Benjamin is serving as a nurse for the men wounded at the Battle of South Mountain a few days earlier (based on his October 2, 1862 letter), but more urgently, he is caring for those wounded at the Battle of Antietam the day before. He did not sleep at all last night because he has a fever and the shakes (the ague) on top of being responsible for wetting the wounds of fifteen different men every fifteen minutes. He notes that a round struck family friend Will Shaw's suspender buckle and embedded into his chest. Doctors cut out the ball and Benjamin is now in possession of it. He lists the names of other men his mother presumably knows who were injured. Benjamin states that he thinks he has made a mistake by leaving home for the war. He misses his Bible but says he has broken his swearing habit.
Read
