Every train brought in squads of just such poor fellows as I have
tried to describe. How well I remember them toiling painfully from the
depot to report at the surgeon's office, then, after being relieved of
their accoutrements, tottering with trembling limbs to the beds from
which, perhaps, they would never more arise. This hospital-post, as
nearly as I remember, comprised only two hospitals, the Bragg and the
Buckner. Of the Bragg, Dr. S.M. Bemiss was surgeon in charge;
assistant surgeons, Gore, of Kentucky; Hewes, of Louisville, Kentucky;
Welford, of Virginia; Redwood, of Mobile, Alabama, and some others
whose names I cannot now recall. Dr. W.T. McAllister was surgeon in
charge of the Buckner. Of the assistant surgeons I can only remember
Dr. W.S. Lee, then of Florida, now a successful practitioner and an
honored citizen of Dallas, Texas; Dr. R.D. Jackson, of Selma, Alabama,
who since the war has lived a well-beloved physician and druggist in
Summerfield, Alabama; Dr. Reese, also of Alabama, and Dr. Yates, of
Texas, now dead. For a few months Dr. Francis Thornton, of Kentucky,
was surgeon of the post. He was a fiery, impetuous, _manly man_, a
rigid disciplinarian, but always compelled to fight against the
dictates of his large, warm heart when duty compelled him to execute
severe justice.

Mrs. Thornton was one of the most lovable women I ever knew; impulsive
and earnest in her friendship, of a sunny, cheerful temperament seldom
clouded. Her pride in her husband and her happiness in being with him
was pleasant to see. While she remained in Ringgold we were warm
friends. To her thoughtful kindness I owed many an indulgence in
dainties not supplied by the Confederate Government. My room was in
the same house where the surgeons and their wives were boarding. Often
returning late from the hospital, weary and dispirited, her sweet
voice would "_halt_" me at the foot of the stairs, a kindly arm