From the Richmond Examiner, 5/21/1863
THE LOUISIANA HOSPITAL. – A visit to this hospital, where are cared for the
wounded of the late battles, from Louisiana regiments, afforded gratifying
evidence of the care and attention shown them by the Surgeon in charge and his
assistants. Nearly all the beds are occupied by some maimed and disabled
defender of his country. Among them are a number of very serious and interesting
cases, three of which struck us particularly. One has both eyes forever
destroyed by a ball, and another has a wound penetrating both liver and right
lung, and the third is suffering from a most serious vessical wound.
These cases, we were informed, are rare, and generally fatal, but it is the
opinion of the Surgeon in charge that they will recover. Not a single death has
yet occurred. – We are afraid that in the whirl and stir of new events, the
sympathy and care for the wounded in the hospitals here is left to devolve
mainly upon the surgeons and nurses connected with them. – Citizens should
recollect that these men have successfully exposed their forms as a barrier
between the foe and this city, with its homes and property. Men there are
languishing in the hospitals who have only been horribly mutilated, but who have
lost all but life in the country’s service. It is certainly not now too much
to ask that they be not forgotten by the Government, and cared for by the
people, their valor helped to save from vandal invasion. Besides, kindness and
liberality to the soldier when disabled will go far towards stimulating and
encouraging his comrades when in the front line of battle.
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