From the Shippensburg (PA) News,
8/2/1862
***author of this
letter was in the 7th Pa. Reserves
The following letter from D. D. CURRIDEN – whose capture
by the rebels we noticed in a recent issue of our paper – we received on
Tuesday last. Possessing items of general interest, we lay it before our readers
entire: -
“Libby Prison,” Richmond,
Friday, July 18th, 1862
DEAR BROTHER: - Since my last letter, nothing of special
interest has occurred, except that this morning about four hundred of the
federal prisoners were paroled and sent in an ambulances away, it is said, to a
landing seven miles below the city, where they are to be put upon the Federal
Transports. Nearly all the officers who were here have gone.
Officers of the Confederate army are now engaged in
paroling the prisoners in some of the rooms of this prison, and we are told that
to morrow a new lot will be sent off. – Whether our room will be included in
the exodus or not, I cannot now learn.
There is a possibility – I hardly think a probability –
of my being sent as a nurse with the wounded I am now attending to Philadelphia,
in which event I may have a chance of getting home to see you before I am
regularly notified of my exchange. We have no accurate knowledge of anything
transpiring around us, but we are told
that all of our number who are not wounded are to placed in camp until regularly
exchanged, and no furloughs are allowed to any paroled men except nurses.
I earnestly hope that our government may speedily remove
our wounded to a place where they may receive proper attention. The Confederate
Government have openly told us that they have sufficient to do to attend to
their own wounded, and there can be no doubt of it. About forty out of three
hundred of our men have died, whose lives, I firmly believe, under proper
treatment, might have been saved. – Part of this mortality is chargeable to
incompetent and worthless surgeons, but it is mostly owing to the want of proper
bedding, medicines, and food. The only way I can account for the presence of
three New York surgeons with us is by the supposition that they wished to be
absent from duty at their regiments. Dr. Underwood of West Cambridge Mass., and
a surgeon by the name of Foster, did their duty nobly, the others simply
attended the nurses and gave general directions how to dress and bandage the
wounds, and occasionally would assist in holding a patient whilst undergoing
amputation. The few nurses who were competent and faithful, had nearly all the
duties thrown upon them, and they were worked until half of them broke down. I
was among the ones so fortunate as to have muscle and flesh enough to stand it,
although I have lost twenty pounds in weight.
All of us are anxious to see our regiments – and if
possible before exchanging our homes once more – that we may recruit
sufficiently to “pick our flints and try again.”
Affectionately Your
Brother,
DAVID DEAL
CURRIDEN
“Libby
Prison,” Richmond,
July 20th.
Yesterday about eight
hundred more of our wounded were sent away. Those that yet remain have
assurances that they will also be sent off before the 25th. On Friday
evening I learned the whereabouts of eight of Capt. Henderson’s company
besides myself. Sergt. Burkholder, Corporal Hubley and John T. Harris, are on
“The Island” in the James river. Sergt. Zimmerman wounded in the shoulder,
Samuel Smith, Henry S. Hocker – each of whom has lost a right arm – and
William Wyres – slightly wounded in the leg – came yesterday to this prison
where they are awaiting removal to the transports. They are all doing as well as
could be expected. Jacques-Noble, wounded in the shoulder, went with the lot
paroled yesterday.
Yesterday’s Examiner
says that all the well men are to be paroled and sent North, “as eloquent
missionaries to preach against enlistments.” The wounded of our company, one
of whom will carry this, leaves this morning with a lot of five hundred for our
lines.
On
Board the Hospital Boat “Knickerbocker,”
OFF HARRISON’S LANDING
Wednesday, July 23d, 1862.
Yesterday with a lot of
about six hundred of the wounded, I was paroled as a nurse and am now (with
Zimmerman, Smith, Hecker and Wyre) on board the United States Hospital boat “Knickerbocker,”
off Harrison’s Landing, awaiting orders.
D. D. C.
Baltimore,
July 25th, 1862
The “Knickerbocker”
reached this city on Thursday morning of last week. I should have written
immediately but for the prospects of getting home, which seemed almost certain.
From present indications, leave of absence will be granted to none of us, as the
Doctors and Nurses are ordered to report to Surgeon Simpson to-day. Probably we
are to be placed upon another boat going off soon. The “Knickerbocker” is to
lie here for repairs which will take ten days. – My health is now as good as
ever, although I was almost broken down when I left Richmond. The hard work of
nursing combined with diet of the lowest order, reduced me twenty pounds in
weight during the time I was a captive, but with plenty of good food I am now
fattening up again.
A monster Union meeting to
encourage enlistments is to be held in Baltimore this evening, and a lively time
is expected.
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