from bondage. And as one rebel soldier says in this account, Gen. McClellan's army, increased to some 60,000 strong, was expected to be crossing into the town. It was a little like parking along a road waiting for your bus to arrive.

The author's mother, Mrs. Caroline Lawrence Bedinger, was born and raised in Flushing, New York. She did not believe in slavery and paid hired laborers to work for her. According to Leon Washington, who ran the household at this home for descendants of the Bedinger family, a freed black man working for the Bedingers was "impressed" into the Federal army, but, after some weeks, persuaded his commanding officers that he was needed more at the Bedinger farm.

It is important to point out some of the vernacular recreated by this author might be offensive to African-American persons, as being suggestive of racist intent. But a close review of the document shows Mrs. Mitchell also tries to recreate dialect of foot soldiers in Stonewall Jackson's army.

Printed originally in "The Century Magazine,” July, 1886, as "A Woman's Recollections of Antietam," by Mary Blunt (a pseudonym) - ED.

“September was in the skies of the almanac, but August still reigned in ours; it was hot and dusty. The railroads in the Shenandoah Valley had been torn up, the bridges destroyed, communication made precarious and difficult, and Shepherdstown, cornered by the bend of the Potomac, lay as if forgotten in the bottom of somebody's pocket. We were without news or knowledge, except when some chance traveler would repeat the last wild and uncertain rumor that he had heard. We had passed an exciting summer. Winchester had changed hands more than once; we had been ‘in the Confederacy’ and out of it again, and were now waiting, in an exasperating state of ignorance and suspense, for the next move in the great game.

“It was a saying with us that Shepherdstown was just nine miles from everywhere. It was, in fact, about that distance from Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry - often-mentioned names - and from Williamsport, where the armies so often crossed, both to and from Maryland. It was off the direct road between those places and lay, as I said, at the foot of a great sweep in the river, and was five miles from the nearest station on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. As no trains were running now this was of little consequence. What was more important was that a turnpike road - unusually fine for that region of stiff, red clay - led in almost a straight line for thirty miles to Winchester on the south; it was the scene of ‘Sheridan's ride’ and stretched northward, beyond the Potomac, twenty miles to Hagerstown. Before the days of steam this had been part of the old posting road between the Valley towns and Pennsylvania, and we had boasted a very substantial bridge. This had been burned early in the war, and only the massive stone piers remained; but a mile and a half down the river was the ford, and the road that led to it lay partly above and partly along the face of rocky and precipitous cliffs. It was narrow and stony and, especially in one place, around the foot of ‘Mount Misery,’ was very steep and difficult for vehicles. It was, moreover, entirely commanded by the hills on the Maryland side, but it was the ford over which some part of the Confederate army passed every year, and was used by the main body of infantry in '63 before Gettysburg. Beyond the river were the Cumberland Canal and its willow-fringed tow-path, from which rose the soft and rounded outlines of the hills that from their farther slopes looked down upon the battle-field of Antietam. We could see the fort at Harper's Ferry without a glass on the clear days, and the flag flying over it, a mere speck against the sky, and could hear the gun that was fired every evening at sunset.

“Shepherdstown's only access to the river was through a narrow gorge, the bed of a small tributary of the Potomac, that was made to do much duty as it slipped cheerily over its rocks, and furnished power for several mills and factories, most of them at that time silent. Here were also three or four stone warehouses, huge, empty structures testifying mutely that the town had once had a business. The road to the bridge led through this cleft, down an indescribably steep street skirting the stream's ravine, to whose sides the mills and factories clung in most extraordinary fashion; but it was always a marvel how anything heavier than a wheelbarrow could be pulled up its tedious length, or how any vehicle could be driven down without plunging into the water at the bottom.

