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diff --git a/21853-8.txt b/21853-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b19a566 --- /dev/null +++ b/21853-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,26742 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman's Work in the Civil War, by +Linus Pierpont Brockett and Mary C. Vaughan + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Woman's Work in the Civil War + A Record of Heroism, Patriotism, and Patience + +Author: Linus Pierpont Brockett + Mary C. Vaughan + +Commentator: Henry W. Bellows + +Release Date: June 18, 2007 [EBook #21853] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMaN'S WORK IN THE CIVIL WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Cally Soukup and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was made using scans of public domain works from the +University of Michigan Digital Libraries.) + + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: +The spelling and punctuation in the original is inconsistent. No changes +have been made except where noted. A complete list is at the end of the +text. + +[Illustration: MISS CLARA H. BARTON. + Eng. by John Sartain.] + +[Illustration: WOMAN'S WORK IN THE CIVIL WAR + + "'SHOOT, IF YOU MUST, THIS OLD GRAY HEAD. + BUT SPARE YOUR COUNTRY'S FLAG,' SHE SAID." + Barbara Frietchie. + +H. L. Stephens, Del. Samuel Sartain, Sc.] + + + + +WOMAN'S WORK IN THE CIVIL WAR: + +A RECORD OF HEROISM, PATRIOTISM AND PATIENCE + +BY + +L. P. BROCKETT, M.D., + +AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR," "PHILANTHROPIC RESULTS OF THE +WAR," "OUR GREAT CAPTAINS," "LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN," "THE CAMP, THE +BATTLE FIELD, AND THE HOSPITAL," &C., &C. + +AND + +MRS. MARY C. VAUGHAN. + +WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY HENRY W. BELLOWS, D.D., + +President U. S. Sanitary Commission. + +ILLUSTRATED WITH SIXTEEN STEEL ENGRAVINGS. + + +ZEIGLER, McCURDY & CO., +PHILADELPHIA, PA.; CHICAGO, ILL.; CINCINNATI, OHIO; ST. LOUIS, MO. + +R. H. CURRAN, +48 WINTER STREET, BOSTON, MASS. + +1867. + + + + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by + +L. P. BROCKETT, + +In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the +Eastern District of New York. + + +KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, +607 Sansom Street, Philadelphia. + +WESTCOTT & THOMSON, Stereotypers. + + + + +TO + +THE LOYAL WOMEN OF AMERICA, + + +WHOSE PATRIOTIC CONTRIBUTIONS, TOILS AND SACRIFICES, ENABLED THEIR +SISTERS, WHOSE HISTORY IS HERE RECORDED, TO MINISTER RELIEF AND +CONSOLATION TO OUR WOUNDED AND SUFFERING HEROES; + +AND WHO BY THEIR DEVOTION, THEIR LABORS, AND THEIR PATIENT ENDURANCE OF +PRIVATION AND DISTRESS OF BODY AND SPIRIT, WHEN CALLED TO GIVE UP THEIR +BELOVED ONES FOR THE + +NATION'S DEFENSE, + +HAVE WON FOR THEMSELVES ETERNAL HONOR, AND THE UNDYING REMEMBRANCE OF +THE PATRIOTS OF ALL TIME, + +WE DEDICATE THIS VOLUME. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The preparation of this work, or rather the collection of material for +it, was commenced in the autumn of 1863. While engaged in the +compilation of a little book on "The Philanthropic Results of the War" +for circulation abroad, in the summer of that year, the writer became so +deeply impressed with the extraordinary sacrifices and devotion of loyal +women, in the national cause, that he determined to make a record of +them for the honor of his country. A voluminous correspondence then +commenced and continued to the present time, soon demonstrated how +general were the acts of patriotic devotion, and an extensive tour, +undertaken the following summer, to obtain by personal observation and +intercourse with these heroic women, a more clear and comprehensive idea +of what they had done and were doing, only served to increase his +admiration for their zeal, patience, and self-denying effort. + +Meantime the war still continued, and the collisions between Grant and +Lee, in the East, and Sherman and Johnston, in the South, the fierce +campaign between Thomas and Hood in Tennessee, Sheridan's annihilating +defeats of Early in the valley of the Shenandoah, and Wilson's +magnificent expedition in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, as well as +the mixed naval and military victories at Mobile and Wilmington, were +fruitful in wounds, sickness, and death. Never had the gentle and +patient ministrations of woman been so needful as in the last year of +the war; and never had they been so abundantly bestowed, and with such +zeal and self-forgetfulness. + +From Andersonville, and Millen, from Charleston, and Florence, from +Salisbury, and Wilmington, from Belle Isle, and Libby Prison, came also, +in these later months of the war, thousands of our bravest and noblest +heroes, captured by the rebels, the feeble remnant of the tens of +thousands imprisoned there, a majority of whom had perished of cold, +nakedness, starvation, and disease, in those charnel houses, victims of +the fiendish malignity of the rebel leaders. These poor fellows, starved +to the last degree of emaciation, crippled and dying from frost and +gangrene, many of them idiotic from their sufferings, or with the +fierce fever of typhus, more deadly than sword or minié bullet, raging +in their veins, were brought to Annapolis and to Wilmington, and +unmindful of the deadly infection, gentle and tender women ministered to +them as faithfully and lovingly, as if they were their own brothers. +Ever and anon, in these works of mercy, one of these fair ministrants +died a martyr to her faithfulness, asking, often only, to be buried +beside her "boys," but the work never ceased while there was a soldier +to be nursed. Nor were these the only fields in which noble service was +rendered to humanity by the women of our time. In the larger +associations of our cities, day after day, and year after year, women +served in summer's heat and winter's cold, at their desks, corresponding +with auxiliary aid societies, taking account of goods received for +sanitary supplies, re-packing and shipping them to the points where they +were needed, inditing and sending out circulars appealing for aid, in +work more prosaic but equally needful and patriotic with that performed +in the hospitals; and throughout every village and hamlet in the +country, women were toiling, contriving, submitting to privation, +performing unusual and severe labors, all for the soldiers. In the +general hospitals of the cities and larger towns, the labors of the +special diet kitchen, and of the hospital nurse were performed steadily, +faithfully, and uncomplainingly, though there also, ever and anon, some +fair toiler laid down her life in the service. There were many too in +still other fields of labor, who showed their love for their country; +the faithful women who, in the Philadelphia Refreshment Saloons, fed the +hungry soldier on his way to or from the battle-field, till in the +aggregate, they had dispensed nearly eight hundred thousand meals, and +had cared for thousands of sick and wounded; the matrons of the +Soldiers' Homes, Lodges, and Rests; the heroic souls who devoted +themselves to the noble work of raising a nation of bondmen to +intelligence and freedom; those who attempted the still more hopeless +task of rousing the blunted intellect and cultivating the moral nature +of the degraded and abject poor whites; and those who in circumstances +of the greatest peril, manifested their fearless and undying attachment +to their country and its flag; all these were entitled to a place in +such a record. What wonder, then, that, pursuing his self-appointed task +assiduously, the writer found it growing upon him; till the question +came, not, who should be inscribed in this roll, but who could be +omitted, since it was evident no single volume could do justice to all. + +In the autumn of 1865, Mrs. Mary C. Vaughan, a skilful and practiced +writer, whose tastes and sympathies led her to take an interest in the +work, became associated with the writer in its preparation, and to her +zeal in collecting, and skill in arranging the materials obtained, many +of the interesting sketches of the volume are due. We have in the +prosecution of our work been constantly embarrassed, by the reluctance +of some who deserved a prominent place, to suffer anything to be +communicated concerning their labors; by the promises, often repeated +but never fulfilled, of others to furnish facts and incidents which they +alone could supply, and by the forwardness of a few, whose services were +of the least moment, in presenting their claims. + +We have endeavored to exercise a wise and careful discrimination both in +avoiding the introduction of any name unworthy of a place in such a +record, and in giving the due meed of honor to those who have wrought +most earnestly and acceptably. We cannot hope that we have been +completely successful; the letters even now, daily received, render it +probable that there are some, as faithful and self-sacrificing as any of +those whose services we have recorded, of whom we have failed to obtain +information; and that some of those who entered upon their work of mercy +in the closing campaigns of the war, by their zeal and earnestness, have +won the right to a place. We have not, knowingly, however, omitted the +name of any faithful worker, of whom we could obtain information, and we +feel assured that our record is far more full and complete, than any +other which has been, or is likely to be prepared, and that the number +of prominent and active laborers in the national cause who have escaped +our notice is comparatively small. + +We take pleasure in acknowledging our obligations to Rev. Dr. Bellows, +President of the United States Sanitary Commission, for many services +and much valuable information; to Honorable James E. Yeatman, the +President of the Western Sanitary Commission, to Rev. J. G. Forman, late +Secretary of that Commission, and now Secretary of the Unitarian +Association, and his accomplished wife, both of whom were indefatigable +in their efforts to obtain facts relative to western ladies; to Rev. N. +M. Mann, now of Kenosha, Wisconsin, but formerly Chaplain and Agent of +the Western Sanitary Commission, at Vicksburg; to Professor J. S. +Newberry, now of Columbia College, but through the war the able +Secretary of the Western Department of the United States Sanitary +Commission; to Mrs. M. A. Livermore, of Chicago, one of the managers of +the Northwestern Sanitary Commission; to Rev. G. S. F. Savage, Secretary +of the Western Department of the American Tract Society, Boston; Rev. +William De Loss Love, of Milwaukee, author of a work on "Wisconsin in +the War," Samuel B. Fales, Esq., of Philadelphia, so long and nobly +identified with the Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, Dr. A. N. Read, of +Norwalk, Ohio, late one of the Medical Inspectors of the Sanitary +Commission, Dr. Joseph Parrish, of Philadelphia, also a Medical +Inspector of the Commission, Mrs. M. M. Husband, of Philadelphia, one of +the most faithful workers in field hospitals during the war, Miss +Katherine P. Wormeley, of Newport, Rhode Island, the accomplished +historian of the Sanitary Commission, Mrs. W. H. Holstein, of +Bridgeport, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Miss Maria M. C. Hall, of +Washington, District of Columbia, and Miss Louise Titcomb, of Portland, +Maine. From many of these we have received information indispensable to +the completeness and success of our work; information too, often +afforded at great inconvenience and labor. We commit our book, then, to +the loyal women of our country, as an earnest and conscientious effort +to portray some phases of a heroism which will make American women +famous in all the future ages of history; and with the full conviction +that thousands more only lacked the opportunity, not the will or +endurance, to do, in the same spirit of self-sacrifice, what these have +done. + +L. P. B. + +BROOKLYN, N. Y., _February, 1867_. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + +DEDICATION. 19 + +PREFACE. 21 + +TABLE OF CONTENTS. 25-51 + +INTRODUCTION BY HENRY W. BELLOWS, D. D. 55 + + +INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. + +Patriotism in some form, an attribute of woman in all nations and +climes--Its modes of manifestation--Pæans for victory--Lamentations +for the death of a heroic leader--Personal leadership by women--The +assassination of tyrants--The care of the sick and wounded of national +armies--The hospitals established by the Empress Helena--The Beguines +and their successors--The cantiniéres, vivandiéres, etc.--Other modes in +which women manifested their patriotism--Florence Nightingale and her +labors--The results--The awakening of patriotic zeal among American +women at the opening of the war--The organization of philanthropic +effort--Hospital nurses--Miss Dix's rejection of great numbers of +applicants on account of youth--Hired nurses--Their services generally +prompted by patriotism rather than pay--The State relief agents +(ladies) at Washington--The hospital transport system of the Sanitary +Commission--Mrs. Harris's, Miss Barton's, Mrs. Fales', Miss Gilson's, +and other ladles' services at the front during the battles of 1862-- +Services of other ladies at Chancellorsville, at Gettysburg--The +Field Relief of the Sanitary Commission, and services of ladies in the +later battles--Voluntary services of women in the armies in the field at +the West--Services in the hospitals of garrisons and fortified towns-- +Soldiers' homes and lodges, and their matrons--Homes for Refugees-- +Instruction of the Freedmen--Refreshment Saloons at Philadelphia-- +Regular visiting of hospitals in the large cities--The Soldiers' Aid +Societies, and their mode of operation--The extraordinary labors of the +managers of the Branch Societies--Government clothing contracts--Mrs. +Springer, Miss Wormeley and Miss Gilson--The managers of the local +Soldiers' Aid Societies--The sacrifices made by the poor to contribute +supplies--Examples--The labors of the young and the old--Inscriptions +on articles--The poor seamstress--Five hundred bushels of wheat--The +five dollar gold piece--The army of martyrs--The effect of this +female patriotism in stimulating the courage of the soldiers--Lack of +persistence in this work among the Women of the South--Present and +future--Effect of patriotism and self-sacrifice in elevating and +ennobling the female character. 65-94 + + +PART I. SUPERINTENDENT OF NURSES. + +MISS DOROTHEA L. DIX. + +Early history--Becomes interested in the condition of prison convicts-- +Visit to Europe--Returns in 1837, and devotes herself to improving the +condition of paupers, lunatics and prisoners--Her efforts for the +establishment of Insane Asylums--Second visit to Europe--Her first +work in the war the nursing of Massachusetts soldiers in Baltimore-- +Appointment as superintendent of nurses--Her selections--Difficulties in +her position--Her other duties--Mrs. Livermore's account of her labors-- +The adjutant-general's order--Dr. Bellows' estimate of her work--Her +kindness to her nurses--Her publications--Her manners and address-- +Labors for the insane poor since the war. 97-108 + + +PART II. LADIES WHO MINISTERED TO THE SICK AND WOUNDED IN CAMP, FIELD +AND GENERAL HOSPITALS. + + +CLARA HARLOWE BARTON. + +Early life--Teaching--The Bordentown school--Obtains a situation in the +Patent Office--Her readiness to help others--Her native genius for +nursing--Removed from office in 1857--Return to Washington in 1861-- +Nursing and providing for Massachusetts soldiers at the Capitol in +April, 1861--Hospital and sanitary work in 1861--Death of her father-- +Washington hospitals again--Going to the front--Cedar Mountain--The +second Bull Run battle--Chantilly--Heroic labors at Antietam--Soft +bread--Three barrels of flour and a bag of salt--Thirty lanterns for +that night of gloom--The race for Fredericksburg--Miss Barton as a +general purveyor for the sick and wounded--The battle of Fredericksburg-- +Under fire--The rebel officer's appeal--The "confiscated" carpet--After +the battle--In the department of the South--The sands of Morris Island-- +The horrors of the siege of Forts Wagner and Sumter--The reason why she +went thither--Return to the North--Preparations for the great campaign-- +Her labors at Belle Plain, Fredericksburg, White House, and City Point-- +Return to Washington--Appointed "General correspondent for the friends +of paroled prisoners"--Her residence at Annapolis--Obstacles--The +Annapolis plan abandoned--She establishes at Washington a "Bureau of +records of missing men in the armies of the United States"--The plan of +operations of this Bureau--Her visit to Andersonville--The case of +Dorrance Atwater--The Bureau of missing men an institution indispensable +to the Government and to friends of the soldiers--Her sacrifices in +maintaining it--The grant from Congress--Personal appearance of Miss +Barton. 111-132 + + +HELEN LOUISE GILSON. + +Early history--Her first work for the soldiers--Collecting supplies-- +The clothing contract--Providing for soldiers' wives and daughters-- +Application to Miss Dix for an appointment as nurse--She is rejected as +too young--Associated with Hon. Frank B. Fay in the Auxiliary Relief +Service--Her labors on the Hospital Transports--Her manner of working-- +Her extraordinary personal influence--Her work at Gettysburg--Influence +over the men--Carrying a sick comrade to the hospital--Her system and +self-possession--Pleading the cause of the soldier with the people-- +Her services in Grant's protracted campaign--The hospitals at +Fredericksburg--Singing to the soldiers--Her visit to the barge of +"contrabands"--Her address to the negroes--Singing to them--The hospital +for colored soldiers--Miss Gilson re-organizes and re-models it, making +it the best hospital at City Point--Her labors for the spiritual good +of the men in her hospital--Her care for the negro washerwomen and +their families--Completion of her work--Personal appearance of Miss +Gilson. 133-148 + + +MRS. JOHN HARRIS. + +Previous history--Secretary Ladies' Aid Society--Her decision to go to +the "front"--Early experiences--On the Hospital Transports--Harrison's +Landing--Her garments soaked in human gore--Antietam--French's Division +Hospital--Smoketown General Hospital--Return to the "front"-- +Fredericksburg--Falmouth--She almost despairs of the success of our +arms--Chancellorsville--Gettysburg--Following the troops--Warrenton-- +Insolence of the rebels--Illness--Goes to the West--Chattanooga--Serious +illness--Return to Nashville--Labors for the refugees--Called home to +watch over a dying mother--The returned prisoners from Andersonville and +Salisbury. 149-160 + + +MRS. ELIZA C. PORTER. + +Mrs. Porter's social position--Her patriotism--Labors in the hospitals +at Cairo--She takes charge of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission Rooms +at Chicago--Her determination to go, with a corps of nurses, to the +front--Cairo and Paducah--Visit to Pittsburg Landing after the battle-- +She brings nurses and supplies for the hospitals from Chicago--At +Corinth--At Memphis--Work among the freedmen at Memphis and elsewhere-- +Efforts for the establishment of hospitals for the sick and wounded +in the Northwest--Co-operation with Mrs. Harvey and Mrs. Howe--The +Harvey Hospital--At Natchez and Vicksburg--Other appeals for Northern +hospitals--At Huntsville with Mrs. Bickerdyke--At Chattanooga-- +Experiences in a field hospital in the woods--Following Sherman's army +from Chattanooga to Atlanta--"This seems like having mother about"-- +Constant labors--The distribution of supplies to the soldiers of +Sherman's army near Washington--A patriotic family. 161-171 + + +MRS. MARY A. BICKERDYKE. + +Previous history of Mrs. Bickerdyke--Her regard for the private +soldiers--"Mother Bickerdyke and her boys"--Her work at Savannah after +the battle of Shiloh--What she accomplished at Perryville--The Gayoso +Hospital at Memphis--Colored nurses and attendants--A model hospital-- +The delinquent assistant-surgeon--Mrs. Bickerdyke's philippic--She +procures his dismissal--His interview with General Sherman--"She ranks +me"--The commanding generals appreciate her--Convalescent soldiers +_vs._ colored nurses--The Medical Director's order--Mrs. Bickerdyke's +triumph--A dairy and hennery for the hospitals--Two hundred cows and a +thousand hens--Her first visit to the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce--"Go +over to Canada--This country has no place for such creatures"--At +Vicksburg--In field hospitals--The dresses riddled with sparks--The box +of clothing for herself--Trading for butter and eggs for the soldiers-- +The two lace-trimmed night-dresses--A new style of hospital clothing +for wounded soldiers--A second visit to Milwaukee--Mrs. Bickerdyke's +speech--"Set your standard higher yet"--In the Huntsville Hospital--At +Chattanooga at the close of the battle--The only woman on the ground for +four weeks--Cooking under difficulties--Her interview with General +Grant--Complaints of the neglect of the men by some of the surgeons-- +"Go around to the hospitals and see for yourself"--Visits Huntsville, +Pulaski, etc.--With Sherman from Chattanooga to Atlanta--Making dishes +for the sick out of hard tack and the ordinary rations--At Nashville and +Franklin--Through the Carolinas with Sherman--Distribution of supplies +near Washington--"The Freedmen's Home and Refuge" at Chicago. 172-186 + + +MARGARET ELIZABETH BRECKINRIDGE. _By Mrs. J. G. Forman._ + +Sketch of her personal appearance--Her gentle, tender, winning ways-- +The American Florence Nightingale--What if I do die?--The Breckinridge +family--Margaret's childhood and youth--Her emancipation of her slaves-- +Working for the soldiers early in the war--Not one of the Home Guards-- +Her earnest desire to labor in the hospitals--Hospital service at +Baltimore--At Lexington, Kentucky--Morgan's first raid--Her visit to the +wounded soldiers--"Every one of you bring a regiment with you"--Visiting +the St. Louis hospitals--On the hospital boats on the Mississippi-- +Perils of the voyage--Severe and incessant labor--The contrabands at +Helena--Touching incidents of the wounded on the hospital boats--"The +service pays"--In the hospitals at St. Louis--Impaired health--She goes +eastward for rest and recovery--A year of weakness and weariness--In +the hospital at Philadelphia--A ministering angel--Colonel Porter +her brother-in-law killed at Cold Harbor--She goes to Baltimore to +meet the body--Is seized with typhoid fever and dies after five weeks +illness. 187-199 + + +MRS. STEPHEN BARKER. + +Family of Mrs. Barker--Her husband Chaplain of First Massachusetts Heavy +Artillery--She accompanies him to Washington--Devotes herself to the +work of visiting the hospitals--Thanksgiving dinner in the hospital--She +removes to Fort Albany and takes charge as Matron of the Regimental +Hospital--Pleasant experiences--Reading to the soldiers--Two years of +labor--Return to Washington in January, 1864--She becomes one of the +hospital visitors of the Sanitary Commission--Ten hospitals a week-- +Remitting the soldiers' money and valuables to their families--The +service of Mr. and Mrs. Barker as lecturers and missionaries of the +Sanitary Commission to the Aid Societies in the smaller cities and +villages--The distribution of supplies to the disbanding armies--Her +report. 200-211 + + +AMY M. BRADLEY. + +Childhood of Miss Bradley--Her experiences as a teacher--Residence in +Charleston, South Carolina--Two years of illness--Goes to Costa Rica-- +Three years of teaching in Central America--Return to the United +States--Becomes corresponding clerk and translator in a large glass +manufactory--Beginning of the war--She determines to go as a nurse-- +Writes to Dr. Palmer--His quaint reply--Her first experience as nurse +in a regimental hospital--Skill and tact in managing it--Promoted by +General Slocum to the charge of the Brigade Hospital--Hospital Transport +Service--Over-exertion and need of rest--The organization of the +Soldiers' Home at Washington--Visiting hospitals at her leisure--Camp +Misery--Wretched condition of the men--The rendezvous of distribution-- +Miss Bradley goes thither as Sanitary Commission Agent--Her zealous and +multifarious labors--Bringing in the discharged men for their papers-- +Procuring the correction of their papers, and the reinstatement of +the men--"The Soldiers' Journal"--Miss Bradley's object in its +establishment--Its success--Presents to Miss Bradley--Personal +appearance. 212-224 + + +MRS. ARABELLA GRIFFITH BARLOW. + +Birth and education of Mrs. Griffith--Her marriage at the beginning +of the war--She accompanies her husband to the camp, and wherever +it is possible ministers to the wounded or sick soldiers--Joins the +Sanitary Commission in July, 1862, and labors among the sick and wounded +at Harrison's Landing till late in August--Colonel Barlow severely +wounded at Antietam--Mrs. Barlow nurses him with great tenderness, and +at the same time ministers to the wounded of Sedgwick Hospital--At +Chancellorsville and Gettysburg--General Barlow again wounded, and in +the enemy's lines--She removes him and succors the wounded in the +intervals of her care of him--In May, 1864, she was actively engaged at +Belle Plain, Fredericksburg, Port Royal, White House, and City Point-- +Her incessant labor brought on fever and caused her death July 27, +1864--Tribute of the Sanitary Commission Bulletin, Dr. Lieber and +others, to her memory. 225-233 + + +MRS. NELLIE MARIA TAYLOR. + +Parentage and early history--Removal to New Orleans--Her son urged to +enlist in the rebel army--He is sent North--The rebels persecute Mrs. +Taylor--Her dismissal from her position as principal of one of the city +schools--Her house mobbed--"I am for the Union, tear my house down if +you choose!"--Her house searched seven times for the flag--The Judge's +son--"A piece of Southern chivalry"--Her son enlists in the rebel army +to save her from molestation--New Orleans occupied by the Union forces-- +Mrs. Taylor reinstated as teacher--She nurses the soldiers in the +hospitals, during her vacations and in all the leisure hours from her +school duties, her daughter filling up the intermediate time with her +services--She expends her entire salary upon the sick and wounded-- +Writes eleven hundred and seventy-four letters for them in one year-- +Distributes the supplies received from the Cincinnati Branch of Sanitary +Commission in 1864, and during the summer takes the management of the +special diet of the University Hospital--Testimony of the soldiers to +her labors--Patriotism and zeal of her children--Terms on which Miss +Alice Taylor would present a confederate flag to a company. 234-240 + + +MRS. ADALINE TYLER. + +Residence in Boston--Removal to Baltimore--Becomes Superintendent of +a Protestant Sisterhood in that city--Duties of the Sisterhood--The +"Church Home"--Other duties of "Sister" Tyler--The opening of the +war--The Baltimore mob--Wounding and killing members of the Sixth +Massachusetts regiment--Mrs. Tyler hears that Massachusetts men are +wounded and seeks admission to them--Is refused--She persists, and +threatening an appeal to Governor Andrew is finally admitted--She takes +those most severely wounded to the "Church Home," procures surgical +attendance for them, and nurses them till their recovery--Other Union +wounded nursed by her--Receives the thanks of the Massachusetts +Legislature and Governor--Is appointed Superintendent of the Camden +Street Hospital, Baltimore--Resigns at the end of a year, and visits New +York--The surgeon-general urges her to take charge of the large hospital +at Chester, Pennsylvania--She remains at Chester till the hospital +is broken up, when she is transferred to the First Division General +Hospital, Naval Academy, Annapolis--The returned prisoners--Their +terrible condition--Mrs. Tyler procures photographs of them--Impaired +health--Resignation--She visits Europe, and spends eighteen months +there, advocating as she has opportunity the National cause--The +fiendish rebel spirit--Incident relative to President Lincoln's +assassination. 241-250 + + +MRS. WILLIAM H. HOLSTEIN. + +Social position of Mr. and Mrs. Holstein--Early labors for the soldiers +at home--The battle of Antietam--She goes with her husband to care for +the wounded--Her first emotions at the sight of the wounded--Three +years' devotion to the service--Mr. and Mrs. Holstein devote themselves +mainly to field hospitals--Labors at Fredericksburg, in the Second Corps +Hospital--Services after the battle of Chancellorsville--The march +toward Pennsylvania in June, 1863--The Field Hospital of the Second +Corps after Gettysburg--Incidents--"Wouldn't be buried by the side of +that raw recruit"--Mrs. Holstein Matron of the Second Corps Hospital-- +Tour among the Aid Societies--The campaign of 1864-5--Constant labors in +the field hospitals at Fredericksburg, City Point, and elsewhere, till +November--Another tour among the Aid Societies--Labors among the +returned prisoners at Annapolis. 251-259 + + +MRS. CORDELIA A. P. HARVEY. _By Rev. N. M. Mann._ + +The death of her husband, Governor Louis P. Harvey--Her intense grief-- +She resolves to devote herself to the care of the sick and wounded +soldiers--She visits St. Louis as Agent for the State of Wisconsin--Work +in the St. Louis hospitals in the autumn of 1862--Heroic labors at Cape +Girardeau--Visiting hospitals along the Mississippi--The soldiers' ideas +of her influence and power--Young's Point in 1863--Illness of Mrs. +Harvey--She determines to secure the establishment of a General Hospital +at Madison, Wisconsin, where from the fine climate the chances of +recovery of the sick and wounded will be increased--Her resolution and +energy--The Harvey Hospital--The removal of the patients at Fort +Pickering to it--Repeated journeys down the Mississippi--Presented with +an elegant watch by the Second Wisconsin Cavalry--Her influence over the +soldiers--The Soldiers' Orphan Asylum at Madison. 260-268 + + +MRS. SARAH R. JOHNSTON. + +Loyal Southern women--Mrs. Johnston's birth and social position--Her +interest in the Union prisoners--"A Yankee sympathizer"--The young +soldier--Her tender care of him, living and dead--Work for the +prisoners--Her persecution by the rebels--"Why don't you pin me to the +earth as you threatened"--"Sergeant, you can't make anything on that +woman"--Copying the inscriptions on Union graves, and statistics of +Union prisoners--Her visit to the North. 269-272 + + +EMILY E. PARSONS. _By Rev. J. G. Forman._ + +Her birth and education--Her preparation for service in the hospitals-- +Receives instruction in the care of the sick, dressing wounds, +preparation of diet, etc.--Service at Fort Schuyler Hospital--Mrs. +General Fremont secures her services for St. Louis--Condition of St. +Louis and the other river cities at this time--First assigned to the +Lawson Hospital--Next to Hospital steamer "City of Alton"--The voyage +from Vicksburg to Memphis--Return to St. Louis--Illness--Appointed +Superintendent of Nurses to the large Benton Barracks Hospital--Her +duties--The admirable management of the hospital--Visit to the East-- +Return to her work--Illness and return to the East--Collects and +forwards supplies to Western Sanitary Commission and Northwestern +Sanitary Commission--The Chicago Fair--The Charity Hospital at +Cambridge established by her--Her cheerfulness and skill in her +hospital work. 273-278 + + +MRS. ALMIRA FALES. + +The first woman to work for the soldiers--She commenced in December, +1860--Her continuous service--Amount of stores distributed by her-- +Variety and severity of her work--Hospital Transport Service-- +Harrison's Landing--Her work in Pope's campaign--Death of her son--Her +sorrowful toil at Fredericksburg and Falmouth--Her peculiarities and +humor. 279-283 + + +CORNELIA HANCOCK. + +Early labors for the soldiers--Mr. Vassar's testimony--Gettysburg--The +campaign of 1864--Fredericksburg and City Point. 284-286 + + +MRS. MARY MORRIS HUSBAND. + +Her ancestry--Patriotic instincts of the family--Service in Philadelphia +hospitals--Harrison's Landing--Nursing a sick son--Ministers to others +there--Dr. Markland's testimony--At Camden Street Hospital, Baltimore-- +Antietam--Smoketown Hospital--Associated with Miss M. M. C. Hall--Her +admirable services as nurse there--Her personal appearance--The +wonderful apron with its pockets--The battle-flag--Her heroism in +contagious disease--Attachment of the soldiers for her--Her energy and +activity--Her adventures after the battle of Chancellorsville--The Field +Hospital near United States Ford--The forgetful surgeon--Matron of Third +Division, Third Corps Hospital, Gettysburg--Camp Letterman--Illness of +Mrs. Husband--Stationed at Camp Parole, Annapolis--Hospital at Brandy +Station--The battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania--Overwhelming +labor at Fredericksburg, Port Royal, White House, and City Point--Second +Corps Hospital at City Point--Marching through Richmond--"Hurrah for +mother Husband"--The visit to her "boys" at Bailey's Cross Roads-- +Distribution of supplies--Mrs. Husband's labors for the pardon or +commutation of the sentence of soldiers condemned by court-martial--Her +museum and its treasures. 287-298 + + +THE HOSPITAL TRANSPORT SERVICE. + +The organization of this service by the United States Sanitary +Commission--Difficulties encountered--Steamers and sailing vessels +employed--The corps of ladies employed in the service--The headquarters' +staff--Ladies plying on the Transports to Washington, Baltimore, +Philadelphia, New York, and elsewhere--Work on the Daniel Webster--The +Ocean Queen--Difficulties in providing as rapidly as was desired for +the numerous patients--Duties of the ladies who belonged to the +headquarters' staff--Description of scenes in the work by Miss Wormeley +and Miss G. Woolsey--Taking on patients--"Butter on _soft_ bread"-- +"Guess I can stand h'isting better'n _him_"--"Spare the darning +needles"--"Slippers only fit for pontoon bridges"--Visiting Government +Transports--Scrambling eggs in a wash-basin--Subduing the captain of a +tug--The battle of Fair Oaks--Bad management on Government Transports-- +Sufferings of the wounded--Sanitary Commission relief tent at the +wharf--Relief tents at White House depot at Savage's Station--The +departure from White House--Arrival at Harrison's Landing--Running past +the rebel batteries at City Point--"I'll take those mattresses you spoke +of"--The wounded of the seven days' battles--"You are so kind, I--am so +weak"--Exchanging prisoners under flag of truce. 299-315 + + +OTHER LABORS OF SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF THE HOSPITAL TRANSPORT CORPS. + +Miss Bradley, Miss Gilson, Mrs. Husband, Miss Charlotte Bradford, Mrs. +W. P. Griffin, Miss H. D. Whetten. 316, 317 + + +KATHERINE PRESCOTT WORMELEY. + +Birth and parentage--Commencement of her labors for the soldiers--The +Woman's Union Aid Society of Newport--She takes a contract for army +clothing to furnish employment for soldiers' families--Forwarding +sanitary goods--The hundred and fifty bed sacks--Miss Wormeley's +connection with the Hospital Transport Service--Her extraordinary +labors--Illness--Is appointed Lady Superintendent of the Lovell General +Hospital at Portsmouth Grove, Rhode Island--Her duties--Resigns in +October, 1863--Her volume--"The United States Sanitary Commission"-- +Other labors for the soldiers. 318-323 + + +THE MISSES WOOLSEY. + +Social position of the Woolsey sisters--Mrs. Joseph Howland and her +labors on the Hospital Transport--Her tender and skilful nursing of the +sick and wounded of her husband's regiment--Poem addressed to her by a +soldier--Her encouragement and assistance to the women nurses appointed +by Miss Dix--Mrs. Robert S. Howland--Her labors in the hospitals and at +the Metropolitan Sanitary Fair--Her early death from over-exertion in +connection with the fair--Her poetical contributions to the National +cause--"In the hospital"--Miss Georgiana M. Woolsey--Labors on Hospital +Transports--At Portsmouth Grove Hospital--After Chancellorsville--Her +work at Gettysburg with her mother--"Three weeks at Gettysburg"--The +approach to the battle-field--The Sanitary Commission's Lodge near the +railroad depot--The supply tent--Crutches--Supplying rebels and Union +men alike--Dressing wounds--"On dress parade"--"Bread with _butter_ on +it and _jelly_ on the butter"--"Worth a penny a sniff"--The Gettysburg +women--The Gettysburg farmers--"Had never seen a rebel"--"A feller +might'er got hit"--"I couldn't leave my bread"--The dying soldiers-- +"Tell her I love her"--The young rebel lieutenant--The colored +freedmen--Praying for "Massa Lincoln"--The purple and blue and yellow +handkerchiefs--"Only a blue one"--"The man who screamed so"--The German +mother--The Oregon lieutenant--"Soup"--"Put some meat in a little water +and stirred it round"--Miss Woolsey's rare capacities for her work-- +Estimate of a lady friend--Miss Jane Stuart Woolsey--Labors in +hospitals--Her charge of the Freedmen at Richmond--Miss Sarah C. +Woolsey, at Portsmouth Grove Hospital. 324-342 + + +ANNA MARIA ROSS. + +Her parentage and family--Early devotion to works of charity +and benevolence--Praying for success in soliciting aid for the +unfortunate--The "black small-pox"--The conductor's wife--The Cooper +Shop Hospital--Her incessant labors and tender care of her patients-- +Her thoughtfulness for them when discharged--Her unselfish devotion to +the good of others--Sending a soldier to his friends--"He must go or +die"--The attachment of the soldiers to her--The home for discharged +soldiers--Her efforts to provide the funds for it--Her success--The +walk to South Street--Her sudden attack of paralysis and death--The +monument and its inscription. 343-351 + + +MRS. G. T. M. DAVIS. + +Mrs. Davis a native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts--A patriotic +family--General Bartlett--She becomes Secretary of the Park Barracks +Ladies' Association--The Bedloe's Island Hospital--The controversy-- +Discharge of the surgeon--Withdrawal from the Association--The hospital +at David's Island--Mrs. Davis's labors there--The Soldiers' Rest on +Howard Street--She becomes the Secretary of the Ladies' Association +connected with it--Visits to other hospitals--Gratitude of the men to +whom she has ministered--Appeals to the women of Berkshire--Her +encomiums on their abundant labors. 352-356 + + +MARY J. SAFFORD. + +Miss Safford a native of Vermont, but a resident of Cairo--Her thorough +and extensive mental culture--She organizes temporary hospitals among +the regiments stationed at Cairo--Visiting the wounded on the field +after the battle of Belmont--Her extemporized flag of truce--Her +remarkable and excessive labors after the battle of Shiloh--On the +Hospital steamers--Among the hospitals at Cairo--"A merry Christmas" for +the soldiers stationed at Cairo--Illness induced by her over-exertion-- +Her tour in Europe--Her labors there, while in feeble health--Mrs. +Livermore's sketch of Miss Safford--Her personal appearance and _petite_ +figure--"An angel at Cairo"--"That little gal that used to come in every +day to see us--I tell you what she's an angel if there is any". 357-361 + + +MRS. LYDIA G. PARRISH. + +Previous history--Early consecration to the work of beneficence in the +army--Visiting Georgetown Seminary Hospital--Seeks aid from the Sanitary +Commission--Visits to camps around Washington--Return to Philadelphia to +enlist the sympathies of her friends in the work of the Commission-- +Return to Seminary Hospital--The surly soldier--He melts at last--Visits +in other hospitals--Broad and Cherry Street Hospital, Philadelphia-- +Assists in organizing a Ladies' Aid Society at Chester, and in forming +a corps of volunteer nurses--At Falmouth, Virginia, in January, 1863, +with Mrs. Harris--On a tour of inspection in Virginia and North Carolina +with her husband--The exchange of prisoners--Touching scenes--The +Continental Fair--Mrs. Parrish's labors in connection with it--The +tour of inspection at the Annapolis hospitals--Letters to the Sanitary +Commission--Condition of the returned prisoners--Their hunger--The St. +John's College Hospital--Admirable arrangement--Camp Parole Hospital-- +The Naval Academy Hospital--The landing of the prisoners--Their +frightful sufferings--She compiles "The Soldiers' Friend" of which more +than a hundred thousand copies were circulated--Her efforts for the +freedmen. 362-372 + + +MRS. ANNIE WITTENMEYER. + +Early efforts for the soldiers--She urges the organization of Aid +Societies, and these become auxiliary at first to the Keokuk Aid +Society, which she was active in establishing--The Iowa State Sanitary +Commission--Mrs. Wittenmeyer becomes its agent--Her active efforts for +the soldiers--She disburses one hundred and thirty-six thousand dollars +worth of goods and supplies in about two years and a-half--She aids in +the establishment of the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home--Her plan of +special diet kitchens--The Christian Commission appoint her their +agent for carrying out this plan--Her labors in their establishment in +connection with large hospitals--Special order of the War Department-- +The estimate of her services by the Christian Commission. 373-378 + + +MELCENIA ELLIOTT. _By Rev. J. G. Forman._ + +Previous pursuits--In the hospitals in Tennessee in the summer and +autumn of 1862--A remarkably skilful nurse--Services at Memphis--The +Iowa soldier--She scales the fence to watch over him and minister to his +needs, and at his death conveys his body to his friends, overcoming all +difficulties to do so--In the Benton Barracks Hospital--Volunteers to +nurse the patients in the erysipelas ward--Matron of the Refugee Home at +St. Louis--"The poor white trash"--Matron of Soldiers' Orphans' Home at +Farmington, Iowa. 379-383 + + +MARY DWIGHT PETTES. _By Rev. J. G. Forman._ + +A native of Boston--Came to St. Louis in 1861, and entered upon hospital +work in January, 1862--Her faithful earnest work--Labors for the +spiritual as well as physical welfare of the soldiers, reading the +Scriptures to them, singing to them, etc.--Attachment of the soldiers +to her--She is seized with typhoid fever contracted in her care for her +patients, and dies after five weeks' illness--Dr. Eliot's impressions +of her character. 384-388 + + +LOUISA MAERTZ. _By Rev. J. G. Forman._ + +Her birth and parentage--Her residence in Germany and Switzerland--Her +fondness for study--Her extraordinary sympathy and benevolence--She +commences visiting the hospitals in her native city, Quincy, Illinois, +in the autumn of 1861--She takes some of the wounded home to her +father's house and ministers to them there--She goes to St. Louis--Is +commissioned as a nurse--Sent to Helena, then full of wounded from +the battles in Arkansas--Her severe labors here--Almost the only woman +nurse in the hospitals there--"God bless you, dear lady"--The Arkansas +Union soldier--The half-blind widow--Miss Maertz at Vicksburg--At +New Orleans. 390-394 + + +MRS. HARRIET R. COLFAX. + +Early life--A widow and fatherless--Her first labors in the hospitals in +St. Louis--Her sympathies never blunted--The sudden death of a soldier-- +Her religious labors among the patients--Dr. Paddock's testimony--The +wounded from Fort Donelson--On the hospital boat--In the battle at +Island No. Ten--Bringing back the wounded--Mrs. Colfax's care of them-- +Trips to Pittsburg Landing, before and after the battle of Shiloh--Heavy +and protracted labor for the nurses--Return to St. Louis--At the Fifth +Street Hospital--At Jefferson Barracks--Her associates--Obliged to +retire from the service on account of her health in 1864. 395-399 + + +CLARA DAVIS. + +Miss Davis not a native of this country--Her services at the Broad and +Cherry Street Hospital, Philadelphia--One of the Hospital Transport +corps--The steamer "John Brooks"--Mile Creek Hospital--Mrs. Husband's +account of her--At Frederick City, Harper's Ferry, and Antietam--Agent +of the Sanitary Commission at Camp Parole, Annapolis, Maryland--Is +seized with typhoid fever here--When partially recovered, she resumes +her labors, but is again attacked and compelled to withdraw from her +work--Her other labors for the soldiers, both sick and well--Obtaining +furloughs--Sending home the bodies of dead soldiers--Providing +head-boards for the soldiers' graves. 400-403 + + +MRS. R. H. SPENCER. + +Her home in Oswego, New York--Teaching--An anti-war Democrat is +convinced of his duty to become a soldier, though too old for the +draft--Husband and wife go together--At the Soldiers' Rest in +Washington--Her first work--Matron of the hospital--At Wind-Mill +Point--Matron in the First Corps Hospital--Foraging for the sick and +wounded--The march toward Gettysburg--A heavily laden horse--Giving up +her last blanket--Chivalric instincts of American soldiers--Labors +during the battle of Gettysburg--Under fire--Field Hospital of the +Eleventh Corps--The hospital at White Church--Incessant labors--Saving +a soldier's life--"Can you go without food for a week?"--The basin +of broth--Mrs. Spencer appointed agent of the State of New York for +the care of the sick and wounded soldiers in the field--At Brandy +Station--At Rappahannock Station and Belle Plain after the battle +of the Wilderness--Virginia mud--Working alone--Heavy rain and no +shelter--Working on at Belle Plain--"Nothing to wear"--Port Royal--White +House--Feeding the wounded--Arrives at City Point--The hospitals and +the Government kitchen--At the front--Carrying supplies to the men in +the rifle pits--Fired at by a sharpshooter--Shelled by the enemy--The +great explosion at City Point--Her narrow escape--Remains at City Point +till the hospitals are broken up--The gifts received from grateful +soldiers. 404-415 + + +MRS. HARRIET FOOTE HAWLEY. _By Mrs. H. B. Stowe._ + +Mrs. Hawley accompanies her husband, Colonel Hawley, to South +Carolina--Teaching the freedmen--Visiting the hospitals at Beaufort, +Fernandina and St. Augustine--After Olustee--At the Armory Square +Hospital, Washington--The surgical operations performed in the +ward--"Reaching the hospital only in time to die"--At Wilmington-- +Frightful condition of Union prisoners--Typhus fever raging--The +dangers greater than those of the battle-field--Four thousand sick-- +Mrs. Hawley's heroism, and incessant labors--At Richmond--Injured by +the upsetting of an ambulance--Labors among the freedmen--Colonel +Higginson's speech. 416-419 + + +ELLEN E. MITCHELL. + +Her family--Motives in entering on the work of ministering to the +soldiers--Receives instructions at Bellevue Hospital--Receives a +nurse's pay and gives it to the suffering soldiers--At Elmore Hospital, +Georgetown--Gratitude of the soldiers--Trials--St. Elizabeth's Hospital, +Washington--A dying nurse--Her own serious illness--Care and attention +of Miss Jessie Home--Death of her mother--At Point Lookout--Discomforts +and suffering--Ware House Hospital, Georgetown--Transfer of patients and +nurse to Union Hotel Hospital--Her duties arduous but pleasant--Transfer +to Knight General Hospital, New Haven--Resigns and accepts a situation +in the Treasury Department, but longing for her old work returns to it-- +At Fredericksburg after battle of the Wilderness--At Judiciary Square +Hospital, Washington--Abundant labor, but equally abundant happiness-- +Her feelings in the review of her work. 420-426 + + +JESSIE HOME. + +A Scotch maiden, but devotedly attached to the Union--Abandons a +pleasant and lucrative pursuit to become a hospital nurse--Her +earnestness and zeal--Her incessant labors--Sickness and death--Cared +for by Miss Bergen of Brooklyn, New York. 427, 428 + + +MISS VANCE AND MISS BLACKMAR. _By Mrs. M. M. Husband._ + +Miss Vance a missionary teacher before the war--Appointed by Miss Dix to +a Baltimore hospital--At Washington, at Alexandria, and at Gettysburg-- +At Fredericksburg after the battle of the Wilderness--At City Point in +the Second Corps Hospital--Served through the whole war with but three +weeks' furlough--Miss Blackmar from Michigan--A skilful and efficient +nurse--The almost fatal hemorrhage--The boy saved by her skill--Carrying +a hot brick to bed. 429, 430 + + +H. A. DADA AND S. E. HALL. + +Missionary teachers before the war--Attending lectures to prepare for +nursing--After the first battle of Bull Run--At Alexandria--The wounded +from the battle-field--Incessant work--Ordered to Winchester, Virginia-- +The Court-House Hospital--At Strasburg--General Banks' retreat-- +Remaining among the enemy to care for the wounded--At Armory Square +Hospital--The second Bull Run--Rapid but skilful care of the wounded-- +Painful cases--Harper's Ferry--Twelfth Army Corps Hospital--The mother +in search of her son--After Chancellorsville--The battle of Gettysburg-- +Labors in the First and Twelfth Corps Hospitals--Sent to Murfreesboro', +Tennessee--Rudeness of the Medical Director--Discomfort of their +situation--Discourtesy of the Medical Director and some of the surgeons-- +"We have no ladies here--There are some women here, who are cooks!"-- +Removal to Chattanooga--Are courteously and kindly received--Wounded of +Sherman's campaign--"You are the _God-blessedest_ woman I ever saw"-- +Service to the close of the war and beyond--Lookout Mountain. 431-439 + + +MRS. SARAH P. EDSON. + +Early life--Literary pursuits--In Columbia College Hospital--At Camp +California--Quaker guns--Winchester, Virginia--Prevalence of gangrene-- +Union Hotel Hospital--On the Peninsula--In hospital of Sumner's Corps-- +Her son wounded--Transferred to Yorktown--Sufferings of the men--At +White House and the front--Beef soup and coffee for starving wounded +men--Is permitted to go to Harrison's Landing--Abundant labor and care-- +Chaplain Fuller--At Hygeia Hospital--At Alexandria--Pope's campaign-- +Attempts to go to Antietam, but is detained by sickness--Goes to +Warrenton, and accompanies the army thence to Acquia Creek--Return to +Washington--Forms a society to establish a home and training school +for nurses, and becomes its Secretary--Visits hospitals--State Relief +Societies approve the plan--Sanitary Commission do not approve of it +as a whole--Surgeon-General opposes--Visits New York city--The masons +become interested--"Army Nurses' Association" formed in New York--Nurses +in great numbers sent on after the battles of Wilderness, Spottsylvania, +etc.--The experiment a success--Its eventual failure through the +mismanagement in New York--Mrs. Edson continues her labors in the army +to the close of the war--Enthusiastic reception by the soldiers. 440-447 + + +MARIA M. C. HALL. + +A native of Washington city--Desire to serve the sick and wounded-- +Receives a sick soldier into her father's house--Too young to answer +the conditions required by Miss Dix--Application to Mrs. Fales-- +Attempts to dissuade her--"Well girls here they are, with everything +to be done for them"--The Indiana Hospital--Difficulties and +discouragements--A year of hard and unsatisfactory work--Hospital +Transport Service--The Daniel Webster--At Harrison's Landing with +Mrs. Fales--Condition of the poor fellows--Mrs. Harris calls her to +Antietam--French's Division and Smoketown Hospitals--Abundant work but +performed with great satisfaction--The French soldier's letter--The +evening or family prayers--Successful efforts for the religious +improvement of the men--Dr. Vanderkieft--The Naval Academy Hospital at +Annapolis--In charge of Section five--Succeeds Mrs. Tyler as Lady +Superintendent of the hospital--The humble condition of the returned +prisoners from Andersonville and elsewhere--Prevalence of typhus fever-- +Death of her assistants--Four thousand patients--Writes for "The +Crutch"--Her joy in the success of her work. 448-454 + + +THE HOSPITAL CORPS AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY HOSPITAL, ANNAPOLIS. + +The cruelties which had been practiced on the Union men in rebel +prisons--Duties of the nurses under Miss Hall--Names and homes of these +ladies--Death of Miss Adeline Walker--Miss Hall's tribute to her +memory--Miss Titcomb's eulogy on her--Death of Miss M. A. B. Young-- +Sketch of her history--"Let me be buried here among my boys"--Miss Rose +M. Billing--Her faithfulness as a nurse in the Indiana Hospital, (Patent +Office,) at Falls Church, and at Annapolis--She like the others falls a +victim to the typhus generated in Southern prisons--Tribute to her +memory. 455-460 + + +OTHER LABORS OF SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF THE ANNAPOLIS HOSPITAL CORPS. + +The _Maine stay_ of the Annapolis Hospital--Miss Titcomb--Miss Newhall-- +Miss Usher--Other ladies from Maine--The Maine camp and Hospital +Association--Mrs. Eaton--Mrs. Fogg--Mrs. Mayhew--Miss Mary A. Dupee and +her labors--Miss Abbie J. Howe--Her labors for the spiritual as well as +physical good of the men--Her great influence over them--Her joy in her +work. 461-466 + + +MRS. A. H. AND MISS S. H. GIBBONS. + +Mrs. Gibbons a daughter of Isaac T. Hopper--Her zeal in the cause of +reform--Work of herself and daughter in the Patent Office Hospital in +1861--Visit to Falls Church and its hospital--Sad condition of the +patients--"If you do not come and take care of me I shall die"--Return +to this hospital--Its condition greatly improved--Winchester and the +Seminary Hospital--Severe labors here--Banks' retreat--The nurses held +as prisoners--Losses of Mrs. and Miss Gibbons at this time--At Point +Lookout--Exchanged prisoners from Belle Isle--A scarcity of garments-- +Trowsers a luxury--Fifteen months of hospital service--Conflicts with +the authorities in regard to the freedmen--The July riots in New York +in 1863--Mrs. Gibbons' house sacked by the rioters--Destruction of +everything valuable--Return to Point Lookout--The campaign of 1864-5-- +Mrs. and Miss Gibbons at Fredericksburg--An improvised hospital--Mrs. +Gibbons takes charge--The gift of roses--The roses withered and dyed in +the soldiers' blood--Riding with the wounded in box cars--At White +House--Labors at Beverly Hospital, New Jersey--Mrs. Gibbons' return +home--Her daughter remains till the close of the war. 467-475 + + +MRS. E. J. RUSSELL. + +Government nurses--Their trials and hardships--Mrs. Russell a teacher +before the war--Her patriotism--First connected with the Regimental +Hospital of Twentieth New York Militia (National Guards)--Assigned +to Columbia College Hospital, Washington--After three years' service +resigns from impaired health, but recovering enters the service +again in Baltimore--Nursing rebels--Her attention to the religious +condition of the men--Four years of service--Returns to teaching after +the war. 477-479 + + +MRS. MARY W. LEE. + +Mrs. Lee of foreign birth, but American in feeling--Services in the +Volunteer Refreshment Saloon--A noble institution--At Harrison's +Landing, with Mrs. Harris--Wretched condition of the men--Improvement +under the efforts of the ladies--The Hospital of the Epiphany at +Washington--At Antietam during the battle--The two water tubs--The +enterprising sutler--"Take this bread and give it to that woman"--The +Sedgwick Hospital--Ordering a guard--Hoffman's Farm Hospital--Smoketown +Hospital--Potomac Creek--Chancellorsville--Under fire from the batteries +on Fredericksburg Heights--Marching with the army--Gettysburg--The +Second Corps Hospital--Camp Letterman--The Refreshment Saloon again-- +Brandy Station--A stove half a yard square--The battles of the +Wilderness--At Fredericksburg--A diet kitchen without furniture--Over +the river after a stove--Baking, boiling, stewing, and frying +simultaneously--Keeping the old stove hot--At City Point--In charge +of a hospital--The last days of the Refreshment Saloon. 480-488 + + +CORNELIA M. TOMPKINS. _By Rev. J. G. Forman._ + +A scion of an eminent family--At Benton Barracks Hospital--At Memphis-- +Return to St. Louis--At Jefferson Barracks. 489, 490 + + +MRS. ANNA C. McMEENS. _By Mrs. E. S. Mendenhall._ + +A native of Maryland--The wife of a surgeon in the army--At Camp +Dennison--One of the first women in Ohio to minister to the soldiers +in a military hospital--At Nashville in hospital--The battle of +Perryville--Death of Dr. McMeens--At home--Laboring for the Sanitary +Commission--In the hospitals at Washington--Missionary work among the +sailors on Lake Erie. 491, 492 + + +MRS. JERUSHA R. SMALL. _By Mrs. E. S. Mendenhall._ + +A native of Iowa--Accompanies her husband to the war--Ministers to the +wounded from Belmont, Donelson, and Shiloh--Her husband wounded at +Shiloh--Under fire in ministering to the wounded--Uses all her spare +clothing for them--As her husband recovers her own health fails--The +galloping consumption--The female secessionist--Going home to die-- +Buried with the flag wrapped around her. 493, 494 + + +MRS. S. A. MARTHA CANFIELD. _By Mrs. E. S. Mendenhall._ + +Wife of Colonel H. Canfield--Her husband killed at Shiloh--Burying her +sorrows in her heart--She returns to labor for the wounded in the +Sixteenth Army Corps, in the hospitals at Memphis--Labors among the +freedmen--Establishes the Colored Orphan Asylum at Memphis. 495 + + +MRS. THOMAS AND MISS MORRIS. + +Faithful laborers in the hospitals at Cincinnati till the close of the +war. 496 + + +MRS. SHEPARD WELLS. _By Rev. J. G. Forman._ + +Driven from East Tennessee by the rebels--Becomes a member of the +Ladies' Union Aid Society at St. Louis, and one of its Secretaries-- +Superintends the special diet kitchen at Benton Barracks--An +enthusiastic and earnest worker--Labor for the refugees. 497, 498 + + +MRS. E. C. WITHERELL. _By Rev. J. G. Forman._ + +A lady from Louisville--Her service in the Fourth Street Hospital, St. +Louis--"Shining Shore"--The soldier boy--On the "Empress" hospital +steamer nursing the wounded--A faithful and untiring nurse--Is attacked +with fever, and dies July, 1862--Resolutions of Western Sanitary +Commission. 499-501 + + +PHEBE ALLEN. _By Rev. J. G. Forman._ + +A teacher in Iowa--Volunteered as a nurse in Benton Barracks hospital-- +Very efficient--Died of malarious fever in 1864, at the hospital. 502 + + +MRS. EDWIN GREBLE. + +Of Quaker stock--Intensely patriotic--Her eldest son, Lieutenant John +Greble, killed at Great Bethel in 1861--A second son served through the +war--A son-in-law a prisoner in the rebel prisons--Mrs. Greble a most +assiduous worker in the hospitals of Philadelphia, and a constant and +liberal giver. 503, 504 + + +MRS. ISABELLA FOGG. + +A resident of Calais, Maine--Her only son volunteers, and she devotes +herself to the service of ministering to the wounded and sick--Goes to +Annapolis with one of the Maine regiments--The spotted fever in the +Annapolis Hospital--Mrs. Fogg and Mrs. Mayhew volunteer as nurses--The +Hospital Transport Service--At the front after Fair Oaks--Savage's +Station--Over land to Harrison's Landing with the army--Under fire--On +the hospital ship--Home--In the hospitals around Washington, after +Antietam--The Maine Camp Hospital Association--Mrs. J. S. Eaton--After +Chancellorsville--In the field hospitals for nearly a week, working day +and night, and under fire--At Gettysburg the day after the battle--On +the Rapidan--At Mine Run--At Belle Plain and Fredericksburg after the +battle of the Wilderness--At City Point--Home again--A wounded son-- +Severe illness of Mrs. Fogg--Recovery--Sent by Christian Commission to +Louisville to take charge of a special diet kitchen--Injured by a fall-- +An invalid for life--Happy in the work accomplished. 505-510 + + +MRS. E. E. GEORGE. + +Services of aged women in the war--Military agency of Indiana--Mrs. +George's appointment--Her services at Memphis--At Pulaski--At +Chattanooga--Following Sherman to Atlanta--Matron of Fifteenth Army +Corps Hospital--At Nashville--Starts for Savannah, but is persuaded +by Miss Dix to go to Wilmington--Excessive labors there--Dies of +typhus. 511-513 + + +MRS. CHARLOTTE E. McKAY. + +A native of Massachusetts--Enters the service as nurse at Frederick +city--Rebel occupation of the city--Chancellorsville--The assault on +Marye's Heights--Death of her brother--Gettysburg--Services in Third +Division Third Corps Hospital--At Warrenton--Mine Run--Brandy Station-- +Grant's campaign--From Belle Plain to City Point--The Cavalry Corps +Hospital--Testimonials presented to her. 514-516 + + +MRS. FANNY L. RICKETTS. + +Of English parentage--Wife of Major-General Ricketts--Resides on the +frontier for three years--Her husband wounded at Bull Run--Her heroism +in going through the rebel lines to be with him--Dangers and privations +at Richmond--Ministrations to Union soldiers--He is selected as a +hostage for the privateersmen, but released at her urgent solicitation-- +Wounded again at Antietam, and again tenderly nursed--Wounded at +Middletown, Virginia, October, 1864, and for four months in great +danger--The end of the war. 517-519 + + +MRS. JOHN S. PHELPS. + +Early history--Residence in the Southwest--Rescues General Lyon's +body--Her heroism and benevolence at Pea Ridge and elsewhere. 520, 521 + + +MRS. JANE R. MUNSELL. + +Maryland women in the war--Barbara Frietchie--Effie Titlow--Mrs. +Munsell's labors in the hospitals after Antietam and Gettysburg--Her +death from over-exertion. 