"Whether Tubman witnessed the Battle of Olustee or not, she was most likely called to Sanderson, where the wounded and dying men crowded the railroad station, or to Jacksonville to tend to the wounded and exhausted soldiers brought there. Tubman’s skill at curing soldiers stricken by a variety of diseases was well known. At one point during the war, Tubman was called to Fernandina, Florida, by the Union surgeon in charge, to help cure the men of debilitating, often deadly dysentery. When she arrived, “they were dying off like sheep.” She prepared a medicinal tea “from roots which grew near the water which gave the disease.” She went into the swamps and dug some roots and herbs and made a tea for the doctor [who had been afflicted with the disease] and the disease stopped on him,” she told Emma Telford. “And then he said, ‘give it to the soldiers.’ So I boiled up a great boiler of roots and hers, and the General told a man to take two can and go round and give it to all in the camp that needed it, and it cured them.’”
p.224-225, BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND, HARRIET TUBMAN:PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN HERO, by Kate Clifford Larson (Ballantine Books, NY: 2004)
Friday, October 4, 2013
HARRIET TUBMAN, PHYSICIAN-HEALER
"On February 20 [1864] the Union regiments were met by unexpectedly heavy fire from Confederate forces at Olustee. The Eighth USCT was newly trained and had never been tested in battle before. Surprise fire from rebel regiments left the soldiers of the Eighth in disarray and confusion, which was exacerbated by Seymour's conflicting orders. Nevertheless, they fought hard and bravely, earning the regiment a place on the rolls of Civil War heroes. In less than two hours, over half the regiment's men were left dead, wounded, or missing in action, including the regiment's commander, Colonel Fribley, and several other officers. Montgomery's brigade, along with the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts, and other regiments soon arrived, giving the Eighth the chance to withdraw and regroup. But the fire was so heavy, that Seymour ordered the withdrawal of all Union forces on that field, leaving behind hundreds of dead and wounded. Most of the regiments suffered high losses, but the black regiments suffered the most. The advancing Confederates killed many wounded black soldiers, who could not retreat with their regiments, compounding an already devastating situation. It was a humiliating failure, and cost the Union its hoped-for control of Florida.
"Whether Tubman witnessed the Battle of Olustee or not, she was most likely called to Sanderson, where the wounded and dying men crowded the railroad station, or to Jacksonville to tend to the wounded and exhausted soldiers brought there. Tubman’s skill at curing soldiers stricken by a variety of diseases was well known. At one point during the war, Tubman was called to Fernandina, Florida, by the Union surgeon in charge, to help cure the men of debilitating, often deadly dysentery. When she arrived, “they were dying off like sheep.” She prepared a medicinal tea “from roots which grew near the water which gave the disease.” She went into the swamps and dug some roots and herbs and made a tea for the doctor [who had been afflicted with the disease] and the disease stopped on him,” she told Emma Telford. “And then he said, ‘give it to the soldiers.’ So I boiled up a great boiler of roots and hers, and the General told a man to take two can and go round and give it to all in the camp that needed it, and it cured them.’”
p.224-225, BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND, HARRIET TUBMAN:PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN HERO, by Kate Clifford Larson (Ballantine Books, NY: 2004)
"Whether Tubman witnessed the Battle of Olustee or not, she was most likely called to Sanderson, where the wounded and dying men crowded the railroad station, or to Jacksonville to tend to the wounded and exhausted soldiers brought there. Tubman’s skill at curing soldiers stricken by a variety of diseases was well known. At one point during the war, Tubman was called to Fernandina, Florida, by the Union surgeon in charge, to help cure the men of debilitating, often deadly dysentery. When she arrived, “they were dying off like sheep.” She prepared a medicinal tea “from roots which grew near the water which gave the disease.” She went into the swamps and dug some roots and herbs and made a tea for the doctor [who had been afflicted with the disease] and the disease stopped on him,” she told Emma Telford. “And then he said, ‘give it to the soldiers.’ So I boiled up a great boiler of roots and hers, and the General told a man to take two can and go round and give it to all in the camp that needed it, and it cured them.’”
p.224-225, BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND, HARRIET TUBMAN:PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN HERO, by Kate Clifford Larson (Ballantine Books, NY: 2004)