Nurse Jennifer Baker

Author’s Introduction

In Saint Louis heroine Rose Rènaud is boarding a paddle wheeler that will take her to New Orleans. She helps a young woman on crutches with her luggage. After a short walk on the dock, Rose is startled hearing galloping hoofs and human screams. Turning to look, she becomes petrified seeing two stampeding horses pulling a wagon bearing down on the two of them. She alertly shoves the woman aside. Seconds later a man arrives to help. He turns out to be her prince charming. Later the lady visits Rose at her husband’s, the man on the dock, restaurant.

One night Miss Jennifer Baker came for dinner. She wore an artificial limb, but she looked clumsy. Rose joined her for a cup of tea. After Jennifer consumed one scotch and water, she became loquacious. Rose was satisfied to sit and listen, and she learned of Miss Baker's unfortunate injury.

"I was a nurse in the Union Army," she started, with painful expressions. "My medical company was assigned to the Virginia Campaign, which was as fiercely a fought battle as the world has ever known or will ever know again. Due to the number of casualties, many of the wounded waited for medical assistance on the battlefield, while in severe pain and their life oozing out of them. I volunteered to go to the wounded with two doctors and two other nurses.

We climbed aboard a covered wagon with the Red Cross displayed, which signifies that we were medical in nature. The rules of warfare states that medical vehicles are to be considered neutral. Then, we headed out to the battlefield.

Well, we reached the first lad, a fledgling not more than eighteen, who had been hit with a fragment in the thigh and buttocks. His eyes were filled with pain and he bled profusely. One of the doctors and a nurse alighted to attend to his needs. He had been lucky the shrapnel hit him in his fleshly parts.

We traveled thirty feet, passing three more bodies lying in pools of blood. From the icy stare in their eyes, we knew they just needed a priest. Shortly, we came upon an older soldier who had been hit in the stomach by shrapnel. His loud moaning said he was still alive. The shrapnel had torn a hole in his belly the size of my two fists. His face was pale and twisted with pain and it was obvious he had lost much of his life. The last doctor grabbed his medical bag and a quart of whiskey, and he and the second nurse alighted to patch up the corporal.

I had driven twenty yards when I heard the man screaming from the pain of the doctor's knife and my blood turned to ice water. I continued driving ignoring his persistent blood-curdling screams, while passing four more soldiers who were beyond help.

Finally, I heard the cry of a man ahead, but the grass was tall, and I could not see him. I steered the horse in the direction, from which the cries had come, and soon saw another man in his twenties lying on his back; his left leg propped up. When I was close enough to see, he appeared to be manipulating a tourniquet around his left leg to stop the bleeding.

Suddenly, a nightmarish fear came over me when I realized his uniform was gray. Then, I noticed him clutch his rifle, which lay beside him. Quickly, he rose to his feet and aimed the rifle in my direction. "Stop where you are, or I will put a shot through that pretty skull of yours."

He had stood easily. He was steady on his feet. Now, I knew he'd been faking. A logical thought flashed in my head. The man is intent on raping me. I stood erect in the driver’s seat, lashed the horse as hard as I could, and steered him directly at the man.

Then, I heard a shot. I felt pain shoot from my leg to my brain. Instantly, I saw blood running down my leg. I was too frightened to be brought down by the pain. Fortunately, I slumped into the driver's seat. Seconds later the horse veered sharply to the left barely missing the rebel soldier, who was frantically attempting to reload. Before he could reload and fire again, I turned the horse and headed back to the medical center. I flinched hearing another shot but thank God it missed."

Rose interrupted. "I wouldn't think a rifle shot in the leg would cause your leg to be amputated?"

"Well, me either, Rose. When they removed the shot, the sulfur medicine that protected against infection had been used up. By the time the new stock arrived, the wound had become infected with peritonitis. Four days later they amputated. I won't go into the mortal pain I suffered. But I know too well how the older soldier felt."

"You were most unfortunate, Jennifer; most unfortunate," Rose said, patting her hand across the table. "Jennifer, may I buy you another drink?"

"Thank you, Rose." Rose motioned the barmaid to bring Jennifer another.

"You've only heard half of the tragedy. When Bobby, my fiancée, learned I had lost my leg, he wrote -- yes wrote -- he didn't have the common decency to face me. The letter beat around the bush, but the upshot was that he was breaking the engagement. I was heartsick. For days, I thought about my horrible luck. I concluded that, if I had cooperated with the rebel soldier, he might not have shot me. It's even conceivable that he only wanted the wagon and did not intend to rape me.

But even if I was wrong, and he raped me, but after, let me live, I'd still have Bobby. There's no way for him to know my chaste state had been soiled for only the second time, unless I told him."

Dolly arrived with a scotch and water and set it in front of Jennifer who had tears in her eyes as she took a generous slug.

"Jennifer, darling, you may be better off without Bobby. His love for you was shallow considering his cowardly act."

"Rose, it's easy for you to say. You are so beautiful and still in one piece. If a strange quirk of fate should suddenly cause you to lose a leg, you'd discover that men find one-legged women undesirable. It's cruel, but it's true, and it's totally illogical. After all, we still possess our better feminine attributes."

"Have faith, Jennifer. Pray my dear. I am certain a man will come to love you."

Rose did not see Jennifer for a long time, when, one lovely Mayday in 1872, she came to The Napoleon House for dinner. Accompanying her was a handsome man who had lost his right leg. They walked with crutches and got around better than some of the patrons did on two feet. Rose met with them and talked for awhile. She was thrilled to learn they were married. She was even more elated learning they were blessed with two children, a boy and girl.

Rose had ambivalent feelings when Jennifer told her that not a day went by that she didn't think of her. Jennifer had said, "You saved my life twice. Once when you pushed me out of the path of a run away team of horses. Again, when you restored my faith and self esteem. I will never forget you." Before Jennifer left New Orleans, she visited Rose at her Style Shoppe, which Rose founded her first year in New Orleans, and purchased three dresses that were to be delivered to her home in Memphis. Jennifer had married wealth, judging by the prestigious address that she had given Rose.

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