522, 523 + + +PART III. LADIES WHO ORGANIZED AID SOCIETIES, RECEIVED AND FORWARDED +SUPPLIES TO THE HOSPITALS, DEVOTING THEIR WHOLE TIME TO THE WORK, ETC. + + +WOMAN'S CENTRAL ASSOCIATION OF RELIEF. _By Mrs. Julia B. Curtis._ + +Organization and officers of the Association--It becomes a branch of the +United States Sanitary Commission--Its Registration Committee and their +duties--The Selection and Preparation of Nurses for the Army--The +Finance and Executive Committee--The unwillingness of the Government +to admit any deficiency--The arrival of the first boxes for the +Association--The sacrifices made by the women in the country towns and +hamlets--The Committee of Correspondence--Twenty-five thousand letters-- +The receiving book, the day-book and the ledger--The alphabet repeated +seven hundred and twenty-seven times on the boxes--Mrs. Fellows and Mrs. +Colby solicitors of donations--The call for nurses on board the Hospital +Transports--Mrs. W. P. Griffin and Mrs. David Lane volunteer, and +subsequently other members of the Association--Mrs. D'Orémieulx's +departure for Europe--Mr. S. W. Bridgham's faithful labors--Creeping +into the Association rooms of a Sunday, to gather up and forward supplies +needed for sudden emergencies--The First Council of Representatives from +the principal Aid Societies at Washington--Monthly boxes--The _Federal +principle_--Antietam and Fredericksburg exhaust the supplies--Miss +Louisa Lee Schuyler's able letter of inquiry to the Secretaries of +Auxiliaries--The plan of "Associate Managers"--Miss Schuyler's incessant +labors in connection with this--The set of boxes devised by Miss +Schuyler to aid the work of the Committee on Correspondence--The +employment of Lecturers--The Association publish Mr. George T. Strong's +pamphlet, "How can we best help our Camps and Hospitals"--The Hospital +Directory opened--The lack of supplies of clothing and edibles, +resulting from the changed condition of the country--Activity and zeal +of the members of the Woman's Central Association--Miss Ellen Collins' +incessant labors--Her elaborate tables of supplies and their +disbursement--The Association offers to purchase for the Auxiliaries +at wholesale prices--Miss Schuyler's admirable Plan of Organization for +Country Societies--Alert Clubs founded--Large contributions to the +stations at Beaufort and Morris Island--Miss Collins and Mrs. W. P. +Griffin in charge of the office through the New York Riots in July, +1863--Mrs. Griffin, is chairman of Special Relief Committee, and makes +personal visits to the sick--The Second Council at Washington--Miss +Schuyler and Miss Collins delegates--Miss Schuyler's efforts--The +whirlwind of Fairs--Aiding the feeble auxiliaries by donating an +additional sum in goods equal to what they raised, to be manufactured by +them--Five thousand dollars a month thus expended--A Soldiers' Aid +Society Council--Help to Military Hospitals near the city, and the Navy, +by the Association--Death of its President, Dr. Mott--The news of +peace--Miss Collins' Congratulatory Letter--The Association continues +its work to July 7--Two hundred and ninety-one thousand four hundred and +seventy-five shirts distributed--Purchases made for Auxiliaries, +seventy-nine thousand three hundred and ninety dollars and fifty-seven +cents--Other expenditures of money for the purposes of the Association, +sixty-one thousand three hundred and eighty-six dollars and fifty-seven +cents--The zeal of the Associated Managers--The Brooklyn Relief +Association--Miss Schuyler's labors as a writer--Her reports--Articles +in the Sanitary Bulletin, "The Soldiers' Friend," "Nelly's Hospital," +&c. &c.--The patient and continuous labors of the Committees on +Correspondence and on Supplies--Territory occupied by the Woman's +Central Association--Resolutions at the Final Meeting. 527-539 + + +SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY OF NORTHERN OHIO. + +Its organization--At first a Local Society--No Written Constitution or +By-laws--Becomes a branch of the United States Sanitary Commission in +October, 1861--Its territory small and not remarkable for wealth--Five +hundred and twenty auxiliaries--Its disbursement of one million one +hundred and thirty-three thousand dollars in money and supplies--The +Northern Ohio Sanitary Fair--The supplies mostly forwarded to the +Western Depôt of the United States Sanitary Commission at Louisville-- +"The Soldiers' Home" built under the direction of the Ladies who managed +the affairs of the Society, and supplied and conducted under their +Supervision--The Hospital Directory, Employment Agency, War Claim +Agency--The entire time of the Officers of the Society for five and a +half years voluntarily and freely given to its work from eight in the +morning till six or later in the evening--The President, Mrs. B. Rouse, +and her labors in organizing Aid Societies and attending to the home +work--The labors of the Secretary and Treasurer--Editorial work--The +Society's printing press--Setting up and printing Bulletins--The +Sanitary Fair originated and carried on by the Aid Society--The Ohio +State Soldiers' Home aided by them--Sketch of Mrs. Rouse--Sketch of +Miss Mary Clark Brayton, Secretary of the Society--Sketch of Miss Ellen +F. Terry, Treasurer of the Society--Miss Brayton's "On a Hospital +Train," "Riding on a Rail"--Visit to the Army--The first sight of a +hospital train--The wounded soldiers on board--"Trickling a little +sympathy on the Wounded"--"The Hospital Train a jolly thing"--The dying +soldier--Arrangement of the Hospital Train--The arduous duties of the +Surgeon. 540-552 + + +NEW ENGLAND WOMEN'S AUXILIARY ASSOCIATION. + +Its organization and territory--One million five hundred and fifteen +thousand dollars collected in money and supplies by this Association-- +Its Sanitary Fair and its results--The chairman of the Executive +Committee Miss Abby W. May--Her retiring and modest disposition--Her +rare executive powers--Sketch of Miss May--Her early zeal in the +Anti-slavery movement--Her remarkable practical talent, and admirable +management of affairs--Her eloquent appeals to the auxiliaries--Her +entire self-abnegation--Extract from one of her letters--Extract from +her Final Report--The Boston Sewing Circle and its officers--The Ladies' +Industrial Aid Association of Boston--Nearly three hundred and +forty-seven thousand garments for the soldiers made by the employés of +the Association, most of whom were from soldiers' families--Additional +wages beyond the contract prices paid to the workwomen, to the amount of +over twenty thousand dollars--The lessons learned by the ladies engaged +in this work. 553-559 + + +THE NORTHWESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION. + +The origin of the Commission--Its early labors--Mrs. Porter's connection +with it--Her determination to go to the army--The appointment of Mrs. +Hoge and Mrs. Livermore as Managers--The extent and variety of their +labors--The two Sanitary Fairs--Estimate of the amount raised by the +Commission. 560-561 + + +MRS. A. H. HOGE. + +Her birth and early education--Her marriage--Her family--She identifies +herself from the beginning with the National cause--Her first visit +to the hospitals of Cairo, Mound City and St. Louis--The Mound City +Hospital--The wounded boy--Turned over for the first time--"They had to +take the Fort"--Rebel cruelties at Donelson--The poor French boy--The +mother who had lost seven sons in the Army--"He had turned his face to +the wall to die"--Mrs. Hoge at the Woman's Council at Washington in +1862--Labors of Mrs. Hoge and Mrs. Livermore--Correspondence-- +Circulars--Addresses--Mrs. Hoge's eloquence and pathos--The ample +contributions elicited by her appeals--Visit to the Camp of General +Grant at Young's Point, in the winter of 1862-3--Return with a cargo of +wounded--Second visit to the vicinity of Vicksburg--Prevalence of +scurvy--The onion and potato circulars--Third visit to Vicksburg in +June, 1863--Incidents of this visit--The rifle-pits--Singing Hymns under +fire--"Did you drop from heaven into these rifle-pits?"--Mrs. Hoge's +talk to the men--"Promise me you'll visit my regiment to-morrow"--The +flag of the Board of Trade Regiment--"How about the blood?"--"Sing, +Rally round the Flag Boys"--The death of R--"Take her picture from under +my pillow"--Mrs. Hoge at Washington again--Her views of the value of the +Press in benevolent operations--In the Sanitary Fairs at Chicago--Her +address at Brooklyn, in March, 1865--Gifts presented her as a testimony +to the value of her labors. 562-576 + + +MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE. + +Mrs. Livermore's childhood and education--She becomes a teacher--Her +marriage--She is associated with her husband as Editor of _The New +Covenant_--Her scholarship and ability as a writer and speaker--The +vigor and eloquence of her appeals--"Women and the War"--The beginnings +of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission--The appointment of Mrs. +Livermore and Mrs. Hoge as its managers--The contributions of Mrs. +Livermore to the press, on subjects connected with her work--"The +backward movement of General McClellan"--The Hutchinsons prohibited from +singing Whittier's Song in the Army of the Potomac--Mrs. Livermore's +visit to Washington--Her description of "Camp Misery"--She makes a tour +to the Military Posts on the Mississippi--The female nurses--The scurvy +in the Camp--The Northwestern Sanitary Fair--Mrs. Livermore's address to +the Women of the Northwest--Her tact in selecting the right persons to +carry out her plans at the Fair--Her extensive journeyings--Her visit to +Washington in the Spring of 1865--Her invitation to the President to be +present at the opening of the Fair--Her description of Mr. Lincoln--His +death and the funeral solemnities with which his remains were received +at Chicago--The final fair--Mrs. Livermore's testimonials of regard and +appreciation from friends and, especially from the soldiers. 577-589 + + +GENERAL AID SOCIETY FOR THE ARMY, BUFFALO. + +Organization of the Society--Its first President, Mrs. Follett--Its +second President, Mrs. Horatio Seymour--Her efficient Aids, Miss Babcock +and Miss Bird--The friendly rivalry with the Cleveland Society--Mrs. +Seymour's rare ability and system--Her encomiums on the labors of the +patriot workers in country homes--The workers in the cities equally +faithful and praiseworthy. 590-592 + + +MICHIGAN SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY. + +The Patriotic women of Michigan--Annie Etheridge, Mrs. Russell and +others--"The Soldiers' Relief Committee" and "The Soldiers' Aid Society" +of Detroit--Their Consolidation--The officers of the New Society--Miss +Valeria Campbell the soul of the organization--Her multifarious labors-- +The Military Hospitals in Detroit--The "Soldiers' Home" in Detroit-- +Michigan in the two Chicago Fairs--Amount of money and supplies raised +by the Michigan Branch. 593-595 + + +WOMEN'S PENNSYLVANIA BRANCH OF UNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION. + +The loyal women of Philadelphia--Their numerous organizations for the +relief of the Soldier--The organization of the Women's Pennsylvania +Branch--Its officers--Sketch of Mrs. Grier--Her parentage--Her residence +in Wilmington, N. C.--Persecution for loyalty--Escape--She enters +immediately upon Hospital Work--Her appointment to the Presidency of +the Women's Branch--Her remarkable tact and skill--Her extraordinary +executive talent--Mrs. Clara J. Moore--Sketch of her labors--Other +ladies of the Association--Testimonials to Mrs. Grier's ability and +admirable management from officers of the Sanitary Commission and +others--The final report of this Branch--The condition of the state +and country at its inception--The Associate Managers--The work +accomplished--Peace at last--The details of Expenses of the Supply +Department--The work of the Relief Committee--Eight hundred and thirty +women employed--Widows of Soldiers aided--Total expenditures of Relief +Committee. 596-606 + + +THE WISCONSIN SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY. _By Rev. J. G. Forman._ + +The Milwaukie Ladies Soldiers' Aid Society--Labors of Mrs. Jackson, Mrs. +Delafield and others--Enlargement and re-organization as the Wisconsin +Soldiers' Aid Society--Mrs. Henrietta L. Colt, chosen Corresponding +Secretary--Her visits to the front, and her subsequent labors among the +Aid Societies of the State--Efficiency of the Society--The Wisconsin +Soldiers' Home--Its extent and what it accomplished--It forms the +Nucleus of one of the National Soldiers' Homes--Sketch of Mrs. Colt-- +Death of her husband--Her deep and overwhelming grief--She enters upon +the Sanitary Work, to relieve herself from the crushing weight of her +great sorrow--Her labors on a Hospital Steamer--Her frequent subsequent +visits to the front--Her own account of these visits--"The beardless +boys, all heroes"--Sketch of Mrs. Governor Salomon--Her labors in behalf +of the German and other soldiers of Wisconsin. 607-614 + + +PITTSBURG BRANCH UNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION. + +The Pittsburg Sanitary Committee and Pittsburg Subsistence Committee-- +Organization of the Branch--Its Corresponding Secretary, Miss Rachael W. +McFadden--Her executive ability zeal and patriotism--Her colleagues in +her labors--The Pittsburg Sanitary Fair--Its remarkable success--Miss +Murdock's labors at Nashville. 615, 616 + + +MRS. ELIZABETH S. MENDENHALL. + +Mrs. Mendenhall's childhood and youth passed in Richmond, Va.--Her +relatives Members of the Society of Friends--Her early Hospital labors-- +President of the Women's Soldiers' Aid Society of Cincinnati--Her appeal +to the citizens of Cincinnati to organize a Sanitary Fair--Her efforts +to make the Fair a success--The magnificent result--Subsequent labors in +the Sanitary Cause--Fair for Soldiers' Families in December, 1864-- +Labors for the Freedmen and Refugees--In behalf of fallen women. 617-620 + + +DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH. + +Dr. M. M. Marsh appointed Medical Inspector of Department of the South-- +Early in 1863 he proceeded thither with his wife--Mrs. Marsh finds +abundant work in the receipt and distribution of Sanitary Stores, in the +visiting of Hospitals--Spirit of the wounded men--The exchange of +prisoners--Sufferings of our men in Rebel prisons--Their self-sacrificing +spirit--Supplies sent to the prisoners, and letters received from +them--The sudden suspension of this benevolent work by order from +General Halleck--The sick from Sherman's Army--Dr. Marsh ordered to +Newbern, N. C., but detained by sickness--Return to New York--The +"Lincoln Home"--Dr. and Mrs. Marsh's labors there--Close of the Lincoln +Home. 621-629 + + +ST. LOUIS LADIES' UNION AID SOCIETY. + +Organization of the Society--Its officers--Was the principal Auxiliary +of Western Sanitary Commission--Visits of its members to the fourteen +hospitals in the vicinity of St. Louis--The hospital basket and its +contents--The Society's delegates on the battle-fields--Employs the +wives and daughters of soldiers in bandage rolling, and subsequently on +contracts for hospital and other clothing for soldiers--Its committees +cutting, fitting and examining the work--Undertakes the special diet +kitchen of the Benton Barracks Hospital--Establishes a branch at +Nashville--Special Diet Kitchen there--Its work for the Freedmen and +Refugees--Sketches of its leading officers and managers--Mrs. Anna L. +Clapp, a native of Washington County, N. Y.--Resides in Brooklyn, N. Y., +and subsequently in St. Louis--Elected President of Ladies' Union Aid +Society at the beginning of the war, and retains her position till its +close--Her arduous labors and great tact and skill--She organizes a +Refugee Home and House of Industry--Aids the Freedmen, and assists in +the proper regulation of the Soldiers' Home--Miss H. A. Adams, (now Mrs. +Morris Collins)--Born and educated in New Hampshire--At the outbreak of +the war, a teacher in St. Louis--Devoted herself to the Sanitary work +throughout the war--Was secretary of the society till the close of 1864, +and a part of the time at Nashville, where she established a special +diet kitchen--Death of her brother in the army--Her influence in +procuring the admission of female nurses in the Nashville hospitals-- +Mrs. C. R. Springer, a native of Maine, one of the directors of the +Society, and the superintendent of its employment department, for +furnishing work to soldiers' families--Her unremitting and faithful +labors--Mrs. Mary E. Palmer--A native of New Jersey--An earnest worker, +visiting and aiding soldiers' families and dispensing the charities of +the Society among them and the destitute families of refugees--Her +labors were greater than her strength--Her death occasioned by a +decline, the result of over exertion in her philanthropic work. 630-642 + + +LADIES' AID SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA, &C. + +Organization of the Society--Its officers--Mrs. Joel Jones, Mrs. John +Harris, Mrs. Stephen Caldwell--Mrs. Harris mostly engaged at the front-- +The Society organized with a view to the spiritual as well as physical +benefit of the soldiers--Its great efficiency with moderate means--The +ladies who distributed its supplies at the front--Extract from one of +its reports--Its labors among the Refugees--The self-sacrifice of one +of its members--Its expenditures. THE PENN RELIEF ASSOCIATION--An +organization originating with the Friends, but afterward embracing +all denominations--Its officers--Its efficiency--Amount of supplies +distributed by it through well-known ladies. THE SOLDIERS' AID +SOCIETY--Another of the efficient Pennsylvania Organizations for the +relief of the soldiers--Its President, Mrs. Mary A. Brady--Her labors +in the Satterlee Hospital--At "Camp Misery"--At the front--After +Gettysburg, and at Mine Run--Her health injured by her exposure and +excessive labors--She dies of heart-disease in May, 1864. 643-649 + + +WOMEN'S RELIEF ASSOCIATION OF BROOKLYN AND LONG ISLAND. + +Brooklyn early in the war--Numerous channels for distribution of the +Supplies contributed--Importance of a Single Comprehensive +Organization--The Relief Association formed--Mrs. Stranahan chosen +President--Sketch of Mrs. Stranahan--Her social position--First +directress of the Graham Institute--Her rare tact and efficiency as a +presiding officer and in the dispatch of business--The Long Island +Sanitary Fair--Her excessive labors there, and the perfect harmony and +good feeling which prevailed--Rev. Dr. Spear's statement of her worth-- +The resolutions of the Relief Association--Rev. Dr. Bellows' Testimony-- +Her death--Rev. Dr. Farley's letter concerning her--Rev. Dr. Budington's +tribute to her memory. 650-658 + + +MRS. ELIZABETH M. STREETER. + +Loyal Southern Women--Mrs. Streeter's activity in promoting associations +of loyal women for the relief of the soldiers--Her New England parentage +and education--The Ladies' Union Relief Association of Baltimore--Mrs. +Streeter at Antietam--As a Hospital Visitor--The Eutaw Street Hospital-- +The Union Refugees in Baltimore--Mrs. Streeter organizes the Ladies' +Union Aid Society for the Relief of Soldiers' families--Testimony of the +Maryland Committee of the Christian Commission to the value of her +labors--Death of her husband--Her return to Massachusetts. 659-664 + + +MRS. CURTIS T. FENN. + +The loyal record of the men and women of Berkshire County--Mrs. Fenn's +history and position before the war--Her skill and tenderness in the +care of the sick--Her readiness to enter upon the work of relief--She +becomes the embodiment of a Relief Association--Liberal contributions +made and much work performed by others but no organization--Mrs. Fenn's +incessant and extraordinary labors for the soldiers--Her packing and +shipping of the supplies to the hospitals in and about New York and to +more distant cities--Refreshments for Soldiers who passed through +Pittsfield--Her personal distribution of supplies at the soldiers' +Thanksgiving dinner at Bedloe's Island in 1862, and at David's Island +in 1864--"The gentleman from Africa and his vote"--Her efforts for the +disabled soldiers and their families--The soldiers' monument. 665-675 + + +MRS. JAMES HARLAN. + +Women in high stations devoting themselves to the relief of the +Soldiers--Instances--Mrs. Harlan's early interest in the soldier--At +Shiloh--Cutting red-tape--Wounded soldiers removed northward after the +battle--Death of her daughter--Her labors for the religious benefit of +the soldier--Her health impaired by her labors. 676-678 + + +NEW ENGLAND SOLDIERS' RELIEF ASSOCIATION. + +History of the organization--Its Matron, Mrs. E. A. Russell--The Women's +Auxiliary Committee--The Night Watchers' Association--The Hospital +Choir--The SOLDIERS' DEPOT in Howard Street, N. Y.--The Ladies' +Association connected with it. 679, 680 + + +PART IV. LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR SERVICES AMONG THE FREEDMEN AND +REFUGEES. + + +MRS. FRANCES DANA GAGE. + +Childhood and youth of Mrs. Gage--Anti-slavery views inculcated by +her parents and grand-parents--Her marriage--Her husband an earnest +reformer--Her connection with the press--Ostracism on account of her +opposition to slavery--Propositions made to her husband to swerve from +principle and thereby attain office--"Dare to stand alone"--Removal to +St. Louis--A contributor to the Missouri Republican--The noble stand of +Colonel Chambers--His death--She contributes to the Missouri Democrat, +but is finally excluded from its columns--Personal peril--Her advocacy +of the cause of Kansas--Editor of an Agricultural paper in Columbus, +Ohio--Her labors among the freedmen in the department of the South for +thirteen months, (1862-3)--Helps the soldiers also--Her four sons in +the army--Return Northward in the Autumn of 1863--Becomes a lecturer-- +Advocating the Emancipation Act and the Constitutional Amendment, +prohibiting slavery--Labors for the Freedmen and Refugees in 1864-- +Is injured by the overturning of a carriage at Galesburg, Ill., in +September, 1864--Lecturing again on her partial recovery--Summary of her +character. 683-690 + + +MRS. LUCY GAYLORD POMEROY. + +Birth and early education--Half-sister of the poets Lewis and Willis +Gaylord Clark--Educates herself for a Missionary--A Sunday-school +teacher--Sorrow--Is married to S. C. Pomeroy (afterward United States +Senator from Kansas)--Residence in Southampton, Mass.--Ill health-- +Removal to Kansas--The Kansas Struggle and Border Ruffian War--Mrs. +Pomeroy a firm friend to the escaping slaves--The famine year of 1860-- +Her house an office of distribution for supplies to the starving-- +Accompanies her husband to Washington in 1861--Her labors and +contributions for the soldiers--In Washington and at Atchison, Kansas-- +Return to Washington--Founding an asylum for colored orphans and +destitute aged colored women--The building obtained and furnished--Her +failing health--She comes north, but dies on the passage. 691-696 + + +MARIA R. MANN. + +Miss Mann a near relative of the late Hon. Horace Mann--Her career as +a teacher--Her loyalty--Comes to St. Louis--Becomes a nurse in the +Fifth St. Hospital--Condition of the Freedmen at St. Helena, Ark.--The +Western Sanitary Commission becomes interested in endeavoring to help +them--They propose to Miss Mann to go thither and establish a hospital, +distribute clothing and supplies to them, and instruct them as far as +possible--She consents--Perilous voyage--Her great and beneficent labors +at Helena--Extraordinary improvement in the condition of the freedmen-- +She remains till August, 1863--Her heroism--Gratitude of the freedmen-- +"You's light as a fedder, anyhow"--Return to St. Louis--Becomes the +teacher and manager of a colored asylum at Washington, D. C.--Her school +for colored children at Georgetown--Its superior character--It is, in +intention, a normal school--Miss Mann's sacrifices in continuing in that +position. 697-703 + + +SARAH J. HAGAR. + +A native of Illinois--Serves in the St. Louis Hospitals till August, +1863--Is sent to Vicksburg in the autumn of 1863, by the Western +Sanitary Commission, as teacher for the Freedmen's children--Her great +and successful labors--Is attacked in April, 1864, with malarial fever, +and dies May 3--Tribute to her character and work, from Mr. Marsh, +superintendent of Freedmen at Vicksburg. 704-706 + + +MRS. JOSEPHINE R. GRIFFIN. + +Her noble efforts--Her position at the commencement of the war--Her +interest in the condition of the Freedmen--Her attempts to overcome +their faults--Her success--Organization of schools--Finding employment +for them--Influx of Freedmen into the District of Columbia--Their +helpless condition--Mrs. Griffin attempts to find situations for them at +the North--Extensive correspondence--Her expeditions with companies of +them to the Northern cities--Necessities of the freedmen remaining in +the District in the Autumn of 1866--Mrs. Griffin's circular--The denial +of its truth by the Freedmen's Bureau--Their subsequent retraction--The +Congressional appropriation--Should have been put in Mrs. Griffin's +hands--She continues her labors. 707-709 + + +MRS. M. M. HALLOWELL. + +Condition of the loyal whites of the mountainous district of the South. +Their sufferings and persecutions--Cruelty of the Rebels--Contributions +for their aid in the north--Boston, New York, Philadelphia--Mrs. +Hallowell's efforts--She and her associates visit Nashville, Knoxville, +Huntsville and Chattanooga and distribute supplies to the families of +refugees--Peril of their journey--Repeated visits of Mrs. Hallowell--The +Home for Refugees, near Nashville--Gratitude of the Refugees for this +aid--Colonel Taylor's letter. 710-712 + + +OTHER FRIENDS OF THE FREEDMEN AND REFUGEES. + +Mrs. Harris' labors--Miss Tyson and Mrs. Beck--Miss Jane Stuart +Woolsey--Mrs. Governor Hawley--Miss Gilson--Mrs. Lucy S. Starr--Mrs. +Clinton B. Fisk--Mrs. H. F. Hoes and Miss Alice F. Royce--Mrs. John S. +Phelps--Mrs. Mary A. Whitaker--Fort Leavenworth--Mrs. Nettie C. +Constant--Miss G. D. Chapman--Miss Sarah E. M. Lovejoy, daughter of Hon. +Owen Lovejoy--Miss Mary E. Sheffield--Her labors at Vicksburg--Her +death--Helena--Mrs. Sarah Coombs--Nashville--Mrs. Mary R. Fogg--St. +Louis Refugee and Freedmen's Home--Mrs. H. M. Weed--The supervision of +this Home by Mrs. Alfred Clapp, Mrs. Joseph Crawshaw, Mrs. Lucien Eaton +and Mrs. N. Stevens. 733-716 + + +PART V. LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR SERVICES IN SOLDIERS' HOMES, VOLUNTEER +REFRESHMENT SALOONS, ON GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL TRANSPORTS ETC. + + +MRS. O. E. HOSMER. + +Mrs. Hosmer's residence at Chicago--Her two sons enter the army--She +determines to go to the hospitals--Her first experiences in the +hospitals at Tipton and Smithtown--The lack of supplies--Mrs. Hosmer +procures them from the Sanitary Commission at St. Louis--Return to +Chicago--Organization of the "Ladies' War Committee"--Mrs. Hosmer its +Secretary--Efficiency of the organization--The Board of Trade +Regiments--Mrs. Hosmer and Mrs. Smith Tinkham go to Murfreesboro' +with supplies after the battle of Stone River--Their report on their +return--Touching incident--The wounded soldier--Return to Chicago-- +Establishment of the Soldiers' Home at Chicago--Mrs. Hosmer its first +Vice President--Her zeal for its interests and devotion to the Soldiers +there--To the battle-field after Chickamauga--Taken prisoner but +recaptured--Supplies lost--Return home--Her labors at the Soldiers' +Home and Soldiers' Rest for the next fifteen months--The Northwestern +Sanitary and Soldiers' Home Fair--Mrs. Hosmer Corresponding Secretary +of the Executive Committee--She visits the hospitals from Cairo to +New Orleans--Success of her Mission--The emaciated prisoners from +Andersonville and Catawba at Vicksburg--Mrs. Hosmer ministers to them-- +The loss of the Sultana--Return and further labors at the Soldiers' +Rest--Removal to New York. 719-724 + + +MISS HATTIE WISWALL. + +Enters the service as Hospital Nurse in 1863--At Benton Barracks +Hospital--A Model nurse--Her cheerfulness--Removal to Nashville, +Tennessee--She is sent thence to Vicksburg, first as an assistant and +afterwards as principal matron at the Soldiers' Home--One hundred and +fifteen thousand soldiers accommodated there during her stay--The number +of soldiers daily received ranging from two hundred to six hundred--Her +admirable management--Scrupulous neatness of the Home--Her labors among +the Freedmen and Refugees at Vicksburg--Her care of the wounded from +the Red River Expedition--Her tenderness and cheerful spirit--She +accompanies a hospital steamer loaded with wounded men, to Cairo, and +cheers and comforts the soldiers on their voyage--Takes charge of a +wounded officer and conducts him to his home--Return to her duties--The +Soldiers' Home discontinued in June, 1865. 726-727 + + +MRS. LUCY E. STARR. + +A Clergyman's widow--Her service in the Fifth Street Hospital, St. +Louis--Her admirable adaptation to her duties--Appointed by the Western +Sanitary Commission, Matron of the Soldiers' Home at Memphis--Nearly one +hundred and twenty thousand soldiers received there during two and a +half years--Mrs. Starr manages the Home with great fidelity and +success--Mr. O. R. Waters' acknowledgment of her services--Closing of +the Home--Mrs. Starr takes charge of an institution for suffering +freedmen and refugees, in Memphis--Her faithfulness. 728-730 + + +MISS CHARLOTTE BRADFORD. + +Her reticence in regard to her labors--The public and official life of +ladies occupying positions in charitable institutions properly a matter +of public comment and notice--Miss Bradford's labors in the Hospital +Transport Service--The Elm City--The Knickerbocker--Her associates in +this work--Other Relief Work--She succeeds Miss Bradley as matron of the +Soldiers' Home at Washington--Her remarkable executive ability, dignity +and tenderness for the sick and wounded soldier. 731, 732 + + +UNION VOLUNTEER REFRESHMENT SALOON OF PHILADELPHIA. + +The labors of Mrs. Lee and Miss Ross in institutions of this class--The +beginning of the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon--Rival but not +hostile organization--Samuel B. Fales, Esq., and his patriotic labors-- +The two institutions well supplied with funds--Nearly nine hundred +thousand soldiers fed at the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, and +four hundred thousand at the Cooper Shop--The labors of the patriotic +women connected with the organizations--Mrs. Eliza G. Plummer--Her +faithful and abundant labors--Her death from over exertion--Mrs. Mary B. +Wade--Her great age, and extraordinary services--Mrs. Ellen J. Lowry-- +Mrs. Margaret Boyer--Other ladies and their constant and valuable +labors--The worthy ladies of the Cooper Shop Saloon. 733-737 + + +MRS. R. M. BIGELOW. + +"Aunty Bigelow"--Mrs. Bigelow a native of Washington--Her services in +the Indiana Hospital in the Patent Office Building--"Hot cakes and +mush and milk"--Mrs. Billing an associate in Mrs. Bigelow's Labors-- +Mrs. Bigelow the almoner of many of the Aid Societies at the North--Her +skill and judgment in the distribution of supplies--She maintains a +regular correspondence with the soldier boys who have been under her +care--Her house a "Home" for the sick soldier or officer who asked that +he might be sheltered and nursed there--She welcomes with open doors +the hospital workers from abroad--Her personal sorrows in the midst of +these labors. 738-740 + + +MISS HATTIE R. SHARPLESS AND HER ASSOCIATES. + +The Government Hospital Transports early in the war--Great improvements +made in them at a later period--The Government Transport Connecticut-- +Miss Sharpless serves as matron on this for seventeen months--His +previous labors in army hospitals at Fredericksburg, Falls Church, +Antietam and elsewhere--Her admirable adaptation to her work--A true +Christian heroine--Thirty-three thousand sick and wounded men under +charge on the Transport--Her religious influence on the men--Miss Hattie +S. Reifsnyder of Catawissa, Penn. and Mrs. Cynthia Case of Newark, Ohio, +her assistants are actuated by a similar spirit--Miss W. F. Harris +of Providence, R. I., also on the Transport, for some months, and +previously in the Indiana Hospital, in Ascension Church and Carver +Hospital, and after leaving the Transport at Harper's Ferry and +Winchester--Her health much broken by her excessive labors--Devotes +herself to the instruction and training of the Freedmen after the close +of the war. 741-743 + + +PART VI. LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR OTHER SERVICES IN THE NATIONAL CAUSE. + + +MRS. ANNIE ETHERIDGE. + +Mrs. Etheridge's goodness and purity of character--Her childhood and +girlhood passed in Wisconsin--She marries there--Return of her father to +Michigan--She visits him and while there joins the Second Michigan +Regiment, to attend to its sick and wounded--Transferred subsequently to +the Third Regiment, and at the expiration of its term of service joins +the Fifth Michigan Regiment--She is in the skirmish of Blackburn's Ford +and at the first battle of Bull Run--In hospital service--On a hospital +transport with Miss Amy M. Bradley--At the second battle of Bull Run-- +The soldier boy torn to pieces by a shot while she is ministering to +him--General Kearny's recognition of her services--Kearny's death +prevents her receiving promotion--At Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863--She +leads in a skirmish, rides along the front exhorting the men to do their +duty, and finds herself under heavy fire--An officer killed by her side +and she herself slightly wounded--Her horse, wounded, runs with her--She +seeks General Berry and after a pleasant interview takes charge of a +rebel officer, a prisoner, whom she escorts to the rear--"I would risk +my life for Annie, any time"--General Berry's death--The wounded +artillery-man--She binds up his wounds and has him brought to the +hospital--Touching letter--The retreating soldiers at Spottsylvania-- +Annie remonstrates with them, and brings them back into the fight, under +heavy fire--Outside the lines, and closely pursued by the enemy-- +Hatcher's Run--She dashes through the enemy's line unhurt--She receives +a Government appointment at the close of the war--Her modesty and +diffidence of demeanor. 747-753 + + +DELPHINE P. BAKER. + +Her birth and education--Character of her parents--Her lectures on the +sphere and culture of women--Her labors in Chicago in the collection and +distribution of hospital supplies--Her hospital work--Ill health--She +commences the publication of "The National Banner" first in Chicago, +next in Washington and finally in New York--Its success but partial--Her +efforts long, persistent and unwearied, for the establishment of a +National Home for Soldiers--The bill finally passes Congress--Delay in +organization--Its cause--Miss Baker meantime endeavors to procure Point +Lookout as a location for one of the National Soldiers' Homes--Change in +the act of incorporation--The purchase of the Point Lookout property +consummated. 754-759 + + +MRS. S. BURGER STEARNS. + +A native of New York City--Her education at the State Normal School of +Michigan--Her marriage--Her husband a Colonel of volunteers--She visits +the hospitals and devotes herself to lecturing in behalf of the Aid +movement. 760 + + +BARBARA FRIETCHIE. + +Her age--Her patriotism--Whittier's poem. 761-763 + + +MRS. HETTIE M. McEWEN. + +Of revolutionary lineage--Her devotion to the Union--Her defiance of +Isham Harris' efforts to have the Union flag lowered on her house--Mrs. +Hooper's poem. 764-766 + + +OTHER DEFENDERS OF THE FLAG. + +Mrs. Effie Titlow--Mrs. Alfred Clapp--Mrs. Moore (Parson Brownlow's +daughter)--Miss Alice Taylor--Mrs. Booth--"_Never surrender the flag to +traitors_". 767-769 + + +MILITARY HEROINES. + +Those who donned the male attire not entitled to a place in our pages-- +Madame Turchin--Her exploits--Bridget Divers--"Michigan Bridget" or +"Irish Biddy"--She recovers her captain's body, and carries it on her +horse for fifteen miles through rebel territory--Returns after the +wounded, but is overtaken by the rebels while bringing them off and +plundered of her ambulance horses--Others soon after provided-- +Accompanies a regiment of the regular army to the plains after the +war--Mrs. Kady Brownell--Her skill as a sharp-shooter, and in sword +exercise--Color Bearer in the Fifth Rhode Island Infantry--A skillful +nurse--Her husband wounded--Discharged from the army in 1863. 770-774 + + +THE WOMEN OF GETTYSBURG. + +Mrs. Jennie Wade--Her loyalty and courage--Her death during the battle-- +Miss Carrie Sheads, Principal of Oak Ridge Seminary--Her preservation of +Colonel Wheelock's sword--Her labors in the care of the wounded--Her +health impaired thereby--Miss Amelia Harmon--Her patriotism and +courage--"Burn the house if you will!" 775-778 + + +LOYAL WOMEN OF THE SOUTH. + +Names of loyal Southern Women already mentioned--The loyal women of +Richmond--Their abundant labors for Union prisoners--Loyal women of +Charleston--The Union League--Food and clothing furnished--Loyalty and +heroism of some of the negro women--Loyal women of New Orleans--The +names of some of the most prominent--Loyal women of the mountainous +districts of the south--Their ready aid to our escaping prisoners--Miss +Melvina Stevens--Malignity of some of the Rebel women--Heroism of Loyal +women in East Tennessee, Northern Georgia and Alabama. 779-782 + + +MISS HETTY A. JONES. _By Horatio G. Jones, Esq._ + +Miss Jones' birth and lineage--She aids in equipping the companies +of Union soldiers organized in her own neighborhood--Her services in +the Filbert Street Hospital--Death of her brother--Visit to Fortress +Monroe--She determines to go to the front and attaches herself to the +Third Division, Second Corps, Hospital at City Point--Has an attack +of Pleurisy--On her recovery resumes her labors--Is again attacked +and dies on the 21st of December, 1864--Her happy death--Mourning of +the convalescent soldiers of the Filbert Street Hospital over her +death. 783-786 + + +FINAL CHAPTER + +THE FAITHFUL BUT LESS CONSPICUOUS LABORERS. + +The many necessarily unnamed--Ladies who served at Antietam, Point +Lookout, City Point or Naval Academy Hospital, Annapolis--The faithful +workers at Benton Barracks Hospital, St. Louis--Miss Lovell, Miss +Bissell, Mrs. Tannehill, Mrs. R. S. Smith, Mrs. Gray, Miss Lane, Miss +Adams, Miss Spaulding, Miss King, Mrs. Day--Other nurses of great merit +appointed by the Western Sanitary Commission--Volunteer visitors in the +St. Louis Hospitals--Ladies who ministered to the soldiers in Quincy, +and in Springfield, Illinois--Miss Georgiana Willets, Misses Molineux +and McCabe--Ladies of Cincinnati who served in the hospitals--Mrs. C. J. +Wright, Mrs. Starbuck, Mrs. Gibson, Mrs. Woods and Mrs. Caldwell--Miss +E. L. Porter of Niagara Falls--Boston ladies--Mrs. and Miss Anna Lowell, +Mrs. O. W. Holmes, Miss Stevenson, Mrs. S. Loring, Mrs. Shaw, Mrs. +Brimmer, Miss Rogers, Miss Felton--Louisville, Ky.--Mrs. Bishop Smith +and Mrs. Menefee--Columbus, Ohio--Mrs. Hoyle, Mrs. Ide, Miss Swayne-- +Mrs. Seward of Utica--Mrs. Cowen, of Hartford, Conn.--Miss Long, of +Rochester--Mrs. Farr, of Norwalk, Ohio--Miss Bartlett, of the Soldiers' +Aid Society, Peoria, Ill.--Mrs. Russell and Mrs. Comstock, of Michigan, +Mrs. Dame, of Wisconsin--Miss Bucklin, of Auburn, N. Y.--Miss Louise M. +Alcott, of Concord, Mass.--Miss Penfield, of Michigan--The Misses +Rexford of Illinois--Miss Sophia Knight, of South Reading, Mass., a +faithful laborer among the Freedmen. 787-794 + + +INDEX OF NAMES OF LADIES. 795-800 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAGE +1.--MISS CLARA H. BARTON FRONTISPIECE. + +2.--BARBARA FRIETCHIE VIGNETTE TITLE. + +3.--MRS. MARY A. BICKERDYKE 172 + +4.--MISS MARGARET E. BRECKENRIDGE 187 + +5.--MRS. NELLIE MARIA TAYLOR 234 + +6.--MRS. CORDELIA A. P. HARVEY 260 + +7.--MISS EMILY E. PARSONS 273 + +8.--MRS. MARY MORRIS HUSBAND 287 + +9.--MISS MARY J. SAFFORD 357 + +10.--MRS. R. H. SPENCER 404 + +11.--MISS HATTIE A. DADA 431 + +12.--MRS. MARIANNE F. STRANAHAN 651 + +13.--MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE 577 + +14.--MRS. HENRIETTA L. COLT 609 + +15.--MRS. MARY B. WADE 736 + +16.--ANNIE ETHERIDGE 747 + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +A record of the personal services of our American women in the late +Civil War, however painful to the modesty of those whom it brings +conspicuously before the world, is due to the honor of the country, to +the proper understanding of our social life, and to the general +interests of a sex whose rights, duties and capacities are now under +serious discussion. Most of the women commemorated in this work +inevitably lost the benefits of privacy, by the largeness and length of +their public services, and their names and history are to a certain +extent the property of the country. At any rate they must suffer the +penalty which conspicuous merit entails upon its possessors, especially +when won in fields of universal interest. + +Notwithstanding the pains taken to collect from all parts of the +country, the names and history of the women who in any way distinguished +themselves in the War, and in spite of the utmost impartiality of +purpose, there is no pretence that all who served the country best, are +named in this record. Doubtless thousands of women, obscure in their +homes, and humble in their fortunes, without official position even in +their local society, and all human trace of whose labors is forever +lost, contributed as generously of their substance, and as freely of +their time and strength, and gave as unreservedly their hearts and their +prayers to the cause, as the most conspicuous on the shining list here +unrolled. For if + + "The world knows nothing of its greatest men," + +it is still more true of its noblest women. Unrewarded by praise, +unsullied by self-complacency, there is a character "of no reputation," +which formed in strictest retirement, and in the patient exercise of +unobserved sacrifices, is dearer and holier in the eye of Heaven, than +the most illustrious name won by the most splendid services. Women there +were in this war, who without a single relative in the army, denied +themselves for the whole four years, the comforts to which they had +been always accustomed; went thinly clad, took the extra blanket from +their bed, never tasted tea, or sugar, or flesh, that they might wind +another bandage round some unknown soldier's wound, or give some parched +lips in the hospital another sip of wine. Others never let one leisure +moment, saved from lives of pledged labor which barely earned their +bread, go unemployed in the service of the soldiers. God Himself keeps +this record! It is too sacred to be trusted to men. + +But it is not such humble, yet exalted souls that will complain of the +praise which to their neglect, is allotted to any of their sisters. The +ranks always contain some heroes braver and better than the most +fortunate and conspicuous officers of staff or line--but they feel +themselves best praised when their regiment, their corps, or their +general is gazetted. And the true-hearted workers for the soldiers among +the women of this country will gladly accept the recognition given to +the noble band of their sisters whom peculiar circumstances lifted into +distinct view, as a tribute offered to the whole company. Indeed, if the +lives set forth in this work, were regarded as exceptional in their +temper and spirit, as they certainly were in their incidents and +largeness of sphere, the whole lesson of the Record would be misread. +These women in their sacrifices, their patriotism, and their +persistency, are only fair representatives of the spirit of their whole +sex. As a rule, American women exhibited not only an intense feeling for +the soldiers in their exposures and their sufferings, but an intelligent +sympathy with the national cause, equal to that which furnished among +the men, two million and three hundred thousand volunteers. + +It is not unusual for women of all countries to weep and to work for +those who encounter the perils of war. But the American women, after +giving up, with a principled alacrity, to the ranks of the gathering and +advancing army, their husbands and sons, their brothers and lovers, +proceeded to organize relief for them; and they did it, not in the +spasmodic and sentimental way, which has been common elsewhere, but with +a self-controlled and rational consideration of the wisest and best +means of accomplishing their purpose, which showed them to be in some +degree the products and representatives of a new social era, and a new +political development. + +The distinctive features in woman's work in this war, were magnitude, +system, thorough co-operativeness with the other sex, distinctness of +purpose, business-like thoroughness in details, sturdy persistency to +the close. There was no more general rising among the men, than among +the women. Men did not take to the musket, more commonly than women took +to the needle; and for every assembly where men met for mutual +excitation in the service of the country, there was some corresponding +gathering of women, to stir each other's hearts and fingers in the same +sacred cause. All the caucuses and political assemblies of every kind, +in which speech and song quickened the blood of the men, did not exceed +in number the meetings, in the form of Soldiers' Aid Societies, and +Sewing Circles, which the women held, where they talked over the +national cause, and fed the fires of sacrifice in each other's hearts. +Probably never in any war in any country, was there so universal and so +specific an acquaintance on the part of both men and women, with the +principles at issue, and the interests at stake. And of the two, the +women were clearer and more united than the men, because their moral +feelings and political instincts were not so much affected by +selfishness and business, or party considerations. The work which our +system of popular education does for girls and boys alike, and which in +the middle and upper classes practically goes further with girls than +with boys, told magnificently at this crisis. Everywhere, well educated +women were found fully able to understand and explain to their sisters, +the public questions involved in the war. Everywhere the newspapers, +crowded with interest and with discussions, found eager and appreciative +readers among the gentler sex. Everywhere started up women acquainted +with the order of public business; able to call, and preside over public +meetings of their own sex; act as secretaries and committees, draft +constitutions and bye-laws, open books, and keep accounts with adequate +precision, appreciate system, and postpone private inclinations or +preferences to general principles; enter into extensive correspondence +with their own sex: co-operate in the largest and most rational plans +proposed by men who had studied carefully the subject of soldiers' +relief, and adhere through good report and through evil report, to +organizations which commended themselves to their judgment, in spite of +local, sectarian, or personal jealousies and detractions. + +It is impossible to over-estimate the amount of consecrated work done by +the loyal women of the North for the Army. Hundreds of thousands of +women probably gave all the leisure they could command, and all the +money they could save and spare, to the soldiers for the whole four +years and more, of the War. Amid discouragements and fearful delays they +never flagged, but to the last increased in zeal and devotion. And their +work was as systematic as it was universal. A generous emulation among +the Branches of the United States Sanitary Commission, managed generally +by women, usually, however, with some aid from men, brought their +business habits and methods to an almost perfect finish. Nothing that +men commonly think peculiar to their own methods was wanting in the +plans of the women. They acknowledged and answered, endorsed and filed +their letters; they sorted their stores, and kept an accurate account of +stock; they had their books and reports kept in the most approved forms; +they balanced their cash accounts with the most pains-taking precision; +they exacted of each other regularity of attendance and punctiliousness +of official etiquette. They showed in short, a perfect aptitude for +business, and proved by their own experience that men can devise nothing +too precise, too systematic or too complicated for women to understand, +apply and improve upon, where there is any sufficient motive for it. + +It was another feature of the case that there was no jealousy between +women and men in the work, and no disposition to discourage, underrate, +or dissociate from each other. It seemed to be conceded that men had +more invention, comprehensiveness and power of generalization, and that +their business habits, the fruits of ages of experience, were at least +worth studying and copying by women. On the other hand, men, usually +jealous of woman's extending the sphere of her life and labors, welcomed +in this case her assistance in a public work, and felt how vain men's +toil and sacrifices would be without woman's steady sympathy and patient +ministry of mercy, her more delicate and persistent pity, her +willingness to endure monotonous details of labor for the sake of +charity, her power to open the heart of her husband, and to keep alive +and flowing the fountains of compassion and love. + +No words are adequate to describe the systematic, persistent +faithfulness of the women who organized and led the Branches of the +United States Sanitary Commission. Their volunteer labor had all the +regularity of paid service, and a heartiness and earnestness which no +paid services can ever have. Hundreds of women evinced talents there, +which, in other spheres and in the other sex, would have made them +merchant-princes, or great administrators of public affairs. Storms nor +heats could keep them from their posts, and they wore on their faces, +and finally evinced in their breaking constitutions, the marks of the +cruel strain put upon their minds and hearts. They engaged in a +correspondence of the most trying kind, requiring the utmost address to +meet the searching questions asked by intelligent jealousy, and to +answer the rigorous objections raised by impatience or ignorance in the +rural districts. They became instructors of whole townships in the +methods of government business, the constitution of the Commissary and +Quartermaster's Departments, and the forms of the Medical Bureau. They +had steadily to contend with the natural desire of the Aid Societies for +local independence, and to reconcile neighborhoods to the idea of being +merged and lost in large generalizations. They kept up the spirit of +the people distant from the war and the camps, by a steady fire of +letters full of touching incidents; and they were repaid not only by the +most generous returns of stores, but by letters from humble homes and +lonely hearts, so full of truth and tenderness, of wisdom and pity, of +self-sacrifice and patriotic consecration, that the most gifted and +educated women in America, many of them at the head of the Branches or +among their Directors, felt constantly reproved by the nobleness, the +sweetness, the depth of sentiment that welled from the hidden and +obscure springs in the hearts of farmers' wives and factory-girls. + +Nor were the talents and the sacrifices of those at the larger Depôts or +Centres, more worthy of notice than the skill and pains evinced in +arousing, maintaining and managing the zeal and work of county or town +societies. Indeed, sometimes larger works are more readily controlled +than smaller ones; and jealousies and individual caprices obstruct the +co-operation of villages more than of towns and cities. + +In the ten thousand Soldiers' Aid Societies which at one time or another +probably existed in the country, there was in each some master-spirit, +whose consecrated purpose was the staple in the wall, from which the +chain of service hung and on whose strength and firmness it steadily +drew. I never visited a single town however obscure, that I did not hear +some woman's name which stood in that community for "Army Service;" a +name round which the rest of the women gladly rallied; the name of some +woman whose heart was felt to beat louder and more firmly than any of +the rest for the boys in blue. + +Of the practical talent, the personal worth, the aptitude for public +service, the love of self-sacrificing duty thus developed and nursed +into power, and brought to the knowledge of its possessors and their +communities, it is difficult to speak too warmly. Thousands of women +learned in this work to despise frivolity, gossip, fashion and idleness; +learned to think soberly and without prejudice of the capacities of +their own sex; and thus, did more to advance the rights of woman by +proving her gifts and her fitness for public duties, than a whole +library of arguments and protests. + +The prodigious exertions put forth by the women who founded and +conducted the great Fairs for the soldiers in a dozen principal cities, +and in many large towns, were only surpassed by the planning skill and +administrative ability which accompanied their progress, and the +marvellous success in which they terminated. Months of anxious +preparation, where hundreds of committees vied with each other in +long-headed schemes for securing the co-operation of the several trades +or industries allotted to each, and during which laborious days and +anxious nights were unintermittingly given to the wearing work, were +followed by weeks of personal service in the fairs themselves, where the +strongest women found their vigor inadequate to the task, and hundreds +laid the foundations of long illness and some of sudden death. These +sacrifices and far-seeing provisions were justly repaid by almost +fabulous returns of money, which to the extent of nearly three millions +of dollars, flowed into the treasury of the United States Sanitary +Commission. The chief women who inaugurated the several great Fairs at +New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. +Louis, and administered these vast movements, were not behind the ablest +men in the land in their grasp and comprehension of the business in +hand, and often in comparison with the men associated with them, +exhibited a finer scope, a better spirit and a more victorious faith. +But for the women of America, the great Fairs would never have been +born, or would have died ignominiously in their gilded cradles. Their +vastness of conception and their splendid results are to be set as an +everlasting crown on woman's capacity for large and money-yielding +enterprises. The women who led them can never sink back into obscurity. + +But I must pass from this inviting theme, where indeed I feel more at +home than in what is to follow, to the consideration of what naturally +occupies a larger space in this work--however much smaller it was in +reality, _i. e._, to the labors of the women who actually went to the +war, and worked in the hospitals and camps. + +Of the labors of women in the hospitals and in the field, this book +gives a far fuller history than is likely to be got from any other +source, as this sort of service cannot be recorded in the histories of +organized work. For, far the largest part of this work was done by +persons of exceptional energy and some fine natural aptitude for the +service, which was independent of organizations, and hardly submitted +itself to any rules except the impulses of devoted love for the +work--supplying tact, patience and resources. The women who did hospital +service continuously, or who kept themselves near the base of armies in +the field, or who moved among the camps, and travelled with the corps, +were an exceptional class--as rare as heroines always are--a class, +representing no social grade, but coming from all--belonging to no rank +or age of life in particular; sometimes young and sometimes old, +sometimes refined and sometimes rude; now of fragile physical aspect and +then of extraordinary robustness--but in all cases, women with a mighty +love and earnestness in their hearts--a love and pity, and an ability to +show it forth and to labor in behalf of it, equal to that which in other +departments of life, distinguishes poets, philosophers, sages and +saints, from ordinary or average men. + +Moved by an indomitable desire to serve in person the victims of wounds +and sickness, a few hundred women, impelled by instincts which assured +them of their ability to endure the hardship, overcome the obstacles, +and adjust themselves to the unusual and unfeminine circumstances in +which they would be placed--made their way through all obstructions at +home, and at the seat of war, or in the hospitals, to the bed-sides of +the sick and wounded men. Many of these women scandalized their friends +at home by what seemed their Quixotic resolution; or, they left their +families under circumstances which involved a romantic oblivion of the +recognized and usual duties of domestic life; they forsook their own +children, to make children of a whole army corps; they risked their +lives in fevered hospitals; they lived in tents or slept in ambulance +wagons, for months together; they fell sick of fevers themselves, and +after long illness, returned to the old business of hospital and field +service. They carried into their work their womanly tenderness, their +copious sympathies, their great-hearted devotion--and had to face and +contend with the cold routine, the semi-savage professional +indifference, which by the necessities of the case, makes ordinary +medical supervision, in time of actual war, impersonal, official, +unsympathetic and abrupt. The honest, natural jealousy felt by +surgeons-in-charge, and their ward masters, of all outside assistance, +made it necessary for every woman, who was to succeed in her purpose of +holding her place, and really serving the men, to study and practice an +address, an adaptation and a patience, of which not one candidate in ten +was capable. Doubtless nine-tenths of all who wished to offer and +thought themselves capable of this service, failed in their practical +efforts. As many women fancied themselves capable of enduring hospital +life, as there are always in every college, youth who believe they can +become distinguished authors, poets and statesmen. But only the few who +had a _genius_ for the work, continued in it, and succeeded in elbowing +room for themselves through the never-ending obstacles, jealousies and +chagrins that beset the service. Every woman who keeps her place in a +general hospital, or a corps hospital, has to prove her title to be +trusted; her tact, discretion, endurance and strength of nerve and +fibre. No one woman succeeded in rendering years of hospital service, +who was not an exceptional person--a woman of larger heart, clearer +head, finer enthusiasm, and more mingled tact, courage, firmness and +holy will--than one in a thousand of her sex. A grander collection of +women--whether considered in their intellectual or their moral +qualities, their heads or their hearts, I have not had the happiness of +knowing, than the women I saw in the hospitals; they were the flower of +their sex. Great as were the labors of those who superintended the +operations at home--of collecting and preparing supplies for the +hospitals and the field, I cannot but think that the women who lived in +the hospitals, or among the soldiers, required a force of character and +a glow of devotion and self-sacrifice, of a rarer kind. They were really +heroines. They conquered their feminine sensibility at the sight of +blood and wounds; their native antipathy to disorder, confusion and +violence; subdued the rebellious delicacy of their more exquisite +senses; lived coarsely, and dressed and slept rudely; they studied the +caprices of men to whom their ties were simply human--men often +ignorant, feeble-minded--out of their senses--raving with pain and +fever; they had a still harder service to bear with the pride, the +official arrogance, the hardness or the folly--perhaps the impertinence +and presumption of half-trained medical men, whom the urgencies of the +case had fastened on the service.