Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Civil War Oddities #85


Having been wounded at Fort Donelson, Tennessee, Lt. Col. James O. Churchill of the Eleventh Illinois Regiment found himself in a hospital bed beside that of Col. John A. Logan on the steamer New Uncle Sam. Soon Brig. General U.S. Grant’s chief surgeon came aboard the headquarters steamer, examined Churchill, shook his head, and said there was nothing he could do for him.

Hours later the wounded man opened his eyes to find a woman bending over him. Having followed Federal forces as closely as the war zone permitted, Mrs. Logan had come to nurse her husband. Finding Churchill to be the more seriously injured one, she turned her attention to him. Under her constant care, Churchill recuperated so rapidly that the hospital boat City of Memphis took him board and kept him until he was able to return to his unit.