In Their Own Words
July 09, 1862
Wounded Civil War Soldier Tired of Being in Richmond
A Georgia soldier who had been wounded in the Shenandoah Valley campaign wrote home to his wife; he was tired of being in Richmond - which housed thousands of sick and wounded men.
“…I am not quite well yet but I am quite worn out with this town. In fact I do not think it is prudent for one accustomed to the open air and camps to stay here long. The whole air is filled [with] malaria from the thousands of sick wounded and unberied dead. It is a fact that some of the dead are still unberried. I was hurt worse than I supposed when I first wrote to you. Since the swelling has gone out I have become thoroughly convinced that the bone was fractured. Our wounded are still where I left them. I heard from them today. James Phillips wound will probably prove mortal. Recollect he was shot through the lung. All the others are doing finely. They receive good attention from the surgeons and our boys who can wait upon them. …”
Source: Randall Allen and Keith S. Bohannon (eds.), “Campaigning with ‘Old Stonewall’: Confederate Captain Ujanirtus Allen’s Letters to his Wife (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998), pp. 122-123.
