The West Family Hosts a Confederate Hospital, 1864

[Wiley C. Howard, Sketch of Cobb Legion Cavalry and Some Incidents and Scenes Remembered, 1901, n.p.:]

[Themes: Civil War—civilian roles, medical aspects, memory and commemoration, Battle of Trevilians; social/group/neighborhood identity and action]

Being disabled [at the Battle of Trevilians] I was about the [Confederate] field hospital for two or three days helping care for the wounded, near Mr. West’s place in the Green Spring neighborhood and while I saw much of war and human suffering there, I also witnessed the devotion and heroism of those angels of mercy and loving kindness, the lovely women—mothers and daughters of that far famed Green Spring neighborhood—to our boys and our holy cause. Their sacrifice of themselves, their time and all they possessed was complete, lavishly and charmingly bestowed, while they wept because they had no more to give and could not do more to alleviate pain and suffering. It is glory enough to have suffered all that fell to our lot and fought in defense of the noble women of the South. No Monument of chiseled stone or polished marble, however costly, can ever be erected which will adequately commemorate their fame and matchless devotion, but their memory is forever enshrined in the hearts of those who wore the gray.

Last updated: February 26, 2015

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