[A] Their position was always critical, +equivocal, suspected, and to be justified only by their undeniable and +conspicuous merits;--their wisdom, patience and proven efficiency; +justified by the love and reverence they exacted from the soldiers +themselves! + +[Footnote A: A large number of the United States Army and volunteer +surgeons were indeed men of the highest and most humane character, and +treated the women who came to the hospitals, with careful and scrupulous +consideration. Some women were able to say that they never encountered +opposition or hindrance from any officials; but this was not the rule.] + +True, the rewards of these women were equal to their sacrifices. They +drew their pay from a richer treasury than that of the United States +Government. I never knew one of them who had had a long service, whose +memory of the grateful looks of the dying, of the few awkward words that +fell from the lips of thankful convalescents, or the speechless +eye-following of the dependent soldier, or the pressure of a rough hand, +softened to womanly gentleness by long illness,--was not the sweetest +treasure of all their lives. Nothing in the power of the Nation to give +or to say, can ever compare for a moment with the proud satisfaction +which every brave soldier who risked his life for his country, always +carries in his heart of hearts. And no public recognition, no thanks +from a saved Nation, can ever add anything of much importance to the +rewards of those who tasted the actual joy of ministering with their own +hands and hearts to the wants of one sick and dying man. + +It remains only to say a word about the influence of the work of the +women in the War upon the strength and unanimity of the public +sentiment, and on the courage and fortitude of the army itself. + +The participation by actual work and service in the labors of the War, +not only took out of women's hearts the soreness which unemployed +energies or incongruous pursuits would have left there, but it took out +of their mouths the murmurs and moans which their deserted, husbandless, +childless condition would so naturally have provoked. The women by their +call to work, and the opportunity of pouring their energies, sympathies +and affections into an ever open and practical channel, were quieted, +reconciled, upheld. The weak were borne upon the bosoms of the strong. +Banded together, and working together, their solicitude and uneasiness +were alleviated. Following in imagination the work of their own hands, +they seemed to be present on the field and in the ranks; they studied +the course of the armies; they watched the policy of the Government; +they learned the character of the Generals; they threw themselves into +the war! And so they helped wonderfully to keep up the enthusiasm, or to +rebuke the lukewarmness, or to check the despondency and apathy which at +times settled over the people. Men were ashamed to doubt where women +trusted, or to murmur where they submitted, or to do little where they +did so much. If during the war, home life had gone on as usual; women +engrossed in their domestic or social cares; shrinking from public +questions; deferring to what their husbands or brothers told them, or +seeking to amuse themselves with social pleasures and striving to forget +the painful strife in frivolous caprices, it would have had a fearful +effect on public sentiment, deepening the gloom of every reverse, adding +to the discouragements which an embarrassed commerce and trade brought +to men's hearts, by domestic echoes of weariness of the strife, and +favoring the growth of a disaffected, compromising, unpatriotic feeling, +which always stood ready to break out with any offered encouragement. A +sense of nearness of the people to the Government which the organization +of the women effected, enlarged their sympathies with its movements and +disposed them to patience. Their own direct experience of the +difficulties of all co-operative undertakings, broadened their views and +rendered intelligible the delays and reverses which our national cause +suffered. In short the women of the country were through the whole +conflict, not only not softening the fibres of war, but they were +actually strengthening its sinews by keeping up their own courage and +that of their households, under the inspiration of the larger and more +public life, the broader work and greater field for enterprise and +self-sacrifice afforded them by their direct labors for the benefit of +the soldiers. They drew thousands of lukewarm, or calculating, or +self-saving men into the support of the national cause by their +practical enthusiasm and devotion. They proved what has again and again +been demonstrated, that what the women of a country resolve shall be +done, will and must be done. They shamed recruits into the ranks, and +made it almost impossible for deserters, or cowards, or malingerers to +come home; they emptied the pockets of social idlers, or wealthy drones, +into the treasuries of the Aid Societies; and they compelled the shops +and domestic trade of all cities to be favorable to the war. The +American women were nearer right and more thoroughly united by this +means, and their own healthier instincts, than the American men. The +Army, whose bayonets were glittering needles, advanced with more +unbroken ranks, and exerted almost a greater moral force than the army +that carried loaded muskets. + +The Aid Societies and the direct oversight the women sought to give the +men in the field, very much increased the reason for correspondence +between the homes and the tents. + +The women were proud to write what those at the hearth-stone were doing +for those who tended the camp-fires, and the men were happy and cheery +to acknowledge the support they received from this home sympathy. The +immense correspondence between the army and the homes, prodigious beyond +belief as it was, some regiments sending home a thousand letters a week, +and receiving as many more back; the constant transmission to the men of +newspapers, full of the records of home work and army news, produced a +homogeneousness of feeling between the soldiers and the citizens, which +kept the men in the field, civilians, and made the people at home, of +both sexes, half-soldiers. + +Thus there never grew up in the army any purely military and anti-social +or anti-civil sentiments. The soldiers studied and appreciated all the +time the moral causes of the War, and were acquainted with the political +as well as military complications. They felt all the impulses of home +strengthening their arms and encouraging their hearts. And their letters +home, as a rule, were designed to put the best face upon things, and to +encourage their wives and sweet-hearts, their sisters and parents, to +bear their absence with fortitude, and even with cheerfulness. + +The influence on the tone of their correspondence, exerted by the fact +that the women were always working for the Army, and that the soldiers +always knew they were working, and were always receiving evidence of +their care, may be better imagined than described. It largely ministered +to that sympathetic unity between the soldiers and the country, which +made our army always a corrective and an inspiration to our Governmental +policy, and kept up that fine reciprocal influence between civil and +military life, which gave an heroic fibre to all souls at home, and +finally restored us our soldiers with their citizen hearts beating +regularly under their uniforms, as they dropped them off at the last +drum-tap. + + H. W. B. + + + + +WOMAN'S WORK IN THE CIVIL WAR. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. + + Patriotism in some form, an attribute of woman in all nations and + climes--Its modes of manifestation--Pæans for victory--Lamentations + for the death of a heroic leader--Personal leadership by women--The + assassination of tyrants--The care of the sick and wounded of + national armies--The hospitals established by the Empress Helena-- + The Beguines and their successors--The cantiniéres, vivandiéres, + etc.--Other modes in which women manifested their patriotism-- + Florence Nightingale and her labors--The results--The awakening of + patriotic zeal among American women at the opening of the war--The + organization of philanthropic effort--Hospital nurses--Miss Dix's + rejection of great numbers of applicants on account of youth--Hired + nurses--Their services generally prompted by patriotism rather than + pay--The State relief agents (ladies) at Washington--The hospital + transport system of the Sanitary Commission--Mrs. Harris's, Miss + Barton's, Mrs. Fales', Miss Gilson's, and other ladies' services at + the front during the battles of 1862--Services of other ladies at + Chancellorsville, at Gettysburg--The Field Relief of the Sanitary + Commission, and services of ladies in the later battles--Voluntary + services of women in the armies in the field at the West--Services + in the hospitals, of garrisons and fortified towns--Soldiers' homes + and lodges, and their matrons--Homes for Refugees--Instruction of + the Freedmen--Refreshment Saloons at Philadelphia--Regular visiting + of hospitals in the large cities--The Soldiers' Aid Societies, and + their mode of operation--The extraordinary labors of the managers of + the Branch Societies--Government clothing contracts--Mrs. Springer, + Miss Wormeley and Miss Gilson--The managers of the local Soldiers' + Aid Societies--The sacrifices made by the poor to contribute + supplies--Examples--The labors of the young and the old-- + Inscriptions on articles--The poor seamstress--Five hundred bushels + of wheat--The five dollar gold piece--The army of martyrs--The + effect of this female patriotism in stimulating the courage of the + soldiers--Lack of persistence in this work among the Women of the + South--Present and future--Effect of patriotism and self-sacrifice + in elevating and ennobling the female character. + + +An intense and passionate love of country, holding, for the time, all +other ties in abeyance, has been a not uncommon trait of character among +women of all countries and climes, throughout the ages of human history. +In the nomadic races it assumed the form of attachment to the +patriarchal rules and chiefs of the tribe; in the more savage of the +localized nations, it was reverence for the ruler, coupled with a filial +regard for the resting-places and graves of their ancestors. + +But in the more highly organized and civilized countries, it was the +institutions of the nation, its religion, its sacred traditions, its +history, as well as its kings, its military leaders, and its priests, +that were the objects of the deep and intense patriotic devotion of its +noblest and most gifted women. + +The manifestations of this patriotic zeal were diverse in different +countries, and at different periods in the same country. At one time it +contented itself with triumphal pæans and dances over victories won by +the nation's armies, as in the case of Miriam and the maidens of Israel +at the destruction of the Egyptians at the Red Sea, or the victories of +the armies led by David against the Philistines; or in the most +heart-rending lamentations over the fall of the nation's heroes on the +field of battle, as in the mourning of the Trojan maidens over the death +of Hector; at other times, some brave and heroic spirit, goaded with the +sense of her country's wrongs, girds upon her own fair and tender form, +the armor of proof, and goes forth, the self-constituted but eagerly +welcomed leader of its mailed hosts, to overthrow the nation's foes. We +need only recall Deborah, the avenger of the Israelites against the +oppressions of the King of Canaan; Boadicea, the daring Queen of the +Britons, and in later times, the heroic but hapless maid of Orleans, +Jeanne d'Arc; and in the Hungarian war of 1848, the brave but +unfortunate Countess Teleki, as examples of these female patriots. + +In rare instances, this sense of the nation's sufferings from a tyrant's +oppression, have so wrought upon the sensitive spirit, as to stimulate +it to the determination to achieve the country's freedom by the +assassination of the oppressor. It was thus that Jael brought +deliverance to her country by the murder of Sisera; Judith, by the +assassination of Holofernes; and in modern times, Charlotte Corday +sought the rescue of France from the grasp of the murderous despot, +Marat, by plunging the poniard to his heart. + +A far nobler, though less demonstrative manifestation of patriotic +devotion than either of these, is that which has prompted women in all +ages to become ministering angels to the sick, the suffering, and the +wounded among their countrymen who have periled life and health in the +nation's cause. + +Occasionally, even in the earliest recorded wars of antiquity, we find +high-born maidens administering solace to the wounded heroes on the +field of battle, and attempting to heal their wounds by the appliances +of their rude and simple surgery; but it was only the favorite leaders, +never the common soldier, or the subordinate officer, who received these +gentle attentions. The influence of Christianity, in its earlier +development, tended to expand the sympathies and open the heart of woman +to all gentle and holy influences, and it is recorded that the wounded +Christian soldiers were, where it was possible, nursed and cared for by +those of the same faith, both men and women. + +In the fifth century, the Empress Helena established hospitals for the +sick and wounded soldiers of the empire, on the routes between Rome and +Constantinople, and caused them to be carefully nursed. In the dark ages +that followed, and amid the downfall of the Roman Empire, and the +uprearing of the Gothic kingdoms that succeeded, there was little room +or thought of mercy; but the fair-haired women of the North encouraged +their heroes to deeds of valor, and at times, ministered in their rude +way to their wounds. The monks, at their monasteries, rendered some care +and aid to the wounded in return for their exemption from plunder and +rapine, and in the ninth century, an order of women consecrated to the +work, the Beguines, predecessors of the modern Sisters of Charity, was +established "to minister to the sick and wounded of the armies which +then, and for centuries afterward, scarred the face of continental +Europe with battle-fields." With the Beguines, however, and their +successors, patriotism was not so much the controlling motive of action, +as the attainment of merit by those deeds of charity and self-sacrifice. + +In the wars of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and the early part of the +nineteenth century, while the hospitals had a moderate share of fair +ministrants, chiefly of the religious orders, the only female service on +the battle-field or in the camp, often the scene of fatal epidemics, was +that of the _cantiniéres_, _vivandiéres_, _filles du regiment_, and +other camp followers, who, at some risk of reputation, accompanied the +armies in their march, and brought to the wounded and often dying +soldier, on the field of battle, the draught of water which quenched his +raging thirst, or the cordial, which sustained his fast ebbing strength +till relief could come. Humble of origin, and little circumspect in +morals as many of these women were, they are yet deserving of credit for +the courage and patriotism which led them to brave all the horrors of +death, to relieve the suffering of the wounded of the regiments to which +they were attached. Up to the period of the Crimean war in 1854, though +there had been much that was praiseworthy in the manifestations of +female patriotism in connection with the movements of great armies, +there had never been any systematic ministration, prompted by patriotic +devotion, to the relief of the suffering sick and wounded of those +armies. + +There were yet other modes, however, in which the women of ancient and +modern times manifested their love of their country. The Spartan mother, +who, without a tear, presented her sons with their shields, with the +stern injunction to return with them, or upon them, that is, with honor +untarnished, or dead,--the fair dames and maidens of Carthage, who +divested themselves of their beautiful tresses, to furnish bowstrings +for their soldiers,--the Jewish women who preferred a death of torture, +to the acknowledgment of the power of the tyrant over their country's +rulers, and their faith--the women of the Pays-de Vaud, whose mountain +fastnesses and churches were dearer to them than life--the thousands of +wives and mothers, who in our revolutionary struggle, and in our recent +war, gave up freely at their country's call, their best beloved, +regretting only that they had no more to give; knowing full well, that +in giving them up they condemned themselves to penury and want, to +hard, grinding toil, and privations such as they had never before +experienced, and not improbably to the rending, by the rude vicissitudes +of war, of those ties, dearer than life itself--those who in the +presence of ruffians, capable of any atrocity dared, and in many cases +suffered, a violent death, and indignities worse than death, by their +fearless defense of the cause and flag of their country--and yet again, +those who, in peril of their lives, for the love they bore to their +country, guided hundreds of escaped prisoners, through the regions +haunted by foes, to safety and freedom--all these and many others, whose +deeds of heroism we have not space so much as to name, have shown their +love of country as fully and worthily, as those who in hospital, in camp +or on battle-field have ministered to the battle-scarred hero, or those +who, in all the panoply of war, have led their hosts to the deadly +charge, or the fierce affray of contending armies. + +Florence Nightingale, an English gentlewoman, of high social position +and remarkable executive powers, was the first of her sex, at least +among English-speaking nations, to systematize the patriotic ardor of +her countrywomen, and institute such measures of reform in the care of +sick and wounded soldiers in military hospitals, as should conduce to +the comfort and speedy recovery of their inmates. She had voluntarily +passed through the course of training, required of the hospital nurses +and assistants, in Pastor Fliedner's Deaconess' Institution, at +Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, before she entered upon her great mission in +the hospitals at Scutari. She was ably seconded in her labors by other +ladies of rank from England, who, actuated only by patriotic zeal, gave +themselves to the work of bringing order out of chaos, cheerfulness out +of gloom, cleanliness out of the most revolting filth, and the sunshine +of health out of the lazar house of corruption and death. In this heroic +undertaking they periled their lives, more certainly, than those who +took part in the fierce charge of Balaclava. Some fell victims to their +untiring zeal; others, and Miss Nightingale among the number, were +rendered hopeless invalids for life, by their exertions. + +Fifty years of peace had rendered our nation more entirely unacquainted +with the arts of war, than was Great Britain, when, at the close of +forty years of quiet, she again marshalled her troops in battle array. +But though the transition was sudden from the arts of peace to the din +and tumult of war, and the blunders, both from inexperience and dogged +adherence to routine, were innumerable, the hearts of the people, and +especially the hearts of the gentler sex, were resolutely set upon one +thing; that the citizen soldiers of the nation should be cared for, in +sickness or in health, as the soldiers of no nation had ever been +before. Soldiers' Aid Societies, Sewing Circles for the soldiers, and +Societies for Relief, sprang up simultaneously with the organization of +regiments, in every village, town, and city throughout the North. +Individual benevolence kept pace with organized charity, and the +managers of the freight trains and expresses, running toward Washington, +were in despair at the fearful accumulation of freight for the soldiers, +demanding instant transportation. It was inevitable that there should be +waste and loss in this lavish outpouring; but it was a manifestation of +the patriotic feeling which throbbed in the hearts of the people, and +which, through four years of war, never ceased or diminished aught of +its zeal, or its abundant liberality. It was felt instinctively, that +there would soon be a demand for nurses for the sick and wounded, and +fired by the noble example of Florence Nightingale, though too often +without her practical training, thousands of young, fair, and highly +educated women offered themselves for the work, and strove for +opportunities for their gentle ministry, as in other days they might +have striven for the prizes of fortune. + +Soon order emerged from the chaos of benevolent impulse; the Sanitary +Commission and its affiliated Societies organized and wisely directed +much of the philanthropic effort, which would otherwise have failed of +accomplishing its intended work through misdirection; while other +Commissions, Associations, and skillfully managed personal labors, +supplemented what was lacking in its earlier movements, and ere long the +Christian Commission added intellectual and religious aliment to its +supplies for the wants of the physical man. + +Of the thousands of applicants for the position of Hospital Nurses, the +greater part were rejected promptly by the stern, but experienced lady, +to whom the Government had confided the delicate and responsible duty of +making the selection. The ground of rejection was usually the +youthfulness of the applicants; a sufficient reason, doubtless, in most +cases, since the enthusiasm, mingled in some instances, perhaps, with +romance, which had prompted the offer, would often falter before the +extremely unpoetic realities of a nurse's duties, and the youth and +often frail health of the applicants would soon cause them to give way +under labors which required a mature strength, a firm will, and skill in +all household duties. Yet "to err is human," and it need not surprise +us, as it probably did not Miss Dix, to learn, that in a few instances, +those whom she had refused to commission on account of their +youthfulness, proved in other fields, their possession of the very +highest qualifications for the care of the sick and wounded. Miss Gilson +was one of the most remarkable of these instances; and it reflects no +discredit on Miss Dix's powers of discrimination, that she should not +have discovered, in that girlish face, the indications of those high +abilities, of which their possessor was as yet probably unconscious. The +rejection of so many of these volunteer nurses necessitated the +appointment of many from another class,--young women of culture and +education, but generally from the humbler walks of life, in whose hearts +the fire of patriotism was not less ardent and glowing than in those of +their wealthier sisters. Many of these, though they would have preferred +to perform their labors without fee or reward, were compelled, from the +necessities of those at home, to accept the wholly inadequate pittance +(twelve dollars a month and their food) which was offered them by the +Government, but they served in their several stations with a fidelity, +intelligence, and patient devotion which no money could purchase. The +testimony received from all quarters to the faithfulness and great moral +worth of these nurses, is greatly to their honor. Not one of them, so +far as we can learn, ever disgraced her calling, or gave cause for +reproach. We fear that so general an encomium could not truthfully be +bestowed on all the volunteer nurses. + +But nursing in the hospitals, was only a small part of the work to which +patriotism called American women. There was the collection and +forwarding to the field, there to be distributed by the chaplains, or +some specially appointed agent, of those supplies which the families and +friends of the soldiers so earnestly desired to send to them; socks, +shirts, handkerchiefs, havelocks, and delicacies in the way of food. The +various states had their agents, generally ladies, in Washington, who +performed these duties, during the first two years of the war, while as +yet the Sanitary Commission had not fully organized its system of Field +Relief. In the West, every considerable town furnished its quota of +supplies, and, after every battle, voluntary agents undertook their +distribution. + +During McClellan's peninsular campaign, a Hospital Transport service was +organized in connection with the Sanitary Commission, which numbered +among its members several gentlemen and ladies of high social position, +whose labors in improvising, often from the scantiest possible supplies, +the means of comfort and healing for the fever-stricken and wounded, +resulted in the preservation of hundreds of valuable lives. + +Mrs. John Harris, the devoted and heroic Secretary of the Ladies' Aid +Society of Philadelphia, had already, in the Peninsular campaign, +encountered all the discomforts and annoyances of a life in the camp, to +render what assistance she could to the sick and wounded, while they +were yet in the field or camp hospital. At Cedar Mountain, and in the +subsequent battles of August, in Pope's Campaign, Miss Barton, Mrs. T. +J. Fales, and some others also brought supplies to the field, and +ministered to the wounded, while the shot and shell were crashing around +them, and Antietam had its representatives of the fair sex, angels of +mercy, but for whose tender and judicious ministrations, hundreds and +perhaps thousands would not have seen another morning's light. In the +race for Richmond which followed, Miss Barton's train was hospital and +diet kitchen to the Ninth Corps, and much of the time for the other +Corps also. At Fredericksburg, Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Lee, Mrs. Plummer, Mrs. +Fales, and Miss Barton, and we believe also, Miss Gilson, were all +actively engaged. A part of the same noble company, though not all, were +at Chancellorsville. + +At Gettysburg, Mrs. Harris was present and actively engaged, and as soon +as the battle ceased, a delegation of ladies connected with the Sanitary +Commission toiled most faithfully to alleviate the horrors of war. In +the subsequent battles of the Army of the Potomac, the Field Relief +Corps of the Sanitary Commission with its numerous male and female +collaborators, after, or at the time of all the great battles, the +ladies connected with the Christian Commission and a number of efficient +independent workers, did all in their power to relieve the constantly +swelling tide of human suffering, especially during that period of less +than ninety days, when more than ninety thousand men, wounded, dying, or +dead, covered the battle-fields with their gore. + +In the West, after the battle of Shiloh, and the subsequent engagements +of Buell's campaign, women of the highest social position visited the +battle-field, and encountered its horrors, to minister to those who were +suffering, and bring them relief. Among these, the names of Mrs. Martha +A. Wallace, the widow of General W. H. L. Wallace, who fell in the +battle of Shiloh; of Mrs. Harvey, the widow of Governor Louis Harvey of +Wisconsin, who was drowned while on a mission of philanthropy to the +Wisconsin soldiers wounded at Shiloh; and the sainted Margaret E. +Breckinridge of St. Louis, will be readily recalled. During Grant's +Vicksburg campaign, as well as after Rosecrans' battles of Stone River +and Chickamauga, there were many of these heroic women who braved all +discomforts and difficulties to bring healing and comfort to the gallant +soldiers who had fallen on the field. Mrs. Hoge and Mrs. Livermore, of +Chicago, visited Grant's camp in front of Vicksburg, more than once, and +by their exertions, saved his army from scurvy; Mrs. Porter, Mrs. +Bickerdyke, and several others are deserving of mention for their +untiring zeal both in these and Sherman's Georgian campaigns. Mrs. +Bickerdyke has won undying renown throughout the Western armies as +pre-eminently the friend of the private soldier. + +As our armies, especially in the West and Southwest, won more and more +of the enemy's territory, the important towns of which were immediately +occupied as garrisons, hospital posts, and secondary bases of the +armies, the work of nursing and providing special diet and comfort in +the general hospitals at these posts, which were often of great extent, +involved a vast amount of labor and frequently serious privation, and +personal discomfort on the part of the nurses. Some of these who +volunteered for the work were remarkable for their earnest and faithful +labors in behalf of the soldiers, under circumstances which would have +disheartened any but the most resolute spirits. We may name without +invidiousness among these, Mrs. Colfax, Miss Maertz, Miss Melcenia +Elliott, Miss Parsons, Miss Adams, and Miss Brayton, who, with many +others, perhaps equally faithful, by their constant assiduity in their +duties, have given proof of their ardent love of their country. + +To provide for the great numbers of men discharged from the hospitals +while yet feeble and ill, and without the means of going to their often +distant homes, and the hundreds of enfeebled and mutilated soldiers, +whose days of service were over, and who, often in great bodily +weakness, sought to obtain the pay due them from the Government, and not +unseldom died in the effort; the United States Sanitary Commission and +the Western Sanitary Commission established Soldiers' Homes at +Washington, Cincinnati, Chicago, Louisville, Nashville, St. Louis, +Memphis, Vicksburg, and other places. In these, these disabled men found +food and shelter, medical attendance when needed, assistance in +collecting their dues, and aid in their transportation homeward. To each +of these institutions, a Matron was assigned, often with female +assistants. The duties of these Matrons were extremely arduous, but they +were performed most nobly. To some of these homes were attached a +department for the mothers, wives and daughters of the wounded soldiers, +who had come on to care for them, and who often found themselves, when +ready to return, penniless, and without a shelter. To these, a helping +hand, and a kind welcome, was ever extended. + +To these should be added the Soldiers' Lodges, established at some +temporary stopping-places on the routes to and from the great +battle-fields; places where the soldier, fainting from his wearisome +march, found refreshment, and if sick, shelter and care; and the +wounded, on their distressing journey from the battle-field to the +distant hospitals, received the gentle ministrations of women, to allay +their thirst, relieve their painful positions, and strengthen their +wearied bodies for further journeyings. There were also, in New York, +Boston, and many other of the Northern cities, Soldiers' Homes or +Depots, not generally connected with the Sanitary Commission, in which +invalid soldiers were cared for and their interests protected. In all +these there were efficient and capable Matrons. In the West, there were +also Homes for Refugees, families of poor whites generally though not +always sufferers for their Union sentiments, sent north by the military +commanders from all the States involved in the rebellion. Reduced to the +lowest depths of poverty, often suffering absolute starvation, usually +dirty and of uncleanly habits, in many cases ignorant in the extreme, +and intensely indolent, these poor creatures had often little to +recommend them to the sympathy of their northern friends, save their +common humanity, and their childlike attachment to the Union cause. Yet +on these, women of high culture and refinement, women who, but for the +fire of patriotism which burned in their hearts, would have turned away, +sickened at the mental and moral degradation which seemed proof against +all instruction or tenderness, bestowed their constant and unwearying +care, endeavoring to rouse in them the instinct of neatness and the love +of household duties; instructing their children, and instilling into the +darkened minds of the adults some ideas of religious duty, and some +gleams of intelligence. No mission to the heathen of India, of Tartary, +or of the African coasts, could possibly have been more hopeless and +discouraging; but they triumphed over every obstacle, and in many +instances had the happiness of seeing these poor people restored to +their southern homes, with higher aims, hopes, and aspirations, and with +better habits, and more intelligence, than they had ever before +possessed. + +The camps and settlements of the freedmen were also the objects of +philanthropic care. To these, many highly educated women volunteered to +go, and establishing schools, endeavored to raise these former slaves to +the comprehension of their privileges and duties as free men. The work +was arduous, for though there was a stronger desire for learning, and a +quicker apprehension of religious and moral instruction, among the +freedmen than among the refugees, their slave life had made them fickle, +untruthful, and to some extent, dishonest and unchaste. Yet the faithful +and indefatigable teachers found their labors wonderfully successful, +and accomplished a great amount of good. + +Another and somewhat unique manifestation of the patriotism of our +American women, was the service of the Refreshment Saloons at +Philadelphia. For four years, the women of that portion of Philadelphia +lying in the vicinity of the Navy Yard, responded, by night or by day, +to the signal gun, fired whenever one or more regiments of soldiers were +passing through the city, and hastening to the Volunteer or the Cooper +Shop Refreshment Saloons, spread before the soldiers an ample repast, +and served them with a cordiality and heartiness deserving all praise. +Four hundred thousand soldiers were fed by these willing hands and +generous hearts, and in hospitals connected with both Refreshment +Saloons the sick were tenderly cared for. + +In the large general hospitals of Washington, Philadelphia, New York, +Cincinnati, and St. Louis, in addition to the volunteer and paid nurses, +there were committees of ladies, who, on alternate days, or on single +days of each week, were accustomed to visit the hospitals, bringing +delicacies and luxuries, preparing special dishes for the invalid +soldiers, writing to their friends for them, etc. To this sacred duty, +many women of high social position devoted themselves steadily for +nearly three years, alike amid the summer's heat and the winter's cold, +never failing of visiting the patients, to whom their coming was the +most joyous event of the otherwise gloomy day. + +But these varied forms of manifestation of patriotic zeal would have +been of but little material service to the soldiers, had there not been +behind them, throughout the loyal North, a vast network of organizations +extending to every village and hamlet, for raising money and preparing +and forwarding supplies of whatever was needful for the welfare of the +sick and wounded. We have already alluded to the spontaneity and +universality of these organizations at the beginning of the war. They +were an outgrowth alike of the patriotism and the systematizing +tendencies of the people of the North. It might have been expected that +the zeal which led to their formation would soon have cooled, and, +perhaps, this would have been the case, but for two causes, viz.: that +they very early became parts of more comprehensive organizations +officered by women of untiring energy, and the most exalted patriotic +devotion; and that the events of the war constantly kept alive the zeal +of a few in each society, who spurred on the laggards, and encouraged +the faint-hearted. These Soldiers' Aid Societies, Ladies' Aid +Associations, Alert Clubs, Soldiers' Relief Societies, or by whatever +other name they were called, were usually auxiliary to some Society in +the larger cities, to which their several contributions of money and +supplies were sent, by which their activity and labors were directed, +and which generally forwarded to some central source of supply, their +donations and its own. The United States Sanitary Commission had its +branches, known under various names, as Branch Commissions, General +Soldiers' Aid Societies, Associates, Local Sanitary Commissions, etc., +at Boston, Albany, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Buffalo, Cleveland, +Cincinnati, and Chicago, and three central organizations, the Women's +Central Association of Relief, in New York, the Sanitary Commission, at +Washington, and the Western Depot of Supplies, at Louisville, Kentucky. +Affiliated to these were over twelve thousand local Soldiers' Aid +Societies. The Western Sanitary Commission had but one central +organization, besides its own depot, viz.: The Ladies' Union Aid +Society, of St. Louis, which had a very considerable number of +auxiliaries in Missouri and Iowa. The Christian Commission had its +branches in Boston, New York, Brooklyn, Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincinnati, +Chicago, and St. Louis, and several thousand local organizations +reported to these. Aside from these larger bodies, there were the +Ladies' Aid Association of Philadelphia, with numerous auxiliaries in +Pennsylvania, the Baltimore Ladies' Relief Association, the New England +Soldiers' Relief Association of New York; and during the first two years +of the war, Sanitary Commissions in Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois, and +State Relief Societies in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, New York, and some +of the other States with their representative organizations in +Washington. Several Central Aid Societies having large numbers of +auxiliaries, acted independently for the first two years, but were +eventually merged in the Sanitary Commission. Prominent among these were +the Hartford Ladies' Aid Society, having numerous auxiliaries throughout +Connecticut, the Pittsburg Relief Committee, drawing its supplies from +the circumjacent country, and we believe, also, the Penn Relief Society, +an organization among the Friends of Philadelphia and vicinity. The +supplies for the Volunteer and Cooper Shop Refreshment Saloons of +Philadelphia, were contributed by the citizens of that city and +vicinity. + +When it is remembered, that by these various organizations, a sum +exceeding fifty millions of dollars was raised, during a little more +than four years, for the comfort and welfare of the soldiers, their +families, their widows, and their orphans, we may be certain that there +was a vast amount of work done by them. Of this aggregate of labor, it +is difficult to form any adequate idea. The ladies who were at the head +of the Branch or Central organizations, worked day after day, during the +long and hot days of summer, and the brief but cold ones of winter, as +assiduously and steadily, as any merchant in his counting-house, or the +banker at his desk, and exhibited business abilities, order, foresight, +judgment, and tact, such as are possessed by very few of the most +eminent men of business in the country. The extent of their operations, +too, was in several instances commensurate with that of some of our +merchant princes. Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler and Miss Ellen Collins, of +the Women's Central Association of Relief at New York, received and +disbursed in supplies and money, several millions of dollars in value; +Mrs. Rouse, Miss Mary Clark Brayton, and Miss Ellen F. Terry, of the +Cleveland Soldiers' Aid Society, somewhat more than a million; Miss Abby +May, of Boston, not far from the same amount; Mrs. Hoge, and Mrs. +Livermore, of the N. W. Sanitary Commission, over a million; while Mrs. +Seymour, of Buffalo, Miss Valeria Campbell, of Detroit, Mrs. Colt, of +Milwaukie, Miss Rachel W. McFadden, of Pittsburg, Mrs. Hoadley, and Mrs. +Mendenhall, of Cincinnati, Mrs. Clapp, and Miss H. A. Adams, of the St. +Louis Ladies' Aid Society, Mrs. Joel Jones, and Mrs. John Harris, of the +Philadelphia Ladies' Aid Society, Mrs. Stranahan, and Mrs. Archer, of +Brooklyn, if they did not do quite so large a business, at least +rivaled the merchants of the smaller cities, in the extent of their +disbursements; and when it is considered, that these ladies were not +only the managers and financiers of their transactions, but in most +cases the book-keepers also, we think their right to be regarded as +possessing superior business qualifications will not be questioned. + +But some of these lady managers possessed still other claims to our +respect, for their laborious and self-sacrificing patriotism. It +occurred to several ladies in different sections of the country, as they +ascertained the suffering condition of some of the families of the +soldiers, (the early volunteers, it will be remembered, received no +bounties, or very trifling ones), that if they could secure for them, at +remunerative prices, the making of the soldiers' uniforms, or of the +hospital bedding and clothing, they might thus render them independent +of charity, and capable of self-support. + +Three ladies (and perhaps more), Mrs. Springer, of St. Louis, in behalf +of the Ladies' Aid Society of that city, Miss Katherine P. Wormeley, of +Newport, R. I., and Miss Helen L. Gilson, of Chelsea, Mass., applied to +the Governmental purveyors of clothing, for the purpose of obtaining +this work. There was necessarily considerable difficulty in +accomplishing their purpose. The army of contractors opposed them +strongly, and in the end, these ladies were each obliged to take a +contract of large amount themselves, in order to be able to furnish the +work to the wives and daughters of the soldiers. In St. Louis, the terms +of the contract were somewhat more favorable than at the East, and on +the expiration of one, another was taken up, and about four hundred +women were supplied with remunerative work throughout the whole period +of the war. The terms of the contract necessitated the careful +inspection of the clothing, and the certainty of its being well made, by +the lady contractors; but in point of fact, it was all cut and prepared +for the sewing-women by Mrs. Springer and her associates, who, giving +their services to this work, divided among their employés the entire +sum received for each contract, paying them weekly for their work. The +strong competition at the East, rendered the price paid for the work, +for which contracts were taken by Miss Wormeley and Miss Gilson, less +than at the West, but Miss Gilson, and, we believe, Miss Wormeley also, +raised an additional sum, and paid to the sewing-women more than the +contract price for the work. It required a spirit thoroughly imbued with +patriotism and philanthropy to carry on this work, for the drudgery +connected with it was a severe tax upon the strength of those who +undertook it. In the St. Louis contracts, the officers and managers of +the Ladies' Aid Society, rendered assistance to Mrs. Springer, who had +the matter in charge, so far as they could, but not satisfied with this, +one of their number, the late Mrs. Palmer, spent a portion of every day +in visiting the soldiers' families who were thus employed, and whenever +additional aid was needed, it was cheerfully and promptly bestowed. In +this noble work of Christian charity, Mrs. Palmer overtasked her +physical powers, and after a long illness, she passed from earth, to be +reckoned among that list of noble martyrs, who sacrificed life for the +cause of their country. + +But it was not the managers and leaders of these central associations +alone whose untiring exertions, and patient fidelity to their patriotic +work should excite our admiration and reverence. Though moving in a +smaller circle, and dealing with details rather than aggregates, there +were, in almost every village and town, those whose zeal, energy, and +devotion to their patriotic work, was as worthy of record, and as heroic +in character, as the labors of their sisters in the cities. We cannot +record the names of those thousands of noble women, but their record is +on high, and in the grand assize, their zealous toil to relieve their +suffering brothers, who were fighting or had fought the nation's +battles, will be recognized by Him, who regards every such act of love +and philanthropy as done to Himself. + +Nor are these, alone, among those whose deeds of love and patriotism +are inscribed in the heavenly record. The whole history of the +contributions for relief, is glorified by its abundant instances of +self-sacrifice. The rich gave, often, largely and nobly from their +wealth; but a full moiety of the fifty millions of voluntary gifts, came +from the hard earnings, or patient labors of the poor, often bestowed at +the cost of painful privation. Incidents like the following were of +every-day occurrence, during the later years of the war: In one of the +mountainous countries at the North, in a scattered farming district, +lived a mother and daughters, too poor to obtain by purchase, the +material for making hospital clothing, yet resolved to do something for +the soldier. Twelve miles distant, over the mountain, and accessible +only by a road almost impassable, was the county-town, in which there +was a Relief Association. Borrowing a neighbor's horse, either the +mother or daughters came regularly every fortnight, to procure from this +society, garments to make up for the hospital. They had no money; but +though the care of their few acres of sterile land devolved upon +themselves alone, they could and would find time to work for the +sufferers in the hospitals. At length, curious to know the secret of +such fervor in the cause, one of the managers of the association +addressed them: "You have some relative, a son, or brother, or father, +in the war, I suppose?" "No!" was the reply, "not now; our only brother +fell at Ball's Bluff." "Why then," asked the manager, "do you feel so +deep an interest in this work?" "Our country's cause is the cause of +God, and we would do what we can, for His sake," was the sublime reply. + +Take another example. In that little hamlet on the bleak and barren +hills of New England, far away from the great city or even the populous +village, you will find a mother and daughter living in a humble +dwelling. The husband and father has lain for many years 'neath the sod +in the graveyard on the hill slope; the only son, the hope and joy of +both mother and sister, at the call of duty, gave himself to the service +of his country, and left those whom he loved as his own life, to toil at +home alone. By and bye, at Williamsburg, or Fair Oaks, or in that +terrible retreat to James River, or at Cedar Mountain, it matters not +which, the swift speeding bullet laid him low, and after days, or it may +be weeks of terrible suffering, he gave up his young life on the altar +of his country. The shock was a terrible one to those lone dwellers on +the snowy hills. He was their all, but it was for the cause of Freedom, +of Right, of God; and hushing the wild beating of their hearts they +bestir themselves, in their deep poverty, to do something for the cause +for which their young hero had given his life. It is but little, for +they are sorely straitened; but the mother, though her heart is wrapped +in the darkness of sorrow, saves the expense of mourning apparel, and +the daughter turns her faded dress; the little earnings of both are +carefully hoarded, the pretty chintz curtains which had made their +humble room cheerful, are replaced by paper, and by dint of constant +saving, enough money is raised to purchase the other materials for a +hospital quilt, a pair of socks, and a shirt, to be sent to the Relief +Association, to give comfort to some poor wounded soldier, tossing in +agony in some distant hospital. And this, with but slight variation is +the history of hundreds, and perhaps thousands of the articles sent to +the soldiers' aid societies. + +This fire of patriotic zeal, while it glowed alike in the hearts of the +rich and poor, inflamed the young as well as the old. Little girls, who +had not attained their tenth year, or who had just passed it, denied +themselves the luxuries and toys they had long desired, and toiled with +a patience and perseverance wholly foreign to childish nature, to +procure or make something of value for their country's defenders. On a +pair of socks sent to the Central Association of Relief, was pinned a +paper with this legend: "These stockings were knit by a little girl five +years old, and she is going to knit some more, for mother said it will +help some poor soldier." The official reports of the Women's Soldiers' +Aid Society of Northern Ohio, the Cleveland branch of the Sanitary +Commission, furnish the following incident: "Every Saturday morning +finds Emma Andrews, ten years of age, at the rooms of the Aid Society +with an application for work. Her little basket is soon filled with +pieces of half-worn linen, which, during the week, she cuts into towels +or handkerchiefs; hems, and returns, neatly washed and ironed, at her +next visit. Her busy fingers have already made two hundred and +twenty-nine towels, and the patriotic little girl is still earnestly +engaged in her work." Holidays and half holidays in the country were +devoted by the little ones with great zeal, to the gathering of +blackberries and grapes, for the preparations of cordials and native +wines for the hospitals, and the picking, paring and drying peaches and +apples, which, in their abundance, proved a valuable safeguard against +scurvy, which threatened the destruction or serious weakening of our +armies, more than once. In the cities and large villages the children, +with generous self-denial, gave the money usually expended for fireworks +to purchase onions and pickles for the soldiers, to prevent scurvy. A +hundred thousand dollars, it is said, was thus consecrated, by these +little ones, to this benevolent work. + +In the days of the Sanitary Fairs, hundreds of groups of little girls +held their miniature fairs, stocked for the most part with articles of +their own production, upon the door step, or the walk in front of their +parents' dwellings, or in the wood-shed, or in some vacant room, and the +sums realized from their sales, varying from five to one hundred +dollars, were paid over, without any deduction for expenses, since labor +and attendance were voluntary and the materials a gift, to the +treasuries of the great fairs then in progress. + +Nor were the aged women lacking in patriotic devotion. Such inscriptions +as these were not uncommon. "The fortunate owner of these socks is +secretly informed, that they are the one hundred and ninety-first pair +knit for our brave boys by Mrs. Abner Bartlett, of Medford, Mass., now +aged eighty-five years." + +A barrel of hospital clothing sent from Conway, Mass., contained a pair +of socks knit by a lady ninety-seven years old, who declared herself +ready and anxious to do all she could. A homespun blanket bore the +inscription, "This blanket was carried by Milly Aldrich, who is +ninety-three years old, down hill and up hill, one and a-half miles, to +be given to some soldier." + +A box of lint bore this touching record, "Made in a sick-room where the +sunlight has not entered for nine years, but where God has entered, and +where two sons have bade their mother good-bye, as they have gone out to +the war." + +Every one knows the preciousness of the household linen which has been +for generations an heirloom in a family. Yet in numerous instances, +linen sheets, table-cloths, and napkins, from one hundred and twenty to +two hundred years old, which no money could have purchased, were +dedicated, often by those who had nought else to give, to the service of +the hospital. + +An instance of generous and self-denying patriotism related by Mrs. D. +P. Livermore, of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission, deserves a record +in this connection, as it was one which has had more than one +counterpart elsewhere. "Some two or three months ago, a poor girl, a +seamstress, came to our rooms. 'I do not feel right,' she said, 'that I +am doing nothing for our soldiers in the hospitals, and have resolved to +do _something_ immediately. Which do you prefer--that I should give +money, or buy material and manufacture it into garments?'" + +"You must be guided by your circumstances," was the answer made her; "we +need both money and supplies, and you must do that which is most +convenient for you." + +"I prefer to give you money, if it will do as much good." + +"Very well; then give money, which we need badly, and without which we +cannot do what is most necessary for our brave sick men." + +"Then I will give you the entire earnings of the next two weeks. I'd +give more, but I have to help support my mother who is an invalid. +Generally I make but one vest a day, but I will work earlier and later +these two weeks." In two weeks she came again, the poor sewing girl, +her face radiant with the consciousness of philanthropic intent. Opening +her porte-monnaie, she counted out _nineteen dollars and thirty-seven +cents_. Every penny was earned by the slow needle, and she had stitched +away into the hours of midnight on every one of the working days of the +week. The patriotism which leads to such sacrifices as these, is not +less deserving of honor than that which finds scope for its energies in +ministering to the wounded on the battle-field or in the crowded wards +of a hospital. + +Two other offerings inspired by the true spirit of earnest and active +philanthropy, related by the same lady, deserve a place here. + +"Some farmers' wives in the north of Wisconsin, eighteen miles from a +railroad, had given to the Commission of their bed and table linen, +their husbands' shirts and drawers, their scanty supply of dried and +canned fruits, till they had exhausted their ability to do more in this +direction. Still they were not satisfied. So they cast about to see what +could be done in another way. They were all the wives of small farmers, +lately moved to the West, all living in log cabins, where one room +sufficed for kitchen, parlor, laundry, nursery and bed-room, doing their +own house-work, sewing, baby-tending, dairy-work, and all. What _could_ +they do? + +"They were not long in devising a way to gratify the longings of their +motherly and patriotic hearts, and instantly set about carrying it into +action. They resolved to beg wheat of the neighboring farmers, and +convert it into money. Sometimes on foot, and sometimes with a team, +amid the snows and mud of early spring, they canvassed the country for +twenty and twenty-five miles around, everywhere eloquently pleading the +needs of the blue-coated soldier boys in the hospitals, the eloquence +everywhere acting as an _open sesame_ to the granaries. Now they +obtained a little from a rich man, and then a great deal from a poor +man--deeds of benevolence are half the time in an inverse ratio to the +ability of the benefactors--till they had accumulated nearly five +hundred bushels of wheat. This they sent to market, obtained the highest +market price for it, and forwarded the proceeds to the Commission. As we +held this hard-earned money in our hands, we felt that it was +consecrated, that the holy purpose and resolution of these noble women +had imparted a sacredness to it." + +Very beautiful is the following incident, narrated by the same lady, of +a little girl, one of thousands of the little ones, who have, during the +war, given up precious and valued keepsakes to aid in ministering to the +sick and wounded soldiers. "A little girl not nine years old, with sweet +and timid grace, came into the rooms of the Commission, and laying a +five dollar gold-piece on our desk, half frightened, told us its +history. 'My uncle gave me that before the war, and I was going to keep +it always; but he's got killed in the army, and mother says now I may +give it to the soldiers if I want to--and I'd like to do so. I don't +suppose it will buy much for them, will it?'" We led the child to the +store-room, and proceeded to show her how valuable her gift was, by +pointing out what it would buy--so many cans of condensed milk, or so +many bottles of ale, or pounds of tea, or codfish, etc. Her face +brightened with pleasure. But when we explained to her that her five +dollar gold-piece was equal to seven dollars and a half in greenbacks, +and told her how much comfort we had been enabled to carry into a +hospital, with as small an amount of stores as that sum would purchase, +she fairly danced with joy. + +"Oh, it will do lots of good, won't it?" And folding her hands before +her, she begged, in her charmingly modest way, "Please tell me something +that you've seen in the hospitals?" A narrative of a few touching +events, not such as would too severely shock the little creature, but +which plainly showed the necessity of continued benevolence to the +hospitals, filled her sweet eyes with tears, and drew from her the +resolution, "to save all her money, and to get all the girls to do so, +to buy things for the wounded soldiers." + +Innumerable have been the methods by which the loyalty and patriotism of +our countrywomen have manifested themselves; no memorial can ever record +the thousandth part of their labors, their toils, or their sacrifices; +sacrifices which, in so many instances, comprehended the life of the +earnest and faithful worker. A grateful nation and a still more grateful +army will ever hold in remembrance, such martyrs as Margaret +Breckinridge, Anna M. Ross, Arabella Griffith Barlow, Mrs. Howland, Mrs. +Plummer, Mrs. Mary E. Palmer, Mrs. S. C. Pomeroy, Mrs. C. M. Kirkland, +Mrs. David Dudley Field, and Sweet Jenny Wade, of Gettysburg, as well as +many others, who, though less widely known, laid down their lives as +truly for the cause of their country; and their names should be +inscribed upon the ever during granite, for they were indeed the most +heroic spirits of the war, and to them, belong its unfading laurels and +its golden crowns. + +And yet, we are sometimes inclined to hesitate in our estimate of the +comparative magnitude of the sacrifices laid upon the Nation's altar; +not in regard to these, for she who gave her life, as well as her +services, to the Nation's cause, gave all she had to give; but in +reference to the others, who, though serving the cause faithfully in +their various ways, yet returned unscathed to their homes. Great and +noble as were the sacrifices made by these women, and fitted as they +were to call forth our admiration, were they after all, equal to those +of the mothers, sisters, and daughters, who, though not without tears, +yet calmly, and with hearts burning with the fire of patriotism, +willingly, gave up their best beloved to fight for the cause of their +country and their God? A sister might give up an only brother, the +playmate of her childhood, her pride, and her hope; a daughter might bid +adieu to a father dearly beloved, whose care and guidance she still +needs and will continue to need. A mother might, perchance, relinquish +her only son, he on whom she had hoped to lean, as the strong staff and +the beautiful rod of her old age; all this might be, with sorrow indeed, +and a deep and abiding sense of loneliness, not to be relieved, except +by the return of that father, brother, or son. But the wife, who, fully +worthy of that holy name, gave the parting hand to a husband who was +dearer, infinitely dearer to her than father, son, or brother, and saw +him go forth to the battle-field, where severe wounds or sudden and +terrible death, were almost certainly to be his portion, sacrificed in +that one act all but life, for she relinquished all that made life +blissful. Yet even in this holocaust there were degrees, gradations of +sacrifice. The wife of the officer might, perchance, have occasion to +see how her husband was honored and advanced for his bravery and good +conduct, and while he was spared, she was not likely to suffer the pangs +of poverty. In these particulars, how much more sad was the condition of +the wife of the private soldier, especially in the earlier years of the +war. To her, except the letters often long delayed or captured on their +route, there were no tidings of her husband, except in the lists of the +wounded or the slain; and her home, often one of refinement and taste, +was not only saddened by the absence of him who was its chief joy, but +often stripped of its best belongings, to help out the scanty pittance +which rewarded her own severe toil, in furnishing food and clothing for +herself and her little ones. Cruel, grinding poverty, was too often the +portion of these poor women. At the West, women tenderly and carefully +reared, were compelled to undertake the rude labors of the field, to +provide bread for their families. And when, to so many of these poor +women who had thus struggled with poverty, and the depressing influences +of loneliness and weariness, there came the sad intelligence, that the +husband so dearly loved, was among the slain, or that he had been +captured and consigned to death by starvation and slow torture at +Andersonville, where even now he might be filling an unknown grave, what +wonder is it that in numerous cases the burden was too heavy for the +wearied spirit, and insanity supervened, or the broken heart found rest +and reunion with the loved and lost in the grave. + +Yet in many instances, the heart that seemed nigh to breaking, found +solace in its sorrow, in ministering directly or indirectly to the +wounded soldier, and forgetting its own misery, brought to other hearts +and homes consolation and peace. This seems to us the loftiest and most +divine of all the manifestations of the heroic spirit; it is nearest +akin in its character to the conduct of Him, who while "he was a man of +sorrows and acquainted with grief," yet found the opportunity, with his +infinite tenderness and compassion, to assuage every sorrow and soothe +every grief but his own. + +The effect of this patriotic zeal and fervor on the part of the wives, +mothers, sisters, and daughters of the loyal North, in stimulating and +encouraging the soldiers to heroic deeds, was remarkable. Napoleon +sought to awaken the enthusiasm and love of fame of his troops in Egypt, +by that spirit-stirring word, "Soldiers, from the height of yonder +pyramids forty centuries look down upon you." But to the soldier +fighting the battles of freedom, the thought that in every hamlet and +village of the loyal North, patriotic women were toiling and watching +for his welfare, and that they were ready to cheer and encourage him in +the darkest hour, to medicine his wounds, and minister to his sickness +and sorrows in the camp, on the battle-field, or in the hospital wards, +was a far more grateful and inspiring sentiment, than the mythical watch +and ward of the spectral hosts of a hundred centuries of the dead past. + +The loyal soldier felt that he was fighting, so to speak, under the very +eyes of his countrywomen, and he was prompted to higher deeds of daring +and valor by the thought. In the smoke and flame of battle, he bore, or +followed the flag, made and consecrated by female hands to his country's +service; many of the articles which contributed to his comfort, and +strengthened his good right arm, and inspirited his heart for the day of +battle were the products of the toil and the gifts of his countrywomen; +and he knew right well, that if he should fall in the fierce conflict, +the gentle ministrations of woman would be called in requisition, to +bind up his wounds, to cool his fevered brow, to minister to his fickle +or failing appetite, to soothe his sorrows, to communicate with his +friends, and if death came to close his eyes, and comfort, so far as +might be those who had loved him. This knowledge strengthened him in the +conflict, and enabled him to strike more boldly and vigorously for +freedom, until the time came when the foe, dispirited and exhausted, +yielded up his last vantage ground, and the war was over. + +The Rebel soldiers were not thus sustained by home influences. At first, +indeed, Aid Societies were formed all over the South, and supplies +forwarded to their armies; but in the course of a year, the zeal of the +Southern ladies cooled, and they contented themselves with waving their +handkerchiefs to the soldiers, instead of providing for their wants; and +thenceforward, to the end of the war, though there were no rebels so +bitter and hearty in their expressions of hostility to the North, as the +great mass of Southern women, it was a matter of constant complaint in +the Rebel armies, that their women did nothing for their comfort. The +complaint was doubtless exaggerated, for in their hospitals there were +some women of high station who did minister to the wounded, but after +the first year, the gifts and sacrifices of Southern women to their army +and hospitals, were not the hundredth, hardly the thousandth part of +those of the women of the North to their countrymen. + +A still more remarkable result of this wide-spread movement among the +women of the North, was its effect upon the sex themselves. Fifty years +of peace had made us, if not "a nation of shop-keepers," at least a +people given to value too highly, the pomp and show of material wealth, +and our women were as a class, the younger