From the Richmond Dispatch, 6/21/1862, p. 3, c. 1

THE HOSPITALS.

We are gratified to notice that the hospitals in different parts of the city are being rapidly vacated by their late occupants, many of them now containing not more than one-fourth the original number of patients. While death has done its work on a few, a great majority have been taken to their homes by friends, or have been sent to the country and to the health inspiring mountain regions of Virginia. But few now remain, except those long and tedious cases of fractures of some of the larger bones, or those upon whom amputation has been performed. The ladies are still assiduous in their attentions, and, it may be superfluous to add, their labors have been productive of a vast amount of good. We are told that in the battle of Shiloh, where the wounded had little attention beyond that given by the surgeons, and where the only nurses were soldiers detailed from the different regiments, four-fifths of those upon whom capital operations were performed, afterwards died. In this case we venture to say not above one-fifth died after operations. This is not owing to superior medical or surgical skill, but to the careful attention the men have received — to the patient, conconstant and tender nursing of the ladies of Richmond. We have no data upon which to base a statement as to percentage of deaths resulting from serious wounds, but believe it to be very small; much less, indeed, than could have been expected in the ordinary course of events. The weather has been favorable for rapid recoveries, and we are gratified to notice how soon many have been able to leave their pallets in the hospitals and go out into the pleasant summer air. Every train that leaves the city now has numbers of convalescents upon it.

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