About the Author
Valerie Horne Sumner, a former resident of Hertford County who attended school in Ahoskie, works as a nurse in Northern California. She also writes. This short story is Chapter Seven of a novel-in-progress, about nurses in the Civil War. ~~~~~~~~~
VALLEY OF THE SHADOW
From 'Confederate Nurse'
© 2001 Valerie Horne Sumner~~~~~~~~~
The Battle of Fredericksburg
Dec. 13, 1862
Major General Ambrose Burnside,
Having replaced McClellan
As Union Commander,
Proposes to capture
Fredericksburg
On his way to capture
Richmond,
Capitol of the Confederacy.
General Robert E. Lee,
Our great Southern leader,
And his forces,
Watch the Yankees
Dilly-dally
Across the Rappahannock River,
Building pontoon bridges and boats.
Finally, Burnside,
Against the advice of his underlings,
Issues vague orders
For his men to attack
The rebels.
The bluecoats cross the river
In droves
And become
Sitting ducks
On their pontoon bridges and boats.
Wave after wave
Of Union soldiers
Fall beneath
The fire
Of our Rebel sharpshooters,
Protected by stone walls and rises.
The South triumphs,
This time,
Chasing the Yankees
Back across the Rappahannock River.
But …… again …… what a cost
Of human lives.
~~~~~~~~~
The reverend, Beth, and Anna Maria
Cut short
Their Sunday outing
And rush to the hospital.
The sky darkens.
The wind stirs,
Striking their faces
With an ominous chill.
Dirt, leaves, and trash
Blow around
Their bowed heads.
Trains, ambulances, carts,
And wheelbarrows
Are streaming in
To drop off
Remnants
Of the Fredericksburg battlefield
At the North Carolina Military Hospital
In Petersburg, Virginia.
Human wreckage,
Shattered and torn,
Riddled with shot and shell,
Disheartened,
Disfigured,
Discarded,
Defeated,
Are deposited
Like unwanted garbage.
Yellow-skinned
Skeletons and ghosts,
Wrapped in days-old bloody bandages,
Covered in mud and grime,
With few blankets,
And fewer coats,
Fill up floors, hallways,
Steps, and doorways,
Lying on tables,
Beneath tables,
Across chairs, and
Leaning against walls.
Chaos reigns,
With a teeming mass
Of mankind
Milling about
Haphazardly ~
Surgeons,
Attendants,
Nurses,
Litter carriers,
Ambulance drivers,
Water boys,
And of course,
The wounded.
Mrs. Harrell shouts to Anna Maria and Beth,
"Grab a basin of water!"
With sponges, towels,
And blocks of brown soap,
The nurses bathe faces, hands, and wounds,
While attendants remove
Boots, socks, coats, and shirts.
To kneel on the floor
Next to a suffering man
Is to kneel
In blood, dirt, and nasty water ~
The River Styx.
The foul air is so terrible
That, at one point,
Anna Maria retches
Into a nearby pail.
She wipes her face
And turns back to work.
There is no time
For despair or weeping.
Pieces of men
Cry for "mother."
Others suffer silently,
Lips pressed together.
Some are barely alive
From hasty amputations
Performed in field hospitals.
Tears run down
Anna Maria’s face.
A soldier,
Shot in the head,
Lies in a corner,
Curtains drawn around him.
His heart still beats
And his lungs still fill with air,
But his brains
Ooze slowly
Onto the floor.
One man cries weakly,
"I’ll never eat again.
"I’ve been gut shot.
"Please, ma’am, may I have one last sip of water?"
Anna Maria runs to the water pails ~
She has to wait ~ they are being refilled.
She runs back to the soldier.
He is dead.
A boy lies with his face covered.
His buddy tells Gwendolyn
The soldier’s name and unit,
Before they come to take his body
To the dead house.
A stack of ready-made
Coffins
Waits by the door.
Many soldiers
Have slips of paper
In their pockets,
Or pinned to their shirts,
With their names,
Regiments,
Addresses of families.
"Please send my remains
To the folks back home." ~
Impossible
To achieve ~
Too many casualties ~
Too few resources.
One young man asks the surgeon,
"Doctor, am I going to die?"
The surgeon feels the boy’s pulse,
Looks into his eyes,
And says,
"Son, you will not live
To see another day."
All color drains from his face
And, for a moment,
He cannot speak.
Then he asks
For a minister.
Reverend Miller is summoned.
The boy speaks his last words ~
"Tell mama I love her.
"Tell mama …… I will meet her in the promised land.
"Tell her …… I’ve made my peace with the Lord.
"Tell her …… I would have liked to have seen her just once more,
before I leave this earth, but that the Lord has deemed otherwise."
Harried surgeons run to and fro,
Examining and sending many
To the operating table,
Where they pry
Pieces of metal
From mangled flesh
And saw off mangled bones.
The surgeons
Probe wounds with their fingers,
Cut off blood flow
With tourniquets,
Wipe scalpels on dirty aprons,
Slice through tissue and flesh,
Work through bone
With capital saws,
Sew together
Arteries and veins
With cotton sutures.
Anna Maria sees
A stream of blood
Flowing
From a table
Into a tub
Which holds
A severed arm,
Taken off at the socket.
The hand hangs
Over the rim of the tub.
One man refuses to have his leg
Amputated.
An open fracture
From a minie ball
Has dirt, skin, and splintered bone
Penetrating his tissue.
He dies later that night.
By dire necessity,
The nurse’s duties
Evolve
From serving meals
And writing letters
To cleaning and wrapping
Splintered arms,
Shredded limbs,
Lacerated chests,
Smashed skulls,
And swabbing stomach wounds.
…… An exhausted surgeon
Gives a hurried lesson
In wound dressing.
Anna Maria unwraps
A clotted bandage
From the stump
Of what used
To be an arm.
