Before daylight we were off.
Railroads at that time were very defective and very rough. Ah, how
terrible was the suffering of those wounded men as they were jolted
and shaken from side to side! for haste was necessary to escape the
enemy. About noon the train came to a full stop, nor moved again for
many, many hours,--hours fraught with intense suffering to the sick
and wounded, as well as to all who shared the hardships of that
journey. It was reported that the enemy were passing either to the
right or left, I do not remember which. Not a wheel must move, not a
column of smoke arise; so, with the engine fires extinguished, the
train stood motionless in the midst of a barren pine forest. The small
supply of cooked food was soon exhausted, the ladies on the train
assisting to feed the wounded soldiers. All were parched with thirst.
The only water to be procured lay in ruts and ditches by the roadside,
and was filthy and fetid. So the day passed. All through the night
every one was on the alert, listening intently for sounds that might
mean danger. No lights, no roadside fires could be allowed; but the
moon shone brightly, and by its light the surgeons moved about among
the suffering men, whose groans, united with the plaintive sigh of the
chill wind through the pine forest, served to make night dismal
indeed.
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