Julia [A. Wilbur] ALS to [Anna M. C.] Barnes, March 10, 1863

disturbed they can give the alarm. I had a little rather have a guard
on the outside for a while longer, but I don't want them inside of the enclosure.
All these things have disturbed & worried us, & these are not all.
The rooms at the Home have not all been filled yet. Mr. G. is trying to
get some body to go in that will pay, & in this way there will be prob
ably a good many left out who ought to go there. I was up there yes
terday & my "ear was pained, my soul was sick." How some of these poor
women struggle to get along. Last fall the rations were very ample,
now many of them don't get more than half rations. when we are told that
"Government is feeding them," no candles are allowed to well ones, & the rest
amounts to nearly nothing. - I mean to get time soon to take note of
every person in these rooms. Mr. G. manages so with the schools, & the
meetings, that I am not alone in thinking we might as well not
have any. - Dr. Bigelow thought it would take a week or 10 days perhaps to
get things agoing, but he finds that he can't hurry the authorities any more
than the rest of us can. They have not begun to clean the houses yet where we
are. Every item we get or have done has to go through a long process. -
The hospital is needed very much. - & Mr. G.'s bed is in our room
yet. It is so annoying & so in the way but he "don't see it." -
I would like nothing better than to write something for you, But how
can I? Before these rooms are filled Mrs. J. & I want to hunt up the [poor?]
scattering families. Mr. G. won't do it. Then we want to get the orphans
before Dr. B. gets them. Then we want to fix the rooms & beds &c.
Then there are sick persons that we have to see to. Here at Mr. K's one
or more of the servants are sick all the while. I have to see to them soon.
Oh! how I wd. like to go into the kitchen & read to them every evening & teach
them, but I can't do it. Sunday evening I spent in the parlor which is
the first time in 2 or 3 wks. Then we have to get places for girls, & then after
wards we want to go & see them.