“In this odd little borough, then, we were waiting ‘developments,’ hearing first that ‘our men were coming,’ and then that they were not coming, when suddenly, on Saturday, the 13th of September, early in the morning, we found ourselves surrounded by a hungry horde of lean and dusty tatterdemalions, who seemed to rise from the ground at our feet. I did not know where they came from, or to whose command they belonged; I have since been informed that General Jackson re-crossed into Virginia at Williamsport, and hastened to Harper's Ferry by the shortest roads. These would take him some four miles south of us, and our haggard apparitions were perhaps a part of his force. They were stragglers, at all events, - professional, some of them, but some worn out by the incessant strain of that summer. When I say that they were hungry, I convey no impression of the gaunt starvation that looked from their cavernous eyes. All day they crowded to the doors of our houses, with always the same drawling complaint: ‘I've been a-marchin' an' a-fightin' for six weeks stiddy; and I ain't had n-a-r-thin' to eat 'cept green apples an' green cawn, an' I wish you'd please to gimme a bite to eat.’

“Their looks bore out their statements, and when they told us they had ‘clean gin out,’ we believed them, and went to get what we had. They could be seen afterwards asleep in every fence corner, and under every tree, but after a night's rest they pulled themselves together somehow and disappeared as suddenly as they had come. Possibly they went back to their commands, possibly they only moved on to repeat the same tale elsewhere. I know nothing of numbers, nor what force was or was not engaged in any battle, but I saw the troops march past us every summer for four years, and I know something of the appearance of a marching army, both Union and Southern. There are always stragglers, of course, but never before or after did I see anything comparable to the demoralized state of the Confederates at this time. Never were want and exhaustion more visibly put before my eyes, and that they could march or fight at all seemed incredible.

“As I remember, the next morning - it was Sunday, September 14 - we were awakened by heavy firing at two points on the mountains. We were expecting the bombardment of Harper's Ferry, and knew that Jackson was before it. Many of our friends were with him, and our interest there was so intense that we sat watching the bellowing and smoking Heights, for a long time, before we became aware that the same phenomena were to be noticed in the north. From our windows both points could be observed, and we could not tell which to watch most keenly. We knew almost nothing except that there was fighting, that it must be very heavy, and that our friends were surely in it somewhere, but whether at South Mountain or Harper's Ferry we had no means of discovering. I remember how the day wore on, how we staid at the windows until we could not endure the suspense; how we walked about and came back to them; and how finally, when night fell, it seemed cruel and preposterous to go to bed still ignorant.

“I believe there was more firing at Harper's Ferry on Monday, but I retain a very indistinct impression of the morning. In the afternoon, about two or three o'clock, when we were sitting about in disconsolate fashion, distracted by the contradictory rumors that reached us from town, our Negro cook rushed into the room with eyes shining and face working with excitement. She had been down in the ten-acre lot to pick a few ears of corn, and she had seen a long train of wagons coming up from the ford, and: ‘They is full of wounded men, and the blood runnin' out of them that deep,’ measuring on her outstretched arm to the shoulder. This horrible picture sent us flying to town, and we found the streets already crowded, the people all astir, and the foremost wagons, of what seemed an endless line, discharging their piteous burdens. The scene speedily became ghastly, but fortunately we could not stay to look at it. There were no preparations, no accommodations - the men could not be left in the streets - what was to be done?

“A Federal soldier once said to me, "I was always sorry for your wounded; they never seemed to get any care.’ The remark was extreme, but there was too much justice in it. There was little mitigation of hardship to our unfortunate armies. We were fond of calling them Spartans, and they were but too truly called upon to endure a Spartan system of neglect and privation. They were always ill-fed and ill-cared for. It would have been possible, at this time, one would think, to send a courier back to inform the town and bespeak what comforts it could provide for the approaching wounded; but here they were, unannounced, on the brick pavements, and the first thing was to find roofs to cover them. Men ran for keys and opened the long empty shops and unused rooms; other people got brooms and stirred up the dust of ages; then armies of children began to appear with bundles of hay and straw, taken from anybody's stable. These were hastily disposed in heaps, and covered with blankets - the soldiers' own, or else one begged or borrowed from anywhere. On these improvised beds the sufferers were placed, and the next question was of the proper dressing of their wounds. No surgeons were to be seen. A few men, detailed as nurses, had come, but they were incompetent of course. Our women set bravely to work and washed away the blood, or stanched it as well as they could, where the jolting of the long, rough ride had disarranged the hasty binding done upon the battle-field. But what did they know of wounds beyond a cut finger, or a boil? Yet they bandaged and bathed, with a devotion that went far to make up for their inexperience.