She cleans the area,
Oozing with pus.
The boy turns his head.
His face is pale
His eyes are closed.
He does not look at his bloody stump.
Another soldier wakes
And hears a surgeon say,
"You are going to recover.
"But, I’m afraid, son,
you have lost an arm."
The soldier replies,
"Sir, I didn’t lose an arm ~`
I gave it."
The hospital
Takes on the feel
And appearance
Of a dungeon.
Night falls
With
An end to the glorious weather.
The cold wind
Has arrived from the north,
Bringing a sinister gloom,
Chilling bones.
Mrs. Harrell, the matron,
Glides among the men.
A lamp illuminates
Her face,
Filled with tender compassion and mercy.
Some believe
They are looking
At an angel.
Some believe
They are looking at their mother.
Anna Maria looks at her,
Gains strength,
And turns back to her duties.
Reverend Miller
Prays
While holding the hand
Of many a dying boy:
The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want;
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters;
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil;
For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff,
They comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
Thou anointest my head with oil,
My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
The reverend listens to messages,
Last words,
And confessions;
Then gently closes
Unseeing eyes.
Food is brought in ~
Bread, soup, meat, and coffee.
Those who can eat
Feel better.
They start talking,
Describing
Their experiences.
"That feller, Burnside,
The Union man
With the whiskers
Down the side o’ his face ~
I heard they’re callin’
His whiskers ~ sideburns ~
Anyway, he kep’ sendin’
His men ‘cross the Rappahannock
Right into the face of our guns
And we wuz mowin’ 'em down.
I ain’t none too happy
‘Bout killin’ all those men ~
But I guess
It was them or me."
"Our regiment
Was behind Cobb’s Georgians
Protected by a stone wall.
We were standing four deep
Firing by ranks
Without letting up.
The Yankees kept coming.
It wasn’t long before
There were so many bodies ~
Over 6,000 I’m told ~
That the bluecoats
Didn’t have room to step."
"As far as the eye could see ~
A carpet of dead and injured.
And it was cold.
A bitter cold wind blew in
From the north
And the men
Lay bleeding
On that near-frozen ground."
"There was this boy
From South Carolina …
You see, all night long,
We could hear the wounded men
Crying and calling for help …
Most of them were bluecoats …
It got to all of us …
But this boy from South Carolina ~
His name is Richard Kirkland, I heard ~
Well, he got special permission,
And he rounded up canteens of water
And went out there
Right in the middle of the battlefield
And took water and blankets
To those suffering bluecoats …
The rest of us ~ I guess
We were just too scared
That the Yankees would fire on us.
If anybody runs across that boy,
You’ll be looking at an angel ~
The Angel of Marye’s Heights."
"I looked across the field
come dawn
and the Yankees ~
The ones still living ~
Had piled up
The frozen bodies of the dead
Into a wall
To protect them
When the fighting started again."
A boy wears
A shattered leg,
A bandage wrapped around his head,
And a strange light
In his eyes.
"This was my first battle.
"I stood my ground, missus.
"I didn’t run.
"I didn’t run."
"Ma’am,
Do you think
You could wash this coat
And fade out this blue color?
I didn’t have no coat
And I took this one
Off a Yankee feller,
Dead in the field.
I figured
He didn’t need it
So much as I did."
Anna Maria bathes
A young man’s face,
While talking to him,
Crooning softly.
Suddenly,
she realizes
she is washing the face
Of a dead man.
A woman
Arrives Tuesday evening,
Looking for her husband.
Within minutes,
She collapses.
Her husband
Breathed his last
Two hours ago.
Her wails
Echo throughout
The hospital.
It is the third day.
Someone walks
Near the train station
And hears strange noises ~
Sounds like moaning,
He tells officials.
They investigate.
A forgotten boxcar,
Switched off the tracks,
Is full of forgotten,
dead and dying men.
For three days,
Anna Maria does not notice
The sun rising
Or setting.
For three nights,
She sleeps on boxes
Stacked in a corner.
Wednesday evening,
She finally trudges
Up to the third floor
…… To find her patients,
Isaac, Abraham, little Gerald,
And all the others ……
Gone ……
Shuffled,
Days earlier,
Into departing trains,
For hospitals farther away,
…… to make room
For incoming casualties.
Anna Maria creeps to her room,
Lies down in her bed,
And cries ~
Cries for all the boys
Who have suffered ~
Cries ~
For her two brothers,
Ben and Daniel,
Killed in this bloody war ~
Cries ~
When she realizes
She may never see
Isaac, Abraham, or little Gerald again.
What will happen to them?
Will Isaac survive a train trip?
Anna Maria weeps into her pillow,
Before falling into
An uneasy slumber.
~~~~~~~~~
O Death
O Death
Won’t you spare me over
Till another year?
Well, what is this?
I can’t see.
Icy cold hands
Are taking hold of me.
O Death, O death
Can’t you spare me over
Till another year?
The children prayed.
The preacher preached.
Time and mercy
Are out of my reach.
You fixed my feet
So that I can’t walk.
You locked my jaw
So that I can’t talk.
You’ve closed my eyes
So that I can’t see.
O Death, O Death
Won’t you spare me over
Till another year?
Please consider my age.
Please don’t take me at this stage.
O death,
How you’re treating me.
Well, you’re hurting my body
And you’re making me cold.
Oh Mama,
Mama,
Come to my bed.
Place a cold towel
Upon my head.
My eyes are aching
And I can not see.
I feel the sheet
Pulling over me.
A variation of a Ralph Stanley
variation of a traditional
song. Author unknown.~~~~~~~~~
the author
Valerie Horne Sumner
with son Jacob, c. 1975
~~~~~~~~~
click here to email Valerie Horne Sumner
~~~~~~~~~
