96 ' Ten Years of my Life. 



pared to leave for Washington, and I resolved to accompany 

 them as far as Nashville, or evtn to Washington, according to 

 the news from Felix. On the 4th of January, 1865, General 

 Brannon was to go by special train to Nashville, and offered 

 to take us with him, an offer that was thankfully accepted. We 

 arrived on the 5th at the St. Cloud Hotel, where I found many 

 old acquaintances. 



Receiving a despatch from Groeben, informing me that my 

 husband would arrive on January 8th, in Bridgeport, with his 

 brigade, I decided on returning to that place next morning 

 with a hospital train, and Colonel and Madame Corvin left for 

 Washington. 



The Americans are an eminently practical and sensible peo- 

 ple ; everything they do is to the purpose, and economy only 

 a second-rate consideration. In other countries this is the 

 principal object, and most institutions that are imperfect are 

 so on account of stinginess, which, after all, causes the greatest 

 waste of money. The American hospital trains are perfection. 

 There is everything which can possibly be desired by wounded 

 men and the surgeons who treat them. They are spacious and 

 airy, and provided with all the comforts of a hospital. The 

 waggons are of course connected in such a manner as to per- 

 mit a free communication along the whole train. There are 

 two kitchens, one for the rooking of food, the other for the 

 requirements of nursing. Those who are severely wounded lie 

 in beds standing on the tloor ot the waggon, and have no 

 other beds above them. In other waggons two beds are 

 placed, one above the other. They are arranged in such a 

 manner that the wounded do not suffer frorn the movement, by 

 means of springs and elastic bands connected with the beds. 

 Should another war ever occur in Europe, the sanitary authori- 

 ties would do well to study and imitate the American pattern, 

 and use such hospital trains more frequently than has been 

 done in the French war. In this latter war it was distressing 

 to sec the manner in which poor w^ounded soldiers were often 

 transported in common railway trains, lying iii filthy cattle- 

 waggons, even without straw, on the floor, feeling every shock, 

 and remaining sometimes five or six hours at some station 

 without even a drink of water. 



On my arrival in Bridgeport I was much disappointed, for 

 Salm had not arrived yet, and v/as still some sixty miles from 