“Then there was the hunt for bandages. Every housekeeper ransacked her stores and brought forth things new and old. I saw one girl, in despair for a strip of cloth, look about helplessly, and then rip off the hem of her white petticoat. The doctors came up, by and by, or I suppose they did, for some amputating was done. Rough surgery, you may be sure. The women helped, holding the instruments and the basins, and trying to soothe or strengthen.

“They stood to their work very nobly; the emergency brought out all their strength to meet it. One girl who had been working very hard, helping the men on the sidewalks, and dressing wounds afterwards in a close, hot room, told me that at one time the sights and smells (these last were fearful) so overcame her that she could only stagger to the staircase, where she hung, half conscious, over the banisters, saying to herself, ‘Oh, I hope if I faint someone will kick me into a corner and let me lie there!’ She did not faint, but went back to her work in a few moments, and through the whole of what followed was one of the most indefatigable and useful. She was one of many; even children did their part.

“It became a grave question how to feed so many unexpected guests. The news spread rapidly, and the people from the country neighborhoods came pouring in to help, expecting to stay with friends who had already given up every spare bed and every inch of room where beds could be put. Virginia houses are very elastic, but ours were strained to their utmost. Fortunately some of the farmers' wives had been thoughtful enough to bring supplies of linen, and some bread and fruit, and when our wants became better known other contributions flowed in; but when all was done it was not enough.

“We worked far into the night that Monday, went to bed late, and rose early next morning. Tuesday brought fresh wagon-loads, and would have brought despair, except that they were accompanied by an apology for a commissariat; and other and more regular sources of supply were organized among our country friends. Some doctors also arrived, who - with a few honorable exceptions - might as well have staid away. The remembrance of that worthless body of officials stirs me to wrath. Two or three worked conscientiously and hard, and they did all the medical work, except what was done by our own town physicians. In strong contrast was the conduct of the common men detailed as nurses. They were as gentle as they knew how to be, and very obliging and untiring. Of course they were uncouth and often rough, but with the wounded dying about us every day, and the necessity that we were under for the first few days, of removing those who died at once that others not yet quite dead might take their places, there was no time to be fastidious; it required all our efforts to be simply decent, and we sometimes failed in that.

“We fed our men as well as we could from every available source, and often had some difficulty in feeding ourselves. The townspeople were very hospitable, and we were invited here and there, but could not always go, or hesitated, knowing every house was full. I remember once, probably this Tuesday, but I cannot be sure, - that having breakfasted upon a single roll, and having worked hard among sickening details, about four o'clock I turned, perfectly ravenous and wolfish, and ran to a friend's house down the street. When I got there I was almost too faint to speak, but my friend looked, at me and disappeared in silence, coming back in a moment with a plate of hot soup. What luxury! I sat down then and there on the front doorstep and devoured the soup as if I had been without food for a week. It was known on Tuesday that Harper's Ferry had been taken, but it was growing evident that South Mountain had not been a victory. We had heard from some of our friends, but not from all, and what we did hear was often most unsatisfactory and tantalizing. For instance, we would be told that some one whom we loved had been seen standing with his battery, had left his gun an instant to shake hands and send a message, and had then stepped back to position, while our civilian informant had come away for safety, and the smoke of conflict had hidden battery and all from view.

“As night drew near, whispers of a great battle to be fought the next day grew louder, and we shuddered at the prospect, for battles had come to mean to us, as they never had before, blood, wounds, and death.

