Northern Civil War Surgeon in Middle Tennessee: The William Eames Papers and Understanding Local History

Sarah Williams

4/25/2019

The historiography of the Civil War is more than a sixteen-week course could cover. Not

only are there countless texts written on the topic, but the wealth of sources collected in archives

is also overwhelming. This essay began as I was working on a separate project and I stumbled

across a collection that caught my attention. The William M. Eames papers at the Tennessee

State Library and Archives is a small, seventy five piece set of papers that tells Eames’ story as a

Union soldier in the south during the Civil War.i He worked as a Federal surgeon in occupied

Murfreesboro during 1862, and saved some of his correspondence to his family during that time.

I was drawn to this collection because at the time, I lived directly across the street from where he

was stationed, and I grew up about thirty-five miles from where he and his family lived in

Ashtabula, Ohio. While I am only scratching the surface, it is my hope that this paper will help

shed light on a unique collection of papers found at the Tennessee State Library and Archives,

and that future researchers can pick up where this left off to better understand how occupation

impacted soldiers and communities during the Civil War.

“The Civil War Diaries of William Lawrence and Kate Carney: A Research Note on

Under-Utilized Sources,” by Brenda Jackson-Abernathy states, “Middle Tennessee’s Civil War

experience is complicated by the fact that Union troops occupied the region soon after secession

and remained throughout the war. Southern newspapers in Nashville and its environs were

silenced, and communications beyond city limits were censored. As such, private musings of

individuals become all the more important to historians.”ii While this paper will draw from

perspectives and Union newspapers, particularly the Nashville Daily Union, the focus of the

source base is the remaining letters of William Eames who was stationed in Murfreesboro at the

Union Baptist College, where Central Magnet School stands today. Hs papers describe daily

events in the town and focus on his role as head surgeon in the hospital. The letters from his wife

and sons are not included in the collection, silencing their voices, but he often writes what appear

to be direct responses to their concerns and questions. In this paper I will discuss how a northern

soldier perceived the occupation of Murfreesboro, Tennessee during the Civil War. With his, he

carries with him prejudice of the time about the region and race; and, he provides insight into he

role of a surgeon in occupied territory.

William Eames Background

According to his autobiography William Eames struggled to find his calling as a young

man in Massachusetts.iii After trying his hand at farming and teaching, he eventually found his

passion as a surgeon. According to his same autobiography, he intended to settle just west of

Chicago and establish a practice in a small village. On his journey, “[He] chanced to see an old

acquaintance from a town adjoining my boyhood home, and was so glad to meet him that I

changed my immediate route from Chicago to Cleveland so as to bear him company as far as I

could. As he was about to visit northern Ohio to buy wool I thought I would stop off with his and

spend a few days among my father’s relatives on the Western Reserve.” A simple encounter with

an old friend ended up changing the course of his future, for after he arrived in Ohio he met his

wife, Mary. Of his falling for her, he wrote, “Thus easily was my whole future turned and my

destiny changed from being a resident from the great state of Illinois to one of Ohio… I ventured

into company that enamored my too sensitive heart, and made me change all my carefully

arranged schemes, and come down a humble plodder in Ohio mud. The innocent author of all

this change and the ensnarer of my heart was a blithe and thoughtless blooming lass of seventeen

summers by the name of Mary.” The couple married in less than a year. His affection toward his

wife is obvious as an older man reflecting on his past in the autobiography, but this is also

evident throughout his collection of letters written to his wife. Though none are verbose in

affectionate language, he expresses missing her and his children, and is careful to send money

home and encourages her to use the money to ease her work and anxieties. Mary and William

had three children together, one born shortly after Eames was stationed in Murfreesboro. Most of

the collection includes letters written to his wife, though there are some undated letters addressed

to his two eldest sons.

Shortly after the war broke out, Eames saw a newspaper advertisement, “call[ing] for

Surgeons for five new [Ohio] regiments. Only five Surgeons were needed and Six Assistants.”iv

Eames and a friend went to Columbus, Ohio to take an examination, during which he describes

feeling insecure compared to the other men in the room, so much so that he avoided telling his

friends and neighbors he went.v Then, “Nearly a week had passed before I heard aught from

Columbus, and then came the brief Dispatch signed by the Adjutant General- ‘You are assigned

to the 21st Reg. O.V.M. as Surgeon. Report at once to Cleveland.”vi Thus began Eames

movements southward as a surgeon in the Federal army.

