Weekly Arkansas State Gazette
Little Rock, Arkansas
June 8, 1861
Everywhere in the Confederate States have the ladies worked unremittingly for the benefit of the volunteer companies organized for the defence of their country against northern aggression.
Flags, stitched and embellished by their fingers, have been presented in great numbers, sand bags and clothing made, lint picked, and money raised by means of fairs and private contribution. New Orleans may well be proud of her noble-hearted daughters, who have done so much for the cause which stirs the souls of her people.
That their labor may be lightened in part, we give the following letter of the veteran Dr. J. C. Nott, of Mobile, which we find in the Register of yesterday:
In my daily rounds I see our ladies wearing out their fingers and eyes in picking lint for our brave soldiers, and while I admire their patriotism and charity, I hope I may be permitted to say, I think they are, for want of information, throwing away much time that might be more usefully spent.
Clean cotton is easily obtained in any quantity, and answers just as well for dressing wounds as the ordinary lint.
The “patent lint” commonly used by surgeons is all, or nearly all, made of cotton. Some of the best European surgeons use the cotton-wool in preference to lint. Everybody uses cotton for a dressing for a burn, the most intense of all inflammations.
To these facts I may add my own ample experiences. I have for years been in the habit of using good sample cotton and lint indiscriminately, in dressing wounds of all kinds, and could never see any difference.
Whenever a gun is fired I shall be in the field and take care to have a good supply of cotton, which is one of the most useful articles a surgeon can have about a hospital for purposes, and one of its most important uses is in padding for splints.
J. C. Nott.