“The seventeenth of September looked down from cloudy skies upon the two armies facing each other on the fields of Maryland. It seems to me now that the roar of that day began with the light, and all through its long and dragging hours its thunder formed a background to our pain and terror. If we had been in doubt as to our friends' whereabouts on Sunday, there was no room for doubt now. In the thickest of the fight, where the ‘Old Stonewall’ (Brigade-ED) was ever to be found, there was it now and they with it, and here were we, not two miles away, listening in anguish as beyond the river the tide of battle surged to and fro. There was no sitting at the windows now and counting discharges of guns, or watching the curling smoke. We went about our work with pale faces and trembling hands, yet trying to appear composed for the sake of our patients, who were much excited. We could hear the incessant explosions of artillery, the shrieking whistles of the shells, and the sharper, deadlier, more thrilling roll of musketry; while every now and then the echo of some charging cheer would come, borne by the wind, and as the human voice pierced that demoniacal clangor we would catch our breath and listen, and try not to sob, and turn back to the forlorn hospitals, to the suffering at our feet and before our eyes, while imagination fainted at the thought of those other scenes hidden from us beyond the Potomac.

“On our side of the river there were noise, confusion, dust; throngs of stragglers; horsemen galloping about; wagons blocking each other and teamsters wrangling, and a continued din of shouting swearing, and rumbling, in the midst of which men were dying, fresh wounded arriving, surgeons amputating limbs and dressing wounds, women going in and out with bandages, lint, medicines, food. An ever-present sense of anguish, dread, pity, and, I fear, hatred - these are my recollections of Antietam.

“When night came we could still hear the sullen guns and hoarse, indefinite murmurs that succeeded the day's turmoil. That night was dark and lowering and the air heavy and dull. Across the river innumerable watch-fires were blazing, and we could but too well conjecture the scenes that they were lighting. We sat in silence, looking into each other's tired faces. There were no impatient words, few tears; only silence, and a drawing close together, as if for comfort. We were almost hopeless, yet clung with desperation to the thought that we were hoping. But in our hearts we could not believe that anything human could have escaped from that appalling fire.

“On Thursday, the two armies lay idly facing each other, but we could not be idle. The wounded continued to arrive until the town was quite unable to hold all the disabled and suffering. They filled every building and overflowed into the country round, into farmhouses, barns, corn-cribs, cabins - wherever four walls and a roof were found together. Those able to travel were sent on to Winchester and other towns back from the river, but their departure seemed to make no appreciable difference. There were six churches and they were all full; the Odd Fellows' Hall, the Free Masons, the little Town Council room, the barn-like place known as the Drill Room, all the private houses after their capacity, the shops and empty buildings, the school-houses, - every inch of space, and yet the cry was for more room.

“The unfinished Town Hall had stood in naked ugliness for many a long day. Somebody threw a few rough boards across the beams, placed piles of straw over them, laid down single planks to walk upon, and lo, it was a hospital at once. The stone warehouses down in the ravine and by the river had been passed by, because low and damp and undesirable as sanitariums, but now their doors and windows were thrown wide, and, with barely time allowed to sweep them, they were all occupied; and even the ‘old blue factory.’ This was an antiquated, crazy, dismal building of blue stucco that peeled off in great blotches. It had been shut up for years and was in the last stages of dilapidation. The doorways were boarded up; its windows looked through eyeless sockets; boards were missing from the floor, leaving only rafters to bridge alarming gaps; while, in one place at least, it was possible to look down through successive openings, from the upper story to the basement, whence came back the sound of rushing water, for the stream, that had once turned the machinery (long since departed), still ran under archways in the foundations of the building.

“On Thursday night we heard more than usual sounds of disturbance and movement, and in the morning we found the Confederate army in full retreat. General Lee crossed the Potomac under cover of the darkness, and when the day broke the greater part of his force or the more orderly portion of it - had gone on towards Kearneysville and Leetown. General McClellan followed to the river, and without crossing got a battery in position on Douglas's Hill, and began to shell the retreating army and, in consequence, the town. What was confusion before grew worse; the retreat became a stampede. The battery may not have done a very great deal of execution, but it made a fearful noise. It is curious how much louder guns sound when they are pointed at you than when turned the other way! And the long-drawn screeching of shells, though no doubt less deadly than the singing of Minnie-balls, has a way of making one's hair stand on end at times. Then, too, every one who has had any experience in such things, knows how infectious fear is, how it grows when yielded to, and how, when you once begin to run, it soon seems impossible to run fast enough; whereas, if you can manage to stand your ground, the alarm lessens and sometimes disappears.