Perspectives on Tennessee in the Civil War

The introduction to James B. Jones Jr.’s Tennessee in the Civil War: Selected

Contemporary Accounts of Military and Other Events, Month by Month concisely sums up the

state leading up to the Civil War. “Tennessee, at the end of the 1850s, had prospered from the

agricultural wealth that dominated economic life. Most of this prosperity was created by

producing cotton and made possible by slave labor.”vii In contrast, Eames, grew up in

Massachusetts, and settled as a young adult in Ohio, two states where abolitionism was a

powerful force. Tennessee’s position as an upper south state, and its varied geography delayed its

journey to secession, but upon the second vote in June 1861, Tennesseans chose to leave the

United States of America and join the Confederacy.

In early 1862, the Federal army moved south from Kentucky on an invasion of the

Confederacy on the Western front of the war. Tennessee was a vital state to the Union’s plans as

it had railroads, taking Memphis would give control to the Mississippi River, and eventually,

having a strong hold over Union-supporting East Tennessee. After a crushing win at Fort Henry

and Fort Donelson, Union troops moved to relatively unprotected Nashville. James B. Jones, Jr.

summarizes the taking of the city as follows, “Nashville fell on February 25, but there was no

sacking of the city, only an orderly and subdued occupation.” This calm explanation does not

account for the “Great Panic” that took hold as civilians learned about the Confederate defeat at

Fort Donelson.

viii

This map of Tennessee shows roads and steamboat routes from 1841. In the intervening twenty years, the abundance of railroads added to the travel routes. Tennessee was vital to both sides on the western front of the war as it

provided so much access to transportation.

Eames wrote his wife following the Union victory in gaining control over Nashville,

emphasizing that this city was taken, “without firing a gun.”ix After briefly describing this

significance for the Union in taking a southern state capitol, Eames mentions his eagerness to

stay near the city where mail can reach him as his wife has “important” news for him, in

reference to the birth of his third child, using elusive language natural for someone who grew up

in the Victorian era.x

Eames’ wartime correspondence captures his experiences in Middle Tennessee,

specifically Nashville and Murfreesboro. Nashville, the capitol of the state, and nearly the capitol

of the Confederacy, was a wealthy urban center. The population of the city held mixed views of

the Civil War. For example, Eames describes the famous Captain William Driver, who was a

supporter of the Union whose flag “Old Glory” was hoisted up the flag pole upon the surrender

of the city on February 25, 1862.xi It should be noted that during the Great Panic, when

Nashvillians became aware of imminent Union occupation, the most loyal to the Confederacy

fled south or to Memphis. Regardless, not all could leave, and those who supported the United

States of America showed up in support as the Federal army arrived. In the same letter, he

expounds on the pro-Union sentiment to Mary, “I have not been in Nashville much except to

pass through it on our way out here [four miles south of the city]- but I saw enough of it to

conclude that it was at least half union in sentiment & that very many heartily glad to see us

come to relieve them from the southern tyranny which has so long ruled over them.”xii

His experience with Murfreesboro citizens was quite different. Though Eames moved

across state lines in his civilian life, he was quite sheltered and his observations of people and

places in the south provide fresh insight into his experiences in a “foreign” land. While the

southern states remained an independent nation for four short years, the regional divide resulting

from economic and political differences, as well as limited travel in the nineteenth century make

Eames an outsider observing an unknown space.

xiii

This encampment outside of Nashville, in Edgefield gives a representation of what Eames saw soldiers build as he passed through Nashville, and then upon taking Murfreesboro. Eames himself did not stay in camp long, as he was

stationed in the Union College Hospital during his time in Murfreesboro.

Just three days after Nashville’s fall to Federal forces, Eames wrote a letter four miles

south of the city on February 28, 1862 describing the climate and health of soldiers, two topics

he addresses in nearly every letter. “It is a very fine spring-like day & the last day of winter

months tho, we have had no weather like winter for a long time. The weather seems like what we

get in May & the grass is springing up green & the buds begin to swell. The birds sing more

gaily among the trees & our camp begins to look cheerful once more.”xiv He makes the

comparisons to Ohio weather, creating imagery for his wife, and possibly his two sons, to better

understand this space where he is staying. The positive tone dramatically turns, as he continues,

“For the past few days we have had very hard times.... It has rained at least half the time & the

men have been drenched and soaked... & I have been often pained to see them toasting their slice

of stinking ham on a stick as their only supper or breakfast with sometimes a little parched corn-

roasted on the cob.”xv In these especially gloomy descriptions of a soldiers life, Eames carefully

refers to the “men” and does not write in the first person. Whether this is representative of

nineteenth century masculinity, or an attempt to keep his wife from worrying more, it is unclear.