women especially, devoting to +frivolous pursuits, society, gaiety and display, the gifts wherewith God +had endowed them most bountifully. The war, and the benevolence and +patriotism which it evoked, changed all this. The gay and thoughtless +belle, the accomplished and beautiful leader of society, awoke at once +to a new life. The soul of whose existence she had been almost as +unconscious as Fouqué's Undine, began to assert its powers, and the gay +and fashionable woman, no longer ennuyéd by the emptiness and frivolity +of life, found her thoughts and hands alike fully occupied, and rose +into a sphere of life and action, of which, a month before, she would +have considered herself incapable. + +Saratoga and Newport, and the other haunts of fashion were not indeed +deserted, but the visitors there were mostly new faces, the wives and +daughters of those who had grown rich through the contracts and +vicissitudes of the war, while their old habitués were toiling amid the +summer's heat to provide supplies for the hospitals, superintending +sanitary fairs, or watching and aiding the sick and wounded soldiers in +the hospitals, or at the front of the army. In these labors of love, +many a fair face grew pale, many a light dancing step became slow and +feeble, and ever and anon the light went out of eyes, that but a little +while before had flashed and glowed in conscious beauty and pride. But +though the cheeks might grow pale, the step feeble, and the eyes dim, +there was a holier and more transcendent beauty about them than in their +gayest hours. "We looked daily," says one who was herself a participant +in this blessed work, in speaking of one who, after years of +self-sacrificing devotion, at last laid down her young life in patriotic +toil, "we looked daily to see the halo surround her head, for it seemed +as if God would not suffer so pure and saintly a soul to walk the earth +without a visible manifestation of his love for her." Work so ennobling, +not only elevated and etherealized the mind and soul, but it glorified +the body, and many times it shed a glory and beauty over the plainest +faces, somewhat akin to that which transfigured the Jewish lawgiver, +when he came down from the Mount. But it has done more than this. The +soul once ennobled by participation in a great and glorious work, can +never again be satisfied to come down to the heartlessness, the +frivolities, the petty jealousies, and littlenesses of a life of +fashion. Its aspirations and sympathies lie otherwheres, and it must +seek in some sphere of humanitarian activity or Christian usefulness, +for work that will gratify its longings. + +How pitiful and mean must the brightest of earth's gay assemblages +appear, to her who, day after day, has held converse with the souls of +the departing, as they plumed their wings for the flight heavenward, and +accompanying them in their upward journey so far as mortals may, has +been privileged with some glimpse through the opening gates of pearl, +into the golden streets of the city of our God! + +With such experiences, and a discipline so purifying and ennobling, we +can but anticipate a still higher and holier future, for the women of +our time. To them, we must look for the advancement of all noble and +philanthropic enterprises; the lifting vagrant and wayward childhood +from the paths of ruin; the universal diffusion of education and +culture; the succor and elevation of the poor, the weak, and the +down-trodden; the rescue and reformation of the fallen sisterhood; the +improvement of hospitals and the care of the sick; the reclamation of +prisoners, especially in female prisons; and in general, the genial +ministrations of refined and cultured womanhood, wherever these +ministrations can bring calmness, peace and comfort. Wherever there is +sorrow, suffering, or sin, in our own or in other lands, these +heaven-appointed Sisters of Charity will find their mission and their +work. + +Glorious indeed will be the results of such labors of love and Christian +charity. Society will be purified and elevated; giant evils which have +so long thwarted human progress, overthrown; the strongholds of sin, +captured and destroyed by the might of truth, and the "new earth wherein +dwelleth righteousness," so long foretold by patriarch, prophet, and +apostle, become a welcome and enduring reality. + +And they who have wrought this good work, as, one after another, they +lay down the garments of their earthly toil to assume the glistening +robes of the angels, shall find, as did Enoch of old, that those who +walk with God, shall be spared the agonies of death and translated +peacefully and joyfully to the mansions of their heavenly home, while +waiting choirs of the blessed ones shall hail their advent to the +transcendent glories of the world above. + + + + +PART I. + + +SUPERINTENDENT OF NURSES. + + + + +DOROTHEA L. DIX + + +Among all the women who devoted themselves with untiring energy, and +gave talents of the highest order to the work of caring for our soldiers +during the war, the name of Dorothea L. Dix will always take the first +rank, and history will undoubtedly preserve it long after all others +have sunk into oblivion. This her extraordinary and exceptional official +position will secure. Others have doubtless done as excellent a work, +and earned a praise equal to her own, but her relations to the +government will insure her historical mention and remembrance, while +none will doubt the sincerity of her patriotism, or the faithfulness of +her devotion. + +Dorothea L. Dix is a native of Worcester, Mass. Her father was a +physician, who died while she was as yet young, leaving her almost +without pecuniary resources. + +Soon after this event, she proceeded to Boston, where she opened a +select school for young ladies, from the income of which she was enabled +to draw a comfortable support. + +One day during her residence in Boston, while passing along a street, +she accidentally overheard two gentlemen, who were walking before her, +conversing about the state prison at Charlestown, and expressing their +sorrow at the neglected condition of the convicts. They were undoubtedly +of that class of philanthropists who believe that no man, however vile, +is _all_ bad, but, though sunk into the lowest depths of vice, has yet +in his soul some white spot which the taint has not reached, but which +some kind hand may reach, and some kind heart may touch. + +Be that as it may, their remarks found an answering chord in the heart +of Miss Dix. She was powerfully affected and impressed, so much so, that +she obtained no rest until she had herself visited the prison, and +learned that in what she had heard there was no exaggeration. She found +great suffering, and great need of reform. + +Energetic of character, and kindly of heart, she at once lent herself to +the work of elevating and instructing the degraded and suffering classes +she found there, and becoming deeply interested in the welfare of these +unfortunates, she continued to employ herself in labors pertaining to +this field of reform, until the year 1834. + +At that time her health becoming greatly impaired, she gave up her +school and embarked for Europe. Shortly before this period, she had +inherited from a relative sufficient property to render her independent +of daily exertion for support, and to enable her to carry out any plans +of charitable work which she should form. Like all persons firmly fixed +in an idea which commends itself alike to the judgment and the impulses, +she was very tenacious of her opinions relating to it, and impatient of +opposition. It is said that from this cause she did not always meet the +respect and attention which the important objects to which she was +devoting her life would seem to merit. That she found friends and +helpers however at home and abroad, is undoubtedly true. + +She remained abroad until the year 1837, when returning to her native +country she devoted herself to the investigation of the condition of +paupers, lunatics and prisoners. In this work she was warmly aided and +encouraged by her friend and pastor the Rev. Dr. Channing, of whose +children she had been governess, as well as by many other persons whose +hearts beat a chord responsive to that long since awakened in her own. + +Since 1841 until the breaking out of the late war, Miss Dix devoted +herself to the great work which she accepted as the special mission of +her life. In pursuance of it, she, during that time, is said to have +visited every State of the Union east of the Rocky Mountains, examining +prisons, poor-houses, lunatic asylums, and endeavoring to persuade +legislatures and influential individuals to take measures for the relief +of the poor and wretched. + +Her exertions contributed greatly to the foundation of State lunatic +asylums in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Illinois, +Louisiana and North Carolina. She presented a memorial to Congress +during the Session of 1848-9, asking an appropriation of five hundred +thousand acres of the public lands to endow hospitals for the indigent +insane. + +This measure failed, but, not discouraged, she renewed the appeal in +1850 asking for ten millions of acres. The Committee of the House to +whom the memorial was referred, made a favorable report, and a bill such +as she asked for passed the House, but failed in the Senate for want of +time. In April, 1854, however, her unwearied exertions were rewarded by +the passage of a bill by both houses, appropriating ten millions of +acres to the several States for the relief of the indigent insane. But +this bill was vetoed by President Pierce, chiefly on the ground that the +General Government had no constitutional power to make such +appropriations. + +Miss Dix was thus unexpectedly checked and deeply disappointed in the +immediate accomplishment of this branch of the great work of benevolence +to which she had more particularly devoted herself. + +From that time she seems to have given herself, with added zeal, to her +labors for the insane. This class so helpless, and so innocently +suffering, seem to have always been, and more particularly during the +later years of her work, peculiarly the object of her sympathies and +labors. In the prosecution of these labors she made another voyage to +Europe in 1858 or '59, and continued to pursue them with indefatigable +zeal and devotion. + +The labors of Miss Dix for the insane were continued without +intermission until the occurrence of those startling events which at +once turned into other and new channels nearly all the industries and +philanthropies of our nation. With many a premonition, and many a +muttering of the coming storm, unheeded, our people, inured to peace, +continued unappalled in their quiet pursuits. But while the actual +commencement of active hostilities called thousands of men to arms, from +the monotony of mechanical, agricultural and commercial pursuits and the +professions, it changed as well the thoughts and avocations of those who +were not to enter the ranks of the military. + +And not to men alone did these changes come. Not they alone were filled +with a new fire of patriotism, and a quickened devotion to the interests +of our nation. Scarcely had the ear ceased thrilling with the tidings +that our country was indeed the theatre of civil war, when women as well +as men began to inquire if there were not for them some part to be +played in this great drama. + +Almost, if not quite the first among these was Miss Dix. Self-reliant, +accustomed to rapid and independent action, conscious of her ability for +usefulness, with her to resolve was to act. Scarcely had the first +regiments gone forward to the defense of our menaced capital, when she +followed, full of a patriotic desire to _offer_ to her country whatever +service a woman could perform in this hour of its need, and determined +that it should be given. + +She passed through Baltimore shortly after that fair city had covered +itself with the indelible disgrace of the 16th of April, 1861, and on +her arrival at Washington, the first labor she offered on her country's +altar, was the nursing of some wounded soldiers, victims of the +Baltimore mob. Thus was she earliest in the field. + +Washington became a great camp. Every one was willing, nay anxious, to +be useful and employed. Military hospitals were hastily organized. +There were many sick, but few skilful nurses. The opening of the +rebellion had not found the government, nor the loyal people prepared +for it. All was confusion, want of discipline, and disorder. Organizing +minds, persons of executive ability, _leaders_, were wanted. + +The services of women could be made available in the hospitals. They +were needed as nurses, but it was equally necessary that some one should +decide upon their qualifications for the task, and direct their efforts. + +Miss Dix was present in Washington. Her ability, long experience in +public institutions and high character were well known. Scores of +persons of influence, from all parts of the country, could vouch for +her, and she had already offered her services to the authorities for any +work in which they could be made available. + +Her selection for the important post of Superintendent of Female Nurses, +by Secretary Cameron, then at the head of the War Department, on the +10th of June, 1861, commanded universal approbation. + +This at once opened for her a wide and most important field of duty and +labor. Except hospital matrons,[B] all women regularly employed in the +hospitals, and entitled to pay from the Government, were appointed by +her. An examination of the qualifications of each applicant was made. A +woman must be mature in years, plain almost to homeliness in dress, and +by no means liberally endowed with personal attractions, if she hoped to +meet the approval of Miss Dix. Good health and an unexceptionable moral +character were always insisted on. As the war progressed, the +applications were numerous, and the need of this kind of service great, +but the rigid scrutiny first adopted by Miss Dix continued, and many +were rejected who did not in all respects possess the qualifications +which she had fixed as her standard. Some of these women, who in other +branches of the service, and under other auspices, became eminently +useful, were rejected on account of their youth; while some, alas! were +received, who afterwards proved themselves quite unfit for the position, +and a disgrace to their sex. + +[Footnote B: In many instances she appointed these also.] + +But in these matters no blame can attach to Miss Dix. In the first +instance she acted no doubt from the dictates of a sound and mature +judgment; and in the last was often deceived by false testimonials, by a +specious appearance, or by applicants who, innocent at the time, were +not proof against the temptations and allurements of a position which +all must admit to be peculiarly exposed and unsafe. + +Besides the appointment of nurses the position of Miss Dix imposed upon +her numerous and onerous duties. She visited hospitals, far and near, +inquiring into the wants of their occupants, in all cases where +possible, supplementing the Government stores by those with which she +was always supplied by private benevolence, or from public sources; she +adjusted disputes, and settled difficulties in which her nurses were +concerned; and in every way showed her true and untiring devotion to her +country, and its suffering defenders. She undertook long journeys by +land and by water, and seemed ubiquitous, for she was seldom missed from +her office in Washington, yet was often seen elsewhere, and always bent +upon the same fixed and earnest purpose. We cannot, perhaps, better +describe the personal appearance of Miss Dix, and give an idea of her +varied duties and many sacrifices, than by transcribing the following +extract from the printed correspondence of a lady, herself an active and +most efficient laborer in the same general field of effort, and holding +an important position in the Northwestern Sanitary Commission. + +"It was Sunday morning when we arrived in Washington, and as the +Sanitary Commission held no meeting that day, we decided after breakfast +to pay a visit to Miss Dix. + +"We fortunately found the good lady at home, but just ready to start for +the hospitals. She is slight and delicate looking, and seems physically +inadequate to the work she is engaged in. In her youth she must have +possessed considerable beauty, and she is still very comely, with a soft +and musical voice, graceful figure, and very winning manners. Secretary +Cameron vested her with sole power to appoint female nurses in the +hospitals. Secretary Stanton, on succeeding him ratified the +appointment, and she has installed several hundreds of nurses in this +noble work--all of them Protestants, and middle-aged. Miss Dix's whole +soul is in this work. She rents two large houses, which are depots for +sanitary supplies sent to her care, and houses of rest and refreshment +for nurses and convalescent soldiers, employs two secretaries, owns +ambulances and keeps them busily employed, prints and distributes +circulars, goes hither and thither from one remote point to another in +her visitations of hospitals,--and pays all the expenses incurred from +her private purse. Her fortune, time and strength are laid on the altar +of the country in this hour of trial. + +"Unfortunately, many of the surgeons in the hospitals do not work +harmoniously with Miss Dix. They are jealous of her power, impatient of +her authority, find fault with her nurses, and accuse her of being +arbitrary, opinionated, severe and capricious. Many to rid themselves of +her entirely, have obtained permission of Surgeon-General Hammond to +employ Sisters of Charity in their hospitals, a proceeding not to Miss +Dix's liking. Knowing by observation that many of the surgeons are +wholly unfit for their office, that too often they fail to bring skill, +morality, or humanity to their work, we could easily understand how this +single-hearted, devoted, tireless friend of the sick and wounded soldier +would come in collision with these laggards, and we liked her none the +less for it." + +Though Miss Dix received no salary, devoting to the work her time and +labors without remuneration, a large amount of supplies were placed in +her hands, both by the Government and from private sources, which she +was always ready to dispense with judgment and caution, it is true, but +with a pleasant earnestness alike grateful to the recipient of the +kindness, or to the agent who acted in her stead in this work of mercy. + +It was perhaps unfortunate for Miss Dix that at the time when she +received her appointment it was so unprecedented, and the entire service +was still in such a chaotic state, that it was simply impossible to +define her duties or her authority. As, therefore, no plan of action or +rules were adopted, she was forced to abide exclusively by her own ideas +of need and authority. In a letter to the writer, from an official +source, her position and the changes that became necessary are thus +explained: + +"The appointment of nurses was regulated by her ideas of their +prospective usefulness, good moral character being an absolute +prerequisite. This absence of system, and independence of action, worked +so very unsatisfactorily, that in October, 1863, a General Order was +issued placing the assignment, or employment of female nurses, +exclusively under control of Medical Officers, and limiting the +superintendency to a 'certificate of approval,' without which no woman +nurse could be employed, except by order of the Surgeon-General. This +materially reduced the number of appointments, secured the muster and +pay of those in service, and established discipline and order." + +The following is the General Order above alluded to. + + GENERAL ORDERS, NO. 351. + + WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, WASHINGTON, + _October 29, 1863_. + + The employment of women nurses in the United States General + Hospitals will in future be strictly governed by the following + rules: + + 1. Persons approved by Miss Dix, or her authorized agents, will + receive from her, or them, "certificates of approval," which must be + countersigned by Medical Directors upon their assignment to duty as + nurses within their Departments. + + 2. Assignments of "women nurses" to duty in General Hospitals will + only be made upon application by the Surgeons in charge, through + Medical Directors, to Miss Dix or her agents, for the number they + require, not exceeding one to every thirty beds. + + 3. No females, except Hospital Matrons, will be employed in General + Hospitals, or, after December 31, 1863, born upon the Muster and Pay + Rolls, without such certificates of approval and regular assignment, + unless specially appointed by the Surgeon-General. + + 4. Women nurses, while on duty in General Hospitals, are under the + exclusive control of the senior medical officer, who will direct + their several duties, and may be discharged by him when considered + supernumerary, or for incompetency, insubordination, or violation of + his orders. Such discharge, with the reasons therefor, being + endorsed upon the certificate, will be at once returned to Miss Dix. + + BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: + + E. D. TOWNSEND, + _Assistant Adjutant-General_. + + OFFICIAL: + +By this Order the authority of Miss Dix was better defined, but she +continued to labor under the same difficulty which had from the first +clogged her efforts. Authority had been bestowed upon her, but not the +power to enforce obedience. There was no penalty for disobedience, and +persons disaffected, forgetful, or idle, might refuse or neglect to obey +with impunity. It will at once be seen that this fact must have resulted +disastrously upon her efforts. She doubtless had enemies (as who has +not)? and some were jealous of the power and prominence of her position, +while many might even feel unwilling, under any circumstances, to +acknowledge, and yield to the authority of a woman. Added to this she +had, in some cases, and probably without any fault on her part, failed +to secure the confidence and respect of the surgeons in charge of +hospitals. In these facts lay the sources of trials, discouragements, +and difficulties, all to be met, struggled with, and, if possible, +triumphed over by a woman, standing quite alone in a most responsible, +laborious, and exceptional position. It indeed seems most +wonderful--almost miraculous--that under such circumstances, such a vast +amount of good was accomplished. Had she not accomplished half so much, +she still would richly have deserved that highest of plaudits--Well done +good and faithful servant! + +Miss Dix has one remarkable peculiarity--undoubtedly remarkable in one +of her sex which is said, and with truth--to possess great +approbativeness. She does not apparently desire fame, she does not enjoy +being talked about, even in praise. The approval of her own conscience, +the consciousness of performing an unique and useful work, seems quite +to suffice her. Few women are so self-reliant, self-sustained, +self-centered. And in saying this we but echo the sentiments, if not the +words, of an eminent divine who, like herself, was during the whole war +devoted to a work similar in its purpose, and alike responsible and +arduous. + +"She (Miss Dix) is a lady who likes to do things and not have them +talked about. She is freer from the love of public reputation than any +woman I know. Then her plans are so strictly her own, and always so +wholly controlled by her own individual genius and power, that they +cannot well be participated in by others, and not much understood. + +"Miss Dix, I suspect, was as early _in_, as _long_ employed, and as +self-sacrificing as any woman who offered her services to the country. +She gave herself--body, soul and substance--to the good work. I wish we +had any record of her work, but we have not. + +"I should not dare to speak for her--about her work--except to say that +it was extended, patient and persistent beyond anything I know of, +dependent on a single-handed effort." + +All the testimony goes to show that Miss Dix is a woman endowed with +warm feelings and great kindness of heart. It is only those who do not +know her, or who have only met her in the conflict of opposing wills, +who pronounce her, as some have done, a cold and heartless egotist. +Opinionated she may be, because convinced of the general soundness of +her ideas, and infallibility of her judgment. If the success of great +designs, undertaken and carried through single-handed, furnish warrant +for such conviction, she has an undoubted right to hold it. + +Her nature is large and generous, yet with no room for narrow grudges, +or mean reservations. As a proof of this, her stores were as readily +dispensed for the use of a hospital in which the surgeon refused and +rejected her nurses, as for those who employed them. + +She had the kindest care and oversight over the women she had +commissioned. She wished them to embrace every opportunity for the rest +and refreshment rendered necessary by their arduous labors. A home for +them was established by her in Washington, which at all times opened its +doors for their reception, and where she wished them to enjoy that +perfect quiet and freedom from care, during their occasional sojourns, +which were the best remedies for their weariness and exhaustion of body +and soul. + +In her more youthful days Miss Dix devoted herself considerably to +literary pursuits. She has published several works anonymously--the +first of which--"The Garland of Flora," was published in Boston in 1829. +This was succeeded by a number of books for children, among which were +"Conversations about Common Things," "Alice and Ruth," and "Evening +Hours." She has also published a variety of tracts for prisoners, and +has written many memorials to legislative bodies on the subject of the +foundation and conducting of Lunatic Asylums. + +Miss Dix is gifted with a singularly gentle and persuasive voice, and +her manners are said to exert a remarkably controlling influence over +the fiercest maniacs. + +She is exceedingly quiet and retiring in her deportment, delicate and +refined in manner, with great sweetness of expression. She is far from +realizing the popular idea of the strong-minded woman--loud, boisterous +and uncouth, claiming as a right, what might, perhaps, be more readily +obtained as a courteous concession. On the contrary, her successes with +legislatures and individuals, are obtained by the mildest efforts, which +yet lack nothing of persistence; and few persons beholding this delicate +and retiring woman would imagine they saw in her the champion of the +oppressed and suffering classes. + +Miss Dix regards her army work but as an episode in her career. She did +what she could, and with her devotion of self and high patriotism she +would have done no less. She pursued her labors to the end, and her +position was not resigned until many months after the close of the war. +In fact, she tarried in Washington to finish many an uncompleted task, +for some time after her office had been abolished. + +When all was done she returned at once to that which she considers her +life's work, the amelioration of the condition of the insane. + +A large portion of the winter of 1865-6 was devoted to an attempt to +induce the Legislature of New York to make better provision for the +insane of that State, and to procure, or erect for them, several asylums +of small size where a limited number under the care of experienced +physicians, might enjoy greater facilities for a cure, and a better +prospect of a return to the pursuits and pleasures of life. + +Miss Dix now resides at Trenton, New Jersey, where she has since the war +fixed her abode, travelling thence to the various scenes of her labors. +Wherever she may be, and however engaged, we may be assured that her +object is the good of some portion of the race, and is worthy of the +prayers and blessings of all who love humanity and seek the promotion of +its best interests. And to the close of her long and useful life, the +thanks, the heartfelt gratitude of every citizen of our common country +so deeply indebted to her, and to the many devoted and self-sacrificing +women whose efforts she directed, must as assuredly follow her. She +belongs now to History, and America may proudly claim her daughter. + + + + +PART II. + +LADIES WHO MINISTERED TO THE SICK AND WOUNDED IN CAMP FIELD AND GENERAL +HOSPITALS. + + + + +CLARA HARLOWE BARTON.[C] + + +Of those whom the first blast of the war trump roused and called to +lives of patriotic devotion and philanthropic endeavor, some were led +instinctively to associated labor, and found their zeal inflamed, their +patriotic efforts cheered and encouraged by communion with those who +were like-minded. To these the organizations of the Soldiers' Aid +Societies and of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions were a +necessity; they provided a place and way for the exercise and +development of those capacities for noble and heroic endeavor, and +generous self-sacrifice, so gloriously manifested by many of our +American women, and which it has given us so much pleasure to record in +these pages. + +[Footnote C: In the preparation of this sketch of Miss Barton, we have +availed ourselves, as far as practicable, of a paper prepared for us by +a clerical friend of the lady, who had known her from childhood. The +passages from this paper are indicated by quotation marks.] + +But there were others endowed by their Creator with greater independence +of character and higher executive powers, who while not less modest and +retiring in disposition than their sisters, yet preferred to mark out +their own career, and pursue a comparatively independent course. They +worked harmoniously with the various sanitary and other organizations +when brought into contact with them, but their work was essentially +distinct from them, and was pursued without interfering in any way with +that of others. + +To this latter class pre-eminently belongs Miss Clara Harlowe Barton. + +Quiet, modest, and unassuming in manner and appearance, there is beneath +this quiet exterior an intense energy, a comprehensive intellect, a +resolute will, and an executive force, which is found in few of the +stronger sex, and which mingled with the tenderness and grace of refined +womanhood eminently qualifies her to become an independent power. + +Miss Barton was born in North Oxford, Worcester County, Massachusetts. +Her father, Stephen Barton, Sr., was a man highly esteemed in the +community in which he dwelt, and by which his worth was most thoroughly +known. In early youth he had served as a soldier in the West under +General Wayne, the "Mad Anthony" of the early days of the Republic, and +his boyish eyes had witnessed the evacuation of Detroit by the British +in 1796. "His military training may have contributed to the sterling +uprightness, the inflexible will, and the devotion to law and order and +rightful authority for which he was distinguished." The little Clara was +the youngest by several years in a family of two brothers and three +sisters. She was early taught that primeval benediction, miscalled a +curse, which requires mankind to earn their bread. Besides domestic +duties and a very thorough public school training she learned the +general rules of business by acting as clerk and book-keeper for her +eldest brother. Next she betook herself to the district school, the +usual stepping-stone for all aspiring men and women in New England. She +taught for several years, commencing when very young, in various places +in Massachusetts and New Jersey. The large circle of friends thus formed +was not without its influence in determining her military career. So +many of her pupils volunteered in the first years of the war that at the +second battle of Bull Run she found seven of them, each of whom had lost +an arm or a leg. + +"One example will show her character as a teacher. She went to +Bordentown, N. J., in 1853, where there was not, and never had been, a +public school. Three or four unsuccessful attempts had been made, and +the idea had been abandoned as not adapted to that latitude. The +brightest boys in the town ran untaught in the streets. She offered to +teach a free school for three months at her own expense, to convince the +citizens that it could be done; and she was laughed at as a visionary. +Six weeks of waiting and debating induced the authorities to fit up an +unoccupied building at a little distance from the town. She commenced +with six outcast boys, and in five weeks the house would not hold the +number that came. The commissioners, at her instance, erected the +present school-building of Bordentown, a three-story brick building, +costing four thousand dollars; and there, in the winter of 1853-4, she +organized the city free-school with a roll of six hundred pupils. But +the severe labor, and the great amount of loud speaking required, in the +newly plastered rooms, injured her health, and for a time deprived her +of her voice--the prime agent of instruction. Being unable to teach, she +left New Jersey about the 1st of March, 1854, seeking rest and a milder +climate, and went as far south as Washington. While there, a friend and +distant relative, then in Congress, voluntarily obtained for her an +appointment in the Patent Office, where she continued until the fall of +1857. She was employed at first as a copyist, and afterwards in the more +responsible work of abridging original papers, and preparing records for +publication. As she was an excellent chirographer, with a clear head for +business, and was paid by the piece and not by the month, she made money +fast, as matters were then reckoned, and she was very liberal with it. I +met her often during those years, as I have since and rarely saw her +without some pet scheme of benevolence on her hands which she pursued +with an enthusiasm that was quite heroic, and sometimes amusing. The +roll of those she has helped, or tried to help, with her purse, her +personal influence or her counsels, would be a long one; orphan +children, deserted wives, destitute women, sick or unsuccessful +relatives, men who had failed in business, and boys who never had any +business--all who were in want, or in trouble, and could claim the +slightest acquaintance, came to her for aid and were never repulsed. +Strange it was to see this generous girl, whose own hands ministered to +all her wants, always giving to those around her, instead of receiving, +strengthening the hands and directing the steps of so many who would +have seemed better calculated to help her. She must have had a native +genius for nursing; for in her twelfth year she was selected as the +special attendant of a sick brother, and remained in his chamber by day +and by night for two years, with only a respite of one half-day in all +that time. Think, O reader! of a little girl in short dresses and +pantalettes, neither going to school nor to play, but imprisoned for +years in the deadly air of a sick room, and made to feel, every moment, +that a brother's life depended on her vigilance. Then followed a still +longer period of sickness and feebleness on her own part; and from that +time to the present, sickness, danger and death have been always near +her, till they have grown familiar as playmates, and she has come to +understand all the wants and ways and waywardness of the sick; has +learned to anticipate their wishes and cheat them of their fears. Those +who have been under her immediate care, will understand me when I say +there is healing in the touch of her hand, and anodyne in the low melody +of her voice. In the first year of Mr. Buchanan's administration she was +hustled out of the Patent Office on a suspicion of anti-slavery +sentiments. She returned to New England, and devoted her time to study +and works of benevolence. In the winter following the election of Mr. +Lincoln, she returned to Washington at the solicitation of her friends +there, and would doubtless have been reinstated if peace had been +maintained. I happened to see her a day or two after the news came that +Fort Sumter had been fired on. She was confident, even enthusiastic. She +had feared that the Southern aristocracy, by their close combination and +superior political training, might succeed in gradually subjugating the +whole country; but of that there was no longer any danger. The war +might be long and bloody, but the rebels had voluntarily abandoned a +policy in which the chances were in favor of their ultimate success, for +one in which they had no chance at all. For herself, she had saved a +little in time of peace, and she intended to devote it and herself to +the service of her country and of humanity. If war must be, she neither +expected nor desired to come out of it with a dollar. If she survived, +she could no doubt earn a living; and if she did not, it was no matter. +This is actually the substance of what she said, and pretty nearly the +words--without appearing to suspect that it was remarkable." + +Three days after Major Anderson had lowered his flag in Charleston +Harbor, the Sixth Massachusetts Militia started for Washington. Their +passage through Baltimore, on the 19th of April, 1861, is a remarkable +point in our national history. The next day about thirty of the sick and +wounded were placed in the Washington Infirmary, where the Judiciary +Square Hospital now stands. Miss Barton proceeded promptly to the spot +to ascertain their condition and afford such voluntary relief as might +be in her power. Hence, if she was not the first person in the country +in this noble work, no one could have been more than a few hours before +her. The regiment was quartered at the Capitol, and as those early +volunteers will remember, troops on their first arrival were often very +poorly provided for. The 21st of April happened to be Sunday. No +omnibuses ran that day, and street cars as yet were not; so she hired +five colored persons, loaded them with baskets of ready prepared food, +and proceeded to the Capitol. The freight they bore served as +countersign and pass; she entered the Senate Chamber, and distributed +her welcome store. Many of the soldiers were from her own neighborhood, +and as they thronged around her, she stood upon the steps to the Vice +President's chair and read to them from a paper she had brought, the +first written history of their departure and their journey. These two +days were the first small beginnings of her military experience,--steps +which naturally led to much else. Men wrote home their own impressions +of what they saw; and her acts found ready reporters. Young soldiers +whom she had taught or known as boys a few years before, called to see +her on their way to the front. Troops were gathering rapidly, and +hospitals--the inevitable shadows of armies--were springing up and +getting filled. Daily she visited them, bringing to the sick news, and +delicacies and comforts of her own procuring, and writing letters for +those who could not write themselves. Mothers and sisters heard of her, +and begged her to visit this one and that, committing to her care +letters, socks, jellies and the like. Her work and its fame grew week by +week, and soon her room, for she generally had but one, became sadly +encumbered with boxes, and barrels and baskets, of the most varied +contents. Through the summer of 1862, the constant stock she had on hand +averaged about five tons. The goods were mainly the contributions of +liberal individuals, churches and sewing-circles to whom she was +personally known. But, although articles of clothing, lint, bandages, +cordials, preserved fruits, liquors, and the like might be sent, there +was always much which she had to buy herself. + +During this period as in her subsequent labors, she neither sought or +received recognition by any department of the Government, by which I +mean only that she had no acknowledged position, rank, rights or duties, +was not employed, paid, or compensated in any way, had authority over no +one, and was subject to no one's orders. She was simply an American +lady, mistress of herself and of no one else; free to stay at home, if +she had a home, and equally free to go where she pleased, if she could +procure passports and transportation, which was not always an easy +matter. From many individual officers, she received most valuable +encouragement and assistance; from none more than from General Rucker, +the excellent Chief Quartermaster at Washington. He furnished her +storage for her supplies when necessary, transportation for herself and +them, and added to her stores valuable contributions at times when they +were most wanted. She herself declares, with generous exaggeration, that +if she has ever done any good, it has been due to the watchful care and +kindness of General Rucker. + +About the close of 1861, Miss Barton returned to Massachusetts to watch +over the declining health of her father, now in his eighty-eighth year, +and failing fast. In the following March she placed his remains in the +little cemetery at Oxford, and then returned to Washington and to her +former labors. But, as the spring and summer campaigns progressed, +Washington ceased to be the best field for the philanthropist. In the +hospitals of the Capitol the sick and wounded found shelter, food and +attendance. Private generosity now centered there; and the United States +Sanitary Commission had its office and officers there to minister to the +thousand exceptional wants not provided for by the Army Regulations. +There were other fields where the harvest was plenteous and the laborers +few. Yet could she as a young and not unattractive lady, go with safety +and propriety among a hundred thousand armed men, and tell them that no +one had sent her? She would encounter rough soldiers, and camp-followers +of every nation, and officers of all grades of character; and could she +bear herself so wisely and loftily in all trials as to awe the +impertinent, and command the respect of the supercilious, so that she +might be free to come and go at her will, and do what should seem good +to her? Or, if she failed to maintain a character proof against even +inuendoes, would she not break the bridge over which any successor would +have to pass? These questions she pondered, and prayed and wept over for +months, and has spoken of the mental conflict as the most trying one of +her life. She had foreseen and told all these fears to her father; and +the old man, on his death-bed, advised her to go wherever she felt it a +duty to go. He reminded her that he himself had been a soldier, and said +that all true soldiers would respect her. He was naturally a man of +great benevolence, a member of the Masonic fraternity, of the Degree of +Royal Arch Mason; and in his last days he spoke much of the purposes and +noble charities of the Order. She had herself received the initiation +accorded to daughters of Royal Arch Masons, and wore on her bosom a +Masonic emblem, by which she was easily recognized by the brotherhood, +and which subsequently proved a valuable talisman. At last she reached +the conclusion that it was right for her to go amid the actual tumult of +battle and shock of armies. And the fact that she has moved and labored +with the principal armies in the North and in the South for two years +and a half, and that now no one who knows her would speak of her without +the most profound respect, proves two things--that there may be heroism +of the highest order in American women--and that American armies are not +to be judged of, by the recorded statements concerning European ones. + +Her first tentative efforts at going to the field were cautious and +beset with difficulties. Through the long Peninsula campaign as each +transport brought its load of suffering men, with the mud of the +Chickahominy and the gore of battle baked hard upon them like the shells +of turtles, she went down each day to the wharves with an ambulance +laden with dressings and restoratives, and there amid the turmoil and +dirt, and under the torrid sun of Washington, toiled day by day, +alleviating such suffering as she could. And when the steamers turned +their prows down the river, she looked wistfully after them, longing to +go to those dread shores whence all this misery came. But she was alone +and unknown, and how could she get the means and the permission to go? +The military authorities were overworked in those days and plagued with +unreasonable applications, and as a class are not very indulgent to +unusual requests. The first officer of rank who gave her a kind answer +was a man who never gave an unkind reply without great provocation--Dr. +R. H. Coolidge, Medical Inspector. Through him a pass was obtained from +Surgeon-General Hammond, and she was referred to Major Rucker, +Quartermaster, for transportation. The Major listened to her story so +patiently and kindly that she was overcome, and sat down and wept. It +was then too late in the season to go to McClellan's army, so she loaded +a railroad car with supplies and started for Culpepper Court-House, then +crowded with the wounded from the battle of Cedar Mountain. With a +similar car-load she was the first of the volunteer aid that reached +Fairfax Station at the close of the disastrous days that culminated in +the second Bull Run, and the battle of Chantilly. On these two +expeditions, and one to Fredericksburg, Miss Barton was accompanied by +friends, at least one gentleman and a lady in each case, but at last a +time came, when through the absence or engagements of these, she must go +alone or not at all. + +On Sunday, the 14th of September, 1862, she loaded an army wagon with +supplies and started to follow the march of General McClellan. Her only +companions were Mr. Cornelius M. Welles, the teacher of the first +contraband school in the District of Columbia--a young man of rare +talent and devotion--and one teamster. She travelled three days along +the dusty roads of Maryland, buying bread as she went to the extent of +her means of conveyance, and sleeping in the wagon by night. After dark, +on the night of the sixteenth, she reached Burnside's Corps, and found +the two armies lying face to face along the opposing ridges of hills +that bound the valley of the Antietam. There had already been heavy +skirmishing far away on the right where Hooker had forded the creek and +taken position on the opposite hills; and the air was dark and thick +with fog and exhalations, with the smoke of camp-fires and premonitory +death. There was little sleep that night, and as the morning sun rose +bright and beautiful over the Blue Ridge and dipped down into the +Valley, the firing on the right was resumed. Reinforcements soon began +to move along the rear to Hooker's support. Thinking the place of danger +was the place of duty, Miss Barton ordered her mules to be harnessed and +took her place in the swift train of artillery that was passing. On +reaching the scene of action, they turned into a field of tall corn, and +drove through it to a large barn. They were close upon the line of +battle; the rebel shot and shell flew thickly around and over them; and +in the barn-yard and among the corn lay torn and bleeding men--the worst +cases--just brought from the places where they had fallen. The army +medical supplies had not yet arrived, the small stock of dressings was +exhausted, and the surgeons were trying to make bandages of corn-husks. +Miss Barton opened to them her stock of dressings, and proceeded with +her companions to distribute bread steeped in wine to the wounded and +fainting. In the course of the day she picked up twenty-five men who had +come to the rear with the wounded, and set them to work administering +restoratives, bringing and applying water, lifting men to easier +positions, stopping hemorrhages, etc., etc. At length her bread was all +spent; but luckily a part of the liquors she had brought were found to +have been packed in meal, which suggested the idea of making gruel. A +farm-house was found connected with the barn, and on searching the +cellar, she discovered three barrels of flour, and a bag of salt, which +the rebels had hidden the day before. Kettles were found about the +house, and she prepared to make gruel on a large scale, which was +carried in buckets and distributed along the line for miles. On the +ample piazza of the house were ranged the operating tables, where the +surgeons performed their operations; and on that piazza she kept her +place from the forenoon till nightfall, mixing gruel and directing her +assistants, under the fire of one of the greatest and fiercest battles +of modern times. Before night her face was as black as a negro's, and +her lips and throat parched with the sulphurous smoke of battle. But +night came at last, and the wearied armies lay down on the ground to +rest; and the dead and wounded lay everywhere. Darkness too had its +terrors, and as the night closed in, the surgeon in charge at the old +farm-house, looked despairingly at a bit of candle and said it was the +only one on the place; and no one could stir till morning. A thousand +men dangerously wounded and suffering terribly from thirst lay around, +and many must die before the light of another day. It was a fearful +thing to die alone and in the dark, and no one could move among the +wounded, for fear of stumbling over them. Miss Barton replied, that, +profiting by her experience at Chantilly, she had brought with her +thirty lanterns, and an abundance of candles. It was worth a journey to +Antietam, to light the gloom of that night. On the morrow, the fighting +had ceased, but the work of caring for the wounded was resumed and +continued all day. On the third day the regular supplies arrived, and +Miss Barton having exhausted her small stores, and finding that +continued fatigue and watching were bringing on a fever, turned her +course towards Washington. It was with difficulty that she was able to +reach home, where she was confined to her bed for some time. When she +recovered sufficiently to call on Colonel Rucker, and told him that with +five wagons she could have taken supplies sufficient for the immediate +wants of all the wounded in the battle, that officer shed tears, and +charged her to ask for enough next time. + +It was about the 23d of October, when another great battle was expected, +that she next set out with a well appointed and heavily laden train of +six wagons and an ambulance, with seven teamsters, and thirty-eight +mules. The men were rough fellows, little used or disposed to be +commanded by a woman; and they mutinied when they had gone but a few +miles. A plain statement of the course she should pursue in case of +insubordination, induced them to proceed and confine themselves, for the +time being, to imprecations and grumbling. When she overtook the army, +it was crossing the Potomac, below Harper's Ferry. Her men refused to +cross. She offered them the alternative to go forward peaceably, or to +be dismissed and replaced by soldiers. They chose the former, and from +that day forward were all obedience, fidelity and usefulness. The +expected battle was not fought, but gave place to a race for Richmond. +The Army of the Potomac had the advantage in regard to distance, +keeping for a time along the base of the Blue Ridge, while the enemy +followed the course of the Shenandoah. There was naturally a skirmish at +every gap. The rebels were generally the first to gain possession of the +pass, from which they would attempt to surprise some part of the army +that was passing, and capture a portion of our supply trains. Thus every +day brought a battle or a skirmish, and its accession to the list of +sick and wounded; and for a period of about three weeks, until Warrenton +Junction was reached, the national army had no base of operations, nor +any reinforcements or supplies. The sick had to be carried all that time +over the rough roads in wagons or ambulances. Miss Barton with her wagon +train accompanied the Ninth Army Corps, as a general purveyor for the +sick. Her original supply of comforts was very considerable, and her men +contrived to add to it every day such fresh provisions as could be +gathered from the country. At each night's encampment, they lighted +their fires and prepared fresh food and necessaries for the moving +hospital. Through all that long and painful march from Harper's Ferry to +Fredericksburg, those wagons constituted the hospital larder and kitchen +for all the sick within reach. + +It will be remembered that after Burnside assumed command of the Army of +the Potomac, the route by Fredericksburg was selected, and the march was +conducted down the left bank of the Rappahannock to a position opposite +that city. From Warrenton Junction Miss Barton made a visit to +Washington, while her wagons kept on with the army, which she rejoined +with fresh supplies at Falmouth. She remained in camp until after the +unsuccessful attack on the works behind Fredericksburg. She was on the +bank of the river in front of the Lacy House, within easy rifle shot +range of the enemy, at the time of the attack of the 11th +December--witnessed the unavailing attempts to lay pontoon bridges +directly into the city, and the heroic crossing of the 19th and 20th +Massachusetts Regiments and the 7th Michigan. During the brief +occupation of the city she remained in it, organizing the hospital +kitchens; and after the withdrawal of the troops, she established a +private kitchen for supplying delicacies to the wounded. Although it was +now winter and the weather inclement, she occupied an old tent while her +train was encamped around; and the cooking was performed in the open +air. When the wounded from the attack on the rebel batteries were +recovered by flag of truce, fifty of them were brought to her camp at +night. They had lain several days in the cold, and were wounded, +famished and frozen. She had the snow cleaned away, large fires built +and the men wrapped in blankets. An old chimney was torn down, the +bricks heated in the fire, and placed around them. As she believed that +wounded men, exhausted and depressed by the loss of blood, required +stimulants, and as Surgeon-General Hammond, with characteristic +liberality had given her one hundred and thirty gallons of confiscated +liquor, she gave them with warm food, enough strong hot toddy to make +them all measurably drunk. The result was that they slept comfortably +until morning, when the medical officers took them in charge. It was her +practice to administer a similar draught to each patient on his leaving +for Acquia Creek, _en route_ to the Washington hospitals. + +A circumstance which occurred during the battle of Fredericksburg, will +illustrate very strikingly the courage of Miss Barton, a courage which +has never faltered in the presence of danger, when what she believed to +be duty called. In the skirmishing of the 12th of December, the day +preceding the great and disastrous battle, a part of the Union troops +had crossed over to Fredericksburg, and after a brief fight had driven +back a body of rebels, wounding and capturing a number of them whom they +sent as prisoners across the river to Falmouth, where Miss Barton as yet +had her camp. The wounded rebels were brought to her for care and +treatment. Among them was a young officer, mortally wounded by a shot in +the thigh. Though she could not save his life, she ministered to him as +well as she could, partially staunching his wound, quenching his raging +thirst, and endeavoring to make his condition as comfortable as +possible. Just at this time, an orderly arrived with a message from the +Medical Director of the Ninth Army Corps requesting her to come over to +Fredericksburg, and organize the hospitals and diet kitchens for the +corps. The wounded rebel officer heard the request, and beckoning to +her, for he was too weak to speak aloud, he whispered a request that she +would not go. She replied that she must do so; that her duty to the +corps to which she was attached required it. "Lady," replied the wounded +rebel, "you have been very kind to me. You could not save my life, but +you have endeavored to render death easy. I owe it to you to tell you +what a few hours ago I would have died sooner than have revealed. The +whole arrangement of the Confederate troops and artillery is intended as +a trap for your people. Every street and lane of the city is covered by +our cannon. They are now concealed, and do not reply to the bombardment +of your army, because they wish to entice you across. When your entire +army has reached the other side of the Rappahannock and attempts to move +along the streets, they will find Fredericksburg only a slaughter pen, +and not a regiment of them will be allowed to escape. Do not go over, +for you will go to certain death!" While her tender sensibilities +prevented her from adding to the suffering of the dying man, by not +apparently heeding his warning, Miss Barton did not on account of it +forego for an instant her intention of sharing the fortunes of the Ninth +Corps on the other side of the river. The poor fellow was almost gone, +and waiting only to close his eyes on all earthly objects, she crossed +on the frail bridge, and was welcomed with cheers by the Ninth Corps, +who looked upon her as their guardian angel. She remained with them +until the evening of their masterly retreat, and until the wounded men +of the corps in the hospitals were all safely across. While she was in +Fredericksburg, after the battle of the 13th, some soldiers of the corps +who had been roving about the city, came to her quarters bringing with +great difficulty a large and very costly and elegant carpet. "What is +this for?" asked Miss Barton. "It is for you, ma'am," said one of the +soldiers; "you have been so good to us, that we wanted to bring you +something." "Where did you get it?" she asked. "Oh! ma'am, we +confiscated it," said the soldiers. "No! no!" said the lady; "that will +never do. Governments confiscate. Soldiers when they take such things, +steal. I am afraid, my men, you will have to take it back to the house +from which you took it. I can't receive a stolen carpet." The men looked +sheepish enough, but they shouldered the carpet and carried it back. In +the wearisome weeks that followed the Fredericksburg disaster, when +there was not the excitement of a coming battle, and the wounded whether +detained in the hospitals around Falmouth or forwarded through the deep +mud to the hospital transports on the Potomac, still with saddened +countenances and depressed spirits looked forward to a dreary future, +Miss Barton toiled on, infusing hope and cheerfulness into sad hearts, +and bringing the consolations of religion to her aid, pointed them to +the only true source of hope and comfort. + +In the early days of April, 1863, Miss Barton went to the South with the +expectation of being present at the combined land and naval attack on +Charleston. She reached the wharf at Hilton Head on the afternoon of the +7th, in time to hear the crack of Sumter's guns as they opened in +broadside on Dupont's fleet. That memorable assault accomplished nothing +unless it might be to ascertain that Charleston could not be taken by +water. The expedition returned to Hilton Head, and a period of +inactivity followed, enlivened only by unimportant raids, newspaper +correspondence, and the small quarrels that naturally arise in an +unemployed army. + +Later in the season Miss Barton accompanied the Gilmore and Dahlgren +expedition, and was present at nearly all the military operations on +James, Folly, and Morris Islands. The ground occupied on the latter by +the army, during the long siege of Fort Wagner, was the low sand-hills +forming the sea-board of the Island. No tree, shrub, or weed grew there; +and the only shelter was light tents without floors. The light sand that +yielded to the tread, the walker sinking to the ankles at almost every +step, glistened in the sun, and burned the feet like particles of fire, +and as the ocean winds swept it, it darkened the air and filled the eyes +and nostrils. There was no defense against it, and every wound speedily +became covered with a concrete of gore and sand. Tent pins would not +hold in the treacherous sand, every vigorous blast from the sea, +overturned the tents, leaving the occupants exposed to the storm or the +torrid sun. It was here, under the fire of the heaviest of the rebel +batteries, that Miss Barton spent the most trying part of the summer. +Her employment was, with three or four men detailed to assist her, to +boil water in the lee of a sand-hill, to wash the wounds of the men who +were daily struck by rebel shot, to prepare tea and coffee, and various +dishes made from dried fruits, farina, and desiccated milk and eggs. On +the 19th of July, when the great night assault was made on Wagner, and +everybody expected to find rest and refreshments within the rebel +fortress, she alone, so far as I can learn, kept up her fires and +preparations. She alone had anything suitable to offer the wounded and +exhausted men who streamed back from the repulse, and covered the +sand-hills like a flight of locusts. + +Through all the long bombardment that followed; until Sumter was +reduced, and Wagner and Gregg was ours, amid the scorching sun and the +prevalence of prostrating diseases, though herself more than once struck +down with illness, she remained at her post, a most fearless and +efficient co-worker with the indefatigable agent of the Sanitary +Commission, Dr. M. M. Marsh, in saving the lives and promoting the +health of the soldiers of the Union army. "How could you," said a friend +to her subsequently, "how could you expose your life and health to that +deadly heat?" "Why," she answered, evidently without a thought of the +heroism of the answer, "the other ladies thought they could not endure +the climate, and as I knew somebody must take care of the soldiers, I +went." + +In January, 1864, Miss Barton returned to the North, and after spending +four or five weeks in visiting her friends and recruiting her wasted +strength, again took up her position at Washington, and commenced making +preparations for the coming campaign which from observation, she was +convinced would be the fiercest and most destructive of human life of +any of the war. The first