Occasionally, perhaps, they had listened to the complaint of some
"hospital rat," who, at the first rumor of an approaching battle, had
experienced "a powerful misery" in the place where a brave heart
should have been, and, flying to the rear, doubled up with rheumatism
and out-groaning all the victims of _real_ sickness or horrible
wounds, had remained huddled up in bed until danger was over. After
having been deceived a few times by these cowards, I became expert at
recognizing them, and paid them no attention whatever. I really
believe that in some cases it was a physical impossibility for men to
face the guns on a battle-field, and I have known instances of
soldiers who deliberately shot off their own fingers to escape a
fight. These men were conscious of their own defects, and often,
smarting under a knowledge that the blistering, purging, and
nauseating process pursued in such cases by the surgeons was intended
as a punishment, grew ugly and mischievous, seeking revenge by
maligning those in authority. I do not know what abuses may have
existed in other hospitals of the Confederacy; I can, however, say
with entire truth that I never saw or heard of a more self-sacrificing
set of men than the surgeons I met and served under during the war.
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