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Robert Cruikshank, letter

December 21, 1862

“You see that I am in the hospital… The Hospital was a factory before the war and is a large brick building well calculated for a hospital. There are several tents put up and used for the same purpose. I have had a bilious, intermittent fever and now have enlargement of the liver with diarrhoea [sic]. I have had very good care and with the jar of strawberries that you sent me, which I keep hid under the bed so as to keep them, I relish my food very well. The attendants would not let me have the strawberries and butter if they knew it. The warden examines all the beds in the ward every morning but has not found it yet. I shall never forget the first dinner at this hospital. It was bread, and soup cooked in a caldron which would hold about two barrels. It tasted better than it looked.”


Author

Name: Robert Cruikshank

Unit: 123rd Regiment New York Infantry, Co. H

Document Information

Type: Letter

Subject(s):

  • Hospitals/Medical Care

Event Location: Harpers Ferry, Jefferson Co., WV

Document Origin: Harpers Ferry, Jefferson Co., WV

Source

Robert Cruikshank to Mary Cruikshank. December 21, 1862. Transcribed by Barry Cruikshank. Columbus, OH: ehistory at the Ohio State University. Obtained from http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/sources/letters/cruikshank/index.cfm. Accessed on February 9, 2010.