week of the campaign found her at the +secondary base of the army at Belle Plain, and thence with the great +army of the wounded she moved to Fredericksburg. Extensive as had been +her preparations, and wide as were the circle of friends who had +entrusted to her the means of solace and healing, the slaughter had been +so terrific that she found her supplies nearly exhausted, and for the +first time during the war was compelled to appeal for further supplies +to her friends at the North, expending in the meantime freely, as she +had done all along, of her own private means for the succor of the poor +wounded soldiers. Moving on to Port Royal, and thence to the James +River, she presently became attached to the Army of the James, where +General Butler, at the instance of his Chief Medical Director, Surgeon +McCormick, acknowledging her past services, and appreciating her +abilities, gave her a recognized position, which greatly enhanced her +usefulness, and enabled her, with her energetic nature, to contribute as +much to the welfare and comfort of the army in that year, as she had +been able to do in all her previous connection with it. In January, +1865, she returned to Washington, where she was detained from the front +for nearly two months by the illness and death of a brother and nephew, +and did not again join the army in the field. + +By this time, of course, she was very generally known, and the circle of +her correspondence was wide. Her influence in high official quarters +was supposed to be considerable, and she was in the daily receipt of +inquiries and applications of various kinds, in particular in regard to +the fate of men believed to have been confined in Southern prisons. The +great number of letters received of this class, led her to decide to +spend some months at Annapolis, among the camps and records of paroled +and exchanged prisoners, for the purpose of answering the inquiries of +friends. Her plan of operation was approved by President Lincoln, March +11, 1865, and notice of her appointment as "General Correspondent for +the friends of Paroled Prisoners," was published in the newspapers +extensively, bringing in a torrent of inquiries and letters from wives, +parents, State officials, agencies, the Sanitary Commission and the +Christian Commission. On reaching Annapolis, she encountered obstacles +that were vexatious, time-wasting, and in fact, insupportable. Without +rank, rights or authority credited by law, the officials there were at a +loss how to receive her. The town was so crowded that she could find no +private lodgings, and had to force herself as a scarce welcome guest +upon some one for a few days, while her baggage stood out in the snow. +Nearly two months were consumed in negotiations before an order was +obtained from the War Department to the effect that the military +authorities at Annapolis _might_ allow her the use of a tent, and its +furniture, and a moderate supply of postage stamps. This was not +mandatory, but permissive; and negotiations could now be opened with the +gentlemen at Annapolis. In the meantime the President had been +assassinated, Richmond taken, and Lee's army surrendered. The rebellion +was breaking away. All prisoners were to be released from parole, and +sent home, and nothing would remain at Annapolis but the records. +Unfortunately these proved to be of very little service--but a small per +centage of those inquired for, were found on the rolls, and obviously +these, for the most part, were not men who had been lost, but who had +returned. She was also informed, on good authority, that a large number +of prisoners had been exchanged without roll or record, and that some +rolls were so fraudulent and incorrect, as to be worthless. Poor +wretches in the rebel pens seemed even to forget the names their mother +called them. The Annapolis scheme was therefore abandoned, with +mortification that thousands of letters had lain so long unanswered, +that thousands of anxious friends were daily waiting for tidings of +their loved and lost. The pathos and simplicity of these letters was +often touching. An old man writes that he has two sons and three +grandsons in the army, and of two of the five he could get no tidings. +Another says she knew her son was brave, and if he died, he died +honorably. He was all she had and she gave him freely to the country. If +he be really lost she will not repine; but she feels she has a right to +be told what became of him. Many of the writers seemed to have a very +primitive idea of the way information was to be picked up. They imagined +that Miss Barton was to walk through all hospitals, camps, armies and +prisons, and narrowly scrutinizing every face, would be able to identify +the lost boy by the descriptions given her. Hence the fond mother +minutely described her boy as he remained graven on her memory on the +day of his departure. The result of these delays was the organization, +by Miss Barton, at her own cost, of a Bureau of Records of Missing Men +of the Armies of the United States, at Washington. Here she collected +all rolls of prisoners, hospital records, and records of burials in the +rebel prisons and elsewhere, and at short intervals published Rolls of +Missing Men, which, by the franks of some of her friends among the +Members of Congress, were sent to all parts of the United States, and +posted in prominent places, and in many instances copied into local +papers. The method adopted for the discovery of information concerning +these missing men, and the communication of that information to their +friends who had made inquiries concerning them may be thus illustrated. + +A Mrs. James of Kennebunk, Maine, has seen a notice in the paper that +Miss Clara Barton of Washington will receive inquiries from friends of +"missing men of the Army," and will endeavor to obtain information for +them without fee or reward. She forthwith writes to Miss Barton that she +is anxious to gain tidings of her husband, Eli James, Sergeant Company +F. Fourth Maine Infantry, who has not been heard of since the battle of +----. This letter, when received, is immediately acknowledged, +registered in a book, endorsed and filed away for convenient reference. +The answer satisfied Mrs. James for the time, that her letter was not +lost and that some attention is given to her inquiry. If the fate of +Sergeant James is known or can be learned from the official rolls the +information is sent at once. Otherwise the case lies over until there +are enough to form a roll, which will probably be within a few weeks. A +roll of Missing Men is then made up--with an appeal for information +respecting them, of which from twenty thousand to thirty thousand copies +are printed to be posted all over the United States, in all places where +soldiers are most likely to congregate. It is not impossible, that in +say two weeks' time, one James Miller, of Keokuk, Iowa, writes that he +has seen the name of his friend James posted for information; that he +found him lying on the ground, at the battle of ---- mortally wounded +with a fragment of shell; that he, James, gave the writer a few articles +from about his person, and a brief message to his wife and children, +whom he is now unable to find; that the national troops fell back from +that portion of the field leaving the dead within the enemy's lines, who +consequently were never reported. When this letter is received it is +also registered in a book, endorsed and filed, and a summary of its +contents is sent to Mrs. James, with the intimation that further +particulars of interest to her can be learned by addressing James +Miller, of Keokuk, Iowa. + +Soon after entering fully upon this work in Washington, and having +obtained the rolls of the prison hospitals of Wilmington, Salisbury, +Florence, Charleston, and other Rebel prisons of the South, Miss Barton +ascertained that Dorrance Atwater, a young Connecticut soldier, who had +been a prisoner at Andersonville, Georgia, had succeeded in obtaining a +copy of all the records of interments in that field of death, during his +employment in the hospital there, and that he could identify the graves +of most of the thirteen thousand who had died there the victims of Rebel +cruelty. + +Atwater was induced to permit Government officers to copy his roll, and +on the representation of Miss Barton that no time should be lost in +putting up head-boards to the graves of the Union Soldiers, Captain +James M. Moore, Assistant Quartermaster, was ordered to proceed to +Andersonville with young Atwater and a suitable force, to lay out the +grounds as a cemetery and place head-boards to the graves; and Miss +Barton was requested by the Secretary of War to accompany him. She did +so, and the grounds were laid out and fenced, and all the graves except +about four hundred which could not be identified were marked with +suitable head-boards. On their return, Miss Barton resumed her duties, +and Captain Moore caused Atwater's arrest on the charge of having stolen +from the Government the list he had loaned them for copying, and after a +hasty trial by Court-Martial, he was sentenced to be imprisoned in the +Auburn State Prison for two years and six months. The sentence was +immediately carried into effect. + +Miss Barton felt that this whole charge, trial and sentence, was grossly +unjust; that Atwater had committed no crime, not even a technical one, +and that he ought to be relieved from imprisonment. She accordingly +exerted herself to have the case brought before the President. This was +done; and in part through the influence of General Benjamin F. Butler, +an order was sent on to the Warden of the Auburn Prison to set the +prisoner at liberty, Atwater subsequently published his roll of the +Andersonville dead, to which Miss Barton prefixed a narrative of the +expedition to Andersonville. Her Bureau had by this time become an +institution of great and indispensable importance not only to the +friends of missing men but to the Sanitary Commission, and to the +Government itself, which could not without daily and almost hourly +reference to her records settle the accounts for bounties, back pay, and +pensions. Thus far, however, it had been sustained wholly at her own +cost, and in this and other labors for the soldiers she had expended her +entire private fortune of eight or ten thousand dollars. Soon after the +assembling of Congress, Hon. Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, who had +always been her firm friend, moved an appropriation of fifteen thousand +dollars to remunerate her for past expenditure, and enable her to +maintain the Bureau of Records of Missing Men, which had proved of such +service. To the honor of Congress it should be said, that the +appropriation passed both houses by a unanimous vote. Miss Barton still +continues her good work, and has been instrumental in sending certainty +if not solace to thousands of families, who mourned their loved ones as +lying in unknown graves. + +In person Miss Barton is about of medium height, her form and figure +indicating great powers of endurance. Though not technically beautiful, +her dark expressive eye is attractive, and she possesses, evidently +unconsciously to herself, great powers of fascination. Her voice is +soft, low, and of extraordinary sweetness of tone. As we have said she +is modest, quiet and retiring in manner, and is extremely reticent in +speaking of anything she has done, while she is ever ready to bestow the +full meed of praise on the labors of others. Her devotion to her work +has been remarkable, and her organizing abilities are unsurpassed among +her own sex and equalled by very few among the other. She is still +young, and with her power and disposition for usefulness is destined we +hope to prove greatly serviceable to the country she so ardently loves. + + + + +HELEN LOUISE GILSON. + + +Miss Helen Louise Gilson is a native of Boston, but removed in childhood +to Chelsea, Massachusetts, where she now resides. She is a niece of Hon. +Frank B. Fay, former Mayor of Chelsea, and was his ward. Mr. Fay, from +the commencement of the war took the most active interest in the +National cause, devoting his time, his wealth and his personal efforts +to the welfare of the soldiers. In the autumn of 1861 he went in person +to the seat of war, and from that time forward, in every battle in which +the Army of the Potomac was engaged, he was promptly upon the field with +his stores and appliances of healing, and moved gently though rapidly +among the dead and wounded, soothing helpless, suffering and bleeding +men parched with fever, crazed with thirst, or lying neglected in the +last agonies of death. After two years of this independent work +performed when as yet the Sanitary Commission had no field agencies, and +did not attempt to minister to the suffering and wounded until they had +come under the hands of the surgeons, Mr. Fay laid before the Sanitary +Commission, in the winter of 1863-4, his plans for an Auxiliary Relief +Corps, to afford personal relief in the field, to the wounded soldier, +and render him such assistance, as should enable him to bear with less +injury the delay which must ensue before he could come under the +surgeon's care or be transferred to a hospital, and in cases of the +slighter wounds furnish the necessary dressings and attention. The +Sanitary Commission at once adopted these plans and made Mr. Fay chief +of the Auxiliary Relief Corps. In this capacity he performed an amount +of labor of which few men were capable, till December, 1864, when he +retired from it but continued his independent work till the close of the +war. During his visits at home he was active in organizing and directing +measures for raising supplies and money for the Sanitary Commission and +the independent measures of relief. + +Influenced by such an example of lofty and self-sacrificing patriotism, +and with her own young heart on fire with love for her country, Miss +Gilson from the very commencement of the war, gave herself to the work +of caring for the soldiers, first at home, and afterward in the field. +In that glorious uprising of American women, all over the North, in the +spring of 1861, to organize Soldiers' Aid Societies she was active and +among the foremost in her own city. She had helped to prepare and +collect supplies, and to arrange them for transportation. She had also +obtained a contract for the manufacture of army clothing, from the +Government, by means of which she provided employment for soldiers' +wives and daughters, raising among the benevolent and patriotic people +of Chelsea and vicinity, a fund which enabled her to pay a far more +liberal sum than the contractors' prices, for this labor. + +When Mr. Fay commenced his personal services with the Army of the +Potomac, Miss Gilson, wishing to accompany him, applied to Miss D. L. +Dix, Government Superintendent of Female Nurses, for a diploma, but as +she had not reached the required age she was rejected. This, however, +did not prevent her from fulfilling her ardent desire of ministering to +the sick and wounded, but served in a measure to limit her to services +upon the field, where she could act in concert with Mr. Fay, or +otherwise under the direction of the Sanitary Commission. + +During nearly the whole term of Miss Gilson's service she was in company +with Mr. Fay and his assistants. The party had their own tent, forming +a household, and carrying with them something of home-life. + +In this manner she, with her associates, followed the Army of the +Potomac, through its various vicissitudes, and was present at, or near, +almost every one of its great battles except the first battle of Bull +Run. + +In the summer of 1862 Miss Gilson was for some time attached to the +Hospital Transport service, and was on board the Knickerbocker when up +the Pamunky River at White House, and afterward at Harrison's Landing +during the severe battles which marked McClellan's movement from the +Chickahominy to the James River. Amidst the terrible scenes of those +eventful days, the quiet energy, the wonderful comforting and soothing +power, and the perfect adaptability of Miss Gilson to her work were +conspicuous. + +Whatever she did was done well, and so noiselessly that only the results +were seen. When not more actively employed she would sit by the +bed-sides of the suffering men, and charm away their pain by the +magnetism of her low, calm voice, and soothing words. She sang for them, +and, kneeling beside them, where they lay amidst all the agonizing +sights and sounds of the hospital wards, and even upon the field of +carnage, her voice would ascend in petition, for peace, for relief, for +sustaining grace in the brief journey to the other world, carrying with +it their souls into the realms of an exalted faith. + +As may be supposed, Miss Gilson exerted a remarkable personal influence +over the wounded soldiers as well as all those with whom she was brought +in contact. She always shrank from notoriety, and strongly deprecated +any publicity in regard to her work; but the thousands who witnessed her +extraordinary activity, her remarkable executive power, her ability in +evoking order out of chaos, and providing for thousands of sick and +wounded men where most persons would have been completely overwhelmed in +the care of scores or hundreds, could not always be prevented from +speaking of her in the public prints. The uniform cheerfulness and +buoyancy of spirit with which all her work was performed, added greatly +to its efficiency in removing the depressing influences, so common in +the hospitals and among the wounded. + +From some of the reports of agents of the Sanitary Commission we select +the following passages referring to her, as expressing in more moderate +language than some others, the sentiments in regard to her work +entertained by all who were brought into contact with her. + +"Upon Miss Gilson's services, we scarcely dare trust ourselves to +comment. Upon her experience we relied for counsel, and it was chiefly +due to her advice and efforts, that the work in our hospital went on so +successfully. Always quiet, self-possessed, and prompt in the discharge +of duty, she accomplished more than any one else could for the relief of +the wounded, besides being a constant example and embodiment of +earnestness for all. Her ministrations were always grateful to the +wounded men, who devotedly loved her for her self-sacrificing spirit. +Said one of the Fifth New Jersey in our hearing, 'There isn't a man in +our regiment who wouldn't lay down his life for Miss Gilson.' + +"We have seen the dying man lean his head upon her shoulder, while she +breathed into his ear the soothing prayer that calmed, cheered and +prepared him for his journey through the dark valley. + +"Under the direction of Miss Gilson, the special diet was prepared, and +we cannot strongly enough express our sense of the invaluable service +she rendered in this department. The food was always eagerly expected +and relished by the men, with many expressions of praise." + +After the battle of Gettysburg Mr. Fay and his party went thither on +their mission of help and mercy. And never was such a mission more +needed. Crowded within the limits, and in the immediate vicinity, of +that small country-town, were twenty-five thousand wounded men, +thirteen thousand seven hundred and thirteen of our own, and nearly +twelve thousand wounded rebel prisoners. The Government in anticipation +of the battle had provided medical and surgical supplies and attendance +for about ten thousand. Had not the Sanitary Commission supplemented +this supply, and sent efficient agents to the field, the loss of life, +and the amount of suffering, terrible as they were with the best +appliances, must have been almost incredibly great. + +Here as elsewhere Miss Gilson soon made a favorable impression on the +wounded men. They looked up to her, reverenced and almost worshipped +her. She had their entire confidence and respect. Even the roughest of +them yielded to her influence and obeyed her wishes, which were always +made known in a gentle manner and in a voice peculiarly low and sweet. + +It has been recorded by one who knew her well, that she once stepped out +of her tent, before which a group of brutal men were fiercely +quarrelling, having refused, with oaths and vile language, to carry a +sick comrade to the hospital at the request of one of the male agents of +the Commission, and quietly advancing to their midst, renewed the +request as her own. Immediately every angry tone was stilled. Their +voices were lowered, and modulated respectfully. Their oaths ceased, and +quietly and cheerfully, without a word of objection, they lifted their +helpless burden, and tenderly carried him away. + +At the same time she was as efficient in action as in influence. Without +bustle, and with unmoved calmness, she would superintend the preparation +of food for a thousand men, and assist in feeding them herself. Just so +she moved amidst the flying bullets upon the field, bringing succor to +the wounded; or through the hospitals amidst the pestilent air of the +fever-stricken wards. Self-controlled, she could control others, and +order and symmetry sprung up before her as a natural result of the +operation of a well-balanced mind. + +In all her journeys Miss Gilson made use of the opportunities afforded +her wherever she stopped to plead the cause of the soldier to the +people, who readily assembled at her suggestion. She thus stimulated +energies that might otherwise have flagged, and helped to swell the +supplies continually pouring in to the depots of the Sanitary +Commission. But Miss Gilson's crowning work was performed during that +last protracted campaign of General Grant from the Rapidan to Petersburg +and the Appomattox, a campaign which by almost a year of constant +fighting finished the most terrible and destructive war of modern times. +She had taken the field with Mr. Fay at the very commencement of the +campaign, and had been indefatigable in her efforts to relieve what she +could of the fearful suffering of those destructive battles of May, +1864, in which the dead and wounded were numbered by scores of +thousands. To how many poor sufferers she brought relief from the raging +thirst and the racking agony of their wounds, to how many aching hearts +her words of cheer and her sweet songs bore comfort and hope, to how +many of those on whose countenances the Angel of death had already set +his seal, she whispered of a dying and risen Saviour, and of the +mansions prepared for them that love him, will never be known till the +judgment of the great day; but this we know, that thousands now living +speak with an almost rapturous enthusiasm, of "the little lady who in +their hours of agony, ministered to them with such sweetness, and never +seemed to weary of serving them." + +A young physician in the service of the Sanitary Commission, Dr. William +Howell Reed, who was afterwards for many months associated with her and +Mr. Fay in their labors of auxiliary relief, thus describes his first +opportunity of observing her work. It was at Fredericksburg in May, +1864, when that town was for a time the base of the Army of the Potomac, +and the place to which the wounded were brought for treatment before +being sent to the hospitals at Washington and Baltimore. The building +used as a hospital, and which she visited was the mansion of John L. +Marie, a large building, but much of it in ruins from the previous +bombardment of the city. It was crowded with wounded in every part. Dr. +Reed says:-- + +"One afternoon, just before the evacuation, when the atmosphere of our +rooms was close and foul, and all were longing for a breath of our +cooler northern air, while the men were moaning in pain, or were +restless with fever, and our hearts were sick with pity for the +sufferers, I heard a light step upon the stairs; and looking up I saw a +young lady enter, who brought with her such an atmosphere of calm and +cheerful courage, so much freshness, such an expression of gentle, +womanly sympathy, that her mere presence seemed to revive the drooping +spirits of the men, and to give a new power of endurance through the +long and painful hours of suffering. First with one, then at the side of +another, a friendly word here, a gentle nod and smile there, a tender +sympathy with each prostrate sufferer, a sympathy which could read in +his eyes his longing for home love, and for the presence of some absent +one--in those few minutes hers was indeed an angel ministry. Before she +left the room she sang to them, first some stirring national melody, +then some sweet or plaintive hymn to strengthen the fainting heart; and +I remember how the notes penetrated to every part of the building. +Soldiers with less severe wounds, from the rooms above, began to crawl +out into the entries, and men from below crept up on their hands and +knees, to catch every note, and to receive of the benediction of her +presence--for such it was to them. Then she went away. I did not know +who she was, but I was as much moved and melted as any soldier of them +all. This is my first reminiscence of Helen L. Gilson." + +Thus far Miss Gilson's cares and labors had been bestowed almost +exclusively on the white soldiers; but the time approached when she was +to devote herself to the work of creating a model hospital for the +colored soldiers who now formed a considerable body of troops in the +Army of the Potomac. She was deeply interested in the struggle of the +African race upward into the new life which seemed opening for them, and +her efforts for the mental and moral elevation of the freedmen and their +families were eminently deserving of record. + +Dr. Reed relates how, as they were passing down the Rappahannock and up +the York and Pamunky rivers to the new temporary base of the army at +Port Royal, they found a government barge which had been appropriated to +the use of the "contrabands," of whom about a thousand were stowed away +upon it, of all ages and both sexes, all escaped from their former +masters in that part of Virginia. The hospital party heard them singing +the negroes' evening hymn, and taking a boat from the steamer rowed to +the barge, and after a little conversation persuaded them to renew their +song, which was delivered with all the fervor, emotion and _abandon_ of +the negro character. + +When their song had ceased, Miss Gilson addressed them. She pictured the +reality of freedom, told them what it meant and what they would have to +do, no longer would there be a master to deal out the peck of corn, no +longer a mistress to care for the old people or the children. They were +to work for themselves, provide for their own sick, and support their +own infirm; but all this was to be done under new conditions. No +overseer was to stand over them with the whip, for their new master was +the necessity of earning their daily bread. Very soon new and higher +motives would come; fresh encouragements, a nobler ambition, would grow +into their new condition. Then in the simplest language she explained +the difference between their former relations with the then master and +their new relations with the northern people, showing that labor here +was voluntary, and that they could only expect to secure kind employers +by faithfully doing all they had to do. Then, enforcing truthfulness, +neatness, and economy, she said,-- + +"You know that the Lord Jesus died and rose again for you. You love to +sing his praise and to draw near to him in prayer. But remember that +this is not all of religion. You must do right as well as pray right. +Your lives must be full of kind deeds towards each other, full of gentle +and loving affections, full of unselfishness and truth: this is true +piety. You must make Monday and Tuesday just as good and pure as Sunday +is, remembering that God looks not only at your prayers and your +emotions, but at the way you live, and speak, and act, every hour of +your lives." + +Then she sang Whittier's exquisite hymn:-- + + "O, praise an' tanks,--the Lord he come + To set de people free; + An' massa tink it day ob doom, + An' we ob jubilee. + De Lord dat heap de Red Sea wabes, + He just as 'trong as den; + He say de word, we last night slabes, + To-day de Lord's free men." + +Here were a thousand people breathing their first free air. They were +new born with this delicious sense of freedom. They listened with +moistened eyes to every word which concerned their future, and felt that +its utterance came from a heart which could embrace them all in its +sympathies. Life was to them a jubilee only so far as they could make it +so by a consciousness of duty faithfully done. They had hard work before +them, much privation, many struggles. They had everything to learn--the +new industries of the North, their changed social condition, and how to +accept their new responsibilities. + +As she spoke the circle grew larger, and they pressed round her more +eagerly. It was all a part of their new life. They welcomed it; and, by +every possible expression of gratitude to her, they showed how desirous +they were to learn. Those who were present can never forget the scene--a +thousand dusky faces, expressive of such fervency and enthusiasm, their +large eyes filled with tears, answering to the throbbing heart below, +all dimly outlined by the flickering rays of a single lamp. And when it +was over, we felt that we could understand our relations to them, and +the new duties which this great hour had brought upon us. + +It was not till the sanguinary battles of the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th +of June, 1864, that there had been any considerable number of the +colored troops of the Army of the Potomac wounded. In those engagements +however, as well as in the subsequent ones of the explosion of the mine, +and the actions immediately around Petersburg, they suffered terribly. +The wounded were brought rapidly to City Point, where a temporary +hospital had been provided. We give a description of this hospital in +the words of Dr. Reed, who was associated subsequently with Miss Gilson +in its management. + +"It was, in no other sense a hospital, than that it was a depot for +wounded men. There were defective management and chaotic confusion. The +men were neglected, the hospital organization was imperfect, and the +mortality was in consequence frightfully large. Their condition was +horrible. The severity of the campaign in a malarious country had +prostrated many with fevers, and typhoid, in its most malignant forms, +was raging with increasing fatality. + +"These stories of suffering reached Miss Gilson at a moment when the +previous labors of the campaign had nearly exhausted her strength; but +her duty seemed plain. There were no volunteers for the emergency, and +she prepared to go. Her friends declared that she could not survive it; +but replying that she could not die in a cause more sacred, she started +out alone. A hospital was to be created, and this required all the tact, +finesse and diplomacy of which a woman is capable. Official prejudice +and professional pride was to be met and overcome. A new policy was to +be introduced, and it was to be done without seeming to interfere. Her +doctrine and practice always were instant, silent, and cheerful +obedience to medical and disciplinary orders, without any qualification +whatever; and by this she overcame the natural sensitiveness of the +medical authorities. + +"A hospital kitchen was to be organized upon her method of special diet; +nurses were to learn her way, and be educated to their duties; while +cleanliness, order, system, were to be enforced in the daily routine. +Moving quietly on with her work of renovation, she took the +responsibility of all changes that became necessary; and such harmony +prevailed in the camp that her policy was vindicated as time rolled on. +The rate of mortality was lessened, and the hospital was soon considered +the best in the department. This was accomplished by a tact and energy +which sought no praise, but modestly veiled themselves behind the orders +of officials. The management of her kitchen was like the ticking of a +clock--regular discipline, gentle firmness, and sweet temper always. The +diet for the men was changed three times a day; and it was her aim to +cater as far as possible to the appetites of individual men. Her daily +rounds in the wards brought her into personal intercourse with every +patient, and she knew his special need. At one time, when nine hundred +men were supplied from her kitchen (with seven hundred rations daily), I +took down her diet list for one dinner, and give it here in a note,[D] +to show the variety of the articles, and her careful consideration of +the condition of separate men." + +[Footnote D: "List of rations in the Colored Hospital at City Point, +being a dinner on Wednesday, April 25th, 1865:-- + + Roast Beef, + Shad, + Veal Broth, + Stewed Oysters, + Beef Tea, + Mashed Potatoes, + Lemonade, + Apple Jelly, + Farina Pudding. + Tomatoes, + Tea, + Coffee, + Toast, + Gruel, + Scalded Milk, + Crackers and Sherry Cobbler, + Roast Apple + +Let it not be supposed that this was an ordinary hospital diet. Although +such a list was furnished at this time, yet it was only possible while +the hospital had an ample base, like City Point. The armies, when +operating at a distance, could give but two or three articles; and in +active campaigns these were furnished with great irregularity."] + +The following passage from the pen of Harriet Martineau, in regard to +the management of the kitchen at Scutari, by Florence Nightingale, is +true also of those organized by Miss Gilson in Virginia. The parallel is +so close, and the illustration of the daily administration of this +department of her work so vivid, that, if the circumstances under which +it was written were not known, I should have said it was a faithful +picture of our kitchen in the Colored Hospital at City Point:-- + +"The very idea of that kitchen was savory in the wards; for out of it +came, at the right moment, arrowroot, hot and of the pleasantest +consistence; rice puddings, neither hard on the one hand or clammy on +the other; cool lemonade for the feverish; cans full of hot tea for the +weary, and good coffee for the faint. When the sinking sufferer was +lying with closed eyes, too feeble to make moan or sigh, the hospital +spoon was put between his lips, with the mouthful of strong broth or hot +wine, which rallied him till the watchful nurse came round again. The +meat from that kitchen was tenderer than any other, the beef tea was +more savory. One thing that came out of it was the lesson on the saving +of good cookery. The mere circumstance of the boiling water being really +boiling there, made a difference of two ounces of rice in every four +puddings, and of more than half the arrowroot used. The same quantity of +arrowroot which made a pint thin and poor in the general kitchen, made +two pints thick and good in Miss Nightingale's. + +"Again, in contrasting the general kitchen with the light or special +diet prepared for the sicker men, there was all the difference between +having placed before them 'the cold mutton chop with its opaque fat, the +beef with its caked gravy, the arrowroot stiff and glazed, all +untouched, as might be seen by the bed-sides in the afternoons, while +the patients were lying back, sinking for want of support,' and seeing +'the quick and quiet nurses enter as the clock struck, with their hot +water tins, hot morsels ready cut, bright knife, and fork, and +spoon,--and all ready for instant eating!' + +"The nurses looked for Miss Gilson's word of praise, and labored for it; +and she had only to suggest a variety in the decoration of the tents to +stimulate a most honorable rivalry among them, which soon opened a wide +field for displaying ingenuity and taste, so that not only was its +standard the highest, but it was the most cheerfully picturesque +hospital at City Point. + +"This colored hospital service was one of those extraordinary tasks, out +of the ordinary course of army hospital discipline, that none but a +woman could execute. It required more than a man's power of endurance, +for men fainted and fell under the burden. It required a woman's +discernment, a woman's tenderness, a woman's delicacy and tact; it +required such nerve and moral force, and such executive power, as are +rarely united in any woman's character. The simple grace with which she +moved about the hospital camps, the gentle dignity with which she +ministered to the suffering about her, won all hearts. As she passed +through the wards, the men would follow her with their eyes, attracted +by the grave sweetness of her manner; and when she stopped by some +bed-side, and laid her hand upon the forehead and smoothed the hair of a +soldier, speaking some cheering, pleasant word, I have seen the tears +gather in his eyes, and his lips quiver, as he tried to speak or to +touch the fold of her dress, as if appealing to her to listen, while he +opened his heart about the mother, wife, or sister far away. I have seen +her in her sober gray flannel gown, sitting motionless by the dim +candle-light,--which was all our camp could afford,--with her eyes open +and watchful, and her hands ever ready for all those endless wants of +sickness at night, especially sickness that may be tended unto death, or +unto the awful struggle between life and death, which it was the lot of +nearly all of us at some time to keep watch over until the danger had +gone by. And in sadder trials, when the life of a soldier whom she had +watched and ministered to was trembling in the balance between earth and +heaven, waiting for Him to make all things new, she has seemed, by some +special grace of the Spirit, to reach the living Christ, and draw a +blessing down as the shining way was opened to the tomb. And I have seen +such looks of gratitude from weary eyes, now brightened by visions of +heavenly glory, the last of many recognitions of her ministry. Absorbed +in her work, unconscious of the spiritual beauty which invested her +daily life,--whether in her kitchen, in the heat and overcrowding +incident to the issues of a large special diet list, or sitting at the +cot of some poor lonely soldier, whispering of the higher realities of +another world,--she was always the same presence of grace and love, of +peace and benediction. I have been with her in the wards when the men +have craved some simple religious services,--the reading of Scripture, +the repetition of a psalm, the singing of a hymn, or the offering of a +prayer,--and invariably the men were melted to tears by the touching +simplicity of her eloquence. + +"These were the tokens of her ministry among the sickest men; but it was +not here alone that her influence was felt in the hospital. Was there +jealousy in the kitchen, her quick penetration detected the cause, and +in her gentle way harmony was restored; was there profanity among the +convalescents, her daily presence and kindly admonition or reproof, with +an occasional glance which spoke her sorrow for such sin, were enough to +check the evil; or was there hardship or discontent, the knowledge that +she was sharing the discomfort too, was enough to compel patient +endurance until a remedy could be provided. And so, through all the war, +from the seven days' conflict upon the Peninsula, in those early July +days of 1862, through the campaigns of Antietam and Fredericksburg, of +Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and after the conflicts of the +Wilderness, and the fierce and undecided battles which were fought for +the possession of Richmond and Petersburg, in 1864 and 1865, she labored +steadfastly on until the end. Through scorching heat and pinching cold, +in the tent or upon the open field, in the ambulance or on the saddle, +through rain and snow, amid unseen perils of the enemy, under fire upon +the field, or in the more insidious dangers of contagion, she worked +quietly on, doing her simple part with all womanly tact and skill, until +now the hospital dress is laid aside, and she rests, with the sense of a +noble work done, and with the blessings and prayers of the thousands +whose sufferings she has relieved, or whose lives she has saved." + +Amid all these labors, Miss Gilson found time and opportunity to care +for the poor negro washerwomen and their families, who doing the washing +of the hospital were allowed rations and a rude shelter by the +government in a camp near the hospital grounds. Finding that they were +suffering from overcrowding, privation, neglect, and sickness, she +procured the erection of comfortable huts for them, obtained clothing +from the North for the more destitute, and by example and precept +encouraged them in habits of neatness and order, while she also +inculcated practical godliness in all their life. In a short time from +one of the most miserable this became the best of the Freedmen's camps. + +As was the case with nearly every woman who entered the service at the +seat of war, Miss Gilson suffered from malarious fever. As often as +possible she returned to her home for a brief space, to recruit her +wasted energies, and it was those brief intervals of rest which enabled +her to remain at her post until several months after the surrender of +Lee virtually ended the war. + +She left Richmond in July, 1865, and spent the remainder of the summer +in a quiet retreat upon Long Island, where she partially recovered her +impaired health, and in the autumn returned to her home in Chelsea. + +In person Miss Gilson is small and delicately proportioned. Without +being technically beautiful, her features are lovely both in form and +expression, and though now nearly thirty years of age she looks much +younger than she actually is. Her voice is low and soft, and her speech +gentle and deliberate. Her movements correspond in exact harmony with +voice and speech. But, under the softness and gentleness of her external +demeanor, one soon detects a firmness of determination, and a fixedness +of will. No doubt, once determined upon the duty and propriety of any +course, she will pursue it calmly and persistently to the end. It is to +these qualifications, and physical and moral traits, that she owes the +undoubted power and influence exercised in her late mission. + + + + +MRS. JOHN HARRIS. + + +He would have been a man of uncommon sagacity and penetration, who in +the beginning of 1861, should have chosen Mrs. Harris as capable of the +great services and the extraordinary power of endurance with which her +name has since been identified. A pale, quiet, delicate woman, often an +invalid for months, and almost always a sufferer; the wife of a somewhat +eminent physician, in Philadelphia, and in circumstances which did not +require constant activity for her livelihood, refined, educated, and +shrinking from all rough or brutal sights or sounds, she seemed one of +those who were least fitted to endure the hardships, and encounter the +roughnesses of a life in the camp or field hospitals. + +But beneath that quiet and frail exterior, there dwelt a firm and +dauntless spirit. She had been known by her neighbors, and especially in +the church of which she was an honored member, as a woman of remarkable +piety and devotion, and as an excellent and skilful attendant upon the +sick. When the war commenced, she was one of the ladies who assembled to +form the Ladies' Aid Society of Philadelphia, and was chosen, we believe +unanimously, Corresponding Secretary. She seems to have entered upon the +work from the feeling that it was a part of her duty, a sacrifice she +was called to make, a burden which she ought to bear. And through the +war, mainly from her temperament, which inclined her to look on the dark +side, she never seemed stimulated or strengthened in her work by that +abiding conviction of the final success of our arms, which was to so +many of the patient workers, the day-star of hope. Like Bunyan's Master +Fearing, she was always apprehensive of defeat and disaster, of the +triumph of the adversary; and when victories came, her eyes were so dim +with tears for the bereaved and sorrow-stricken, and her heart so heavy +with their griefs that she could not join in the songs of triumph, or +smile in unison with the nation's rejoicings. We speak of this not to +depreciate her work or zeal, but rather to do the more honor to both. +The despondent temperament and the intense sympathy with sorrow were +constitutional, or the result of years of ill-health, and that under +their depressing influence, with no step of her way lighted with the +sunshine of joy, she should have not only continued faithful to her +work, but have undergone more hardships and accomplished more, for the +soldiers than most others, reflects the highest credit upon her +patience, perseverance and devotion to the cause. + +We have elsewhere in this volume given an account of the origin and +progress of the Ladies' Aid Society, of Philadelphia. Mrs. Harris, +though continued as its Corresponding Secretary through the war, was, +during the greater part of the time, its correspondent in the field, and +left to the other officers, the work of raising and forwarding the money +and supplies, while she attended in person to their distribution. This +division of labor seems to have satisfied her associates, who forwarded +to her order their hospital stores and money with the most perfect +confidence in her judicious disposition of both. Other Societies, such +as the Penn Relief, the Patriotic Daughters of Lancaster, and Aid +Societies from the interior of Pennsylvania, as well as the Christian +and Sanitary Commissions, made her their almoners, and she distributed a +larger amount of stores, perhaps, than any other lady in the field. + +The history of her work during the war, is given very fully, in her +correspondence with the Ladies' Aid Society, published in their +semi-annual reports. From these we gather that she had visited in 1861, +and the winter of 1862, before the movement of the army to the +peninsula, more than one hundred hospitals of the army of the Potomac, +in and around Washington, and had not only ministered to the physical +wants of the sick and wounded men, but had imparted religious +instruction and consolation to many of them. Everywhere her coming had +been welcomed; in many instances, eyes dimmed by the shadow of the wings +of the death-angel, saw in her the wife or mother, for whose coming they +had longed and died, with the hallowed word "mother" on their lips. + +When in the spring of 1862, the army of the Potomac moved to the +Peninsula, Mrs. Harris went thither, first distributing as far as +practicable, her stores among the men. Soon after her arrival on the +Peninsula, she found ample employment for her time. The Chesapeake and +Hygeia hospitals at Fortress Monroe, filled at first mostly with the +sick, and the few wounded in the siege of Yorktown, were, after the +battles of Williamsburg and West Point crowded with such of the wounded, +both Union and Confederate soldiers as could be brought so far from the +battle-fields. She spent two or three weeks here, aiding the noble women +who were acting as Matrons of these hospitals. From thence she went on +board the Vanderbilt, then just taken as a Government Transport for the +wounded from the bloody field of Fair Oaks. + +She thus describes the scene and her work: + + "There were eight hundred on board. Passage-ways, state-rooms, + floors from the dark and foetid hold to the hurricane deck, were + all more than filled; some on mattresses, some on blankets, others + on straw; some in the death-struggle, others nearing it, some + already beyond human sympathy and help; some in their blood as they + had been brought from the battle-field of the Sabbath previous, and + all hungry and thirsty, not having had anything to eat or drink, + except hard crackers, for twenty-four hours. + + "The gentlemen who came on with us hurried on to the White House, + and would have had us go with them, but something held us back; + thank God it was so. Meeting Dr. Cuyler, Medical Director, he + exclaimed, 'Here is work for you!' He, poor man, was completely + overwhelmed with the general care of all the hospitals at Old + Point, and added to these, these mammoth floating hospitals, which + are coming in from day to day with their precious cargoes. Without + any previous notice, they anchor, and send to him for supplies, + which it would be extremely difficult to improvise, even in our + large cities, and quite impossible at Old Point. 'No bakeries, no + stores, except small sutlers.' The bread had all to be baked; the + boat rationed for two days; _eight hundred_ on board. + + "When we went aboard, the first cry we met was for tea and bread. + 'For God's sake, give us _bread_,' came from many of our wounded + soldiers. Others shot in the face or neck, begged for liquid food. + With feelings of a _mixed_ character, shame, indignation, and + sorrow blending, we turned away to see what resources we could + muster to meet the demand. A box of tea, a barrel of cornmeal, + sundry parcels of dried fruit, a few crackers, ginger cakes, dried + rusk, sundry jars of jelly and of pickles, were seized upon, + soldiers and contrabands impressed into service, all the cooking + arrangements of three families appropriated, by permission, and + soon three pounds of tea were boiling, and many gallons of gruel + blubbering. In the meantime, all the bread we could buy, + twenty-five loaves, were cut into slices and _jellied_, pickles + were got in readiness, and in an incredibly short time, we were + back to our poor sufferers. + + "When we carried in bread, hands from every quarter were + outstretched, and the cry, 'Give me a piece, O please! I have had + nothing since Monday;' another, 'Nothing but hard crackers since + the fight,' etc. When we had dealt out nearly all the bread, a + surgeon came in, and cried, 'Do please keep some for the poor + fellows in the hold; they are so badly off for everything.' So with + the remnant we threaded our way through the suffering crowd, amid + such exclamations as 'Oh! please don't touch my foot,' or, 'For + mercy's sake, don't touch my arm;' another, 'Please don't move the + blanket; I am so terribly cut up,' down to the hold, in which were + not less than one hundred and fifty, nearly all sick, some very + sick. It was like plunging into a vapor bath, so hot, close, and + full of moisture, and then in this dismal place, we distributed our + bread, oranges, and pickles, which were seized upon with avidity. + And here let me say, at least twenty of them told us next day that + the pickles had done them more good than all the medicine they had + taken. The tea was carried all around in buckets, sweetened, but no + milk in it. How much we wished for some concentrated milk. The + gruel, into which we had put a goodly quantity of wine, was + relished, you cannot know how much. One poor wounded boy, exhausted + with the loss of blood and long fasting, looked up after taking the + first nourishment he could swallow since the battle of Saturday, + then four days, and exclaimed, with face radiant with gratitude and + pleasure, 'Oh! that is life to me; I feel as if _twenty years were + given me_ to live.' He was shockingly wounded about the neck and + face, and could only take liquid food from a feeding-cup, of which + they had none on board. We left them four, together with a number + of tin dishes, spoons, etc. After hours spent in this way, we + returned to the Hygeia Hospital, stopping on our way to stew a + quantity of dried fruit, which served for supper, reaching the + Hygeia wet through and through, _every garment_ saturated. + Disrobed, and bathing with bay rum, was glad to lie down, every + bone aching, and head and heart throbbing, unwilling to cease work + where so much was to be done, and yet wholly unable to do more. + There I lay, with the sick, wounded, and dying all around, and + slept from sheer exhaustion, the last sounds falling upon my ear + being groans from the operating room." + +Her ministrations to the wounded on the Vanderbilt were unexpectedly +prolonged by the inability of the officers to get the necessary supplies +on board, but two days after she was on the Knickerbocker, a Sanitary +Commission Transport, and on her way to White House Landing where in +company with Miss Charlotte Bradford, she spent the whole night on the +Transport Louisiana, dressing and caring for the wounded. When she left +the boat at eleven o'clock the next night she was obliged to wash all +her skirts which were saturated with the mingled blood of the Union and +Confederate soldiers which covered the floor, as she kneeled between +them to wash their faces. She had torn up all her spare clothing which +could be of use to them for bandages and compresses. From White House +she proceeded to the battle-ground of Fair Oaks, and presently pitched +her tent on the Dudley Farm, near Savage Station, to be near the group +of field hospitals, to which the wounded in the almost daily skirmishes +and the sick smitten with that terrible Chickahominy fever were sent. + +The provision made by the Medical Bureau of the Government at this time +for the care and comfort of the wounded and fever-stricken was small and +often inappropriate. Where tents were provided, they were either of the +wedge pattern or the bivouacking tent of black cloth, and in the hot sun +of a Virginia summer absorbed the sun's rays till they were like ovens; +many of the sick were put into the cabins and miserable shanties of the +vicinity, and not unfrequently in the attics of these, where amid the +intense heat they were left without food or drink except when the +Sanitary Commission's agents or some of the ladies connected with other +organizations, like Mrs. Harris, ministered to their necessities. One +case of this kind, not by any means the worst, but told with a simple +pathos deserves to be quoted: + + "Passing a forlorn-looking house, we were told by a sentinel that a + young Captain of a Maine regiment laid in it very sick; we went in, + no door obstructing, and there upon a stretcher in a corner of the + room opening directly upon the road lay an elegant-looking youth + struggling with the last great enemy. His mind wandered; and as we + approached him he exclaimed: 'Is it not cruel to keep me here when + my mother and sister, whom I have not seen for a year, are in the + next room; they might let me go in?' His mind continued to wander; + only for an instant did he seem to have a glimpse of the reality, + when he drew two rings from his finger, placed there by a loving + mother and sister, handed them to an attendant, saying: 'Carry them + home,' and then he was amid battle scenes, calling out, 'Deploy to + the left;' 'Keep out of that ambuscade;' 'Now go, my braves, double + quick, and strike for your flag! On, on,' and he threw up his arms + as if cheering them, 'you'll win the day;' and so he continued to + talk, whilst death was doing its terrible work. As we looked upon + the beautiful face and manly form, and thought of the mother and + sister in their distant home, surrounded by every luxury wealth + could purchase, worlds seemed all too cheap to give to have him + with them. But this could not be. The soldier of three battles, he + was not willing to admit that he was sick until his strength + failed, and he was actually dying. He was carried to this cheerless + room, a rude table the only furniture; no door, no window-shutters; + the western sun threw its hot rays in upon him,--no cooling shade + for his fevered brow: and so he lay unconscious of the monster's + grasp, which would not relax until he had done his work. His last + expressions told of interest in his men. He was a graduate of + Waterville College. Twenty of his company graduated at the same + institution. He was greatly beloved; his death, even in this + Golgotha, was painfully impressive. There was no time to talk to + him of that spirit-land upon which he was so soon to enter. + Whispered a few verses of Scripture into his ear; he looked with a + sweet smile and thanked me, but his manner betokened no + appreciation of the sacred words. He was an only son. His mother + and sister doted on him. He had everything to bind him to life, but + the mandate had gone forth." + +Of the scenes of the retreat from the Chickahominy to Harrison's +Landing, Mrs. Harris was an active and deeply interested witness; she +remained at Savage Station caring for the wounded, for some time, and +then proceeded to Seven Pines, where a day was passed in preparing the +wounded for the operations deemed necessary, obtaining, at great +personal peril, candles to light the darkness of the field hospital, and +was sitting down, completely exhausted with her trying and wearisome +labors, when an army chaplain, an exception it is to be hoped to most of +his profession, in his unwillingness to serve the wounded, came to her +and said, "They have just brought in a soldier with a leg blown off; he +is in a horrible condition; could you wash him?" Wearied as she was, she +performed the duty tenderly, but it was scarcely finished when death +claimed him. Her escape to White House, and thence to Harrison's +Landing, was made not a minute too soon; she was obliged to abandon her +stores, and to come off on the steamer in a borrowed bonnet. + +At this trying time, her constitutional tendency to despondency took +full possession of her. "The heavens are filled with blackness," she +writes; "I find myself on board the Nelly Baker, on my way to City +Point, with supplies for our poor army, if we still have one; I am not +always hopeful, you see. * * * Alarming accounts come to us. Prepare for +the worst, but hope for the best. We do not doubt we are in a very +critical condition, out of which only the Most High can bring us." This +is not the language of fear or cowardice. There was no disposition on +her part to seek her own personal safety, but while she despaired of +success, she was ready to brave any danger for the sake of the wounded +soldiers. This courage in the midst of despair, is really greater than +that of the battle-field. + +The months of July and August, 1862, except a brief visit home, were +spent at Harrison's Landing, amid the scenes of distress, disease, +wounds and suffering, which abounded there. The malaria of the +Chickahominy swamps had done much to demoralize the finest army ever put +into the field; tens of thousands were ill with it, and these, with the +hosts of wounded accumulated more rapidly than the transports, numerous +as they were, could carry them away. Their condition at Harrison's +Landing was pitiable; the medical bureau seemed to have shared in the +general demoralization. The proper diet, the necessary hospital +arrangements, everything required for the soldiers' restoration to +health, was wanting; the pasty, adhesive mud was everywhere, and the +hospital tents, old, mildewed, and leaky, were pitched in it, and no +floors provided; hard tack, salt junk, fat salt pork, and cold, greasy +bean soup, was the diet provided for men suffering from typhoid fever, +and from wounds which rendered liquid food indispensable. Soft bread was +promised, but was not obtained till just before the breaking up of the +encampment. Nor was the destitution of hospital clothing less complete. +In that disastrous retreat across the peninsula, many of the men had +lost their knapsacks; the government did not provide shirts, drawers, +undershirts, as well as mattresses, sheets, blankets, etc., in anything +like the quantity needed, and men had often lain for weeks without a +change of clothing, in the mud and filth. So far as a few zealous +workers could do it, Mrs. Harris, and her willing and active coadjutors +sought to remedy these evils; the clothing, and the more palatable and +appropriate food they could and did provide for most of those who +remained. Having accomplished all for these which she could, and the +army having left the James River, after spending a few days at the +hospitals near Fortress Monroe, Mrs. Harris came up the Potomac in one +of the Government transports, reaching Alexandria on the 31st of August. +Here she found ample employment in bestowing her tender care upon the +thousands of wounded from Pope's campaigns. + +On the 8th of September, she followed, with her supplies, the army on +its march toward South Mountain and Antietam. She reached Antietam the +day after the battle, and from that time till the 3rd of November, aided +by a corps of most devoted and earnest laborers in the work of mercy, +among whom were Mrs. M. M. Husband, Miss M. M. C. Hall, Mrs. Mary W. +Lee, Miss Tyson, and others. Mrs. Harris gave herself to the work of +caring for the wounded. Sad were the sights she was often called to +witness. She bore ample testimony to the patience and the uncomplaining +spirit of our soldiers; to their filial devotion, to the deep love of +home, and the dear ones left behind, which would be manifested in the +dying hour, by brave, noble-hearted men, and to the patriotism which +even in the death agony, made them rejoice to lay down their lives for +their country. + +Early in November, 1862, Mrs. Harris left Smoketown General Hospital, +near Antietam, and came to Washington. In the hospitals in and around +that city thirty thousand sick and wounded men were lying, some of them +well and tenderly cared for, some like those in the Parole and +Convalescent Camps near Alexandria, (the "Camp Misery" of those days), +suffering from all possible privations. She did all that she could to +supply the more pressing needs of these poor men. After a few weeks +spent in the vicinity of the Capitol, news of the disastrous battle of +Fredericksburg came to Washington. Though deeply depressed by the +intelligence, she hastened to the front to do what she could for the +thousands of sufferers. From this time till about the middle of June, +1863, Mrs. Harris had her quarters in the Lacy House, Falmouth, and +aided by Mrs. Beck and Mrs. Lee, worked faithfully for the soldiers, +taking measures to relieve and cure the ailing, and to prevent illness +from the long and severe exposures to which the troops were subject on +picket duty, or special marches, through that stormy and inclement +winter. This work was in addition to that in the camp and field +hospitals of the Sixth Corps. Another part of her work and one of +special interest and