Record Data
Source citation
Samuel P. Bates, The History of Pennsyvlania Volunteers, 1861-65 (Harrisburg, PA: B. Singerly, 1869), 1: 731.
Type
Diary
Date Certainty
Exact
Transcriber
Transcription adapted from The History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65 (1869), by Samuel P. Bates
Adapted by Brenna McKelvey, Dickinson College
Transcription date
Transcription
The following transcript has been adapted from The History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65 (1869).
Thursday 25.-Charles Jarimer, a recruit of our company, and a bunk-mate of mine, died to-day, after a long and painful illness; helped to carry his body to the “dead house"-a house built in the rear of the hospital, outside the stockade. There were about twenty-five other bodies, most of which had been stripped of all their clothing, and were so black and swollen they could not be recognized. While I was there I saw them piling the bodies one on top of the other, into the wagon, to be hauled to their graves or ditches. I passed through the hospital on my way back, and the sights I saw there were enough to make one sick: the tents were filled with what could once have been called men, but were now nothing but mere skeletons. The short time I was there I saw several die. A man is never admitted to the hospital until there is no hope of his recovery, and when once there it is seldom, if ever, he returns.