Showing posts with label Cornelia Hancock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cornelia Hancock. Show all posts
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Easter Sunday
Today at Brandy Station: March 27, 1864 (Easter Sunday) From the letters, diaries and regimental histories that I have access to, there isn't a lot of material from the soldiers about today being Easter Sunday. Joel Molyneux (141st Pennsylvania) is the only soldier to identify the day: "Easter Sunday. Rode to Culpepper with the Capt[ain]. Gen. Hayes at Hd Qrs, and is to command the Second Brigade." Richard Owen (86th New York) was poetic: "Bright and fair with all the blessings of an infinitely good God resting upon me. O for a closer walk with thee. A heart from sin set free. A light to shine upon the road that leads me unto thee. My God my all and is all." Henry Seage (4th Michigan) mentions there was Divine Service at 11:00. But, did not go. George Perkins, (6th New York Independent Battery) went to a service: "Fair and warm. A very interesting Bible lesson this day on Mat[thew] 5th. Discourse in evening and a prayer meeting. Spoke. Cornelia Hancock, a 2nd Corps nurse on Hansbrough Ridge, concluded in a letter to her sister: "Sunday morning- our steward has returned quite drunk and things have not got straightened yet, quite. Liquor I am so down upon. They cannot get it here but he went to Washington as has not recovered himself yet. He has just been in my house, says he is all right for duty now, I hope so. My house is not swept up yet. I suppose you are about getting off to Meeting." For many, like David Wagner (107th Pennsylvania Infantry) it was a normal day in the army: "Company Inspection in the morning. Dress Parade in the evening at 4 O'Clock."
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Payday and rats
Today at Brandy Station: March 20, 1864
A portion of a letter from Cornelia Hancock, a nurse serving the soldiers of the Second Corps, Third Division, on Hansbough Ridge, to her sister. Originally from New Jersey, she began supporting the sick and injured after Gettysburg.
..."We have with us tonight Maj. Hutchins, paymaster for our Division. He has paid all our sick and wounded this evening. We have an extra guard on. There was a very interesting spectacle seeing the men come in to be paid hobbling along on crutches and canes; most of them received $50. Some fine looking young men-it seemed such a pittance to me, considering their wounds. They all seemed pleased, are going to bed praising Dr. F. A. Dudley for securing the paymaster to come to the hospt. He is wide awake and attend to their interest in many ways they never had before."
further in the letter
"The rats have gnawed my two hoods so they cannot be worn. I am wearing now a piece of red flannel doubled, plaited behind with black strings. It looks very fantastic and tolerably comfortable. I do not want another as I shall soon need a hat."
Hancock wrote a number of letters home of her experiences during the winter encampment. A book of her letters: Letters of a Civil War Nurse: Cornelia Hancock, 1863-1865; edited by Henrietta Statton Jaquett.
A portion of a letter from Cornelia Hancock, a nurse serving the soldiers of the Second Corps, Third Division, on Hansbough Ridge, to her sister. Originally from New Jersey, she began supporting the sick and injured after Gettysburg.
..."We have with us tonight Maj. Hutchins, paymaster for our Division. He has paid all our sick and wounded this evening. We have an extra guard on. There was a very interesting spectacle seeing the men come in to be paid hobbling along on crutches and canes; most of them received $50. Some fine looking young men-it seemed such a pittance to me, considering their wounds. They all seemed pleased, are going to bed praising Dr. F. A. Dudley for securing the paymaster to come to the hospt. He is wide awake and attend to their interest in many ways they never had before."
further in the letter
"The rats have gnawed my two hoods so they cannot be worn. I am wearing now a piece of red flannel doubled, plaited behind with black strings. It looks very fantastic and tolerably comfortable. I do not want another as I shall soon need a hat."
Hancock wrote a number of letters home of her experiences during the winter encampment. A book of her letters: Letters of a Civil War Nurse: Cornelia Hancock, 1863-1865; edited by Henrietta Statton Jaquett.
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