Post by Robert Braun on Jun 7, 2002 16:07:35 GMT -5
The dreadful account of Lieut. Robert Anderson (published in the Galenian) regarding the plight of a terribly wounded Indian child reveals an interesting side fact:
Lieutenant Anderson, of the United States Army, went to the spot and took from under the dead mother her wounded daughter, and brought it to the place we had selected for surgical aid. It was soon ascertained that its arm must come off, and the operation was performed without drawing a tear or a shriek. The child was eating a piece of hard biscuit during the operation. It was brought to Prairie du Chien, and we learn that it has nearly recovered.
While the point of the story is obvious, the side mention of "hard biscuit," or hard bread is interesting. This account suggests a.) Gen. Atkinson's request that hard bread by procured and shipped to the Army from St. Louis was indeed carried out, and b.) the child could only have recieved the hard bread from a soldier/participant at the Battle of the Mississippi.
On May 27, Atkinson sent an order to Captain Joseph B. Brant in St. Louis: "I have to request that you will...cause as much hard Bread to be baked, in St. Louis, as practicable." Rueben Holmes wrote Atkinson from Fort Wilbourn on June 9: “The [steamer] Souvenir has arrived with 313 barrels of flour, 50 or pork & two casks of bacon, the hard bread will come on the [steamer] Chieftain…”
It would appear that Atkinson provisioned at least some of his soldiers with hard bread at or before crossing the Wisconsin River near the defunct settlement of Helena.
Lieutenant Anderson, of the United States Army, went to the spot and took from under the dead mother her wounded daughter, and brought it to the place we had selected for surgical aid. It was soon ascertained that its arm must come off, and the operation was performed without drawing a tear or a shriek. The child was eating a piece of hard biscuit during the operation. It was brought to Prairie du Chien, and we learn that it has nearly recovered.
While the point of the story is obvious, the side mention of "hard biscuit," or hard bread is interesting. This account suggests a.) Gen. Atkinson's request that hard bread by procured and shipped to the Army from St. Louis was indeed carried out, and b.) the child could only have recieved the hard bread from a soldier/participant at the Battle of the Mississippi.
On May 27, Atkinson sent an order to Captain Joseph B. Brant in St. Louis: "I have to request that you will...cause as much hard Bread to be baked, in St. Louis, as practicable." Rueben Holmes wrote Atkinson from Fort Wilbourn on June 9: “The [steamer] Souvenir has arrived with 313 barrels of flour, 50 or pork & two casks of bacon, the hard bread will come on the [steamer] Chieftain…”
It would appear that Atkinson provisioned at least some of his soldiers with hard bread at or before crossing the Wisconsin River near the defunct settlement of Helena.