Not all his letters avoid these difficult topics, and he often provides blunt descriptions of his

individual health issues.

Eames correspondence from Nashville ends at this point, and the collection picks up a

few days later, when he as settled in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The city was the next vital step in

the Federal army heading west toward Memphis and the Mississippi, and into the deep south.

xvi

The following caption is from the Center for Historic Preservation’s “Occupied Murfreesboro” booklet, page 2. “View of the public square looking west. In the foreground are structures from the Union encampment on the

courthouse lawn. A stone and brick wall that surrounded the lawn is partially demolished; Union soldiers used the wall’s materials to construct chimneys for their tents...The town well is visible to the right.”xvii This is Murfreesboro

as Eames would have seen it daily. He was stationed only half a mile from the town square.

Eames in Murfreesboro

As the Federal government established its occupation in Nashville, troops moved forty

miles south. According to the Center for Historic Preservation, “Murfreesboro’s role as a

primary depot along the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad would soon forcefully bring the

conflict home to this community of about 4,000 persons.”xviii The city would be under Union

control by mid-March.xix

Colonel Beatty, a soldier who wrote Citizen Soldier described the city in a March 30,

1862 entry with more detail than Eames provides. “Murfreesboro is an aristocratic town. Many

of the citizens have as find carriages as area to be seen in Cincinnati or Washington… The poor

whites are as poor as rot, and the rich are very rich. There is no substantial well-to-do middle

class. The slaves are, in fact, the middle class here. They are not considered so good, of course,

but a great deal better than the white trash.”xx Today we recognize that he carried racial prejudice

with him. A study on northern prejudice and discrimination in occupied cities would be an

excellent addition to the historiography, and TSLA has a wealth of sources that can enlighten

local history on the subject. For the sake of this paper I will further analyze Beatty’s remarks as

those of an outsider looking in to an unknown land and social structure. His northern ideals tell

him to look for a thriving middle class that supports the economic system in which southerners

live. He does not find it. To make sense of this slave system, he tries to fit the southern society

into the class layers he knows and to which he can relate. As I will mention later, Eames also

struggles to define the enslaved as a result of his own confusion, along with conflict between the

reason for fighting and personal prejudice as well.

Eames’ correspondence to his wife, Mary Eames, on March 20, 1862 from Murfreesboro,

though the exact location is left unclear. Per usual, he opens with his weather report, using the

word pleasant to describe the march to the city three times in one sentence: “We left camp

Andrew Jackson on Tuesday morn & had a very pleasant march about 16 miles & encamped in a

very pleasant grove on a pleasant evening,” though he notes the weather did turn worse and rainy

following this especially pleasant day.

xxiii

xxi These weather updates, especially in early spring,

contrast the climates between where his family lives and where he is located. He is in awe of the

early springs that reach the south, though he does not ask about northern weather, and makes no

indication that his wife describes this.xxii Following this update, he jumps into describing the

landscape once more. This time, there is a notable change to his discussion: he describes the

enslaved living and working in the town. He notes, “I was much interested in looking at the

plantations devoted to King Cotton as they were the first I had ever seen.” His description tells

about the size of the farms and equipment needed, and further adding that “It frequently takes 25

or 30 working negroes to take care of the plantations & of course there would be 20 or 30 who

would be too old or young to work & make some 50 or 75 to a plantation.”

His language describing the enslaved shows a level of confusion for how to describe

African Americans, likely stemming from limited, if any, interaction with people of color

throughout his life. His language shifts regularly, as if testing out the terminology that suits his

comfort-level the most. Though often overtly racist in speech, this is further expressed through

actions based on the jobs he provided for Murfreesboro black people at his hospital. Based on his

descriptions, the man (or men, it is unclear) work outdoors, primarily chopping wood and caring

for the horses. The women cleaned. Few names, except for Margaret, are described for any of the

enslaved working for him. It is also unclear whether he hired them or whether they were

conscript laborers.xxiv

In addition to his interactions with African Americans, Eames discusses the white

southerners and his perceptions of the Confederate army. These descriptions of southerners as

uneducated and low-class are showcased most in the initial occupation of Murfreesboro, and in

the days following Nathan Bedford Forrest’s raid in July 1862. On March 20, 1862, Eames

admonishes Confederate sympathizers who, “have burned in this town thousands of dollars

worth of their king...” In response to those who choose instead to sell their cotton to the

“Yankees,” he notes their sensibility at “prefer[ing] Yankee money to having their own way.”