usefulness, was the daily and Sabbath worship at +her rooms, in which such of the soldiers as were disposed, participated. +The contrabands were also the objects of her sympathy and care, and she +assembled them for religious worship and instruction on the Sabbath. + +But the invasion of Pennsylvania was approaching, and she went forward +to Harrisburg, which was at first thought to be threatened, on the 25th +of June. After two or three days, finding that there was no probability +of an immediate battle there, she returned to Philadelphia, and thence +to Washington, which she reached on the 30th of June. The next three +days were spent in the effort to forward hospital stores, and obtain +transportation to Gettysburg. The War Department then, as in most of the +great battles previously, refused to grant this privilege, and though +she sought with tears and her utmost powers of persuasion, the +permission to forward a single car-load of stores, she was denied, even +on the 3rd of July. She could not be restrained, however, from going +where she felt that her services would be imperatively needed, and at +five P. M., of the 3rd of July, she left Washington carrying only some +chloroform and a few stimulants, reached Westminster at four A. M., of +the 4th, and was carried to the battle-field of Gettysburg, in the +ambulance which had brought the wounded General Hancock to Westminster. +The next week was spent day and night amid the horrors of that field of +blood, horrors which no pen can describe. That she and her indefatigable +aid, (this time a young lady from Philadelphia), were able to alleviate +a vast amount of suffering, to give nourishment to many who were +famishing; to dress hundreds of wounds, and to point the dying sinner to +the Saviour, or whisper words of consolation to the agonized heart, was +certain. On the night of the 10th of July, Mrs. Harris and her friend +Miss B. left for Frederick, Maryland, where a battle was expected; but +as only skirmishing took place, they kept on to Warrenton and Warrenton +Junction, where their labors were incessant in caring for the great +numbers of wounded and sick in the hospitals. Constant labor had so far +impaired her health, that on the 18th of August she attempted to get +away from her work for a few days rest; but falling in with the sick men +of the Sixth Michigan Cavalry, she went to work with her usual zeal to +prepare food and comforts for them, and when they were supplied returned +to her work; going to Culpepper Court House, where there were four +hospitals, and remaining there till the last of September. + +The severe battle of Chickamauga, occurring on the 19th and 20th of +September, roused her to the consciousness of the great field for labor, +offered by the Western armies, and about the 1st of October, she went to +Nashville, Tennessee, taking her friends Miss Tyson and Mrs. Beck with +her. It was her intention to go on to Chattanooga, but she found it +impossible at that time to procure transportation, and she and her +friends at once commenced work among the refugees, the "poor white +trash," who were then crowding into Nashville. For a month and more they +labored zealously, and with good results, among these poor, ignorant, +but loyal people, and then Mrs. Harris, after a visit to Louisville to +provide for the inmates of the numerous hospitals in Nashville, a +Thanksgiving dinner, pushed forward to the front, reaching Bridgeport, +on the 28th of November, and Chattanooga the next day. Here she found +abundant work, but her protracted labors had overtasked her strength, +and she was for several weeks so ill that her life was despaired of. She +was unable to resume her labors until the latter part of January, 1864, +and then she worked with a will for the half starved soldiers in the +hospitals, among whom scurvy and hospital gangrene were prevailing. +After two months of faithful labor among these poor fellows, she went +back to Nashville, and spent four or five months more among the +refugees. She returned home early in May, 1864, hoping to take a brief +period of rest, of which she was in great need; but two weeks later, she +was in Fredericksburg, attending to the vast numbers of wounded brought +from the battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, and followed on +with that sad procession of the wounded, the dead, and the dying, to +Port Royal, White House, and City Point. Never had been there so much +need for her labors, and she toiled on, though suffering from constant +prostration of strength, until the close of June, when she was obliged +to relinquish labor for a time, and restore the almost exhausted vital +forces. In September, she was again in the field, this time with the +Army of the Shenandoah, at Winchester, where she ministered to the +wounded for some weeks. She was called home to attend her mother in her +last illness, and for three or four months devoted herself to this +sacred duty. Early in the spring of 1865, she visited North Carolina, +and all the sympathy of her nature was called out in behalf of the poor +released prisoners from Andersonville and Salisbury, to whom she +ministered with her usual faithfulness. At the close of the war, she +returned to her home, more an invalid than ever from the effects of a +sun-stroke received while in attendance on a field hospital in +Virginia. + + + + +MRS. ELIZA C. PORTER + + +Mrs. Eliza C. Porter, the subject of the following sketch, is the wife +of the Rev. Jeremiah Porter, a Presbyterian clergyman of Chicago, +Illinois. + +Of all the noble band of Western women who during the late war devoted +time, thought, and untiring exertions to the care of our country's +defenders, very few, if any are more worthy of honorable mention, and +the praise of a grateful nation, than Mrs. Porter. Freely she gave all, +withholding not even the most precious of her possessions and +efforts--her husband, her sons, her time and strength, the labor of +hands and brain, and, above all, her prayers. Few indeed at a time when +sacrifices were general, and among the women of our country the rule +rather than the exception, made greater sacrifices than she. Her home +was broken up, and the beloved circle scattered, each member in his or +her own appropriate sphere, actively engaged in the great work which the +war unfolded. + +A correspondent thus describes Mrs. Porter; "Mrs. Porter is from +forty-five to fifty years of age, a quiet, modest, lady-like woman, very +gentle in her manners, and admirably qualified to soothe, comfort and +care for the sick and wounded." But this description, by no means +includes, or does justice to the admirable fitness for the work which +her labors have developed, her quiet energy, her great executive and +organizing ability, and her tact ever displayed in doing and saying the +right thing at precisely the right time. Of the value of this latter +qualification few can form an estimate who have not seen excellent and +praiseworthy exertions so often wither unfruitfully for the lack alone +of an adjunct so nearly indispensable. + +Mrs. Porter was early stimulated to exertion and sacrifice. In the +spring of 1861, immediately after the breaking out of the war, while +sitting one morning at her breakfast table, her husband, eldest son and +two nephews being present, she exclaimed fervently; "If I had a hundred +sons, I would gladly send them all forth to this work of putting down +the rebellion." + +The three young men then present all entered the army. One of them after +three years' service was disabled by wounds and constant labor. The +other two gave themselves anew to their country, all they could give. + +During the summer of 1861 Mrs. Porter visited Cairo where hospitals had +been established, and in her labors and experiences there carried what +things were most needed by the sick and wounded soldiers. In October of +that year, Illinois was first roused to co-operation in the work of the +Sanitary Commission. The Northwestern Sanitary Commission was +established, and at the request of Mr. E. W. Blatchford and others, Mrs. +Porter was induced to take charge of the Commission Rooms which were +opened in Chicago. Her zeal and abilities, as well as the hospital +experiences of the summer, had fitted her for the arduous task, and as +opening to her a field of great usefulness, she accepted the +appointment. How she devoted herself to that work, at what sacrifice of +family comfort, and with what success, is well known to the Commission, +and to thousands of its early contributors. + +In April, 1862, she became satisfied that she could be more useful in +the field, by taking good nurses to the army hospitals, and herself +laboring with them. Her husband, who the previous winter had been +commissioned as Chaplain of the First Illinois Light Artillery, was then +at Cairo, where he had been ordered to labor in hospitals; and Mrs. +Porter, visiting Cairo and Paducah, entered earnestly into the work of +placing the nurses she had brought with her from Chicago. Some of these +devoted themselves constantly to the service, and proved equally +successful and valuable. + +At Cairo, Mrs. Porter made the acquaintance of Miss Mary J. Safford, +since known as the "Cairo Angel," and co-operating with her there, and +with Mr. Porter and various surgeons and philanthropists, aided in +receiving, and temporarily caring for seven hundred men from the field +of Pittsburgh Landing, and in transferring them to the hospitals of +Mound City, Illinois. + +From four o'clock in the morning until ten at night, Mrs. Porter and her +friends labored, and then, their work accomplished and their suffering +charges made as comfortable as circumstances would permit, they were +forced, by the absence of hotel accommodations, to spend the night +upon the steamer where the state-rooms being occupied, they slept upon +chairs. + +Soon afterward she went, accompanied by Miss Safford, to Pittsburgh +Landing. There she obtained from the Medical Director, Dr. Charles +McDougal, an order for several female nurses for his department. She +hastened to Chicago, secured them, and accompanying them to Tennessee +placed them at Savannah with Mrs. Mary Bickerdyke, who had been with the +wounded since the battle of Shiloh. From thence she went to Corinth, +then just taken by General Grant. She was accompanied by several +benevolent ladies from Chicago, like herself bent on doing good to the +sick and wounded. At Corinth she joined her husband, and he being +ordered to join his regiment at Memphis, she went thither in his +company. + +Here, principally in the hospital of the First Light Artillery at Fort +Pickering, she labored through the summer of 1862, and afterwards +returned to visit some of the southern towns of Illinois in search of +stores from the farmers, which she added to the supplies forwarded by +the Commission. + +While at Memphis, Mrs. Porter became deeply interested in the welfare +of the escaped slaves and their families congregated there. + +Receiving aid from friends at the North, she organized a school for +them, and spent all her leisure hours in giving them instruction. One of +the nurses she had brought thither desired to aid in the work, and +obtaining needful books and charts she organized a school for Miss +Humphrey at Shiloh. + +Mrs. Porter was very successful in this work. In her youth she had +gathered an infant school among the half-breed children at Mackinac and +Point St. Ignace, and understood well how to deal with these minds +scarce awakened from the dense slumber of ignorance. + +The school flourished, and others entered into the work, and other +schools were established. Ministering to their temporal wants as well, +clothing, feeding, medicating these unfortunate people, visiting their +hospitals as well as those of the army, Mrs. Porter remained at Memphis +and in its vicinity until June, 1863. + +Her schools having by that time become well-established, and general +interest in the scheme awakened, Mrs. Porter felt herself constrained to +once more devote herself exclusively to the soldiers, a large number of +whom were languishing in Southern hospitals in an unhealthy climate. +Failing in her attempts to get them rapidly removed to the North, +through correspondence with the Governors of Ohio and Illinois, she went +North for the purpose of obtaining interviews with these gentlemen. At +Green Bay, Wisconsin, she joined Mrs. Governor Harvey, who was striving +to obtain a State Hospital for Wisconsin. Here she proposed to Senator +T. O. Howe to draft a petition to the President, praying for the +establishment of such hospitals. Judge Howe was greatly pleased to +comply, and accordingly drew up the petition to which Mrs. Howe and +others obtained over eight thousand names. Mrs. Harvey desired Mrs. +Porter to accompany her to Washington with the petition, but she +declined, and Mrs. Harvey went alone, and as the result of her efforts, +succeeded in the establishment of the Harvey Hospital at Madison, +Wisconsin. + +Other parties took up the matter in Illinois, and Mrs. Porter returned +to her beloved work at the South, visiting Natchez and Vicksburg. At the +latter place she joined Mrs. Harvey and Mrs. Bickerdyke, all three +ministering by Sanitary stores and personal aid to the sick and wounded +in hospitals and regiments. + +While on her way, at Memphis, she learned that the battery, in which +were her eldest son and a nephew, had gone with Sherman's army toward +Corinth, and started by rail to overtake them. At Corinth, standing in +the room of the Sanitary Commission, she saw the battery pass in which +were her boys. It was raining, and mud-bespattered and drenched, her son +rode by in an ague chill, and could only give her a look of recognition +as he passed on to the camp two miles beyond. The next morning she went +out to his camp, but missed him, and returning found him at the Sanitary +Rooms in another chill. The next day she nursed him through a third +chill, and then parting she sent her sick boy on his way toward +Knoxville and Chattanooga. + +After a short stay at Vicksburg she once more returned to Illinois to +plead with Governor Yates to bring home his disabled soldiers, then went +back, by way of Louisville and Nashville, to Huntsville, Alabama, where +she met and labored indefatigably with Mrs. Lincoln Clark and her +daughter, of Chicago, and Mrs. Bickerdyke. + +After a few weeks spent there in comforting the sick, pointing the dying +to the Saviour, and ministering to surgeons, officers, and soldiers, she +followed our conquering arms to Chattanooga, Resaca, Kingston, Allatoona +Pass, Marietta and Atlanta. + +As a memorial of her earlier movements in this campaign, we extract the +following letter from the Report for January and February, 1864, of the +Northwestern Sanitary Commission. + +"From a mass of deeply interesting correspondence on hand, we select +the following letter from Rev. Mrs. Jeremiah Porter, who, with Mrs. +Bickerdyke, the widely known and very efficient Hospital Matron, has +been laboring in the hospitals of the 15th Army Corps, most of the time +since the battle of Chickamauga. Mrs. Bickerdyke was assigned to +hospital duty in this corps, at the request of General Sherman, and is +still actively engaged there. This letter affords glimpses of the +hardships and privations of our brave men, whose sufferings in Southern +and Eastern Tennessee during the months of December and January, have +been unparalleled." + + + "IN CAMP, NOVEMBER 4TH FIELD HOSPITAL, + "CHATTANOOGA, _January 24, 1864._ + + "I reached this place on New Year's Eve, making the trip of the few + miles from Bridgeport to Chattanooga, in twenty-four hours. New + Year's morning was very cold. I went immediately to the Field + Hospital about two miles out of town, where I found Mrs. Bickerdyke + hard at work, as usual, endeavoring to comfort the cold and + suffering, sick and wounded. The work done on that day told most + happily on the comfort of the poor wounded men. + + "The wind came sweeping around Lookout Mountain, and uniting with + currents from the valleys of Mission Ridge, pressed in upon the + hospital tents, overturning some, and making the inmates of all + tremble with cold and anxious fear. The cold had been preceded by a + great rain, which added to the general discomfort. Mrs. Bickerdyke + went from tent to tent in the gale, carrying hot bricks and hot + drinks to warm and to cheer the poor fellows. 'She is a power of + good,' said one soldier. 'We fared mighty poor till she came here,' + said another. 'God bless the Sanitary Commission,' said a third, + 'for sending women among us!' The soldiers fully appreciate 'Mother + Bickerdyke,' as they call her, and her work. + + "Mrs. Bickerdyke left Vicksburg at the request of General Sherman, + and other officers of his corps, as they wished to secure her + services for the then approaching battle. The Field Hospital of the + 15th (Sherman's) Army Corps, was situated on the north bank of the + Genesee river, on a slope at the base of Mission Ridge, where, + after the struggle was over, seventeen hundred of our wounded and + exhausted soldiers were brought. Mrs. Bickerdyke reached there + before the din and smoke of battle were well over, and before all + were brought from the field of blood and carnage. There she + remained the only female attendant for four weeks. Never has she + rendered more valuable service. Dr. Newberry arrived in Chattanooga + with Sanitary goods which Mrs. Bickerdyke had the pleasure of + using, as she says, 'just when and where needed,' and never were + Sanitary goods more deeply felt to be _good goods_. 'What could we + do without them?' is a question I often hear raised, and answered + with a hearty 'God bless the Sanitary Commission!' which is now, + everywhere, acknowledged as a great power for good. + + "The Field Hospital was in a forest, about five miles from + Chattanooga, wood was abundant, and the camp was warmed by immense + burning 'log heaps,' which were the only fire-places or + cooking-stoves of the camp or hospitals. Men were detailed to fell + the trees and pile the logs to heat the air, which was very wintry. + And beside them Mrs. Bickerdyke made soup and toast, tea and + coffee, and broiled mutton, without a gridiron, often blistering + her fingers in the process. A house in due time was demolished to + make bunks for the worst cases, and the brick from the chimney was + converted into an oven, when Mrs. Bickerdyke made bread, yeast + having been found in the Chicago boxes, and flour at a neighboring + mill, which had furnished flour to secessionists through the war + until now. Great multitudes were fed from these rude kitchens. + Companies of hungry soldiers were refreshed before those open + fire-places, and from those ovens. On one occasion, a citizen came + and told the men to follow him, he would show them a reserve of + beef and sheep which had been provided for General Bragg's army, + and about thirty head of cattle and twenty sheep was the prize. + Large potash kettles were found, which were used over the huge log + fires, and various kitchen utensils for cooking were brought into + camp from time to time, almost every day adding to our + conveniences. After four weeks of toil and labor, all the soldiers + who were able to leave were furloughed home, and the rest brought + to the large hospital where I am now located. About nine hundred + men are here, most of them convalescents, and waiting anxiously to + have the men and mules supplied with food, so that they may have + the benefit of the cars, which have been promised to take them + home. + + "There was great joy in the encampment last week, at the + announcement of the arrival of a train of cars from Bridgeport. You + at home can have little appreciation of the feelings of the men as + that sound greeted their ears. Our poor soldiers had been reduced + to half and quarter rations for weeks, and those of the poorest + quality. The mules had fallen by the wayside from very starvation. + You cannot go a mile in any direction without seeing these animals + lying dead from starvation--and this state of things had to + continue until the railroad was finished to Chattanooga, and the + cars could bring in sustenance for man and beast. You will not + wonder then at the huzzas of the men in the hospitals and camps, as + the whistle of the long looked for train was heard. + + "The most harrowing scenes are daily witnessed here. A wife came on + yesterday only to learn that her dear husband had died the morning + previous. Her lamentations were heart-breaking. 'Why could he not + have lived until I came? Why?' In the evening came a sister, whose + aged parents had sent her to search for their only son. She also + came too late. The brother had gone to the soldier's grave two days + previous. One continued wail of sorrow goes up from all parts of + this stricken land. + + "I have protracted this letter, I fear, until you are weary. I + write in great haste, not knowing how to take the time from + pressing duties which call me everywhere. Yours, etc., + + "ELIZA C. PORTER." + +In illustration of her services at this time, and of the undercurrent of +terror and sadness of this triumphal march, we can do no better than to +give some extracts from her journal, kept during this period, and +published without her knowledge in the Sanitary Commission Bulletin. It +was commenced on the 15th of May, 1864, as she was following Mrs. +Bickerdyke to Ringgold, Georgia. Together they arrived at Sugar Creek, +where but two miles distant the battle was raging, and spent the night +at General Logan's headquarters, within hearing of its terrific sounds. +All night, and all day Sunday, they passed thus, not being permitted to +go upon the field, but caring for the wounded as rapidly as possible, as +they were brought to the rear. She says: + +"The wounded were brought into hospitals, quickly and roughly prepared +in the forest, as near the field as safety would permit. What a scene +was presented! Precious sons of northern mothers, beloved husbands of +northern wives were already here to undergo amputation, to have wounds +probed and dressed, or broken limbs set and bandaged. Some were writhing +under the surgeon's knife, but bore their sufferings bravely and +uncomplainingly. There were many whose wounds were considered slight, +such as a shot through the hand, arm, or leg, which but for the contrast +with severer cases, would seem dreadful. Never was the presence of women +more joyfully welcomed. It was touching to see those precious boys +looking up into our faces with such hope and gladness. It brought to +their minds mother and home, as each testified, while his wounds were +being dressed; 'This seems a little like having mother about,' was the +reiterated expression of the wounded, as one after another was washed +and had his wounds dressed. Mrs. Bickerdyke and myself assisted in the +operation. Poor boys! how my heart ached that I could do so little. + +"After doing what we could in Hospital No. 1, to render the condition of +the poor fellows tolerable, we proceeded to No. 2, and did what we could +there, distributing our sanitary comforts in the most economical manner, +so as to make them go as far as possible. We found that what we brought +in the ambulance was giving untold comfort to our poor exhausted wounded +men, whose rough hospital couches were made by pine boughs with the +stems cut out, spread upon the ground over which their blankets were +thrown. This forms the bed, and the poor fellows' blouses, saturated +with their own blood, is their only pillow, their knapsacks being left +behind when they went into battle. More sanitary goods are on the way, +and will be brought to relieve the men as soon as possible." + +Amidst all this care for others, there was little thought for her own +comfort. She says in another place: + +"Our bed was composed of dry leaves, spread with a rubber and soldier's +blanket--our own blankets, with pillows and all, having been given out +to sufferers long before night." + +In this diary we find another illustration of her extreme modesty. +Though intended but for the eyes of her own family, she says much of +Mrs. Bickerdyke's work, and but little of her own. Two, three, or four +hundred men, weary and exhausted, would be sent to them, and they must +exert every nerve to feed them, while they snatched a little rest. +Pickles, sauer-kraut, coffee and hard bread they gave to these--for the +sick and wounded they reserved their precious luxuries. With a fire made +out of doors, beneath a burning sun, and in kettles such as they could +find, and of no great capacity, they made coffee, mush, and cooked dried +fruit and vegetables, toiling unweariedly through the long hot days and +far into the nights. Many of the men knew Mrs. Bickerdyke, for many of +them she had nursed through wounds and sickness during the two years +she had been with this army, and she was saluted as "Mother" on all +sides. Not less grateful were they to Mrs. Porter. Again she says: + +"The failing and faint-hearted are constantly coming in. They report +themselves sick, and a few days of rest and nourishing food will restore +most of them, but some have made their last march, and will soon be laid +in a soldier's grave! Mrs. Bickerdyke has sent gruel and other food, +which I have been distributing according to the wants of the prostrate +multitude, all on the _floor_. Some are very sick men. It is a pleasure +to do something for them. They are all dear to some circle, and are a +noble company." + +Again she gives a sort of summary of her work in a letter, dated +Kingston, Georgia, June 1st: "We have received, fed, and comforted at +this hospital, during the past week, between four and five thousand +wounded men, and still they come. All the food and clothing have passed +under our supervision, and, indeed, almost every garment has been given +out by our hands. Almost every article of special diet has been cooked +by Mrs. Bickerdyke personally, and all has been superintended by her. I +speak of this particularly, as it is a wonderful fulfillment of the +promise, 'As thy day is, so shall thy strength be.'" + +Again, writing from Alatoona, Georgia, June 14th: "I have just visited a +tent filled with 'amputated cases,' They are noble young men, the pride +and hope of loving families at the North, but most of them are so low +that they will never again return to them. Each had a special request +for 'something that he could relish,' I made my way quickly down from +the heights, where the hospital tents are pitched, and sought for the +food they craved. I found it among the goods of the Sanitary +Commission--and now the dried currants, cherries, and other fruit are +stewing; we have unsoddered cans containing condensed milk and preserved +fruit--and the poor fellows will not be disappointed in their +expectations." + +In the foregoing sketch we have given but a very brief statement of the +labors and sacrifices of Mrs. Porter which were not intermitted until +the close of the war. We have said that her sons were in the army. Her +eldest son re-enlisted at the close of his first term, and the youngest, +after a hundred days' service, returned to college to fit himself for +future usefulness in his regenerated country. Mr. Porter's services, as +well as those of his wife were of great value, and her son, James B. +Porter, though serving as a private only, in Battery A, First Illinois +Light Artillery, has had frequent and honorable mention. + +At the close of Sherman's campaign Mrs. Porter finished her army service +by caring for the travel-worn and wearied braves as they came into camp +at Washington where, with Mrs. Stephen Barker and others, she devoted +herself to the distribution of sanitary stores, attending the sick and +in various ways comforting and relieving all who needed her aid after +the toils of the Grand March. + + + + +MRS. MARY A. BICKERDYKE. + + +Among the hundreds who with untiring devotion have consecrated their +services to the ministrations of mercy in the Armies of the Union, there +is but one "Mother" Bickerdyke. Others may in various ways have made as +great sacrifices, or displayed equal heroism, but her measures and +methods have been peculiarly her own, and "none but herself can be her +parallel." + +She is a widow, somewhat above forty years of age, of humble origin, and +of but moderate education, with a robust frame and great powers of +endurance, and possessing a rough stirring eloquence, a stern, +determined will and extraordinary executive ability. No woman connected +with the philanthropic work of the army has encountered more obstacles +in the accomplishment of her purposes, and none ever carried them +through more triumphantly. She has two little sons, noble boys, to whom +she is devotedly attached, but her patriotic zeal was even stronger than +her love for her children, and she gave herself up to the cause of her +country most unhesitatingly. + +[Illustration: MRS. MARY A. BICKERDYKE. + Eng^d. by A.H. Ritchie.] + +At the commencement of the war, she was, it is said, housekeeper in the +family of a gentleman in Cleveland, but she commenced her labors among +the sick and wounded men of the army very early, and never relinquished +her work until the close of the conflict. It has been one of her +peculiarities that she devoted her attention almost exclusively to the +care of the private soldiers; the officers, she said, had enough to +look after them; but it was the men, poor fellows, with but a private's +pay, a private's fare, and a private's dangers, to whom she was +particularly called. They were dear to somebody, and she would be a +mother to them. And it should be said, to the honor of the private +soldiers of the Western Armies, that they returned her kindness with +very decided gratitude and affection. If they were her "boys" as she +always insisted, she was "Mother Bickerdyke" to the whole army. Nothing +could exceed the zeal and earnestness with which she has always defended +their interests. For her "boys," she would brave everything; if the +surgeons or attendants at the hospitals were unfaithful, she denounced +them with a terrible vehemence, and always managed to secure their +dismission; if the Government officers were slow or delinquent in +forwarding needed supplies, they were sure to be reported at +headquarters by her, and in such a way that their conduct would be +thoroughly investigated. Yet while thus stern and vindictive toward +those who through negligence or malice wronged the soldiers of the army, +no one could be more tender in dealing with the sick and wounded. On the +battle-field, in the field, camp, post or general hospitals, her +vigorous arm was ever ready to lift the wounded soldier as tenderly as +his own mother could have done, and her ready skill was exerted with +equal facility in dressing his wounds, or in preparing such nourishment +for him as should call back his fleeting strength or tempt his fickle +and failing appetite. She was a capital forager, and for the sake of a +sick soldier she would undergo any peril or danger, and violate military +rules without the least hesitation. For herself she craved +nothing--would accept nothing--if "the boys in the hospital" could be +provided for, she was supremely happy. The soldiers were ready to do +anything in their power for her, while the contrabands regarded her +almost as a divinity, and would fly with unwonted alacrity to obey her +commands. + +We are not certain whether she was an assistant in one of the +hospitals, or succored the wounded in any of the battles in Kentucky or +Missouri, in the autumn of 1861; we believe she was actively engaged in +ministering to the wounded after the fall of Fort Donelson, and at +Shiloh after the battle she rendered great and important services. It +was here, or rather at Savannah, Tennessee, where one of the largest +hospitals was established, soon after the battle, and placed in her +charge, that she first met Mrs. Eliza C. Porter, who was afterward +during Sherman's Grand March her associate and companion. Mrs. Porter +brought from Chicago a number of nurses, whom she placed under Mrs. +Bickerdyke's charge. + +The care of this hospital occupied Mrs. Bickerdyke for some months, and +we lose sight of her till the battle of Perrysville where amid +difficulties which would have appalled any ordinary spirit, she +succeeded in dressing the wounds of the soldiers and supplying them with +nourishment. But with her untiring energy, she was not satisfied with +this. Collecting a large number of negro women who had escaped from the +plantations along the route of the Union Army, she set them to work +gathering the blankets and clothing left on the field, and such of the +clothing of the slain and desperately wounded as could be spared, and +having superintended the washing and repairing of these articles, +distributed them to the wounded who were in great need of additional +clothing. She also caused her corps of contrabands to pick up all the +arms and accoutrements left on the field, and turn them over to the +Union Quartermaster. Having returned after a time to Louisville, she was +appointed Matron of the Gayoso Hospital, at Memphis. This hospital +occupied the Gayoso House, formerly the largest hotel in Memphis. It was +Mrs. Bickerdyke's ambition to make this the best hospital of the six or +eight in the city, some of them buildings erected for hospital purposes. +A large hotel is not the best structure for a model hospital, but before +her energy and industry all obstacles disappeared. By an Army regulation +or custom, convalescent soldiers were employed as nurses, attendants +and ward-masters in the hospitals; an arrangement which though on some +accounts desirable, yet was on others objectionable. The soldiers not +yet fully recovered, were often weak, and incapable of the proper +performance of their duties; they were often, also, peevish and fretful, +and from sheer weakness slept at their posts, to the detriment of the +patients. It was hardly possible with such assistance to maintain that +perfect cleanliness so indispensable for a hospital. Mrs. Bickerdyke +determined from the first that she would not have these convalescents as +nurses and attendants in her hospital. Selecting carefully the more +intelligent of the negro women who flocked into Memphis in great +numbers, she assigned to them the severer work of the hospital, the +washing, cleaning, waiting upon the patients, and with the aid of some +excellent women nurses, paid by Government, she soon made her hospital +by far the best regulated one in the city. The cleanliness and +ventilation were perfect. The patients were carefully and tenderly +nursed, their medicine administered at the required intervals, and the +preparation of the special diet being wholly under Mrs. Bickerdyke's +supervision, herself a cook of remarkable skill, was admirably done. +Nothing escaped her vigilance, and under her watchful care, the affairs +of the hospital were admirably managed. She would not tolerate any +neglect of the men, either on the part of attendants, assistant surgeons +or surgeons. + +On one occasion, visiting one of the wards containing the badly wounded +men, at nearly eleven o'clock, A. M., she found that the assistant +surgeon, in charge of that ward, who had been out on a drunken spree the +night before, and had slept very late, had not yet made out the special +diet list for the ward, and the men, faint and hungry, had had no +breakfast. She denounced him at once in the strongest terms, and as he +came in, and with an attempt at jollity inquired, "Hoity-toity, what's +the matter?" she turned upon him with "Matter enough, you miserable +scoundrel! Here these men, any one of them worth a thousand of you, are +suffered to starve and die, because you want to be off upon a drunk! +Pull off your shoulder-straps," she continued, as he tried feebly to +laugh off her reproaches, "pull off your shoulder-straps, for you shall +not stay in the army a week longer." The surgeon still laughed, but he +turned pale, for he knew her power. She was as good as her word. Within +three days she had caused his discharge. He went to headquarters and +asked to be reinstated. Major-General Sherman, who was then in command, +listened patiently, and then inquired who had procured his discharge. "I +was discharged in consequence of misrepresentation," answered the +surgeon, evasively. "But who caused your discharge?" persisted the +general. "Why," said the surgeon, hesitatingly, "I suppose it was that +woman, that Mrs. Bickerdyke." "Oh!" said Sherman, "well, if it was her, +I can do nothing for you. She ranks me." + +We may say in this connection, that the commanding generals of the +armies in which Mrs. Bickerdyke performed her labors, Generals Sherman, +Hurlburt, Grant, and Sherman again, in his great march, having become +fully satisfied how invaluable she was in her care of the private +soldiers, were always ready to listen to her appeals and to grant her +requests. She was, in particular, a great favorite with both Grant and +Sherman, and had only to ask for anything she needed to get it, if it +was within the power of the commander to obtain it. It should be said in +justice to her, that she never asked anything for herself, and that her +requests were always for something that would promote the welfare of the +men. + +Some months after the discharge of the assistant surgeon, the surgeon in +charge of the hospital, who was a martinet in discipline, and somewhat +irritated for some cause, resolved, in order to annoy her, to compel the +discharge of the negro nurses and attendants, and require her to employ +convalescent soldiers, as the other hospitals were doing. For this +purpose he procured from the medical director an order that none but +convalescent soldiers should be employed as nurses in the Memphis +hospitals. The order was issued, probably, without any knowledge of the +annoyance it was intended to cause Mrs. Bickerdyke. It was to take +effect at nine o'clock the following morning. Mrs. Bickerdyke heard of +it just at night. The Gayoso Hospital was nearly three-fourths of a mile +from headquarters. It was raining heavily, and the mud was deep; but she +was not the woman to be thwarted in her plans by a hospital surgeon, +without a struggle; so, nothing daunted, she sallied out, having first +had the form of an order drawn up, permitting the employment of +contrabands as nurses, at the Gayoso Hospital. Arrived at headquarters, +she was told that the commanding general, Sherman's successor, was ill +and could not be seen. Suspecting that his alleged illness was only +another name for over-indulgence in strong drink, she insisted that she +must and would see him, and in spite of the objections of his +staff-officers, forced her way to his room, and finding him in bed, +roused him partially, propped him up, put a pen in his hand, and made +him sign the order she had brought. This done, she returned to her +hospital, and the next morning, when the surgeon and medical director +came around to enforce the order of the latter, she quietly handed them +the order of the commanding-general, permitting her to retain her +contrabands. + +While in charge of this hospital, she made several journeys to Chicago +and other cities of the Northwest, to procure aid for the suffering +soldiers. The first of these were characteristic of her energy and +resolution. She had found great difficulty in procuring, in the vicinity +of Memphis, the milk, butter, and eggs needed for her hospital. She had +foraged from the secessionists, had traded with them her own clothing +and whatever else she could spare, for these necessaries for her "boys," +until there was nothing more left to trade. The other hospitals were in +about the same condition. She resolved, therefore, to have a dairy for +the hospitals. Going among the farmers of Central Illinois, she begged +two hundred cows and a thousand hens, and returned in triumph with her +flock of hens and her drove of cows. On reaching Memphis, her cattle and +fowls made such a lowing and cackling, that the secessionists of the +city entered their complaints to the commanding general, who assigned +her an island in the Mississippi, opposite the city, where her dairy and +hennery were comfortably accommodated. It was we believe, while on this +expedition that, at the request of Mrs. Hoge and Mrs. Livermore, the +Associate Managers of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission, she visited +Milwaukie, Wisconsin. The Ladies' Aid Society of that city had +memorialized their Chamber of Commerce to make an appropriation to aid +them in procuring supplies for the wounded soldiers, and were that day +to receive the reply of the chamber. + +Mrs. Bickerdyke went with the ladies, and the President of the Chamber, +in his blandest tones, informed them that the Chamber of Commerce had +considered their request, but that they had expended so much recently in +fitting out a regiment, that they thought they must be excused from +making any contributions to the Ladies' Aid Society. Mrs. Bickerdyke +asked the privilege of saying a few words in the way of answer. For half +an hour she held them enchained while she described, in simple but +eloquent language, the life of the private soldier, his privations and +sufferings, the patriotism which animated him, and led him to endure, +without murmuring, hardships, sickness, and even death itself, for his +country. She contrasted this with the sordid love of gain which not only +shrank from these sacrifices in person, but grudged the pittance +necessary to alleviate them, while it made the trifling amount it had +already contributed, an excuse for making no further donations, and +closed with this forcible denunciation: "And you, merchants and rich men +of Milwaukie, living at your ease, dressed in your broad-cloth, knowing +little and caring less for the sufferings of these soldiers from hunger +and thirst, from cold and nakedness, from sickness and wounds, from pain +and death, all incurred that you may roll in wealth, and your homes and +little ones be safe; you will refuse to give aid to these poor soldiers, +because, forsooth, you gave a few dollars some time ago to fit out a +regiment! Shame on you--you are not men--you are cowards--go over to +Canada--this country has no place for such creatures!" The Chamber of +Commerce was not prepared for such a rebuke, and they reconsidered their +action, and made an appropriation at once to the Ladies' Aid Society. + +Immediately after the surrender of Vicksburg, Mrs. Bickerdyke +surrendered her hospital at Memphis into other hands, and went thither +to care for the wounded. She accompanied Sherman's corps in their +expedition to Jackson, and amid all the hardships and exposures of the +field, ministered to the sick and wounded. Cooking for them in the open +air, under the burning sun and the heavy dews, she was much exposed to +the malarious fevers of that sickly climate, but her admirable +constitution enabled her to endure fatigue and exposure, better even +than most of the soldiers. Though always neat and cleanly in person, she +was indifferent to the attractions of dress, and amid the flying sparks +from her fires in the open air, her calico dresses would often take +fire, and as she expressed it, "the soldiers would put her out," _i. e._ +extinguish the sparks which were burning her dresses. In this way it +happened that she had not a single dress which had not been more or less +riddled by these sparks. With her clothing in this plight she visited +Chicago again late in the summer of 1863, and the ladies of the Sanitary +Commission replenished her wardrobe, and soon after sent her a box of +excellent clothing for her own use. Some of the articles in this box, +the gift of those who admired her earnest devotion to the interests of +the soldiers, were richly wrought and trimmed. Among these were two +elegant night dresses, trimmed with ruffles and lace. On receiving the +box, Mrs. Bickerdyke, who was again for the time in charge of a +hospital, reserving for herself only a few of the plainest and cheapest +articles, traded off the remainder, except the two night dresses, with +the rebel women of the vicinity, for butter, eggs, and other delicacies +for her sick soldiers, and as she purposed going to Cairo soon, and +thought that the night dresses would bring more for the same purpose in +Tennessee or Kentucky, she reserved them to be traded on her journey. On +her way, however, at one of the towns on the Mobile and Ohio railroad, +she found two poor fellows who had been discharged from some of the +hospitals with their wounds not yet fully healed, and their exertions in +traveling had caused them to break out afresh. Here they were, in a +miserable shanty, sick, bleeding, hungry, penniless, and with only their +soiled clothing. Mrs. Bickerdyke at once took them in hand. Washing +their wounds and staunching the blood, she tore off the lower portions +of the night dresses for bandages, and as the men had no shirts, she +arrayed them in the remainder of these dresses, ruffles, lace, and all. +The soldiers modestly demurred a little at the ruffles and lace, but +Mrs. Bickerdyke suggested to them that if any inquiries were made, they +could say that they had been plundering the secessionists. + +Visiting Chicago at this time, she was again invited to Milwaukie, and +went with the ladies to the Chamber of Commerce. Here she was very +politely received, and the President informed her that the Chamber +feeling deeply impressed with the good work, she and the other ladies +were doing in behalf of the soldiers, had voted a contribution of twelve +hundred dollars a month to the Ladies' Aid Society. Mrs. Bickerdyke was +not, however, disposed to tender them the congratulations, to which +perhaps they believed themselves entitled for their liberality. "You +believe yourselves very generous, no doubt, gentlemen," she said, "and +think that because you have voted this pretty sum, you are doing all +that is required of you. But I have in my hospital a hundred poor +soldiers who have done more than any of you. Who of you would contribute +a leg, an arm, or an eye, instead of what you have done? How many +hundred or thousand dollars would you consider an equivalent for +either? Don't deceive yourselves, gentlemen. The poor soldier who has +given an arm, a leg, or an eye to his country (and many of them have +given more than one) has given more than you have or can. How much more, +then, he who has given his life? No! gentlemen, you must set your +standard higher yet or you will not come up to the full measure of +liberality in giving." + +On her return to the South Mrs. Bickerdyke spent a few weeks at +Huntsville, Alabama, in charge of a hospital, and then joined Sherman's +Fifteenth Corps in their rapid march toward Chattanooga. It will be +remembered that Sherman's Corps, or rather the Army of the Tennessee +which he now commanded were hurried into action immediately on their +arrival at Chattanooga. To them was assigned the duty of making the +attack against that portion of the enemy who were posted on the northern +termination of Mission Ridge, and the persistent assaults on Fort +Buckner were attended with severe slaughter, though they made the +victory elsewhere possible. The Field Hospital of the Fifteenth Army +Corps was situated on the north bank of the Genesee River, on a slope at +the base of Mission Ridge, where after the struggle was over seventeen +hundred of our wounded and exhausted soldiers were brought. Mrs. +Bickerdyke reached there before the din and smoke of battle were well +over, and before all were brought from the field of blood and carnage. +There she remained the only female attendant for four weeks. The +supplies she had been able to bring with her soon gave out, but Dr. +Newberry, the Western Secretary of the Sanitary Commission, presently +arrived with an ample supply which she used freely. + +The Field Hospital was in a forest, about five miles from Chattanooga; +wood was abundant, and the camp was warmed by immense burning log heaps, +which were the only fire-places or cooking-stoves of the camp or +hospitals. Men were detailed to fell the trees and pile the logs to heat +the air, which was very wintry. Beside these fires Mrs. Bickerdyke made +soup and toast, tea and coffee, and broiled mutton without a gridiron, +often blistering her fingers in the process. A house in due time was +demolished to make bunks for the worst cases, and the bricks from the +chimney were converted into an oven, where Mrs. Bickerdyke made bread, +yeast having been found in the Chicago boxes, and flour at a neighboring +mill which had furnished flour to secessionists through the war until +that time. Great multitudes were fed from these rude kitchens, and from +time to time other conveniences were added and the labor made somewhat +less exhausting. After four weeks of severe toil all the soldiers who +were able to leave were furloughed home, and the remainder, about nine +hundred, brought to a more comfortable Field Hospital, two miles from +Chattanooga. In this hospital Mrs. Bickerdyke continued her work, being +joined, New Year's eve, by Mrs. Eliza C. Porter, who thenceforward was +her constant associate, both being employed by the Northwestern Sanitary +Commission to attend to this work of special field relief in that army. +Mrs. Porter says that when she arrived there it was very cold, and the +wind which had followed a heavy rain was very piercing, overturning some +of the hospital tents and causing the inmates of all to tremble with +cold and anxious fear. Mrs. Bickerdyke was going from tent to tent in +the gale carrying hot bricks and hot drinks to warm and cheer the poor +fellows. It was touching to see the strong attachment the soldiers felt +for her. "She is a power of good," said one soldier. "We fared mighty +poor till she came here," said another. "God bless the Sanitary +Commission," said a third, "for sending women among us." True to her +attachment to the private soldiers, Mrs. Bickerdyke early sought an +interview with General Grant, and told him in her plain way, that the +surgeons in some of the hospitals were great rascals, and neglected the +men shamefully; and that unless they were removed and faithful men put +in their places, he would lose hundreds and perhaps thousands of his +veteran soldiers whom he could ill afford to spare. "You must not," she +said, "trust anybody's report in this matter, but see to it yourself. +Disguise yourself so that the surgeons or men won't know you, and go +around to the hospitals and see for yourself how the men are neglected." + +"But, Mrs. Bickerdyke," said the general, "that is the business of my +medical director, he must attend to that. I can't see to everything in +person." + +"Well," was her reply, "leave it to him if you think best; but if you do +you will lose your men." + +The general made no promises, but a night or two later the hospitals +were visited by a stranger who made very particular inquiries, and +within a week about half a dozen surgeons were dismissed and more +efficient men put in their places. At the opening of spring, Mrs. +Bickerdyke and Mrs. Porter returned to Huntsville and superintended the +distribution of Sanitary Supplies in the hospitals there, and at Pulaski +and other points. + +No sooner was General Sherman prepared to move on his Atlanta Campaign +than he sent word to Mrs. Bickerdyke to come up and accompany the army +in its march. She accordingly left Huntsville on the 10th of May for +Chattanooga, and from thence went immediately to Ringgold, near which +town the army was then stationed. As the army moved forward to Dalton +and Resaca, she sent forward teams laden with supplies, and followed +them in an ambulance the next day. On the 16th of May she and her +associate Mrs. Porter proceeded at once to the Field Hospitals which +were as near as safety would permit to the hard-fought battle-ground of +the previous day, washed the wounded, dressed their wounds, and +administered to them such nourishment as could be prepared. There was at +first some little delay in the receipt of sanitary stores, but with +wonderful tact and ingenuity Mrs. Bickerdyke succeeded in making +palatable dishes for the sick from the hard tack, coffee and other items +of the soldier's ration. Soon however the sanitary goods came up, and +thenceforward, with her rare executive ability the department of special +relief for that portion of the army to which she was assigned was +maintained in its highest condition of efficiency, in spite of +disabilities which would have completely discouraged any woman of less +resolution. The diary of her associate, Mrs. Porter, is full of +allusions to the extraordinary exertions of Mrs. Bickerdyke during this +campaign. We quote two or three as examples. + +"To-day every kettle which could be raised has been used in making +coffee. Mrs. Bickerdyke has made barrel after barrel, and it is a +comfort to know that multitudes are reached, and cheered, and saved. Two +hundred and sixty slightly wounded men just came to this point on the +cars on their way North, all hungry and weary, saying, 'We are so +thirsty,' 'Do give us something to eat,' Mrs. Bickerdyke was engaged in +giving out supper to the three hundred in wards here, and told them she +could not feed them then. They turned away in sorrow and were leaving, +when learning who they were--wounded men of the Twentieth Army Corps, +and their necessity--she told them to wait a few moments, she would +attend to them. She gave them coffee, krout, and potato pickles, which +are never eaten but by famished men, and for once they were a luxury. I +stood in the room where our supplies were deposited, giving to some +crackers, to some pickles, and to each hungry man something. One of the +green cards that come on all the stores of the Northwestern Commission +Mrs. Bickerdyke had tacked upon the wall, and this told the inquirers +from what branch of the Commission the supplies were obtained. The men +were mostly from New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and most +grateful recipients were they of the generosity of the Northwest. You +can imagine the effort made to supply two barrels of coffee with only +three camp-kettles, two iron boilers holding two pailfuls, one small +iron tea-kettle and one sauce-pan, to make it in. These all placed over +a dry rail-fire were boiled in double-quick time, and were filled and +refilled till all had a portion. Chicago canned milk never gave more +comfort than on this occasion, I assure you. Our cooking conveniences +are much the same as at Mission Ridge, but there is to be a change soon. +The Medical Director informs me that this is to be a recovering +hospital, and cooking apparatus will soon be provided." + +"Mrs. Bickerdyke was greeted on the street by a soldier on horseback; +'Mother,' said he, 'is that you? Don't you remember me? I was in the +hospital, my arm amputated, and I was saved by your kindness. I am so +glad to see you,' giving her a beautiful bouquet of roses, the only +token of grateful remembrance he could command. Mrs. Bickerdyke daily +receives such greetings from men, who say they have been saved from +death by her efforts." + +"To-day three hundred and twelve men have been fed and comforted here. +This morning Mrs. Bickerdyke made mush for two hundred, having gathered +up in various places kettles, so that by great effort out of doors she +can cook something. Potatoes, received from Iowa, and dried fruit and +canned, have been distributed among the men. Many of them are from Iowa. +'What could we do without these stores?' is the constant inquiry." + +"Almost every article of special diet has been cooked by Mrs. Bickerdyke +personally, and all has been superintended by her." + +After the close of the Atlanta Campaign and the convalescence of the +greater part of the wounded, Mrs. Bickerdyke returned to Chicago for a +brief period of rest, but was soon called to Nashville and Franklin to +attend the wounded of General Thomas's Army after the campaign which +ended in Hood's utter discomfiture. When Savannah was surrendered she +hastened thither, and after organizing the supply department of its +hospitals, she and Mrs. Porter, who still accompanied her, established +their system of Field Relief in Sherman's Campaign through the +Carolinas. When at last in June, 1865, Sherman's veterans reached the +National Capitol and were to be mustered out, the Sanitary Commission +commenced its work of furnishing the supplies of clothing and other +needful articles to these grim soldiers, to make their homeward journey +more comfortable and their appearance to their families more agreeable. +The work of distribution in the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Army Corps was +assigned to Mrs. Bickerdyke and Mrs. Porter, and was performed, says +Mrs. Barker, who had the general superintendence of the distribution, +admirably. With this labor Mrs. Bickerdyke's connection with the +sanitary work of the army ceased. She had, however, been too long +engaged in philanthropic labor, to be content to sit down quietly, and +lead a life of inaction; and after a brief period of rest, she began to +gather the more helpless of the freedmen, in Chicago, and has since +devoted her time and efforts to a "Freedmen's Home and Refuge" in that +city, in which she is accomplishing great good. Out of the host of +zealous workers in the hospitals and in the field, none have borne to +their homes in greater measure the hearty and earnest love of the +soldiers, as none had been more zealously and persistently devoted to +their interests. + + + + +[Illustration: MISS MARGARET E. BRECKENRIDGE. + Eng^d. by A.H. Ritchie.] + + +MARGARET E. BRECKINRIDGE. + + +A true heroine of the war was Margaret Elizabeth Breckinridge. Patient, +courageous, self-forgetting, steady of purpose and cheerful in spirit, +she belonged by nature to the heroic order, while all the circumstances +of her early life tended to mature and prepare her for her destined +work. Had her lot been cast in the dark days of religious intolerance +and persecution, her steadfast enthusiasm and holy zeal would have +earned for her a martyr's cross and crown; but, born in this glorious +nineteenth century, and reared in an atmosphere of liberal thought and +active humanity, the first spark of patriotism that flashed across the +startled North at the outbreak of the rebellion, set all her soul aglow, +and made it henceforth an altar of living sacrifice, a burning and a +shining light, to the end of her days. Dearer to her gentle spirit than +any martyr's crown, must have been the consciousness that this God-given +light had proved a guiding beacon to many a faltering soul feeling its +way into the dim beyond, out of the drear loneliness of camp or +hospital. With her slight form, her bright face, and her musical voice, +she seemed a ministering angel to the sick and suffering soldiers, while +her sweet womanly purity and her tender devotion to their wants made her +almost an object of worship among them. "Ain't she an angel?" said a +gray-headed soldier as he watched her one morning as she was busy +getting breakfast for the boys on the steamer "City of Alton." "She +never seems to tire, she is always smiling, and don't seem to walk--she +flies, all but--God bless her!" Another, a soldier boy of seventeen +said to her, as she was smoothing his hair and saying cheering words +about mother and home to him, "Ma'am, where do you come from? How could +such a lady as you are come down here, to take care of us poor, sick, +dirty boys?" She answered--"I consider it an honor to wait on you, and +wash off the mud you've waded through for me." + +Another asked this favor of her, "Lady, please write down your name, and +let me look at it, and take it home, to show my wife who wrote my +letters, and combed my hair and fed me. I don't believe you're like +other people." In one of her letters she says, "I am often touched with +their anxiety not to give trouble, not to _bother_, as they say. That +same evening I found a poor, exhausted fellow, lying on a stretcher, on +which he had just been brought in. There was no bed for him just then, +and he was to remain there for the present, and looked uncomfortable +enough, with his knapsack for a pillow. 'I know some hot tea will do you +good,' I said. 