“Some one suggested that yellow was the hospital color, and immediately everybody who could lay hands upon a yellow rag hoisted it over the house. The whole town was a hospital; there was scarcely a building that could not with truth seek protection under that plea, and the fantastic little strips were soon flaunting their ineffectual remonstrance from every roof-top and chimney. Of course, they did not stop the firing; but when this specific failed, the excitement became wild and ungovernable. It would have been ludicrous had it not produced so much suffering. The danger was less than it seemed, for McClellan, after all, was not bombarding the town, but the army, and most of the shells flew over us and exploded in the fields; but aim cannot be always sure, and enough shells fell short to convince the terrified citizens that their homes were about to be battered down over their ears. The better people kept some outward coolness, with perhaps a sort of ‘noblesse oblige’ feeling but the poorer classes acted as if the town were already in a blaze, and rushed from their houses with their families and household goods to make their way into the country. The road was thronged, the streets blocked; men were vociferating, women crying, children screaming; wagons, ambulances, guns, caissons, horsemen, footmen, all mingled - nay, even wedged and jammed together - in one struggling, shouting mass. It was Pandemonium. (ED: The following racist comment suggests Miss Mitchell may have misperceived these person’s true motives. See introduction). The Negroes were the worst, and with faces of a ghastly ash color, they swarmed into the fields, carrying their babies, their clothes, their pots and kettles, fleeing from the wrath behind them. The comparison of a hornet's nest attacked by boys is not a good one, for there was no ‘fight’ shown; but a disturbed ant-hill is altogether inadequate. They fled and camped out of range, nor would they venture back for days.

“Had this been all, we could afford to laugh now, but there was another side to the picture that lent it an intensely painful aspect. It was the hurrying crowds of wounded. Ah me! Those maimed and bleeding fugitives! When the firing commenced the hospitals began to empty. All who were able to pull one foot after another, or could bribe or beg comrades to carry them, left in haste. In vain we implored them to stay; in vain we showed them the folly, the suicide, of the attempt; in vain we argued, cajoled, threatened, ridiculed; pointed out that we were remaining and that there was less danger here than on the road. There is no sense or reason in a panic. The cannon were bellowing upon Douglas's Hill, the shells whistling and shrieking, the air full of shouts and cries; we had to scream to make ourselves heard. The men replied that the ‘Yankees’ were crossing; that the town was to be burned; that we could not be made prisoners, but they could; that, anyhow, they were going as far as they could walk, or be carried. And go they did, but how?

“Men with cloths about their heads went hatless in the sun, men with cloths about their feet limped shoeless on the stony road; men with arms in slings, without arms, with one leg, with bandaged sides and backs; men in ambulances, wagons, carts, wheelbarrows, men carried on stretchers, or supported on the shoulder of some self-denying comrade - all who could crawl went, and went to almost certain death. They could not go far, they dropped off into the country houses, where they were received with as much kindness as it was possible to ask for; but their wounds had become inflamed and angry, their frames were weakened by fright and over-exertion; erysipelas, mortification, gangrene set in; and the long rows of nameless graves still bear witness to the results.

“Our hospitals did not remain empty. It was but a portion who could get off in any manner, and their places were soon taken by others, who had remained nearer the battlefield, had attempted to follow the retreat, but having reached Shepherdstown, could go no farther. We had plenty to do, but all that day we went about with hearts bursting with rage and shame, and breaking with pity and grief for the needless, waste of life. The amateur nurses all stood firm, and managed to be cheerful for the sake of keeping their men quiet, but they could not be without fear.