His description compares southern destruction of resources to throwing a temper tantrum, and

choosing absolute loss over making a profit.

His prejudice against the Confederates is palpable as he describes the Federal troops

settling into Murfreesboro for their extended stay. The same letter from March 20 says, “We are

not stopping on a rebel encampment ground to set our tent on, & have had to clean up chicken

bones & other rebel leavings to get a place to set our tent on, 7 now I fear we will all be sick on

account of the filth...”xxv On March 27, 1862, Eames is stationed as surgeon at Union Baptist

College, which had been a Confederate hospital prior to occupation. He remarks, “When [he]

commenced there was literally nothing to work with except the old bunks the rebels had used &

the empty filthy rooms they had vacated. Rooms in which hundreds of their men had died.”xxvi

The last jab at the end is especially noteworthy. As a doctor, Eames was consumed with keeping

the mortality rate of his hospital low and his statement that so many Confederates had died in the

hospital is a clear insult to the quality and skill he perceived the Confederate surgeons of having.

He follows this statement by describing the quality hospital he has established.

“Now I have the whole building cleaned (in the three stories) & bunks arranged with either good husk mattrasses—or clean straw, enough to accommodate 75 more patients at a minutes warning. I have two large rooms & more filled with patients & good

nurses to attend them & keep them clean & fed them & give them their medicines[.] A cook—wardmaster—general nurse to wait on patients as they arrive & look to the wood & water etc. & Rob. For Steward. I have a wood pile at the back door all chopped & split & three loads of straw in a large entry for filling bed sacks. I have got the yard cleaned up & had several loads of old trash bones etc. Hauled away and any quantity of chips etc. Burned and it looks really nice all around.

He closes this section by describing the guards and supplies he has, and noting where

improvements can still be made, emphasizing the need for more rations.

xxvii

This 1848 engraving depicts Union Baptist College likely as William M. Eames would have seen it. Today Central Magnet School stands on the property. This provides yet another outlet for researchers to pursue in learning about

both Confederate and Union lives here, what happened to the dead bodies and the amputated limbs. Civil War medicine was a gruesome affair, and to my knowledge there has not been a local study done beyond the Battle of

Stones River.

xxviii

This is a photograph of the state historic marker outside Central Magnet School, which replaced Union University (also referred to in primary sources I found as Union College and Union Baptist College).

Caring for the Sick

William M. Eames’ most significant pride was in his role as a surgeon. He frames his

autobiography through this lens and this is evident throughout his correspondence to his wife.

His priority upon arrival to Union College Hospital in March 1862 was organizing it to his

standards. By April he was providing more detail about his daily affairs at the hospital in

Murfreesboro. He constantly struggled between managing the hospital and providing enough for

the sick and wounded soldiers. These complaints began on April 3, 1862, when, after listing all

of his daily tasks, Eames write to his wife, “& after a little, we have 200 sick and grunting men

to look to me for beds & rations.”

xxxii

xxix He is constantly at odds with the quartermaster and the

Union army in general, because he is aware of the human suffering that surrounds him, but he is

also the one who gets the blame for not having the beds and food needed to care for the soldiers.

In fact, things were so challenging in the spring months that the Nashville Daily Union published

an article describing the bleak scenes in the hospitals. In response, the U.S. Sanitary Inspector for

the U.S. Sanitary Commission, A. N. Read, wrote a letter to the Union in defense of Eames and

his fellow doctor, R.N.. Millikin.xxx Read stated that after reading the article, he went directly to

Murfreesboro and found, “that all has been done for the sick there that could be done. There was

a time when the Hospital was filled to overflowing; and there was no doubt suffering for a few

days, such as we would be glad to avoid, and which is now remedied.”xxxi These complaints were

not uncommon for any hospital during the war. In Marrow of Tragedy: The Health Crisis of the

Civil War, Margaret Humphries wrote, “Civil War health care occurred in some sort of hospital;

for the typical Civil War soldier, this startling new experience was quite unwelcome. When sick

in civilian life, men were mostly cared for at home, by the women in their families.” Going

from the comforts of one’s home when sick, to the brutal battlefields, and then to the over-

crowded, under-supplied hospitals was a recipe for misery and homesickness on top of all the

other struggles soldiers faced.xxxiii

xxxiv

Eames fought against these issues throughout his time in

Murfreesboro, though he never quite made the comfort the soldiers longed for.

