May 4.
Mr. Olmsted decided to do it, and the “D. W.” sailed with 190 sick from the deserted camps within a range of some miles–eighteen, the poor fellows say who were jolted down to the shore over corduroy roads. The loads began arriving at 5.30 this morning, and we refitted the state-rooms which had been made up twice already, all along of the men nurses turning in and rioting in boots in the nice clean beds. No objection to the “relief-watch” lying down gently on the outside of the beds, but why should they pull out the under-quilts and pin them up for state-room doors? E. and I discovered all sorts of candle ends tucked away or stuck in cakes of soap, with every facility for setting the ship on fire–also the work of the men nurses.
Mrs. Griffin and Mrs. Lane were, meantime, in the pantry getting breakfast for the sick.