'Yes, ma'am,' he answered, 'but I am too weak to sit up +with nothing to lean against; it's no matter,--don't bother about me,' +but his eyes were fixed longingly on the smoking tea. Everybody was +busy, not even a nurse in sight, but the poor man must have his tea. I +pushed away the knapsack, raised his head, and seated myself on the end +of the stretcher; and, as I drew his poor tired head back upon my +shoulder and half held him, he seemed, with all his pleasure and eager +enjoyment of the tea, to be troubled at my being so bothered with him. +He forgot I had come so many hundred miles on purpose to be bothered." + +One can hardly read this simple unaffected statement of hers, without +instinctively recalling the touching story told of a soldier in one of +the hospitals of the Crimea who, when Florence Nightingale had passed, +turned and kissed the place upon his pillow where her shadow fell. The +sweet name of the fair English nurse might well be claimed by many of +our American heroines, but, when we think of Margaret's pure voice, +singing hymns with the soldiers on the hospital-boat, filling the +desolate woods along the Mississippi shores with solemn music in the +still night, we feel that it belongs especially to her and that we may +call her, without offense to the others, _our Florence Nightingale_. + +Her great power of adaptation served her well in her chosen vocation. +Unmindful of herself, and always considerate of others, she could suit +herself to the need of the moment and was equally at home in making tea +and toast for the hungry, dressing ghastly wounds for the sufferers, and +in singing hymns and talking of spiritual things with the sick and +dying. + +She found indeed her true vocation. She saw her way and walked +fearlessly in it; she knew her work and did it with all her heart and +soul. When she first began to visit the hospitals in and around St. +Louis, she wrote "I shall never be satisfied till I get right into a +hospital, to live till the war is over. If you are constantly with the +men, you have hundreds of opportunities and moments of influence in +which you can gain their attention and their hearts, and do more good +than in any missionary field." Once, on board a steamer near Vicksburg, +during the fearful winter siege of that city, some one said to her, "You +must hold back, you are going beyond your strength, you will die if you +are not more prudent!" "Well," said she, with thrilling earnestness, +"what if I do? Shall men come here by tens of thousands and fight, and +suffer, and die, and shall not some women be willing to die to sustain +and succor them?" No wonder that such sincerity won all hearts and +carried all before it! Alas! the brave spirit was stronger than the +frail casket that encased it, and that yielded inevitably to the heavy +demands that were made upon it. + +A rare and consistent life was hers, a worthy and heroic death. Let us +stop a moment to admire the truth and beauty of the one, and to do +reverence to the deep devotion of the other. The following sketch is +gathered from the pages of a "Memorial" published by her friends +shortly after her death, which occurred at Niagara Falls, July 27th, +1864. + +"Margaret Elizabeth Breckinridge was born in Philadelphia, March 24th, +1832. Her paternal grandfather was John Breckinridge, of Kentucky, once +Attorney-General of the United States. Her father, the Rev. John +Breckinridge, D. D., was his second son, a man of talent and influence, +from whom Margaret inherited good gifts of mind and heart, and an +honored name. Her mother, who was the daughter of Rev. Samuel Miller, of +Princeton, N. J., died when Margaret was only six years old, at which +time she and her sister Mary went to live with their grandparents at +Princeton. Their father dying three years afterwards, the home of the +grandparents became their permanent abode. They had one brother, now +Judge Breckinridge of St. Louis. Margaret's school-days were pleasantly +passed, for she had a genuine love of study, an active intellect, and a +very retentive memory. When her school education was over, she still +continued her studies, and never gave up her prescribed course until the +great work came upon her which absorbed all her time and powers. In the +year 1852 her sister married Mr. Peter A. Porter of Niagara Falls, a +gentleman of culture and accomplishments, a noble man, a true patriot. +At his house the resort of literary and scientific men, the shelter of +the poor and friendless, the centre of sweet social life and domestic +peace, Margaret found for a time a happy home. + +"Between her and her sister, Mrs. Porter, there was genuine sisterly +love, a fine intellectual sympathy, and a deep and tender affection. The +first great trial of Miss Breckinridge's life was the death of this +beloved sister which occurred in 1854, only two years after her +marriage. She died of cholera, after an illness of only a few hours. +Margaret had left her but a few days before, in perfect health. The +shock was so terrible that for many years she could not speak her +sister's name without deep emotion; but she was too brave and too truly +religious to allow this blow, dreadful as it was, to impair her +usefulness or unfit her for her destined work. Her religion was +eminently practical and energetic. She was a constant and faithful +Sunday-school teacher, and devoted her attention especially to the +colored people in whom she had a deep interest. She had become by +inheritance the owner of several slaves in Kentucky, who were a source +of great anxiety to her, and the will of her father, though carefully +designed to secure their freedom, had become so entangled with state +laws, subsequently made, as to prevent her, during her life, from +carrying out what was his wish as well as her own. By her will she +directed that they should be freed as soon as possible, and something +given them to provide against the first uncertainties of self-support." + +So the beginning of the war found Margaret ripe and ready for her noble +womanly work; trained to self-reliance, accustomed to using her powers +in the service of others, tender, brave, and enthusiastic, chastened by +a life-long sorrow, she longed to devote herself to her country, and to +do all in her power to help on its noble defenders. During the first +year of the struggle duty constrained her to remain at home, but heart +and hands worked bravely all the time, and even her ready pen was +pressed into the service. + +But Margaret could not be satisfied to remain with the Home-Guards. She +must be close to the scene of action and in the foremost ranks. She +determined to become a hospital-nurse. Her anxious friends combated her +resolution in vain; they felt that her slender frame and excitable +temperament could not bear the stress and strain of hospital work, but +she had set her mark and must press onward let life or death be the +issue. In April, 1862, Miss Breckinridge set out for the West, stopping +a few weeks at Baltimore on her way. Then she commenced her hospital +service; then, too, she contracted measles, and, by the time she reached +Lexington, Kentucky, her destination, she was quite ill; but the delay +was only temporary, and soon she was again absorbed in her work. A +guerrilla raid, under John Morgan, brought her face to face with the +realities of war, and soon after, early in September she found herself +in a beleaguered city, actually in the grasp of the Rebels, Kirby Smith +holding possession of Lexington and its neighborhood for about six +weeks. It is quite evident that Miss Breckinridge improved this occasion +to air her loyal sentiments and give such help and courage to Unionists +as lay in her power. In a letter written just after this invasion she +says, "At that very time, a train of ambulances, bringing our sick and +wounded from Richmond, was leaving town on its way to Cincinnati. It was +a sight to stir every loyal heart; and so the Union people thronged +round them to cheer them up with pleasant, hopeful words, to bid them +God speed, and last, but not least, to fill their haversacks and +canteens. We went, thinking it possible we might be ordered off by the +guard, but they only stood off, scowling and wondering. + +"'Good-by,' said the poor fellows from the ambulances, 'we're coming +back as soon as ever we get well.' + +"'Yes, yes,' we whispered, for there were spies all around us, 'and +every one of you bring a regiment with you.'" + +As soon as these alarms were over, and Kentucky freed from rebel +invaders, Miss Breckinridge went on to St. Louis, to spend the winter +with her brother. As soon as she arrived, she began to visit the +hospitals of the city and its neighborhood, but her chief work, and that +from the effects of which she never recovered, was the service she +undertook upon the hospital boats, which were sent down the Mississippi +to bring up the sick and wounded from the posts below. She made two +excursions of this kind, full of intense experiences, both of pleasure +and pain. These boats went down the river empty unless they chanced to +carry companies of soldiers to rejoin their regiments, but they returned +crowded with the sick and dying, emaciated, fever-stricken men, sadly in +need of tender nursing but with scarcely a single comfort at command. +Several of the nurses broke down under this arduous and difficult +service, but Margaret congratulated herself that she had held out to the +end. These expeditions were not without danger as well as privation. One +of her letters records a narrow escape. "To give you an idea of the +audacity of these guerrillas; while we lay at Memphis that afternoon, in +broad daylight, a party of six, dressed in our uniform, went on board a +government boat, lying just across the river, and asked to be taken as +passengers six miles up the river, which was granted; but they had no +sooner left the shore than they drew their pistols, overpowered the +crew, and made them go up eighteen miles to meet another government boat +coming down loaded with stores, tied the boats together and burned them, +setting the crew of each adrift in their own yawl, and nobody knew it +till they reached Memphis, two hours later. Being able to hear nothing +of the wounded, we pushed on to Helena, ninety miles below, and here +dangers thickened. We saw the guerrillas burning cotton, with our own +eyes, along the shore, we saw their little skiffs hid away among the +bushes on the shore; and just before we got to Helena, had a most narrow +escape from their clutches. A signal to land on the river was in +ordinary times never disregarded, as the way business of freight and +passengers was the chief profit often of the trip, and it seems hard for +pilots and captains always to be on their guard against a decoy. At this +landing the signal was given, all as it should be, and we were just +rounding to, when, with a sudden jerk, the boat swung round into the +stream again. The mistake was discovered in time, by a government +officer on board, and we escaped an ambush. Just think! we might have +been prisoners in Mississippi now, but God meant better things for us +than that." + +Her tender heart was moved by the sufferings of the wretched colored +people at Helena. She says, "But oh! the contrabands! my heart did ache +for them. Such wretched, uncared-for, sad-looking creatures I never saw. +They come in such swarms that it is impossible to do anything for them, +unless benevolent people take the thing into their hands. They have a +little settlement in one end of the town, and the government furnishes +them rations, but they cannot all get work, even if they were all able +and willing to do it; then they get sick from exposure, and now the +small pox is making terrible havoc among them. They have a hospital of +their own, and one of our Union Aid ladies has gone down to superintend +it, and get it into some order, but it seems as if there was nothing +before them but suffering for many a long day to come, and that sad, sad +truth came back to me so often as I went about among them, that no +people ever gained their freedom without a baptism of fire." + +Miss Breckinridge returned to St. Louis on a small hospital-boat on +which there were one hundred and sixty patients in care of herself and +one other lady. A few extracts from one of her letters will show what +brave work it gave her to do. + +"It was on Sunday morning, 25th of January, that Mrs. C. and I went on +board the hospital boat which had received its sad freight the day +before, and was to leave at once for St. Louis, and it would be +impossible to describe the scene which presented itself to me as I stood +in the door of the cabin. Lying on the floor, with nothing under them +but a tarpaulin and their blankets, were crowded fifty men, many of them +with death written on their faces; and looking through the half-open +doors of the state-rooms, we saw that they contained as many more. +Young, boyish faces, old and thin from suffering, great restless eyes +that were fixed on nothing, incoherent ravings of those who were wild +with fever, and hollow coughs on every side--this, and much more that I +do not want to recall, was our welcome to our new work; but, as we +passed between the two long rows, back to our own cabin, pleasant smiles +came to the lips of some, others looked after us wonderingly, and one +poor boy whispered, 'Oh, but it is good to see the ladies come in!' I +took one long look into Mrs. C's eyes to see how much strength and +courage was hidden in them. We asked each other, not in words, but in +those fine electric thrills by which one soul questions another, 'Can we +bring strength, and hope, and comfort to these poor suffering men?' and +the answer was, 'Yes, by God's help we will!' The first thing was to +give them something like a comfortable bed, and, Sunday though it was, +we went to work to run up our sheets into bed-sacks. Every man that had +strength enough to stagger was pressed into the service, and by night +most of them had something softer than a tarpaulin to sleep on. 'Oh, I +am so comfortable now!' some of them said; 'I think I can sleep +to-night,' exclaimed one little fellow, half-laughing with pleasure. The +next thing was to provide something that sick people could eat, for +coffee and bread was poor food for most of them. We had two little +stoves, one in the cabin and one in the chambermaid's room, and here, +the whole time we were on board, we had to do the cooking for a hundred +men. Twenty times that day I fully made up my mind to cry with vexation, +and twenty times that day I laughed instead; and surely, a kettle of tea +was never made under so many difficulties as the one I made that +morning. The kettle lid was not to be found, the water simmered and sang +at its leisure, and when I asked for the poker I could get nothing but +an old bayonet, and, all the time, through the half-open door behind me, +I heard the poor hungry fellows asking the nurses, 'Where is that tea +the lady promised me?' or 'When will my toast come?' But there must be +an end to all things, and when I carried them their tea and toast, and +heard them pronounce it 'plaguey good,' and 'awful nice,' it was more +than a recompense for all the worry. + +"One great trouble was the intense cold. We could not keep life in some +of the poor emaciated frames. 'Oh dear! I shall freeze to death!' one +poor little fellow groaned, as I passed him. Blankets seemed to have no +effect upon them, and at last we had to keep canteens filled with +boiling water at their feet." * * * + +"There was one poor boy about whom from the first I had been very +anxious. He drooped and faded from day to day before my eyes. Nothing +but constant stimulants seemed to keep him alive, and, at last I +summoned courage to tell him--oh, how hard it was!--that he could not +live many hours. 'Are you willing to die?' I asked him. He closed his +eyes, and was silent a moment; then came that passionate exclamation +which I have heard so often, 'My mother, oh! my mother!' and, to the +last, though I believe God gave him strength to trust in Christ, and +willingness to die, he longed for his mother. I had to leave him, and, +not long after, he sent for me to come, that he was dying, and wanted me +to sing to him. He prayed for himself in the most touching words; he +confessed that he had been a wicked boy, and then with one last message +for that dear mother, turned his face to the pillow and died; and so, +one by one, we saw them pass away, and all the little keepsakes and +treasures they had loved and kept about them, laid away to be sent home +to those they should never see again. Oh, it was heart-breaking to see +that!" + +After the "sad freight" had reached its destination, and the care and +responsibility are over, true woman that she is, she breaks down and +cries over it all, but brightens up, and looking back upon it declares: +"I certainly never had so much comfort and satisfaction in anything in +all my life, and the tearful thanks of those who thought in their +gratitude that they owed a great deal more to us than they did, the +blessings breathed from dying lips, and the comfort it has been to +friends at home to hear all about the last sad hours of those they love, +and know their dying messages of love to them; all this is a rich, and +full, and overflowing reward for any labor and for any sacrifice." Again +she says: "There is a soldier's song of which they are very fond, one +verse of which often comes back to me: + + 'So I've had a sight of drilling, + And I've roughed it many days; + Yes, and death has nearly had me, + Yet, I think, the service pays.' + +Indeed it does,--richly, abundantly, blessedly, and I thank God that he +has honored me by letting me do a little and suffer a little for this +grand old Union, and the dear, brave fellows who are fighting for it." + +Early in March she returned to St. Louis, expecting to make another trip +down the river, but her work was nearly over, and the seeds of disease +sown in her winter's campaign were already overmastering her delicate +constitution. She determined to go eastward for rest and recovery, +intending to return in the autumn and fix herself in one of the Western +hospitals, where she could devote herself to her beloved work while the +war lasted. At this time she writes to her Eastern friends: "I shall +soon turn my face eastward, and I have more and more to do as my time +here grows shorter. I have been at the hospital every day this week, and +at the Government rooms, where we prepare the Government work for the +poor women, four hundred of whom we supply with work every week. I have +also a family of refugees to look after, so I do not lack employment." + +Early in June, Miss Breckinridge reached Niagara on her way to the East, +where she remained for a month. For a year she struggled against disease +and weakness, longing all the time to be at work again, making vain +plans for the time when she should be "well and strong, and able to go +back to the hospitals." With this cherished scheme in view she went in +the early part of May, 1864, into the Episcopal Hospital in +Philadelphia, that she might acquire experience in nursing, especially +in surgical cases, so that in the autumn, she could begin her labor of +love among the soldiers more efficiently and confidently than before. +She went to work with her usual energy and promptness, following the +surgical nurse every day through the wards, learning the best methods of +bandaging and treating the various wounds. She was not satisfied with +merely seeing this done, but often washed and dressed the wounds with +her own hands, saying, "I shall be able to do this for the soldiers when +I get back to the army." The patients could not understand this, and +would often expostulate, saying, "Oh no, Miss, that is not for the like +of you to do!" but she would playfully insist and have her way. Nor was +she satisfied to gain so much without giving something in return. She +went from bed to bed, encouraging the despondent, cheering the weak and +miserable, reading to them from her little Testament, and singing sweet +hymns at twilight,--a ministering angel here as well as on the +hospital-boats on the Mississippi. + +On the 2d of June she had an attack of erysipelas, which however was not +considered alarming, and under which she was patient and cheerful. + +Then came news of the fighting before Richmond and of the probability +that her brother-in-law, Colonel Porter,[E] had fallen. Her friends +concealed it from her until the probability became a sad certainty, and +then they were obliged to reveal it to her. The blow fell upon her with +overwhelming force. One wild cry of agony, one hour of unmitigated +sorrow, and then she sweetly and submissively bowed herself to the will +of her Heavenly Father, and was still; but the shock was too great for +the wearied body and the bereaved heart. Gathering up her small remnant +of strength and courage she went to Baltimore to join the afflicted +family of Colonel Porter, saying characteristically, "I can do more good +with them than anywhere else just now." After a week's rest in Baltimore +she proceeded with them to Niagara, bearing the journey apparently well, +but the night after her arrival she became alarmingly ill, and it was +soon evident that she could not recover from her extreme exhaustion and +prostration. For five weeks her life hung trembling in the balance, and +then the silver cord was loosed and she went to join her dear ones gone +before. + +"Underneath are the everlasting arms," she said to a friend who bent +anxiously over her during her sickness. Yes, "the everlasting arms" +upheld her in all her courageous heroic earthly work; they cradle her +spirit now in eternal rest. + +[Footnote E: This truly Christian hero, the son of General Peter A. +Porter of Niagara Falls, was one of those rare spirits, who surrounded +by everything which could make life blissful, were led by the promptings +of a lofty and self-sacrificing patriotism to devote their lives to +their country. He was killed in the severe battle of June 3, 1864. His +first wife who had deceased some years before was a sister of Margaret +Breckinridge, and the second who survived him was her cousin. One of the +delegates of the Christian Commission writes concerning him:--"Colonel +Peter B. Porter, of Niagara Falls, commanding the 8th New York heavy +artillery, was killed within five or six rods of the rebel lines. Seven +wounds were found upon his body. One in his neck, one between his +shoulders, one on the right side, and lower part of the stomach, one on +the left, and near his heart, and two in his legs. The evening before he +said, 'that if the charge was made he would not come out alive; but that +if required, he would go into it.' The last words heard from him were: +'_Boys, follow me._' We notice the following extract from his will, +which was made before entering the service, which shows the man: + +"Feeling to its full extent the probability that I may not return from +the path of duty on which I have entered--if it please God that it be +so--I can say with truth I have entered on the career of danger with no +ambitious aspirations, nor with the idea that I am fitted by nature or +experience to be of any important service to the Government; but in +obedience to the call of duty demanding every citizen to contribute what +he could in means, labor, or life to sustain the government of his +country; a sacrifice made, too, the more willingly by me when I consider +how singularly benefited I have been by the institutions of this land, +and that up to this time all the blessings of life have been showered +upon me beyond what falls usually to the lot of man."] + + + + +MRS. STEPHEN BARKER + + +Mrs. Barker is a lady of great refinement and high culture, the sister +of the Hon. William Whiting, late Attorney-General of Massachusetts, and +the wife of the Rev. Stephen Barker, during the war, Chaplain of the +First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. + +This regiment was organized in July, 1861, as the Fourteenth +Massachusetts Infantry (but afterwards changed as above) under the +command of Colonel William B. Green, of Boston, and was immediately +ordered to Fort Albany, which was then an outpost of defense guarding +the Long Bridge over the Potomac, near Washington. + +Having resolved to share the fortunes of this regiment in the service of +its hospitals, Mrs. Barker followed it to Washington in August, and +remained in that city six months before suitable quarters were arranged +for her at the fort. + +During her stay in Washington, she spent much of her time in visiting +hospitals, and in ministering to their suffering inmates. Especially was +this the case with the E. Street Infirmary, which was destroyed by fire +in the autumn of that year. After the fire the inmates were distributed +to other hospitals, except a few whose wounds would not admit of a +removal. These were collected together in a small brick school-house, +which stands on the corner of the lot now occupied by the Judiciary +Square Hospital, and there was had the first Thanksgiving Dinner which +was given in an army hospital. + +After dinner, which was made as nice and home-like as possible, they +played games of checkers, chess, and backgammon on some new boards +presented from the supplies of the Sanitary Commission, and Mrs. Barker +read aloud "The Cricket on the Hearth." This occupied all the afternoon +and made the day seem so short to these poor convalescents that they all +confessed afterwards that they had no idea, nor expectation that they +could so enjoy a day which they had hoped to spend at home; and they +always remembered and spoke of it with pleasure. + +This was a new and entirely exceptional experience to Mrs. Barker. Like +all the ladies who have gone out as volunteer nurses or helps in the +hospitals, she had her whole duty to learn. In this she was aided by a +sound judgment, and an evident natural capacity and executive ability. +Without rules or instructions in hospital visiting, she had to learn by +experience the best methods of aiding sick soldiers without coming into +conflict with the regulations peculiar to military hospitals. Of course, +no useful work could be accomplished without the sanction and confidence +of the surgeons, and these could only be won by strict and honorable +obedience to orders. + +The first duty was to learn what Government supplies could properly be +expected in the hospitals; next to be sure that where wanting they were +not withheld by the ignorance or carelessness of the sub-officials; and +lastly that the soldier was sincere and reliable in the statement of his +wants. By degrees these questions received their natural solution; and +the large discretionary power granted by the surgeons, and the generous +confidence and aid extended by the Sanitary Commission, in furnishing +whatever supplies she asked for, soon gave Mrs. Barker all the +facilities she desired for her useful and engrossing work. + +In March, 1862, Mrs. Barker removed to Fort Albany, and systematically +commenced the work which had first induced her to leave her home. This +work was substantially the same that she had done in Washington, but was +confined to the Regimental Hospitals. But it was for many reasons +pleasanter and more interesting. As the wife of the Chaplain of the +Regiment, the men all recognized the fitness of her position, and she +shared with him all the duties, not strictly clerical, of his office, +finding great happiness in their mutual usefulness and sustaining power. +She also saw the same men oftener, and became better acquainted, and +more deeply interested in their individual conditions, and she had here +facilities at her command for the preparation of all the little luxuries +and delicacies demanded by special cases. + +While the regiment held Fort Albany, and others of the forts forming the +defenses of Washington, the officers' quarters were always such as to +furnish a comfortable home, and Mrs. Barker had, consequently, none of +the exposures and hardships of those who followed the army and labored +in the field. As she, herself, has written in a private letter--"It was +no sacrifice to go to the army, because my husband was in it, and it +would have been much harder to stay at home than to go with him. * * * I +cannot even claim the merit of acting from a sense of _duty_--for I +wanted to work for the soldiers, and should have been desperately +disappointed had I been prevented from doing it." + +And so, with a high heart, and an unselfish spirit, which disclaimed all +merit in sacrifice, and even the existence of the sacrifice, she entered +upon and fulfilled to the end the arduous and painful duties which +devolved upon her. + +For nearly two years she continued in unremitting attendance upon the +regimental hospitals, except when briefly called home to the sick and +dying bed of her father. + +All this time her dependence for hospital comforts was upon the Sanitary +Commission, for though the regiment was performing the duties of a +garrison it was not so considered by the War Department, and the +hospital received none of the furnishings it would have been entitled to +as a Post Hospital. Most of the hospital bedding and clothing, as well +as delicacies of diet came from the Sanitary Commission, and a little +money contributed from private sources helped to procure the needed +furniture. Mrs. Barker found this "camp life" absorbing and interesting. +She became identified with the regiment and was accustomed to speak of +it as a part of herself. And even more closely and intimately did she +identify herself with her suffering patients in the hospital. + +On Sundays, while the chaplain was about his regular duties, she was +accustomed to have a little service of her own for the patients, which +mostly consisted in reading aloud a printed sermon of the Rev. Henry +Ward Beecher, which appeared in the Weekly Traveller, and which was +always listened to with eager interest. + +The chaplain's quarters were close by the hospital, and at any hour of +the day and till a late hour of the night Mr. and Mrs. Barker could +assure themselves of the condition and wants of any of the patients, and +be instantly ready to minister to them. Mrs. Barker, especially, bore +them continually in her thoughts, and though not with them, her heart +and time were given to the work of consolation, either by adding to the +comforts of the body or the mind. + +In January, 1864, it became evident to Mrs. Barker that she could serve +in the hospitals more effectually by living in Washington, than by +remaining at Fort Albany. She therefore offered her services to the +Sanitary Commission without other compensation than the expenses of her +board, and making no stipulation as to the nature of her duties, but +only that she might remain within reach of the regimental hospital, to +which she had so long been devoted. + +Just at this time the Commission had determined to secure a more sure +and thorough personal distribution of the articles intended for +soldiers, and she was requested to become a visitor in certain hospitals +in Washington. It was desirable to visit bed-sides, as before, but +henceforth as a representative of the Sanitary Commission, with a wider +range of duties, and a proportionate increase of facilities. Soldiers +were complaining that they saw nothing of the Sanitary Commission, when +the shirts they wore, the fruits they ate, the stationery they used, and +numerous other comforts from the Commission abounded in the hospitals. +Mrs. Barker found that she had only to refuse the thanks which she +constantly received, and refer them to the proper object, to see a +marked change in the feeling of the sick toward the Sanitary Commission. +And she was so fully convinced of the beneficial results of this +remarkable organization, that she found the greatest pleasure in doing +this. + +In all other respects her work was unchanged. There was the same need of +cheering influences--the writing of letters and procuring of books, and +obtaining of information. There were the thousand varied calls for +sympathy and care which kept one constantly on the keenest strain of +active life, so that she came to feel that no gift, grace, or +accomplishment could be spared without leaving something wanting of a +perfect woman's work in the hospitals. + +Nine hospitals, in addition to the regimental hospital, which she still +thought of as her "own," were assigned her. Of these Harewood contained +nearly as many patients as all the others. During the summer of 1864, +its wards and tents held twenty-eight hundred patients. It was Mrs. +Barker's custom to commence here every Monday morning at the First Ward, +doing all she saw needful as she went along, and to go on as far as she +could before two o'clock, when she went to dinner. In the afternoon she +would visit one of the smaller hospitals, all of whose inmates she could +see in the course of one visit, and devote the whole afternoon entirely +to that hospital. + +The next morning she would begin again at Harewood, where she stopped +the day before, doing all she could there, previous to two o'clock, and +devoting the afternoon to a smaller hospital. When Harewood was +finished, two hospitals might be visited in a day, and in this manner +she would complete the entire round weekly. + +It was not necessary to speak to every man, for on being recognized as a +Sanitary Visitor the men would tell her their wants, and her eye was +sufficiently practiced to discern where undue shyness prevented any from +speaking of them. An assistant always went with her, who drove the +horses, and who, by his knowledge of German, was a great help in +understanding the foreign soldiers. They carried a variety of common +articles with them, so that the larger proportion of the wants could be +supplied on the spot. In this way a constant distribution was going on, +in all the hospitals of Washington, whereby the soldiers received what +was sent for them with certainty and promptness. + +In the meantime the First Heavy Artillery had been ordered to join the +army before Petersburg. On the fourth day after it left the forts round +Washington, it lost two hundred men killed, wounded and taken prisoners. +As soon as the sick or wounded men began to be sent back to Washington, +Mrs. Barker was notified of it by her husband, and sought them out to +make them the objects of her special care. + +At the same time the soldiers of this regiment, in the field, were +constantly confiding money and mementoes to Mr. Barker, to be sent to +Mrs. Barker by returning Sanitary Agents, and forwarded by her to their +families in New England. Often she gave up the entire day to the +preparation of these little packages for the express, and to the writing +of letters to each person who was to receive a package, containing +messages, and a request for a reply when the money was received. Large +as this business was, she never entrusted it to any hands but her own, +and though she sent over two thousand dollars in small sums, and +numerous mementoes, she never lost an article of all that were +transmitted by express. + +But whatever she had on hand, it was, at this time, an especial duty to +attend to any person who desired a more thorough understanding of the +work of hospitals; and many days were thus spent with strangers who had +no other means of access to the information they desired, except through +one whose time could be given to such purposes. + +These somewhat minute details of Mrs. Barker's labors are given as being +peculiar to the department of service in which she worked, and to which +she so conscientiously devoted herself for such a length of time. + +In this way she toiled on until December, 1864, when a request was made +by the Women's Central Association that a hospital visitor might be sent +to the Soldiers' Aid Societies in the State of New York. Few of these +had ever seen a person actually engaged in hospital work, and it was +thought advisable to assure them that their labors were not only needed, +but that their results really reached and benefited the sick soldiers. + +Mrs. Barker was chosen as this representative, and the programme +included the services of Mr. Barker, whose regiment was now mustered out +of service, as a lecturer before general audiences, while Mrs. Barker +met the Aid Societies in the same places. During the month of December, +1864, Mr. and Mrs. Barker, in pursuance of this plan, visited Harlem, +Brooklyn, Astoria, Hastings, Irvington, Rhinebeck, Albany, Troy, Rome, +Syracuse, Auburn, and Buffalo, presenting the needs of the soldier, and +the benefits of the work of the Sanitary Commission to the people +generally, and to the societies in particular, with great acceptance, +and to the ultimate benefit of the cause. This tour accomplished, Mrs. +Barker returned to her hospital work in Washington. + +After the surrender of Lee's army, Mrs. Barker visited Richmond and +Petersburg, and as she walked the deserted streets of those fallen +cities, she felt that her work was nearly done. Almost four years, in +storm and in sunshine, in heat and in cold, in hope and in +discouragement she had ceaselessly toiled on; and all along her path +were strewed the blessings of thousands of grateful hearts. + +The increasing heats of summer warned her that she could not withstand +the influences of another season of hard work in a warm climate, and on +the day of the assassination of President Lincoln, she left Washington +for Boston. + +Mrs. Barker had been at home about six weeks when a new call for effort +came, on the return of the Army of the Potomac encamped around +Washington previous to its final march for home. To it was presently +added the Veterans of Sherman's grand march, and all were in a state of +destitution. The following extract from the _Report of the Field Relief +Service of the United States Sanitary Commission with the Armies of the +Potomac, Georgia, and Tennessee, in the Department of Washington, May +and June, 1865_, gives a much better idea of the work required than +could otherwise be presented. + +"Armies, the aggregate strength of which must have exceeded two hundred +thousand men, were rapidly assembling around this city, previous, to the +grand review and their disbandment. These men were the travel-worn +veterans of Sherman, and the battle-stained heroes of the glorious old +Army of the Potomac, men of whom the nation is already proud, and whom +history will teach our children to venerate. Alas! that veterans require +more than 'field rations;' that heroes will wear out or throw away their +clothes, or become diseased with scurvy or chronic diarrhoea. + +"The Army of the West had marched almost two thousand miles, subsisting +from Atlanta to the ocean almost wholly upon the country through which +it passed. When it entered the destitute regions of North Carolina and +Virginia it became affected with scorbutic diseases. A return to the +ordinary marching rations gave the men plenty to eat, but no vegetables. +Nor had foraging put them in a condition to bear renewed privation. + +"The Commissary Department issued vegetables in such small quantities +that they did not affect the condition of the troops in any appreciable +degree. Surgeons immediately sought the Sanitary Commission. The demand +soon became greater than the supply. At first they wanted nothing but +vegetables, for having these, they said, all other discomforts would +become as nothing. + +"After we had secured an organization through the return of agents and +the arrival of transportation, a division of labor was made, resulting +ultimately in three departments, more or less distinct. These were: + +"First, the supply of vegetables; + +"Second, the depots for hospital and miscellaneous supplies; and, + +"Third, the visitation of troops for the purpose of direct distribution +of small articles of necessity or comfort." + +These men, war-worn--and many of them sick--veterans, were without +money, often in rags, or destitute of needful clothing, and they were +not to be paid until they were mustered out of the service in their +respective States. Generous, thorough and rapid distribution was +desirable, and all the regular hospital visitors, as well as others +temporarily employed in the work, entered upon the duties of field +distribution. In twenty days, such was the system and expedition used, +every regiment, and all men on detached duty, had been visited and +supplied with necessaries on their camping grounds; and frequent +expressions of gratitude from officers and men, attested that a great +work had been successfully accomplished. + +This was the conclusion of Mrs. Barker's army work, and what it was, how +thorough, kind, and every way excellent we cannot better tell than by +appending to this sketch her own report to the Chief of Field Relief +Corps. + + + "WASHINGTON, D. C., _June 29, 1865_. + + "A. M. SPERRY--Sir: It was my privilege to witness the advance of + the army in the spring of 1862, and the care of soldiers in camp + and hospital having occupied all my time since then, it was + therefore gratifying to close my labors by welcoming the returning + army to the same camping grounds it left four years ago. The + circumstances under which it went forth and returned were so + unlike, the contrast between our tremulous farewell and our + exultant welcome so extreme, that it has been difficult to find an + expression suited to the hour. The Sanitary Commission adopted the + one method by which alone it could give for itself this expression. + It sent out its agents to visit every regiment and all soldiers on + detached duty, to ascertain and relieve their wants, and by words + and acts of kindness to assure them of the deep and heartfelt + gratitude of the nation for their heroic sufferings and + achievements. + + "The Second, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, + Seventeenth, and Twentieth army corps have been encamped about the + capital. They numbered over two hundred thousand men. + + "Our first work was to establish stations for sanitary stores in + the camps, wherever it was practicable, to which soldiers might + come for the supply of their wants without the trouble of getting + passes into Washington. Our Field Relief Agents, who have followed + the army from point to point, called on the officers to inform them + of our storehouse for supplies of vegetables and pickles. The + report of the Superintendent of Field Relief will show how great a + work has been done for the army in these respects. How great has + been the need of a full and generous distribution of the articles + of food and clothing may be realized by the fact, that here were + men unpaid for the last six months, and yet to remain so till + mustered out of the service in their respective States; whose + government accounts were closed, with no sutlers in their + regiments, and no credit anywhere. Every market-day, numbers of + these war-worn veterans have been seen asking for some green + vegetable from the tempting piles, which were forbidden fruits to + them. + + "In order to make our work in the army as thorough, rapid, and + effective as possible, it was decided to accept the services of the + 'Hospital Visitors.' They have been at home in the hospitals ever + since the war began, but never in the camp. But we believed that + even here they would be safe, and the gifts they brought would be + more valued because brought by them. + + "Six ladies have been employed by the Sanitary Commission as + Hospital Visitors. These were temporarily transferred from their + hospitals to the field. + + "The Second and Fifth Corps were visited by Mrs. Steel and Miss + Abby Francis. + + "The Sixth Corps by Mrs. Johnson, Miss Armstrong, and Mrs. Barker; + on in each division. + + "The Ninth Corps by Miss Wallace, whose illness afterward obliged + her to yield her place to Mrs. Barker. + + "The Fourteenth Corps by Miss Armstrong. + + "The Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps by ladies belonging to those + corps--Mrs. Porter and Mrs. Bickerdyke--whose admirable services + rendered other presence superfluous. + + "The Twentieth Corps was visited by Mrs. Johnson. + + "The articles selected for their distribution were the same for all + the corps; while heavy articles of food and clothing were issued by + orders from the field agents, smaller articles--like towels, + handkerchiefs, stationery, sewing materials, combs, reading matter, + etc.--were left to the ladies. + + "This division of labor has been followed, except in cases where no + field agent accompanied the lady, and there was no sanitary station + in the corps. Then the lady agent performed double duty. She was + provided with a vehicle, and followed by an army wagon loaded with + supplies sufficient for her day's distribution, which had been + drawn from the Commission storehouse upon a requisition approved by + the chief clerk. On arriving at the camp, her first call was at + headquarters, to obtain permission to distribute her little + articles, to learn how sick the men were, in quarters or in + hospital, and to find out the numbers in each company. The ladies + adopted two modes of issuing supplies: some called for the entire + company, giving into each man's hand the thing he needed; others + gave to the orderly sergeant of each company the same proportion of + each article, which he distributed to the men. The willing help and + heartfelt pleasure of the officers in distributing our gifts among + their men have added much to the respect and affection already felt + for them by the soldiers and their friends. + + "In Mrs. Johnson's report of her work in the Twentieth Army Corps, + she says: 'In several instances officers have tendered the thanks + of their regiments, when they were so choked by tears as to render + their voices unheard.' + + "I remember no scenes in camp more picturesque than some of our + visits have presented. The great open army wagon stands under some + shade-tree, with the officer who has volunteered to help, or the + regular Field Agent, standing in the midst of boxes, bales, and + bundles. Wheels, sides, and every projecting point are crowded with + eager soldiers, to see what 'the Sanitary' has brought for them. By + the side of the great wagon stands the light wagon of the lady, + with its curtains all rolled up, while she arranges before and + around her the supplies she is to distribute. Another eager crowd + surrounds her, patient, kind, and respectful as the first, except + that a shade more of softness in their look and tone attest to the + ever-living power of woman over the rough elements of manhood. In + these hours of personal communication with the soldier, she finds + the true meaning of her work. This is her golden opportunity, when + by look, and tone, and movement she may call up, as if by magic, + the pure influences of home, which may have been long banished by + the hard necessities of war. Quietly and rapidly the supplies are + handed out for Companies A, B, C, etc., first from one wagon, then + the other, and as soon as a regiment is completed the men hurry + back to their tents to receive their share, and write letters on + the newly received paper, or apply the long needed comb, or mend + the gaping seams in their now 'historic garments.' When at last the + supplies are exhausted, and sunset reminds us that we are yet many + miles from home, we gather up the remnants, bid good by to the + friendly faces which already seem like old acquaintances, promising + to come again to visit new regiments to-morrow, and hurry home to + prepare for the next day's work. + + "Every day, from the first to the twentieth day of June, our little + band of missionaries has repeated a day's work such as I have now + described. Every regiment, except some which were sent home before + we were able to reach them, has shared alike in what we had to + give. And I think I speak for all in saying that among the many + pleasant memories connected with our sanitary work, the last but + not the least will be our share in the Field Relief. + + "Yours respectfully, + "MRS. STEPHEN BARKER." + + + + +AMY M. BRADLEY + + +Very few individuals in our country are entirely ignorant of the +beneficent work performed by the Sanitary Commission during the late +war; and these, perhaps, are the only ones to whom the name of Amy M. +Bradley is unfamiliar. Very early in the war she commenced her work for +the soldiers, and did not discontinue it until some months after the +last battle was fought, completing fully her four years of service, and +making her name a synonym for active, judicious, earnest work from the +beginning to the end. + +Amy M. Bradley is a native of East Vassalboro', Kennebec County, Maine, +where she was born September 12th, 1823, the youngest child of a large +family. At six years of age she met with the saddest of earthly losses, +in the death of her mother. From early life it would appear to have been +her lot to make her way in life by her own active exertions. Her father +ceased to keep house on the marriage of his older daughters, and from +that time until she was fifteen she lived alternately with them. Then +she made her first essay in teaching a small private school. + +At sixteen she commenced life as a teacher of public schools, and +continued the same for more than ten years, or until 1850. + +To illustrate her determined and persistent spirit during the first four +years of her life as a teacher she taught country schools during the +summer and winter, and during the spring and fall attended the academy +in her native town, working for her board in private families. + +At the age of twenty-one, through the influence of Noah Woods, Esq., she +obtained an appointment as principal of one of the Grammar Schools in +Gardiner, Maine, where she remained until the fall of 1847. At the end +of that time she resigned and accepted an appointment as assistant in +the Winthrop Grammar School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, obtained for +her by her cousin, Stacy Baxter, Esq., the principal of the Harvard +Grammar School in the same city. There she remained until the winter of +1849-50, when she applied for a similar situation in the Putnam Grammar +School, East Cambridge (where higher salaries were paid) and was +successful. She remained, however, only until May, when a severe attack +of acute bronchitis so prostrated her strength as to quite unfit her for +her duties during the whole summer. She had previously suffered +repeatedly from pneumonia. Her situation was held for her until the +autumn, when finding her health not materially improved, she resigned +and prepared to spend the winter at the South in the family of a brother +residing at Charleston, South Carolina. + +Miss Bradley returned from Charleston the following spring. Her winter +in the South had not benefited her as she had hoped and expected, and +she found herself unable to resume her occupation as a teacher. + +During the next two years her active spirit chafed in forced idleness, +and life became almost a burden. In the autumn of 1853, going to +Charlestown and Cambridge to visit friends, she met the physician who +had attended her during the severe illness that terminated her +teacher-life. He examined her lungs, and gave it as his opinion that +only a removal to a warmer climate could preserve her life through +another winter, and that the following months of frost and cold spent in +the North must undoubtedly in her case develop pulmonary consumption. + +To her these were words of doom. Not possessed of the means for +travelling, and unable, as she supposed, to obtain a livelihood in a +far off country, she returned to Maine, and resigned herself with what +calmness she might, to the fate in store for her. + +But Providence had not yet developed the great work to which she was +appointed, and though sorely tried, and buffeted, she was not to be +permitted to leave this mortal scene until the objects of her life were +fulfilled. Through resignation to death she was, perhaps, best prepared +to live, and even in that season when earth seemed receding from her +view, the wise purposes of the Ruler of all in her behalf were being +worked out in what seemed to be an accidental manner. + +In the family of her cousin, Mr. Baxter, at Charlestown, Massachusetts, +there had been living, for two years, three Spanish boys from Costa +Rica, Central America. Mr. Baxter was an instructor of youth and they +were his pupils. About this period their father arrived to fetch home a +daughter who was at school in New York, and to inquire what progress +these boys were making in their studies. He applied to Mr. Baxter to +recommend some lady who would be willing to go to Costa Rica for two or +three years to instruct his daughters in the English language. Mr. +Baxter at once recommended Miss Bradley as a suitable person and as +willing and desirous to undertake the journey. The situation was offered +and accepted, and in November, 1853, she set sail for Costa Rica. + +After remaining a short time with the Spanish family, she accepted a +proposition from the American Consul, and accompanied his family to San +Josè, the Capital, among the mountains, some seventy miles from Punta +Arenas, where she opened a school receiving as pupils, English, Spanish, +German, and American children. This was the first English school +established in Central America. For three months she taught from a +blackboard, and at the end of that time received from New York, books, +maps, and all the needful apparatus for a permanent school. + +This school she taught with success for three years. At the end of that +time learning that the health of her father, then eighty-three years of +age, was rapidly declining, and that he was unwilling to die without +seeing her, she disposed of the property and "good-will" of her school, +and as soon as possible bade adieu to Costa Rica. She reached home on +the 1st of June, 1857, after an absence of nearly four years. Her +father, however, survived for several months. + +Her health which had greatly improved during her stay in the salubrious +climate of San Josè, where the temperature ranges at about 70° +Fahrenheit the entire year, again yielded before the frosty rigors of a +winter in the Pine Tree State, and for a long time she was forced to +lead a very secluded life. She devoted herself to reading, to the study +of the French and German languages, and to teaching the Spanish, of +which she had become mistress during her residence in Costa Rica. + +In the spring of 1861, she went to East Cambridge, where she obtained +the situation of translator for the New England Glass Company, +translating commercial letters from English to Spanish, or from Spanish +to English as occasion required. + +This she would undoubtedly have found a pleasant and profitable +occupation, but the boom of the first gun fired at Sumter upon the old +flag stirred to a strange restlessness the spirit of the granddaughter +of one who starved to death on board the British Prison Ship Jersey, +during the revolution. She felt the earnest desire, but saw not the way +to personal action, until the first disastrous battle of Bull Run +prompted her to immediate effort. + +She wrote to Dr. G. S. Palmer, Surgeon of the Fifth Regiment Maine +Volunteers, an old and valued friend, to offer her services in caring +for the sick and wounded. His reply was quaint and characteristic. +"There is no law at this end of the route, to prevent your coming; but +the law of humanity requires your immediate presence." + +As soon as possible she started for the seat of war, and on the 1st of +September, 1861, commenced her services as nurse in the hospital of the +Fifth Maine Regiment. + +The regiment had been enlisted to a great extent from the vicinity of +Gardiner, Maine, where, as we have said, she had taught for several +years, and among the soldiers both sick and well were a number of her +old pupils. + +The morning after her arrival, Dr. Palmer called at her tent, and +invited her to accompany him through the hospital tents. There were four +of these, filled with fever cases, the result of exposure and hardship +at and after the battle of Bull Run. + +In the second tent, were a number of patients delirious from the fever, +whom the surgeon proposed to send to Alexandria, to the General +Hospital. To one of these she spoke kindly, asking if he would like to +have anything; with a wild look, and evidently impressed with the idea +that he was about to be ordered on a long journey, he replied, "I would +like to see my mother and sisters before I go home." Miss Bradley was +much affected by his earnestness, and seeing that his recovery was +improbable, begged Dr. Palmer to let her care for him for his mother and +sisters' sake, until he went to his last home. He consented, and she +soon installed herself as nurse of most of the fever cases, several of +them her old pupils. From morning till night she was constantly employed +in ministering to these poor fellows, and her skill in nursing was often +of more service to them than medicine. + +Colonel Oliver O. Howard, the present Major-General and Commissioner of +the Freedmen's Bureau, had been up to the end of September, 1861, in +command of the Fifth Maine Regiment, but at that time was promoted to +the command of a brigade; and Dr. Palmer was advanced to the post of +brigade surgeon, while Dr. Brickett succeeded to the surgeoncy of the +Fifth Regiment. + +By dint of energy, tact and management, Miss Bradley had brought the +hospital into fine condition, having received cots from friends in +Maine, and supplies of delicacies and hospital clothing from the +Sanitary Commission. General Slocum, the new brigade commander, early in +October made his first round of inspection of the regimental hospitals +of the brigade. He found Dr. Brickett's far better arranged and supplied +than any of the others, and inquired why it was so. Dr. Brickett +answered that they had a Maine woman who understood the care of the +sick, to take charge of the hospital, and that she had drawn supplies +from the Sanitary Commission. General Slocum declared that he could have +no partiality in his brigade, and proposed to take two large buildings, +the Powell House and the Octagon House, as hospitals, and instal Miss +Bradley as lady superintendent of the Brigade Hospital. This was done +forthwith, and with further aid from the Sanitary Commission, as the +Medical Bureau had not yet made any arrangement for brigade hospitals, +Miss Bradley assisted by the zealous detailed nurses from the brigade +soon gave these two houses a decided "home" appearance. The two +buildings would accommodate about seventy-five patients, and were soon +filled. Miss Bradley took a personal interest in each case, as if they +were her own brothers, and by dint of skilful nursing raised many of +them from the grasp of death. + +A journal which she kept of her most serious cases, illustrates very +forcibly her deep interest and regard for all "her dear boys" as she +called them. She would not give them up, even when the surgeon +pronounced their cases hopeless, and though she could not always save +them from death, she undoubtedly prolonged life in many instances by her +assiduous nursing. + +On the 10th of March, 1862, Centreville, Virginia, having been evacuated +by the rebels, the brigade to which Miss Bradley was attached were +ordered to occupy it, and five days later the Brigade Hospital was +broken up and the patients distributed, part to Alexandria, and part to +Fairfax Seminary General Hospital. In the early part of April Miss +Bradley moved with the division to Warrenton Junction, and after a +week's stay in and about Manassas the order came to return to Alexandria +and embark for Yorktown. Returning to Washington, she now offered her +services to the Sanitary Commission, and on the 4th of May was summoned +by a telegraphic despatch from Mr. F. L. Olmstead, the energetic and +efficient Secretary of the Commission, to come at once to Yorktown. On +the 6th of May she reached Fortress Monroe, and on the 7th was assigned +to the Ocean Queen as lady superintendent. We shall give some account of +her labors here when we come to speak of the Hospital Transport service. +Suffice it to say, in this place that her services which were very +arduous, were continued either on the hospital ships or on the shore +until the Army of the Potomac left the Peninsula for Acquia Creek and +Alexandria, and that in several instances her kindness to wounded rebel +officers and soldiers, led them to abandon the rebel service and become +hearty, loyal Union men. She accompanied the flag of truce boat three +times, when the Union wounded were exchanged, and witnessed some painful +scenes, though the rebel authorities had not then begun to treat our +prisoners with such cruelty as they did later in the war. Early in +August she accompanied the sick and wounded men on the steamers from +Harrison's Landing to Philadelphia, where they were distributed among +the hospitals. During all this period of hospital transport service, she +had had the assistance of that noble, faithful, worker Miss Annie +Etheridge, the "Gentle Annie" of the Third Michigan regiment, of whom we +shall have more to say in another place. For a few days, after the +transfer of the troops to the vicinity of Washington, Miss Bradley +remained unoccupied, and endeavored by rest and quiet to recover her +health, which had been much impaired by her severe labors. + +A place was, however, in preparation for her, which, while it would +bring her less constantly in contact with the fearful wounds and +terrible sufferings of the soldiers in the field, would require more +administrative ability and higher business qualities than she had yet +been called to exercise. + +The Sanitary Commission in their desire to do what they could for the +soldier, had planned the establishment of a Home at Washington, where +the private soldier could go and remain for a few days while awaiting +orders, without being the prey of the unprincipled villains who +neglected no opportunity of fleecing every man connected with the army, +whom they could entice into their dens; where those who were recovering +from serious illness or wounds could receive the care and attention they +needed; where their clothing often travel-stained and burdened with the +"Sacred Soil of Virginia," could be exchanged for new, and the old +washed, cleansed and repaired. It was desirable that this Home should be +invested with a "home" aspect; that books, newspapers and music should +be provided, as well as wholesome and attractive food, and that the +presence of woman and her kindly and gentle ministrations, should exert +what influence they might to recall vividly to the soldier the _home_ he +had left in a distant state, and to quicken its power of influencing him +to higher and purer conduct, and more earnest valor, to preserve the +institutions which had made that home what it was. + +Rev. F. N. Knapp, the Assistant Secretary of the Commission, on whom +devolved the duty of establishing this Home, had had opportunity of +observing Miss Bradley's executive ability in the Hospital Transport +Service, as well as in the management of a brigade hospital, and he +selected her at once, to take charge of the Home, arrange all its +details, and act as its Matron. She accepted the post, and performed its +duties admirably, accommodating at times a hundred and twenty at once, +and by her neatness, good order and cheerful tact, dispensing happiness +among those who, poor fellows, had hitherto found little to cheer them. + +But her active and energetic nature was not satisfied with her work at +the Soldiers' Home. Her leisure hours, (and with her prompt business +habits, she secured some of these every day), were consecrated to +visiting the numerous hospitals in and around Washington, and if she +found the surgeons or assistant surgeons negligent and inattentive, they +were promptly reported to the medical director. The condition of the +hospitals in the city was, however, much better than that of the +hospitals and convalescent camps over the river, in Virginia. A visit +which she made to one of these, significantly named by the soldiers, +"Camp Misery," in September, 1862, revealed to her, wretchedness, +suffering and neglect, such as she had not before witnessed; and she +promptly secured from the Sanitary Commission such supplies