Why, it would demoralize the whole command.

So they play these gay things to cheer them up." And I began to feel that tears must be out of place at a soldier's funeral.

I attended many a one after that, but I had too much imagination, and in spite of all my brave efforts, visions of the poor boy's mother on some little farm in Missouri or Kansas perhaps, or in some New England town, or possibly in the old country, would come before me, and my heart was filled with sadness.
The Post Hospital seemed to me a lonesome place to die in, although the surgeon and soldier attendants were kind to the sick men.

There were no women nurses in the army in those days.
The next day, the "Cocopah" started again and towed a barge out to the ship.

But the hot wind sprang up and blew fiercely, and we lay off and on all day, until it was calm enough to tow her back to the slue.