6th,–I am just in receipt of the following letter, and lest I may some day be disposed to charge the friends of those for whom I labor with want of appreciation of my efforts, I record it in my journal, with the hope that my eyes may often fall on it. I am almost daily receiving similar letters, and how they brace me in my efforts to do my duty, despite of the embarrassments which are unnecessarily thrown around me!
[Letter omitted in the publication of this journal.]
Do surgeons in the army ever realize that often friends of the soldier, at home, are as great sufferers from this war as the soldier himself? Do they ever think of the comfort, of the happiness they may with a little effort, impart to those whom they never saw, but are perhaps as active participants in the war as those actually in the lines! and do they begrudge the little time and labor required to impart this comfort or consolation?