"The shock restored him to consciousness, he was soon rescued, and the
next morning was taken by the Surgeon-General's orders to his quarters
in Cherry St., near Pearl, where he remained until the close of the
war. The kind doctor had taken a fancy to the handsome Yankee patient,
whom he treated with fatherly kindness; giving him books to read; and
having him present at his operations and dissections; and finally
urged him to seek his fortune in Europe, where he should receive a
good surgical education free of charge.
"The temptation was very great, but the rememberance of a nearer home
and dearer friends, unseen for years, was greater, and to them the
long lost returned at last, as one from the dead."
Captain Palmer commanded a merchant ship after the war, retired and
bought a farm near Stockbridge, Mass. He followed the sea over forty
years. In appearance he was very tall, erect, robust, and of rare
physical power and endurance. He had remarkably small hands and feet,
a high and fair forehead, his hair was very black, a tangle of
luxuriant curls, and his eyes were clear hazel. He died in his 79th
year, in 1844, leaving a large family of children. In his own
memoranda he writes: "Four or five hundred Frenchmen were transferred
as prisoners to the orlop deck of the Jersey. They were much better
treated than we Americans on the deck above them.
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