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[336] and took her place in the swift moving train of artillery that was passing. On reaching the scene of action, they turned into a field of tall corn and drove through it to a large barn. They were close upon the line of battle; the rebel shot and shell flew thickly around and over them, and in the barnyard and among the corn, lay wounded and bleeding men — the worst cases-just brought from the places where they had fallen. The army medical supplies had not yet arrived, nor the Sanitary Commission stores, which indeed did not come till one or two days later; the small stock of dressings brought by the surgeons was exhausted, and the surgeons, in their desperate necessity, were endeavoring to make bandages out of corn husks. Miss Barton opened to them her stock of bandages and dressings, and with her companion in travel proceeded to procure soft bread dipped in wine for the wounded and fainting. In the course of the day she picked up twenty-five men who had come to the rear with the wounded, and set them to work administering restoratives, bringing and applying water, lifting men into easier positions, checking hemorrhages by extemporized tourniquets, and the use of styptics, etc., etc. At length her supply of bread was exhausted, but fortunately a part of the liquors she had brought was found to have been packed in meal, and she at once determined to prepare gruel for the men. The farm-house to which the barn belonged was discovered at a little distance, and on searching its cellar she found three barrels of flour and a bag of salt which had been hidden there by the rebels the day before. Kettles were collected from the house, and the preparation of gruel commenced on a large scale, and as fast as cooked

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Clara H. Barton (1)
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