Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 78, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1913 — CAMP FIRE SRORIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CAMP FIRE SRORIES

TALES OF FAMOUS BATTLES Aged Woman Recalls Stories of Death and Disaster Witnessed During Civil War. 1 Mrs. Jennie Thompson Long, who lives at 523 Oak street, Wheaton, Is 75 years old, and for nearly half a century she has told to wondering listeners her stories of death and disaster that came under her eyes on famous battlefields of the Civil war, where she acted as nurse for three years. Here are incidents from among the many in her store of recollection: 1 “I was one of thirty nurses that Gov. Morton of Indiana sent out at the beginning of the war. I was assistant matron of the corps. Our first service oq the battlefield was at the first battle of Bull Run. It was a terrible place, and the day was like the night. Trees were cut off by the shot and shells, buildings were knocked down gnd -everywhere were the dead and the dying. “One man was brought tn shot through the head, and he was calling, not for water, as most of them were, but only, ‘My son! My son!’ “I asked him his son’s name, and then I went out among the wounded through the dust and mud and the blood. Canteens of water were slung over my shoulders and I gave drinks to union and rebel alike. I had not come to work for the Union. I had come to work for God. And I found the man’s son, with his legs shot off, and I had him carried to where his father lay. They couldn’t live, but I cut the bullet from his father’s .head, and he said he felt better. “At the second battle of Bull Run I saw forty soldiers buried in one trench. One in. a gray uniform was still living, and I told the men that they were burying the bodies, but they said, ‘Do you think we can stay here until he dibs, little nurse?’ Td not do such a thing as this,’ I said, and Just then a chain shot struck down the five men that were standing by my side. But it did not harm me. The Lord protected me. “I was at the battles where the big generals were. I sewed a button.on for Gen. McClellan and he gave me a quarter. At one camp an old colored ‘ woman made, big corn pones and sold them for 31. I got one and I was going past Gen. McClellan’s tent with it when the general stopped me. ‘Where are you going with that corn pone, lib tie nurse?’ he asked—they all called me that—and I told him, and he said, ‘Can’t I have some?’ I let him cut off a piece of the pone and he gave me a dollar, and told me to get * another ■ pone, so that we could all have some.

"At Vicksburg the nurses were on the hospital boat, and Gen. W. T. Sherman came down there with his big 'horse and asked the nurses to leave the boat add get some air. He said he would give them a guard so* they could go -around on land, but every one was afraid. ‘lsn’t there any one that’s brave enough to confer he asked. My heart was pounding away, but I spoke up and said, ‘l’m not afraid, general.* He laughed and said. ‘Good for you, little nurse,* and he held his great, freckled band so that I could step from it Into the saddle of his horse. He led the horse about, and In one place we were all at the top of a bank. A A dredge was working below, digging a place for a gun. Then I had a premonition of evil. ‘We’d better get out of here,’ I said. ‘Something’s going to happen.* ‘All right,’ said the general and laughed and led the horse back, and we had scarcely got away When the land where we had been standing all caved in. The general turned and looked at me. ‘Are you a prophet, little nurse?' he asked. I knew that something was going to happen. I was born with a veil over my face. “I served as an army nurse three years. After the war I was married to a’soldier and for fifty years I lived In Chicago and worked as a city missionary."