“One who had no thought of leaving her own post, desired to send her sister - a mere child - out of harm's way. She, therefore, told her to go to their home, about half a mile distant, and ask their mother for some yellow cloth that was in the house, thinking, of course, that the mother would never permit the girl to come back into the town. But she miscalculated. The child accepted the commission as a sacred trust, forced her way out over the crowded road, where the danger was more real than in the town itself, reached home, and made her request. The house had its own flag flying, or it was directly in range and full of wounded. Perhaps for this reason the mother was less anxious to keep her daughter with her; perhaps in the hurry and excitement she allowed herself to be persuaded that it was really necessary to get that strip of yellow flannel into Shepherdstown as soon as possible. At all events, she made no difficulty, but with streaming tears kissed the girl, and saw her set out to go alone, half a mile through a panic-stricken rabble, under the fire of a battery and into a town whose escape from conflagration was at best not assured. To come out had been comparatively easy, for she was going with the stream. The return was a different matter. The turbulent tide had now to be stemmed. Yet she managed to work her way along, now in the road, now in the field, slipping between wagon wheels, and once, at least, crawling under a stretcher. No one had noticed her coming out, she was but one of the crowd; and now, most were too busy with their own safety to pay much heed to anything else. Still, as her face seemed alone set towards the town, she attracted some attention. One or two spoke to her. Now it was, ‘Look-a here, little gal! Don't you know you're a-goin’ the wrong way?’ One man looked at the yellow thing she had slung across her shoulder and said, with an approving nod: ‘That's right, that's right; save the wounded if ye kin.’ She meant to do it, and finally reached her sister, breathless, but triumphant, with as proud a sense, I dare say, of duty done, as if her futile errand had been the deliverance of a city.

“I have said that there was less danger than appeared, but it must not be supposed that there was none. A friend who worked chiefly in the old blue factory had asked me to bring her a bowl of gruel that some one had promised to make for one of her patients. I had just taken it to her, and she was walking across the floor with the bowl in her hands, when a shell crashed through a corner of the wall and passed out at the opposite end of the building, rocking the crazy rookery to its foundations, filling the room with dust and plaster, and throwing her upon her knees to the floor. The wounded screamed, and had they not been entirely unable to move, not a man would have been left in the building. But it was found that no one was hurt, and things proceeded as before. I asked her afterwards if she was frightened. She said yes, when it was over, but her chief thought at the time was to save the gruel, for the man needed it, and it had been very hard to find anyone composed enough to make it. I am glad to be able to say that he got his gruel in spite of bombs. That factory was struck twice, and what miracle kept it together I could never understand. A schoolhouse, of course full of wounded, and one or two other buildings were hit, but I believe no serious damage was done. I was told that a bomb exploded in the street and killed several men, but I did not see it. We were told so many wild stories that I wish only to repeat what I actually saw, or know positively to be true; and while there was so much to be done in the hospitals, we really were comparatively ignorant of what was passing outside of our own wards.

“On Saturday morning there was the fight at the ford. The Negroes were still encamped in the fields, though some, finding that the town was yet standing, ventured back on various errands during the day. What we feared were the stragglers and hangers-on and nondescripts, that circle 'round any army, like the great buzzards we shuddered to see wheeling silently over us. The people were still excited, anticipating the Federal crossing and dreading a repetition of the bombardment or an encounter in the streets. Some parties of Confederate cavalry rode through, and it is possible that a body of infantry remained drawn up in readiness on one of the hills during the morning, but I remember no large force of troops at any time on that day.

“About noon, or a little after, we were told that General McClellan's advance had been checked, and that it was not believed he would attempt to cross the river at once - a surmise that proved to be correct. The country grew more composed. General Lee lay near Leetown, some seven miles south of us, and General McClellan rested quietly in Maryland. On Sunday we were able to have some short church services for our wounded, cut still shorter, I regret to say, by reports that the "Yankees" were crossing. Such reports continued to harass us, especially as we feared the capture of our friends, who would often ride down to see us during the day, but who seldom ventured to spend a night so near the river. We presently passed into the debatable land, when we were in the Confederacy in the morning, in the Union after dinner, and were no neutral ground at night. We lived through a disturbed and eventful autumn, subject to continual ‘alarms and excursions,’ but when this Saturday came to an end, the most trying and tempestuous week of the war for Shepherdstown town was over.”