Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/48

 40 Southern Historical Society Papers.

of your department, I am sure you would be conferring a favor upon a gentleman and a man of honor and refinement. The orderly behavior of the prisoners while at David's Island was in a great measure due to the influence of this gentleman. I am, Colonel.

Your obedient servant,

J. SIMMONS, Surg. of &c. Colonel Hoffman,

Comr. Genl. of Pris.. Washington, D. C."

With other officers I left David's Island for Johnson's Island on the i8th of September, 1863. While on the steamer going to New York City, Dr. James E. Steele, the assistant sur- geon of the Island, before mentioned, came to me and asked me if I had an Autograph Book. He said a lady wished to see it. I gave it to him. He soon returned it, cautioning me about opening it. When he left me I opened it. Two names had been written in it, J. M. Carnochan, M. D., and Estelle Morris Carno- chan, and within the leaves there was a ten dollar note. I took it as a token of good feeling towards me, and as a compliment delicately made. Dr. Carnochan was a native of South Caro- lina. He then lived in New York City, and was by far the most eminent surgeon of that city. He frequently came down to David's Island to perform difficult operations on our wounded. His wife, as I understood it at the time, was the daughter of General Morris, of Maryland, and her mother was the daughter of the famous founder and editor of the Richmond Enquirer, Thomas Ritchie.

In passing from New York City through the great States of New York and Ohio to Sandusky, one thing deeply impressed me the great number of, men in civilian's clothes of the military age, who gathered at the railroad stations. I said to myself, ''War in the North is fully organized with such resources of men and war material, it is prepared to conduct the war for an indefinite time, and that it was with the North only a question of finances and of public opinion." It renewed my grief at our defeat at Gettysburg. That was the pivotal point of the war. A great victory there would have achieved peace, and would