Page:The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life .djvu/139



had grown into the routine of the strictest military discipline, as City Point became the centre of hospitals, and the booming cannon sent its mangled victims thick and fast upon us. The hot sun of July poured down upon our heads, and a hotter fire burned beneath the devoted fort at Petersburg.

Who that listened to the heavy cannonading on the thirtieth of July, and heard the terrible explosion, will forget the horrors of the scenes which were presented on the battlefield, as men were mown down like ripe grain in the harvest-time.

We worked faithfully to make room for the new recruits which we knew would soon be furnished. We cooked, and I remember how the simple fact of severely burning my dress as I stood between two stoves, annoyed me, from the reason that I thought no time could be spared to mend it. Mrs. Spencer of the New York Relief gave me tobacco to distribute to the freshly wounded who should come in, and be unable to procure it. Abominating the habit as I did, yet I enjoyed a great amount of satisfaction in knowing that I had in my possession that which—weed as it