The Printer's Kiss: The Life and Letters of a Civil War Newspaperman and His Family

17. Nursing the Wounded

200 ChAPTer seVenTeen } Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn. —“Man Was Made to Mourn,” robert Burns, quoted in “The Life of a Prisoner,” Freedom’s Casket, June 15, 1844 Nursing the Wounded At stone’s river, Tennessee, on the night of December30, 1862, closely encamped enemy troops alternately serenaded each other with popular songs like “Yankee Doodle” and “Dixie” before singing “home sweet home” in unison. soldiers from the north and the south wanted to be home, but at dawn the next day, Confederates caught Union soldiers off guard at breakfast. The four days of battle that followed brought stag­ gering losses to both sides. The rebels were forced to retreat, however, and Lincoln credited rosecrans with saving the nation from a defeat that would have destroyed it. But the Confederacy was far from being vanquished. Many of the 7,543 Union soldiers wounded at stone’s riv­ er were put on hospital boats heading north on the Cumberland river. Confederates seized three of the boats, crammed all of the wounded onto one ship, and burned the other two. Tomlinson was apparently among those trying to help the hundreds of injured soldiers. After returning to Cincinnati, he was not only despressed by what he had seen but disap­ pointed in eliza’s reaction to his latest project—another plan for obtain­ ing a military commission.1 * * * * * nursing the wounded } 201 Tomlinson to eliza Cincinnati, Ohio, February 13, 1863 Dearest eliza, Yesterday i returned from nashville, having been absent nearly four weeks, most of the time being blockaded, first from going up the Cum­ berland, and then from coming home. so long in the midst of wounded, dead and dying, the effect of the trip has not been such as to throw off that gloom which for months i have felt consuming up all hope, and love and inward life. Though in your answer to a former allusion which i made to this state of feeling, you only added bitterness to what was be­ fore almost unbearable, yet i have no censure. in your letter just after the return of Byers you intimated as much as if you wanted nothing more to do with me if i persisted in my project of organizing a negro brigade. i have studied it all over, and though a favorable response from Washing­ ton was received, i have not yet actively engaged in the enterprise. What my future steps in regard to it may be i can’t say; but my southern trip has convinced me that under the present order of things our Government is virtually defunct, never to be restored. Our own imbecility and indeci­ sion has brought upon the world this awful and heavy curse. But it is no more use, however, for me to talk or to do. i feel broken down in hope and purpose. if we could once again gather our little family circle and be to ourselves, i might yet rouse up energy enough to make things comfortable. But i have none to cheer with a word in the struggle against despondency. The visit of my boy was sunshine o’er the gloom for a few days. This is the third letter i have commenced. Perhaps i may finish it. The others are best in the flames. next week i will send you some money. Will Tomlinson saturday morning.—no packet left yesterday, so i add today that i feel some better. it is a beautiful morning. i have just received from the painter a very fine little picture. i will have it framed and forwarded early. it was made according to my order for her, and pleases me very much. * * * * * 202 } the printer’s kiss The enlistment of African Americans as soldiers was a volatile issue for both sides during the Civil War. each side employed blacks as laborers to support military operations, but neither was eager to let them enlist as bona fide soldiers armed with weapons that would be used to kill whites. in the north, however, the pressure to muster in troops of contraband slaves and freed blacks was much more persistent. A few Union generals had already tried on their own to organize African American troops be­ fore the Militia Act of July 17, 1862, authorized President Lincoln to en­ list them “for any military or naval service for which they may be found competent.” soon after, Massachusetts...