On occasion, Eames provides details into the mortality rate of the hospital. One such

description occurred in August 1862, when he wrote, “We lost 17 in the month out of 448 cases a

little over 3 per cent of deaths.”

xxxvi

xxxv By early fall, he noted the impact of food on the health of the

army. “The army is getting much healthier than it has been, tho’ they are on half rations, at

present all through this Department. The soldiers say they like to be put on half rations as they

can get things from the secesh & live in good style. I have no doubt that the fruit and vegetables

they get have had a good effect on the whole army.” While the army was clearly stealing

food from the locals, Eames seems not to care as it keeps the men healthy, further showing his

lack of empathy for the southern civilians, especially following the Forrest raid. About one

month before, on July 20, 1862, Kate Carney, a local teenager wrote in her diary that, “The

soldiers annoy us a great deal by their stealing in the garden.” While concise, it is clear that one

group benefits, and the other loses out. Furthermore, when healthy food is at stake, the

consequences are significant.

Though Eames left Murfreesboro before the Battle of Stones River, there was a major

incident in the city that he did witness. On Sunday. July 13, 1862, Nathan Bedford Forrest and

his band of guerilla fighters attacked Murfreesboro. In the chaos that followed from the

unexpected attack, the Confederates briefly gained control over Murfreesboro once more. Eames

had been bedridden sick, leading up to the attack, but the Confederates marched past the hospital

and he dressed and went outside to see the battle. Confederate civilians like John C. Spence

noted Eames and his hospital with disdain following the raid as rumors of shooting coming from

the hospital spread like wildfire.xxxvii xxxviii Eames denies this in his July 14 letter home.

In the ensuing hours, the wounded began descending upon the hospital. Despite

Confederate control over the area, Eames noted that the locals, “helped to bring in our wounded

& now this morning gave us a large quantity of nice articles for the sick & wounded to eat & for

dressing wounds.“xxxix In a rare show of congeniality to the southerners, Eames concedes, “They

showed themselves very kind and considerate, and I shall do what I can to repay their

kindness.”xl

In the next few days, his kindness dissipated. Once firmly in the grip of the rebel army,

Eames noted that they, “took away all the private property of the officers and all the medical

stores, etc. Etc. Etc.”xli Once more defending the hospital among rumors that the federals fired

from there the night of the raid, he states, “We certainly did not fire out the Hospital, but the

rebels did fire into it-- to their everlasting disgrace.“xlii

One July 20, 1826, shortly after the Union regained control over Murfreesboro, Eames

took the time to describe the experiences of the enslaved after the raid. He mentions two women

who work for him that fled upon the Confederate advance. One woman, who is unnamed in the

letter, had been found and returned to their owners, where she was, “most unmercifully

flogged.”xliii Margaret, the woman who worked for him remained safe, but her enslaver came to

the hospital looking for her during Confederate occupation. Of this experience, Eames wrote,

“Several other Slave owners were here [including Margaret’s] but I did not pay them much

attention.” He went on to describe the busyness that defined his day, but his complete lack of

interest in their concerns shows how little he thinks of their business, especially in comparison to

his own. Although William M. Eames told his wife this story, he makes few references to the

enslaved following this story.

William Eames’ record provides insight into a little studied Civil War narrative:

occupation experiences of outsiders looking into the Confederate way of life. Eames’

correspondence tells us about prejudice he brought with him to the south about the people, both

black and white; about military decisions; and the life of a surgeon. Contrasting these with local

southerners who lived under occupation helps contrast the perspectives as we build the layered

narratives of the different people in the city. This paper provides a provisional glimpse into the

history shared here. Future researchers can diver deeper into the role of the enslaved at the

hospital, find soldier’s personal accounts of their experiences there, find the burials where

soldiers and their amputated limbs were buried, and how women and children carried on. It is my

hope that this research will spur on others to continue investigating the relationship between

occupiers and the occupied in Tennessee.

