Letter from surgeon Ebenezer Mattocks to his sister – July 26, 1864
Saturday, July 26th, 2014A personal letter from Ebenezer Brewer Mattocks, a surgeon in the Minnesota Seventh Regiment, to his sister Nellie, written near Waterford, Mississippi, giving details of his work as a surgeon and the treatment of “rebel families”.
Partial transcript:
…The next morning our artillary came up and we commenced shelling them-and prepared to cross and “go” for them five companies went …in a boat and I went with them as surgeon we succeeded in driving the enemy- with but three wounded—Almost every day since we have had fighting in our front but our regiment has not been engaged- Yesterday our forces killed and wounded nearly 50 rebels…I love this kind of life- am perfectly happy when there is fighting to be done- I have been ordered by the medical Director in our next battle to act as brigade surgeon- in the field- that is I am the only surgeon in our brigade who is to accompany the brigade into battle- the other surgeons are to remain back two miles…[my] duties are to staunch the bleeding wounds-see them loaded, and send them back to the rear. I stand no better chance now than the rest of the officers and men- but yet I hope I woun’t get killed…I give you an idea of how the soldiers use Rebel families. I will give you an instance- when we came here there was a large house near by- with a large family- with a great many little children- our soldiers stole every thing there was in the house- even to their clothes- knives & forks & now we must feed them or they would starve- Such outrages ought not to be tolerated- sometimes my heart bleeds for the people rebels though they are…
See whole letter here: 1864-07-26_brewer