i William M. Eames, Papers, 1862-1864, Tennessee State Library and Archives, https://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/eames-william-mark-papers-1862-1864 ii Brenda Jackson-Abernathy, “The Civil War Diaries of William Lawrence and Kate Carney: A Research Note on Under-Utilized Sources,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly iii William M. Eames Papers, Autobiography, Tennessee State Library and Archives, microfilm XI-M-4. -iv William M. Eames Papers, Autobiography. v William M. Eames Papers, Autobiography. vi William M. Eames Papers, Autobiography. vii James B. Jones ed., Tennessee in the Civil War: Selected Contemporary Accounts of Military and Other Events, Month by Month (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2011), 3. viii Henry Schenck Tanner, “A New Map of Tennessee with its Roads and Distances from Place to Place Along the State and Steam Boat Routes,” Tennessee State Library and Archives, TSLA Map Collection, https://cdm15138.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15138coll23/id/9269/rec/14 (accessed May 1, 2019). ix William M. Eames Papers, Letter to Mary February 25, 1862, Tennessee State Library and Archives, microfilm XI-M-4. x William M. Eames Papers, Feb. 25, 1862, TSLA. All emphasis from original documents. The documents are unclear about when his third son was born, but both Mary and the baby survived and were healthy after. In fact, both visit Eames in the summer of 1862. xi William M. Eames Papers, Letter to Mary February 28, 1862. xii William M. Eames Papers, Letter to Mary February 28, 1862.

xiii Theodore Schrader, “Nashville and the Camp of the Sixteenth regiment of Ills. Vols. Ifnt. At Edgefield, Tennessee, circa 1862-1865,” Tennessee State Library and Archives, TSLA Map Collection, https://cdm15138.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15138coll3/id/10/rec/33 accessed (May 1, 2019). xiv William M. Eames Papers, Letter to Mary February 28, 1862. xv William M. Eames Papers, Letter to Mary February 28, 1862. xvi Center for Historic Preservation, “Occupied Murfreesboro: Historic Photographs from the Civil War Era,” 2004, 2. xvii CHP, “Occupied Murfreesboro,” 2. xviii CHP, “Occupied Murfreesboro,” 12. xix CHP, “Occupied Murfreesboro,” 12. xx John Beatty, “April 4, 1862,” in Citizen Soldier: The Memoirs of a Civil War Volunteer, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Civil War Sourcebook. xxi William M. Eames Papers, March 20, 1862. xxii His letters are riddled with descriptions of the weather. By mid-summer, he is in constant awe of the hot temperatures. xxiii William M. Eames Papers, March 20, 1862. xxiv William M. Eames Papers, 1862-1864. References to the enslaved appear throughout the letters to his wife and even to his two eldest sons. These references occur most frequently in the summer months, especially following Nathan Bedford Forrest’s raid on Murfreesboro in July 1862. xxv William M. Eames Papers, March 20, 1862. Emphasis in original xxvi William M. Eames Papers, March 20, 1862. xxvii “Engraving of Original Union University in Murfreesboro,” 1848-1873, Tennessee State Library and Archives, https://cdm15138.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15138coll6/id/7690/rec/1, accessed May 1, 2019. xxviii “Union University,” SeeMidTN.com, https://seemidtn.com/gallery/index.php?album=historical-markers%2Fruther&image=Ruther+IMG_5769+%285%29.JPG, accessed May 1, 2019. xxix William Eames Papers, April 3 1862. xxx It is my impression that R.N. Millikin is the other doctor, Robert, whom Eames refers to throughout the entire collection, but I didn’t find anything to substantiate this. xxxi William Eames Papers, April, 18 1862. xxxii Margaret Baltimore Humphries, Marrow of Tragedy: The Health Crisis of the American Civil War (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 20. xxxiii James B. Jones Jr.’s Tennessee in the Civil War provides a quality description of how the hospital system developed under the Federal army and the U.S. Sanitation Commission on page 179. xxxiv William M. Eames, Papers, 1862-1864. According to his letters, typhoid was a major worry in his hospital, more so than battle wounds. He does refer darkly to some amputations, so it is unclear whether the letters that detailed his emotional struggle with those were not included in the collection or he did not share these with his wife. xxxv William Eames Papers, August 24, 1862. xxxvi William Eames Papers, August 24, 1862. xxxvii John C. Spence Papers, Tennessee State Library Civil War Sourcebook, Tennessee State Library and Archives, xxxviii William Eames Papers, July 14 1862. xxxix William Eames Papers, July 14 1862. xl William Eames Papers, July 14 1862. xli William Eames Papers, July 14 1862. xlii William Eames Papers, July 18, 2018. xliii William Eames Papers, July 20, 1862.