as were +needed, and in her frequent visits there for the next three months, +distributed them with her own hands, while she encouraged and promoted +such changes in the management and arrangements of the camp as greatly +improved its condition. + +This "Camp Misery" was the original Camp of Distribution, to which were +sent, 1st, men discharged from all the hospitals about Washington, as +well as the regimental, brigade, division and post hospitals, as +convalescent, or as unfit for duty, preparatory to their final discharge +from the army; 2d, stragglers and deserters, recaptured and collected +here preparatory to being forwarded to their regiments; 3d, new recruits +awaiting orders to join regiments in the field. Numerous attempts had +been made to improve the condition of this camp, but owing to the small +number and inefficiency of the officers detailed to the command, it had +constantly grown worse. The convalescents, numbering nine or ten +thousand, were lodged, in the depth of a very severe winter, in wedge +and Sibley tents, without floors, with no fires, or means of making any, +amid deep mud or frozen clods, and were very poorly supplied with +clothing, and many of them without blankets. Under such circumstances, +it was not to be expected that their health could improve. The +stragglers and deserters and the new recruits were even worse off than +the convalescents. The assistant surgeon and his acting assistants, up +to the last of October, 1862, were too inexperienced to be competent for +their duties. + +In December, 1862, orders were issued by the Government for the +construction of a new Rendezvous of Distribution, at a point near Fort +Barnard, Virginia, on the Loudon and Hampshire Railroad, the erection of +new and more comfortable barracks, and the removal of the men from the +old camp to it. The barracks for the convalescents were fifty in number +and intended for the accommodation of one hundred men each, and they +were completed in February, 1863, and the new regulations and the +appointment of new and efficient officers, greatly improved the +condition of the Rendezvous. + +In December, 1862, while the men were yet in Camp Misery, Miss Bradley +was sent there as the Special Relief Agent of the Sanitary Commission, +and took up her quarters there. As we have said the condition of the men +was deplorable. She arrived on the 17th of December, and after setting +up her tents, and arranging her little hospital, cook-room, store-room, +wash-room, bath-room, and office, so as to be able to serve the men most +effectually, she passed round with the officers, as the men were drawn +up in line for inspection, and supplied seventy-five men with woollen +shirts, giving only to the _very_ needy. In her hospital tents she soon +had forty patients, all of them men who had been discharged from the +hospitals as well; these were washed, supplied with clean clothing, +warmed, fed and nursed. Others had discharge papers awaiting them, but +were too feeble to stand in the cold and wet till their turn came. She +obtained them for them, and sent the poor invalids to the Soldiers' Home +in Washington, _en route_ for their own homes. From May 1st to December +31st, 1863, she conveyed more than two thousand discharged soldiers from +the Rendezvous of Distribution to the Commission's Lodges at Washington; +most of them men suffering from incurable disease, and who but for her +kind ministrations must most of them have perished in the attempt to +reach their homes. In four months after she commenced her work she had +had in her little hospital one hundred and thirty patients, of whom +fifteen died. For these patients as well as for other invalids who were +unable to write she wrote letters to their friends, and to the friends +of the dead she sent full accounts of the last hours of their lost ones. +The discharged men, and many of those who were on record unjustly as +deserters, through some informality in their papers, often found great +difficulty in obtaining their pay, and sometimes could not ascertain +satisfactorily how much was due them, in consequence of errors on the +part of the regimental or company officers. Miss Bradley was +indefatigable in her efforts to secure the correction of these papers, +and the prompt payment of the amounts due to these poor men, many of +whom, but for her exertion, would have suffered on their arrival at +their distant homes. Between May 1st and December 31st, 1863, she +procured the reinstatement of one hundred and fifty soldiers who had +been dropped from their muster rolls unjustly as deserters, and secured +their arrears of pay to them, amounting in all to nearly eight thousand +dollars. + +On the 8th of February, 1864, the convalescents were, by general orders +from the War Department, removed to the general hospitals in and about +Washington, and the name changed from Camp Distribution to Rendezvous of +Distribution, and only stragglers and deserters, and the recruits +awaiting orders, or other men fit for duty were to be allowed there. For +nearly two months Miss Bradley was confined to her quarters by severe +illness. On her recovery she pushed forward an enterprise on which she +had set her heart, of establishing a weekly paper at the Rendezvous, to +be called "The Soldiers' Journal," which should be a medium of +contributions from all the more intelligent soldiers in the camp, and +the profits from which (if any accrued), should be devoted to the relief +of the children of deceased soldiers. On the 17th of February the first +number of "The Soldiers' Journal" appeared, a quarto sheet of eight +pages; it was conducted with considerable ability and was continued till +the breaking up of the Rendezvous and hospital, August 22, 1865, just a +year and a half. The profits of the paper were twenty-one hundred and +fifty-five dollars and seventy-five cents, beside the value of the +printing-press and materials, which amount was held for the benefit of +orphans of soldiers who had been connected with the camp, and was +increased by contributions from other sources. Miss Bradley, though the +proprietor, was not for any considerable period the avowed editor of the +paper, Mr. R. A. Cassidy, and subsequently Mr. Thomas V. Cooper, acting +in that capacity, but she was a large contributor to its columns, and +her poetical contributions which appeared in almost every number, +indicated deep emotional sensibilities, and considerable poetic talent. +Aside from its interesting reading matter, the Journal gave instructions +to the soldiers in relation to the procurement of the pay and clothing +to which they were entitled; the requisites demanded by the government +for the granting of furloughs; and the method of procuring prompt +settlement of their accounts with the government without the +interference of claim agents. During the greater part of 1864, and in +1865, until the hospital was closed, Miss Bradley, in addition to her +other duties, was Superintendent of Special Diet to the Augur General +Hospital, and received and forwarded from the soldiers to their friends, +about forty-nine hundred and twenty-five dollars. + +The officers and soldiers of the Rendezvous of Distribution were not +forgetful of the unwearied labors of Miss Bradley for their benefit. On +the 22d of February, 1864, she was presented with an elegant gold watch +and chain, the gift of the officers and private soldiers of Camp +Convalescent, then just broken up. The gift was accompanied with a very +appropriate address from the chaplain of the camp, Rev. William J. +Potter. She succeeded in winning the regard and esteem of all with whom +she was associated. When, in August, 1865, she retired from the service +of The Sanitary Commission, its secretary, John S. Blatchford, Esq., +addressed her in a letter expressive of the high sense the Commission +entertained of her labors, and the great good she had accomplished, and +the Treasurer of the Commission forwarded her a check as for salary for +so much of the year 1865 as was passed, to enable her to take the rest +and relaxation from continuous labor which she so greatly needed. In +person Miss Bradley is small, erect, and possesses an interesting and +attractive face, thoughtful, and giving evidence in the lines of the +mouth and chin, of executive ability, energy and perseverance. Her +manners are easy, graceful and winning, and she evinces in a marked +degree the possession of that not easily described talent, of which our +record furnishes numerous examples, which the Autocrat of the Breakfast +Table calls "faculty." + + + + +MRS. ARABELLA G. BARLOW. + + +A romantic interest encircles the career of this brilliant and estimable +lady, which is saddened by her early doom, and the grief of her young +husband bereaved before Peace had brought him that quiet domestic +felicity for which he doubtless longed. + +Arabella Griffith was born in Somerville, New Jersey, but was brought up +and educated under the care of Miss Eliza Wallace of Burlington, New +Jersey, who was a relative upon her father's side. As she grew up she +developed remarkable powers. Those who knew her well, both as relatives +and in the social circle, speak of her warm heart, her untiring energy, +her brilliant conversational powers, and the beauty and delicacy of +thought which marked her contributions to the press. By all who knew her +she was regarded as a remarkable woman. + +That she was an ardent patriot, in more than words, who can doubt? She +sealed her devotion to her country's cause by the sublimest sacrifices +of which woman is capable--sacrifices in which she never faltered even +in the presence of death itself. + +Arabella Griffith was a young and lovely woman, the brilliant centre of +a large and admiring circle. Francis C. Barlow was a rising young lawyer +with a noble future opening before him. These two were about to unite +their destinies in the marriage relation. + +Into the midst of their joyful anticipations, came the echoes of the +first shot fired by rebellion. The country sprang to arms. These ardent +souls were not behind their fellow-countrymen and countrywomen in their +willingness to act and to suffer for the land and the Government they +loved. + +On the 19th of April, 1861, Mr. Barlow enlisted as a private in the +Twelfth Regiment New York Militia. On the 20th of April they were +married, and on the 21st Mr. Barlow left with his regiment for +Washington. + +In the course of a week Mrs. Barlow followed her husband, and remained +with him at Washington, and at Harper's Ferry, where the Twelfth was +presently ordered to join General Patterson's command, until its return +home, August 1st, 1861. + +In November, 1861, Mr. Barlow re-entered the service, as +Lieutenant-Colonel of the Sixty-first New York Volunteers, and Mrs. +Barlow spent the winter with him in camp near Alexandria, Virginia. She +shrank from no hardship which it was his lot to encounter, and was with +him, to help, to sustain, and to cheer him, whenever it was practicable +for her to be so, and neglected no opportunity of doing good to others +which presented itself. + +Colonel Barlow made the Peninsular Campaign in the spring and summer of +1862 under McClellan. After the disastrous retreat from before Richmond, +Mrs. Barlow joined the Sanitary Commission, and reached Harrison's +Landing on the 2d of July, 1862. + +Exhausted, wounded, sick and dying men were arriving there by scores of +thousands--the remnants of a great army, broken by a series of terrible +battles, disheartened and well-nigh demoralized. Many of the best and +noblest of our American women were there in attendance, ready to do +their utmost amidst all the hideous sights, and fearful sufferings of +the hospitals, for these sick, and maimed, and wounded men. Mrs. Barlow +remained, doing an untold amount of work, and good proportionate, until +the army left in the latter part of August. + +Soon after, with short space for rest, she rejoined her husband in the +field during the campaign in Maryland, but was obliged to go north upon +business, and was detained and unable to return until the day following +the battle of Antietam. + +She found her husband badly wounded, and of course her first efforts +were for him. She nursed him tenderly and unremittingly, giving such +assistance as was possible in her rare leisure to the other wounded. We +cannot doubt that even then she was very useful, and with her accustomed +energy and activity, made these spare moments of great avail. + +General Barlow was unfit for further service until the following spring. +His wife remained in attendance upon him through the winter of 1862-3, +and in the spring accompanied him to the field, and made the campaign +with him from Falmouth to Gettysburg. + +At this battle her husband was again severely wounded. He was within the +enemy's lines, and it was only by great effort and exposure that she was +able to have him removed within our own. She remained here, taking care +of him, and of the other wounded, during the dreadful days that +followed, during which the sufferings of the wounded from the intense +heat, and the scarcity of medical and other supplies were almost +incredible, and altogether indescribable. It was after this battle that +the efficient aid, and the generous supplies afforded by the Sanitary +Commission and its agents, were so conspicuous, and the results of this +beneficent organization in the saving of life and suffering perhaps more +distinctly seen than on any other occasion. Mrs. Barlow, aside from her +own special and absorbing interest in her husband's case, found time to +demonstrate that she had imbibed its true spirit. + +Again, through a long slow period of convalescence she watched beside +her husband, but the spring of 1864 found her in the field prepared for +the exigencies of Grant's successful campaign of that year. + +At times she was with General Barlow in the trenches before Petersburg, +but on the eve of the fearful battles of the Wilderness, and the others +which followed in such awfully bewildering succession, she was to be +found at the place these foreshadowed events told that she was most +needed. At Belle Plain, at Fredericksburg, and at White House, she was +to be found as ever actively working for the sick and wounded. A friend +and fellow-laborer describes her work as peculiar, and fitting admirably +into the more exclusive hospital work of the majority of the women who +had devoted themselves to the care of the soldiers. Her great activity +and inexhaustible energy showed themselves in a sort of roving work, in +seizing upon and gathering up such things as her quick eye saw were +needed. "We called her 'the Raider,'" says this friend, who was also a +warm admirer. "At Fredericksburg she had in some way gained possession +of a wretched-looking pony, and a small cart or farmer's wagon, with +which she was continually on the move, driving about town or country in +search of such provisions or other articles as were needed for the sick +and wounded. The surgeon in charge had on one occasion assigned her the +task of preparing a building, which had been taken for a hospital, for a +large number of wounded who were expected almost immediately. I went +with my daughter to the building. It was empty, containing not the +slightest furniture or preparation for the sufferers, save a large +number of bed-sacks, without straw or other material to fill them. + +"On requisition a quantity of straw was obtained, but not nearly enough +for the expected need, and we were standing in a kind of mute despair, +considering if it were indeed possible to secure any comfort for the +poor fellows expected, when Mrs. Barlow came in. 'I'll find some more +straw,' was her cheerful reply, and in another moment she was urging her +tired beast toward another part of the town where she remembered having +seen a bale of the desired article earlier in the day. Half an hour +afterward the straw had been confiscated, loaded upon the little wagon +by willing hands, and brought to the hospital. She then helped to fill +and arrange the sacks, and afterwards drove about the town in search of +articles, which, by the time the ambulances brought in their freight of +misery and pain, had served to furnish the place with some means of +alleviation." + +Through all these awful days she labored on unceasingly. Her health +became somewhat impaired, but she paid no heed to the warning. Her +thoughts were not for herself, her cares not for her own sufferings. +Earlier attention to her own condition might perhaps, have arrested the +threatening symptoms, but she was destined to wear the crown of +martyrdom, and lay down the beautiful life upon which so many hopes +clung, her last sacrifice upon the altar of her country. The extracts +which we append describe better the closing scenes of her life than we +can. The first is taken from the _Sanitary Commission Bulletin_, of +August 15, 1864, and we copy also the beautiful tribute to the memory of +the departed contributed by Dr. Francis Lieber, of Columbia College, to +the _New York Evening Post_. The briefer extract is from a letter which +appeared in the columns of the _New York Herald_ of July 31st, 1864. + +"Died at Washington, July 27, 1864, Mrs. Arabella Griffith Barlow, wife +of Brigadier-General Francis C. Barlow, of fever contracted while in +attendance upon the hospitals of the Army of the Potomac at the front. + +"With the commencement of the present campaign she became attached to +the Sanitary Commission, and entered upon her sphere of active work +during the pressing necessity for willing hands and earnest hearts, at +Fredericksburg. The zeal, the activity, the ardent loyalty and the +scornful indignation for everything disloyal she then displayed, can +never be forgotten by those whose fortune it was to be with her on that +occasion. Ever watchful of the necessities of that trying time, her +mind, fruitful in resources, was always busy in devising means to +alleviate the discomforts of the wounded, attendant upon so vast a +campaign within the enemy's country, and her hand was always ready to +carry out the devices of her mind. + +"Many a fractured limb rested upon a mattress improvised from materials +sought out and brought together from no one knew where but the earnest +sympathizing woman who is now no more. + +"At Fredericksburg she labored with all her heart and mind. The sound of +battle in which her husband was engaged, floating back from +Chancellorsville, stimulated her to constant exertions. She faltered not +an instant. Remaining till all the wounded had been removed from +Fredericksburg, she left with the last hospital transport for Port +Royal, where she again aided in the care of the wounded, as they were +brought in at that point. From thence she went to White House, on one of +the steamers then in the service of the Commission, and immediately +going to the front, labored there in the hospitals, after the battle of +Cold Harbor. From White House she passed to City Point, and arrived +before the battles in front of Petersburg. Going directly to the front, +she labored there with the same energy and devotion she had shown at +Fredericksburg and White House. + +"Of strong constitution, she felt capable of enduring all things for the +cause she loved; but long-continued toil, anxiety and privation prepared +her system for the approach of fever, which eventually seized upon her. + +"Yielding to the solicitation of friends she immediately returned to +Washington, where, after a serious illness of several weeks, she, when +apparently convalescing, relapsed, and fell another martyr to a love of +country." + +Dr. Lieber says: "Mrs. Barlow, (Arabella Griffith before she married), +was a highly cultivated lady, full of life, spirit, activity and +charity. + +"General Barlow entered as private one of our New York volunteer +regiments at the beginning of the war. The evening before he left New +York for Washington with his regiment, they were married in the +Episcopal Church in Lafayette Place. Barlow rose, and as +Lieutenant-Colonel, made the Peninsular campaign under General +McClellan. He was twice severely wounded, the last time at Antietam. +Since then we have always read his name most honorably mentioned, +whenever Major-General Hancock's Corps was spoken of. Mrs. Barlow in the +meantime entered the Sanitary service. In the Peninsular campaign she +was one of those ladies who worked hard and nobly, close to the +battle-field, as close indeed as they were permitted to do. When her +husband was wounded she attended, of course, upon him. In the present +campaign of General Grant she has been at Belle Plain, White House, and +everywhere where our good Sanitary Commission has comforted the dying +and rescued the many wounded from the grave, which they would otherwise +have found. The last time I heard of her she was at White House, and now +I am informed that she died of typhus fever in Washington. No doubt she +contracted the malignant disease in performing her hallowed and +self-imposed duty in the field. + +"Her friends will mourn at the removal from this life of so noble a +being. All of us are the poorer for her loss; but our history has been +enriched by her death. Let it always be remembered as one of those +details which, like single pearls, make up the precious string of +history, and which a patriot rejoices to contemplate and to transmit +like inherited jewels to the rising generations. Let us remember as +American men and women, that here we behold a young advocate, highly +honored for his talents by all who knew him. He joins the citizen army +of his country as a private, rises to command, is wounded again and +again, and found again and again at the head of his regiment or +division, in the fight where decision centres. And here is his +bride--accomplished, of the fairest features, beloved and sought for in +society--who divests herself of the garments of fashion, and becomes the +assiduous nurse in the hospital and on the field, shrinking from no +sickening sight, and fearing no typhus--that dreadful enemy, which in +war follows the wings of the angel of death, like the fever-bearing +currents of air--until she, too, is laid on the couch of the camp, and +bidden to rest from her weary work, and to let herself be led by the +angel of death to the angel of life. God bless her memory to our women, +our men, our country. + +"There are many glories of a righteous war. It is glorious to fight or +fall, to bleed or to conquer, for so great and good a cause as ours; it +is glorious to go to the field in order to help and to heal, to fan the +fevered soldier and to comfort the bleeding brother, and thus helping, +may be to die with him the death for our country. Both these glories +have been vouchsafed to the bridal pair." + +The _Herald_ correspondent, writing from Petersburg, July 31, says: + +"General Miles is temporarily in command of the First Division during +the absence of General Barlow, who has gone home for a few days for the +purpose of burying his wife. The serious loss which the gallant young +general and an extensive circle of friends in social life have sustained +by the death of Mrs. Barlow, is largely shared by the soldiers of this +army. She smoothed the dying pillow of many patriotic soldiers before +she received the summons to follow them herself; and many a surviving +hero who has languished in army hospitals will tenderly cherish the +memory of her saintly ministrations when they were writhing with the +pain of wounds received in battle or lost in the delirium of consuming +fevers." + +To these we add also the cordial testimony of Dr. W. H. Reed, one of her +associates, at City Point, in his recently published "Hospital Life in +the Army of the Potomac:" + +"Of our own more immediate party, Mrs. General Barlow was the only one +who died. Her exhausting work at Fredericksburg, where the largest +powers of administration were displayed, left but a small measure of +vitality with which to encounter the severe exposures of the poisoned +swamps of the Pamunky, and the malarious districts of City Point. Here, +in the open field, she toiled with Mr. Marshall and Miss Gilson, under +the scorching sun, with no shelter from the pouring rains, with no +thought but for those who were suffering and dying all around her. On +the battle-field of Petersburg, hardly out of range of the enemy, and at +night witnessing the blazing lines of fire from right to left, among the +wounded, with her sympathies and powers of both mind and body strained +to the last degree, neither conscious that she was working beyond her +strength, nor realizing the extreme exhaustion of her system, she +fainted at her work, and found, only when it was too late, that the +raging fever was wasting her life away. It was strength of will which +sustained her in this intense activity, when her poor, tired body was +trying to assert its own right to repose. Yet to the last, her sparkling +wit, her brilliant intellect, her unfailing good humor, lighted up our +moments of rest and recreation. So many memories of her beautiful +constancy and self-sacrifice, of her bright and genial companionship, of +her rich and glowing sympathies, of her warm and loving nature, come +back to me, that I feel how inadequate would be any tribute I could pay +to her worth." + + + + +MRS. NELLIE MARIA TAYLOR. + + +The Southwest bore rank weeds of secession and treason, spreading poison +and devastation over that portion of our fair national heritage. But +from the same soil, amidst the ruin and desolation which followed the +breaking out of the rebellion, there sprang up growths of loyalty and +patriotism, which by flowering and fruitage, redeemed the land from the +curse that had fallen upon it. + +Among the women of the Southwest have occurred instances of the most +devoted loyalty, the most self-sacrificing patriotism. They have +suffered deeply and worked nobly, and their efforts alone have been +sufficient to show that no part of our fair land was irrecoverably +doomed to fall beneath the ban of a government opposed to freedom, +truth, and progress. + +Prominent among these noble women, is Mrs. Nellie Maria Taylor, of New +Orleans, whose sufferings claim our warmest sympathy, and whose work our +highest admiration and gratitude. + +Mrs. Taylor, whose maiden name was Dewey, was born in Watertown, +Jefferson county, New York, in the year 1821, of New England parentage. +At an early age she removed with her parents to the West, where, as she +says of herself, she "grew up among the Indians," and perhaps, by her +free life, gained something of the firmness of health and strength of +character and purpose, which have brought her triumphantly through the +trials and labors of the past four years. + +[Illustration: MRS. NELLIE MARIA TAYLOR. + Eng^d. by A.H. Ritchie.] + +She married early, and about the year 1847 removed with her husband, +Dr. Taylor, and her two children, to New Orleans, where she has since +resided. Consequently she was there through the entire secession +movement, during which, by her firm and unswerving loyalty, she +contrived to render herself somewhat obnoxious to those surrounding her, +of opposite sentiments. + +Mrs. Taylor watched anxiously the progress of the movements which +preceded the outbreak, and fearlessly, though not obtrusively, expressed +her own adverse opinions. At this time her eldest son was nineteen years +of age, a noble and promising youth. He was importuned by his friends +and associates to join some one of the many companies then forming, but +as he was about to graduate in the high school, he and his family made +that an objection. As soon as he graduated a lieutenancy was offered him +in one of the companies, but deferring an answer, he left immediately +for a college in the interior. Two months after the college closed its +doors, and the students, urged by the faculty, almost _en-masse_ entered +the army. Mrs. Taylor, to remove her son, sent him at once to the north, +and rejoiced in the belief that he was safe. + +Immediately after this her persecutions commenced. Her husband had been +ill for more than two years, while she supported her family by teaching, +being principal of one of the city public schools. One day she was +called from his bed-side to an interview with one of the Board of +Directors of the schools. + +By him she was accused (?) of being a Unionist, and informed that it was +believed that she had sent her son away "to keep him from fighting for +his country." Knowing the gentleman to be a northern man, she answered +freely, saying that the country of herself and son was the whole +country, and for _it_ she was willing he should shed his last drop of +blood, but not to divide and mutilate it, would she consent that he +should ever endanger himself. + +The consequence of this freedom of speech was her dismissal from her +situation on the following day. With her husband ill unto death, her +house mortgaged, her means of livelihood taken away, she could only +look upon the future with dark forebodings which nothing but her faith +in God and the justice of her cause could subdue. + +A short time after a mob assembled to tear down her house. She stepped +out to remonstrate with them against pulling down the house over the +head of a dying man. The answer was, "Madam, we give you five minutes to +decide whether you are for the South or the North. If at the end of that +time you declare yourself for the South, your house shall remain; if for +the North, it must come down." + +Her answer was memorable. + +"Sir, I will say to you and your crowd, and to the _world_ if you choose +to summon it--I am, always have been, and ever shall be, for the +_Union_. Tear my house down if you choose!" + +Awed perhaps by her firmness, and unshrinking devotion, the spokesman of +the mob looked at her steadily for a moment, then turning to the crowd +muttered something, and they followed him away, leaving her unmolested. +This man was a renegade Boston Yankee. + +Such was her love for the national flag that during all this period of +persecution, previous to General Butler's taking possession of the city +she never slept without the banner of the free above her head, although +her house was searched no less than seven times by a mob of chivalrous +gentlemen, varying in number from two or three score to three hundred, +led by a judge who deemed it not beneath his dignity to preside over a +court of justice by day, and to search the premises of a defenseless +woman by night, in the hope of finding the Union flag, in order to have +an excuse for ejecting her from the city, because she was well known to +entertain sentiments inimical to the interests of secession. + +Before the South ran mad with treason, Mrs. Taylor and the wife of this +judge were intimate friends, and their intimacy had not entirely ceased +so late as the early months of 1862. It was late in February of that +year that Mrs. Taylor was visiting at the judge's house, and during her +visit the judge's son, a young man of twenty, taunted her with various +epithets, such as a "Lincoln Emissary," "a traitor to her country," "a +friend of Lincoln's hirelings," etc. She listened quietly, and then as +quietly remarked that "he evidently belonged to that very numerous class +of young men in the South who evinced their courage by applying abusive +epithets to women and defenseless persons, but showed a due regard to +their own safety, by running away--as at Donelson--whenever they were +likely to come into contact with "Lincoln's hirelings."" + +The same evening, at a late hour, while Mrs. Taylor was standing by the +bed-side of her invalid husband, preparing some medicine for him, she +heard the report of a rifle and felt the wind of a minie bullet as it +passed close to her head and lodged in the wall. In the morning she dug +the ball out of the wall and took it over to the judge's house which was +opposite to her own. When the young man came in Mrs. Taylor handed it to +him, and asked if he knew what it was. He turned pale, but soon +recovered his composure sufficiently to reply that "it looked like a +rifle-ball." "Oh, no," said Mrs. Taylor, "you mistake! It is a piece of +Southern chivalry fired at a defenseless woman, in the middle of the +night, by the son of a judge, whose courage should entitle him to a +commission in the Confederate army." + +Still, brave as she was, she could not avoid some feeling, if not of +trepidation, at least of anxiety, at being thus exposed to midnight +assassination, while her life was so necessary to her helpless family. + +These are but a few instances out of many, of the trials she had to +endure. Her son hearing of them, through the indiscretion of a +school-friend, hastened home, determined to enlist in the Confederate +army to save his parents from further molestation. He enlisted for +ninety days, hoping thus to shield his family from persecution, but the +Conscription Act, which shortly after went into effect, kept him in the +position for which his opinions so unfitted him. From the spring of +1862, he remained in the Confederate army, gaining rapid promotion, and +distinguished for his bravery, until the close of the war, when he +returned home unchanged in sentiment, and unharmed by shot or shell--in +this last particular more fortunate than thousands of others forced by +conscription into the ranks, and sacrificing their lives for a cause +with which they had no sympathy. + +From the time of her son's enlistment Mrs. Taylor was nearly free from +molestation, and devoted herself to the care of her family, until the +occupation of New Orleans by the Union forces. She was then reinstated +in her position as teacher, and after the establishment of Union +hospitals, she spent all her leisure moments in ministering to the wants +of the sick and wounded. + +In 1863, we hear of her as employing all her summer vacation, as well as +her entire leisure-time when in school, in visiting the hospitals, +attending the sick and wounded soldiers, and preparing for them such +delicacies and changes of food and other comforts as she could procure +from her own purse, and by the aid of others. From that time forward +until the close of the war, or until the hospitals were closed by order +of the Government, she continued this work, expending her whole salary +upon these suffering men, and never omitting anything by which she might +minister to their comfort. + +Thousands of soldiers can bear testimony to her unwearied labors; it is +not wanting, and will be her best reward. One of these writers says, "I +do assure you it affords me the greatest pleasure to be able to add my +testimony for that good, that noble that _blessed_ woman, Mrs. Taylor. I +was wounded at Port Hudson in May, 1863, and lay in the Barracks General +Hospital at New Orleans for over three months, when I had an excellent +opportunity to see and know her work. * * * She worked _every_ day in +the hospital--all her school salary she spent for the soldiers--night +after night she toiled, and long after others were at rest she was busy +for the suffering." And another makes it a matter of personal +thankfulness that he should have been applied to for information in +regard to this "blessed woman," and repeats his thanks "for himself and +hundreds of others," that her services are to be recorded in this book. + +Having great facility in the use of her pen, Mrs. Taylor made herself +especially useful in writing letters for the soldiers. During the year +from January 1864 to January 1865, she wrote no less than eleven hundred +and seventy-four letters for these men, and even now, since the close of +the war, her labors in that direction do not end. She is in constant +communication with friends of soldiers in all parts of the country, +collecting for them every item of personal information in her power, +after spending hours in searching hospital records, and all other +available sources for obtaining the desired knowledge. + +During the summer of 1864, her duties were more arduous than at any +other time. She distributed several thousands of dollars worth of goods, +for the Cincinnati Branch of the United States Sanitary Commission, and +on the 1st of June, when her vacation commenced, she undertook the +management of the Dietetic Department in the University Hospital, the +largest in New Orleans. From that time till October 1st, she, with her +daughter and four other ladies, devoted like herself to the work, with +their own hands, with the assistance of one servant only, cooked, +prepared, and administered all the extra diet to the patients, numbering +frequently five or six hundred on diet, at one time. + +Two of these ladies were constantly at the hospital, Mrs. Taylor +frequently four days in the week, and when not there, in other +hospitals, not allowing herself _one_ day at home during the whole +vacation. When obliged to return to her school, her daughter, Miss Alice +Taylor, took her place, and with the other ladies continued, Mrs. Taylor +giving her assistance on Saturday and Sunday, till January 1st, 1865, +when the hospital was finally closed. + +Mrs. Taylor has been greatly aided by her children; her daughter, as +nobly patriotic as herself, in the beginning of the war refusing to +present a Confederate flag to a company unless beneath an arch +ornamented, and with music the same as on occasion of presenting a +banner to a political club the preceding year--_viz_: the arch decorated +with United States flags, and the national airs played. Her son +"Johnnie" is as well known and as beloved by the soldiers as his mother, +and well nigh sacrificed his noble little life to his unwearied efforts +in their behalf. + +It is out of the fiery furnace of trial that such nobly devoted persons +as Mrs. Taylor and her family come forth to their mission of +beneficence. Persecuted, compelled to make the most terrible and trying +sacrifices, in dread and danger continually, the work of the loyal women +of the South stands pre-eminent, among the labors of the noble daughters +of America. And of these, Mrs. Taylor and her associates, and of Union +women throughout the South, it may well and truly be said, in the words +of Holy Writ: Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest +them all. + + + + +MRS. ADALINE TYLER. + + +Mrs. Tyler, the subject of the following sketch, is a native of +Massachusetts, and for many years was a resident of Boston, in which +city from her social position and her piety and benevolence she was +widely known. She is a devout member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, +greatly trusted and respected both by clergy and laity. + +In 1856, she removed from Boston to Baltimore, Maryland. It was the +desire of Bishop Whittingham of that Diocese to institute there a +Protestant Sisterhood, or Order of Deaconesses, similar to those already +existing in Germany, England, and perhaps other parts of Europe. Mrs. +Tyler, then a widow, was invited to assume the superintendence of this +order--a band of noble and devout women who turning resolutely from the +world and its allurements and pleasures, desired to devote their lives +and talents to works of charity and mercy. + +To care for the sick, to relieve all want and suffering so far as lay in +their power, to administer spiritual comfort, to give of their own +substance, and to be the almoners of those pious souls whose duties lay +in other directions, and whose time necessarily absorbed in other cares, +did not allow the same self-devotion--this was the mission which they +undertook, and for years prosecuted with untiring energy, and undoubted +success. + +In addition to her general superintendence of the order, Mrs. Tyler +administered the affairs of the Church Home, a charitable Institution +conducted by the Sisterhood, and occupied herself in a variety of pious +and benevolent duties, among which were visiting the sick, and +comforting the afflicted and prisoners. Among other things she devoted +one day in each week to visiting the jail of Baltimore, at that time a +crowded and ill-conducted prison, and the abode of a great amount of +crime and suffering. + +Mrs., then known as Sister Tyler, had been five years in Baltimore, +filling up the time with her varied duties and occupations, when the +storm that had so long threatened the land, burst in all the +thunderbolts of its fury. Secession had torn from the Union some of the +fairest portions of its domain, and already stood in hostile attitude +all along the borders of the free North. The President, on the 15th of +April, 1861, issued his first proclamation, announcing the presence of +rebellion, commanding the insurgents to lay down their arms and return +to their allegiance within twenty days, and calling on the militia of +the several loyal States to the number of seventy-five thousand, to +assemble for the defense of their country. + +This proclamation, not unexpected at the North, yet sent a thrill of +mingled feeling all through its bounds. The order was promptly obeyed, +and without delay the masses prepared for the struggle which lay before +them, but of which, as yet, no prophetic visions foretold the progress +or result. Immediately regiment after regiment was hurried forward for +the protection of the Capitol, supposed to be the point most menaced. +Among these, and of the very earliest, was the Sixth Regiment +Massachusetts Volunteers, of which the nucleus was the Lowell City +Guards. + +On the memorable and now historical 19th of April, this regiment while +hurrying to the defense of Washington was assailed by a fierce and angry +mob in the streets of Baltimore, and several of its men were murdered; +and this for marching to the defense of their country, to which the +citizens of Baltimore, their assailants, were equally pledged. + +This occurred on a Friday, the day as before stated, set apart by Mrs. +Tyler for her weekly visit to the jail. The news of the riot reached +her as she was about setting out upon this errand of mercy, and caused +her to postpone her visit for several hours, as her way lay through some +portion of the disturbed district. + +When, at last, she did go, a degree of quiet prevailed, though she saw +wounded men being conveyed to their homes, or to places where they might +be cared for, and it was evident that the public excitement had not +subsided with hostilities. Much troubled concerning the fate of the +Northern men--men, it must be remembered, of her own State--who had been +stricken down, she hastened to conclude as soon as possible her duties +at the jail, and returning homeward despatched a note to a friend asking +him to ascertain and inform her what had become of the wounded soldiers. +The reply soon came, with the tidings that they had been conveyed to one +of the Station Houses by the Police, and were said to have been cared +for, though the writer had not been allowed to enter and satisfy himself +that such was the case. + +This roused the spirit of Mrs. Tyler. Here was truly a work of "charity +and mercy," and it was clearly her duty, in pursuance of the objects to +which she had devoted her life, to ensure the necessary care of these +wounded and suffering men who had fallen into the hands of those so +inimical to them. + +It was now late in the afternoon. Mrs. Tyler sent for a carriage which +she was in the habit of using whenever need required, and the driver of +which was honest and personally friendly, though probably a +secessionist, and proceeded to the Station House. By this time it was +quite dark, and she was alone. Alighting she asked the driver to give +her whatever aid she might need, and to come to her should he even see +her beckon from a window, and he promised compliance. + +She knocked at the door, but on telling her errand was denied +admittance, with the assurance that the worst cases had been sent to the +Infirmary, while those who were in the upper room of the Station House +had been properly cared for, and were in bed for the night. She again +asked to be allowed to see them, adding that the care of the suffering +was her life work, and she would like to assure herself that they needed +nothing. She was again denied more peremptorily than before. + +"Very well," she replied, "I am myself a Massachusetts woman, seeking to +do good to the citizens of my own state. If not allowed to do so, I +shall immediately send a telegram to Governor Andrew, informing him that +my request is denied." + +This spirited reply produced the desired result, and after a little +consultation among the officials, who probably found the Governor of a +State a much more formidable antagonist than a woman, coming alone on an +errand of mercy, the doors were opened and she was conducted to that +upper room where the fallen patriots lay. + +Two were already dead. Two or three were in bed, the rest lay in their +misery upon stretchers, helpless objects of the tongue abuse of the +profane wretches who, "dressed in a little brief authority," walked up +and down, thus pouring out their wrath. All the wounded had been +drugged, and were either partially or entirely insensible to their +miseries. Some eight or ten hours had elapsed since the wounds were +received, but no attention had been paid to them, further than to +staunch the blood by thrusting into them large pieces of cotton cloth. +Even their clothes had not been removed. One of them (Coburn) had been +shot in the hip, another (Sergeant Ames) was wounded in the back of the +neck, just at the base of the brain, apparently by a heavy glass bottle, +for pieces of the glass yet remained in the wound, and lay in bed, still +in his soldier's overcoat, the rough collar of which irritated the +ghastly wound. These two were the most dangerously hurt. + +Mrs. Tyler with some difficulty obtained these men, and procuring, by +the aid of her driver, a furniture van, had them laid upon it and +conveyed to her house, the Deaconesses' Home. Here a surgeon was called, +their wounds dressed, and she extended to them the care and kindness of +a mother, until they were so nearly well as to be able to proceed to +their own homes. She during this time refused protection from the +police, and declared that she felt no fears for her own safety while +thus strictly in the line of the duties to which her life was pledged. + +This was by no means the last work of this kind performed by Sister +Tyler. Other wounded men were received and cared for by her--one a +German, member of a Pennsylvania Regiment, (who was accidentally shot by +one of his own comrades) whom she nursed to health in her own house. + +For her efforts in behalf of the Massachusetts men she received the +personal acknowledgments of the Governor, President of the Senate, and +Speaker of the House of Representatives of that State, and afterwards +resolutions of thanks were passed by the Legislature, or General Court, +which, beautifully engrossed upon parchment, and sealed with the seal of +the Commonwealth, were presented to her. + +In all that she did, Mrs. Tyler had the full approval of her Bishop, as +well as of her own conscience, while soon after at the suggestion of +Bishop Whittingham, the Surgeon-General offered, and indeed urged upon +her, the superintendency of the Camden Street Hospital, in the city of +Baltimore. Her experience in the management of the large institution she +had so long superintended, her familiarity with all forms of suffering, +as well as her natural tact and genius, and her high character, +eminently fitted her for this position. + +Her duties were of course fulfilled in the most admirable manner, and +save that she sometimes came in contact with the members of some of the +volunteer associations of ladies who, in their commendable anxiety to +minister to the suffering soldiers, occasionally allowed their zeal to +get the better of their discretion, gave satisfaction to all concerned. +She did not live in the Hospital, but spent the greater part of the time +there during the year of her connection with it. Circumstances at last +decided her to leave. Her charge she turned over to Miss Williams, of +Boston, whom she had herself brought thither, and then went northward +to visit her friends. + +She had not long been in the city of New York before she was urgently +desired by the Surgeon-General to take charge of a large hospital at +Chester, Pennsylvania, just established and greatly needing the +ministering aid of women. She accepted the appointment, and proceeding +to Boston selected from among her friends, and those who had previously +offered their services, a corps of excellent nurses, who accompanied her +to Chester. + +In this hospital there was often from five hundred to one thousand sick +and wounded men, and Mrs. Tyler had use enough for the ample stores of +comforts which, by the kindness of her friends in the east, were +continually arriving. Indeed there was never a time when she was not +amply supplied with these, and with money for the use of her patients. + +She remained at Chester a year, and was then transferred to Annapolis, +where she was placed in charge of the Naval School Hospital, remaining +there until the latter part of May, 1864. + +This was a part of her service which perhaps drew more heavily than any +other upon the sympathies and heart of Mrs. Tyler. Here, during the +period of her superintendency, the poor wrecks of humanity from the +prison pens of Andersonville and Belle Isle were brought, an assemblage +of such utter misery, such dreadful suffering, that words fail in the +description of it. Here indeed was a "work of charity and mercy," such +as had never before been presented to this devoted woman; such, indeed, +as the world had never seen. + +Most careful, tender, and kindly were the ministrations of Mrs. Tyler +and her associates--a noble band of women--to these wretched men. Filth, +disease, and starvation had done their work upon them. Emaciated, till +only the parchment-like skin covered the protruding bones, many of them +too feeble for the least exertion, and their minds scarcely stronger +than their bodies, they were indeed a spectacle to inspire, as they +did, the keenest sympathy, and to call for every effort of kindness. + +Mrs. Tyler procured a number of photographs of these wretched men, +representing them in all their squalor and emaciation. These were the +first which were taken, though the Government afterwards caused some to +be made which were widely distributed. With these Mrs. Tyler did much +good. She had a large number of copies printed in Boston, after her +return there, and both in this country and in Europe, which she +afterwards visited, often had occasion to bring them forward as +unimpeachable witnesses of the truth of her own statements. Sun pictures +cannot lie, and the sun's testimony in these brought many a heart +shudderingly to a belief which it had before scouted. In Europe, +particularly, both in England and upon the Continent, these pictures +compelled credence of those tales of the horrors and atrocities of rebel +prison pens, which it had long been the fashion to hold as mere +sensation stories, and libels upon the chivalrous South. + +Whenever referring to her work at Annapolis for the returned prisoners, +Mrs. Tyler takes great pleasure in expressing her appreciation of the +valuable and indefatigable services of the late Dr. Vanderkieft, Surgeon +in charge of the Naval School Hospital. In his efforts to resuscitate +the poor victims of starvation and cruelty, he was indefatigable, never +sparing himself, but bestowing upon them his unwearied personal +attention and sympathy. In this he was aided by his wife, herself a true +Sister of Charity. + +Mrs. Tyler also gives the highest testimony to the services and personal +worth of her co-workers, Miss Titcomb, Miss Hall, and others, who gave +themselves with earnest zeal to the cause, and feels how inadequate +would have been her utmost efforts amid the multitude of demands, but +for their aid. It is to them chiefly due that so many healthy +recreations, seasons of amusement and religious instruction were given +to the men. + +During and subsequent to the superintendency of Mrs. Tyler at Annapolis +a little paper was published weekly at the hospital, under the title of +"The Crutch." This was well supplied with articles, many of them of real +merit, both by officials and patients. Whenever an important movement +took place, or a battle, it was the custom to issue a small extra giving +the telegraphic account; when, if it were a victory, the feeble +sufferers who had sacrificed so much for their country, would spend the +last remnants of their strength, and make the very welkin ring, with +their shouts of gladness. + +Exhausted by her labors, and the various calls upon her efforts, Mrs. +Tyler, in the spring of 1864, was at length obliged to send in her +resignation. Her health seemed utterly broken down, and her physicians +and friends saw in an entire change of air and scene the best hope of +her recovery. She had for some time been often indisposed, and her +illness at last terminated in fever and chills. Though well accustomed +during her long residence to the climate of Maryland, she no longer +possessed her youthful powers of restoration and reinvigoration. Her +physicians advised a sea voyage as essential to her recovery, and a tour +to Europe was therefore determined upon. + +She left the Naval School Hospital on the 27th of May, 1864, and set +sail from New York on the 15th of June. + +The disease did not succumb at once, as was hoped. She endured extreme +illness and lassitude during her voyage, and was completely prostrated +on her arrival in Paris where she lay three weeks ill, before being able +to proceed by railroad to Lucerne, Switzerland, and rejoin her sister +who had been some months in Europe, and who, with her family, were to be +the traveling companions of Mrs. Tyler. Arrived at Lucerne, she was +again prostrated by chills and fever, and only recovered after removal +to the dryer climate of Berlin. The next year she was again ill with the +same disease after a sojourn among the dykes and canals of Holland. + +Mrs. Tyler spent about eighteen months in Europe, traveling over various +parts of the Continent, and England, where she remained four or five +months, returning to her native land in November, 1865, to find the +desolating war which had raged here at the time of her departure at an +end. Her health had been by this time entirely re-established, and she +is happy in the belief that long years of usefulness yet remain to her. + +Ardent and fearless in her loyalty to her Government, Mrs. Tyler had +ample opportunities, never neglected, to impress the truth in regard to +our country and its great struggle for true liberty, upon the minds of +persons of all classes in Europe. Her letters of introduction from her +friends, from Bishop Whittingham and others, brought her into frequent +contact with people of cultivation and refinement who, like the masses, +yet held the popular belief in regard to the oppression and abuse of the +South by the North, a belief which Mrs. Tyler even at the risk of +offending numerous Southern friends by her championship, was sure to +combat. Like other intelligent loyal Americans she was thus the means of +spreading right views, and accomplishing great good, even while in +feeble health and far from her own country. For her services in this +regard she might well have been named a Missionary of Truth and Liberty. + +One instance of her experience in contact with Southern sympathizers +with the Rebellion, we take the liberty to present to the readers of +this sketch. Mrs. Tyler was in London when the terrible tidings of that +last and blackest crime of the Rebellion--the assassination of Abraham +Lincoln was received. She was paying a morning visit to an American +friend, a Southerner and a Christian, when the door was suddenly thrust +open and a fiendish-looking man rushed in, vociferating, "Have you heard +the news? Old Abe is assassinated! Seward too! Johnson escaped. Now if +God will send an earthquake and swallow up the whole North--men, women, +and children, _I_ will say His name be praised!" + +All this was uttered as in one breath, and then the restless form, and +fierce inflamed visage as suddenly disappeared, leaving horrid +imprecations upon the ears of the listeners, who never supposed the +fearful tale could be true. Mrs. Tyler's friend offered the only +extenuation possible--the man had "been on board the Alabama and was +very bitter." But in Mrs. Tyler's memory that fearful deed is ever +mingled with that fiendish face and speech. + +The next day the Rebel Commissioner Mason, replying to some remarks of +the American Minister, Mr. Adams, in the Times, took occasion most +emphatically to deprecate the insinuation that the South had any +knowledge of, or complicity in this crime. + + + + +MRS. WILLIAM H. HOLSTEIN. + + +At the opening of the war Mrs. Holstein was residing in a most pleasant +and delightful country home at Upper Merion, Montgomery County, +Pennsylvania. In the words of one who knows and appreciates her +well--"Mr. and Mrs. Holstein are people of considerable wealth, and +unexceptionable social position, beloved and honored by all who know +them, who voluntarily abandoned their beautiful home to live for years +in camps and hospitals. Their own delicacy and modesty would forbid them +to speak of the work they accomplished, and no one can ever know the +greatness of its results." + +As Mrs. Holstein was always accompanied by her husband, and this devoted +pair were united in this great patriotic and kindly work, as in all the +other cases, duties and pleasures of life, it would be almost +impossible, even if it were necessary, to give any separate account of +her services for the army. This is shown in the following extracts from +a letter, probably not intended for publication, but which, in a spirit +far removed from that of self-praise, gives an account of the motives +and feelings which actuated her, and of the opening scenes of her public +services. + +"The story of my work, blended as it is, (and should be) so intimately +with that of my husband, in his earnest wish to carry out what we felt +to be simply a matter of duty, is like an 'oft told tale' not worth +repeating. Like all other loyal women in our land, at the first sound +and threatening of war, there sprang up in my heart an uncontrollable +impulse _to do, to act_; for _anything_ but idleness when our country +was in peril and her sons marching to battle. + +"It seemed that the only help woman could give was in providing comforts +for the sick and wounded, and to this, for a time, I gave my undivided +attention. I felt sure there was work for _me_ to do in this war; and +when my mother would say 'I hope, my child, it will not be in the +hospitals,'--my response was ever the same--'Wherever or whatever it may +be, it shall be done with all my heart.' + +"At length came the battle of Antietam, and from among us six ladies +went to spend ten days in caring for the wounded. But craven-like, I +shrank instinctively from such scenes, and declined to join the party. +But when my husband returned from there, one week after the battle, +relating such unheard of stories of suffering, and of the help that was +needed, I hesitated no longer. In a few days we collected a car load of +boxes, containing comforts and delicacies for the wounded, and had the +satisfaction of taking them promptly to their destination. + +"The _first_ wounded and the _first_ hospitals I saw I shall never +forget, for then flashed across my mind, '_This_ is the work God has +given you to do,' and the vow was made, 'While the war lasts we stand +pledged to aid, as far as is in our power, the sick and suffering. _We_ +have no _right_ to the comforts of _our_ home, while so many of the +noblest of our land so willingly renounce theirs.' The scenes of +Antietam are graven as with an 'iron pen' upon my mind. The place ever +recalls throngs of horribly wounded men strewn in every direction. So +fearful it all looked to me _then_, that I thought the choking sobs and +blinding tears would never admit of my being of any use. To suppress +them, and to learn to be calm under all circumstances, was one of the +hardest lessons the war taught. + +"We gave up our sweet country home, and from that date were 'dwellers +in tents,' occupied usually in field hospitals, choosing that work +because there was the greatest need, and knowing that while many were +willing to work at home, but few could go to the front." + +From that time, the early autumn of 1862, until July, 1865, Mrs. +Holstein was constantly devoted to the work, not only in camps and +hospitals, but in traveling from place to place and enlisting the more +energetic aid of the people by lecturing and special appeals. + +At Antietam Mrs. Holstein found the men she had come to care for, those +brave, suffering men, lying scattered all over the field, in barns and +sheds, under the shelter of trees and fences, in need of every comfort, +but bearing their discomforts and pain without complaint or murmuring, +and full of gratitude to those who had it in their power to do anything, +ever so little, for their relief. + +Here she encountered the most trying scenes--a boy of seventeen crying +always for his mother to come to him, or to be permitted to go to her, +till the great stillness of death fell upon him; agonized wives seeking +the remains of the lost, sorrowing relatives, of all degrees, some +confirmed in their worst fears, some reassured and grateful--a constant +succession of bewildering emotions, of hope, fear, sadness and joy. + +The six ladies from her own town, were still for a long time busy in +their work of mercy distributing freely, as they had been given, the +supplies with which they had been provided. This was eminently a work of +faith. Often the stores, of one, or of many kinds, would be exhausted, +but in no instance did Providence fail to immediately replenish those +most needed. + +During the stay of Mr. and Mrs. Holstein in Sharpsburg, an ambulance was +daily placed at their disposal, and they were continually going about +with it and finding additional cases in need of every comfort. Supplies +were continually sent from friends at home, and they remained until the +wounded had all left save a few who were retained at Smoketown and +Locust Spring Hospitals. + +While the army rested in the vicinity of Sharpsburg, scores of fever +patients came pouring in, making a fearful addition to the hospital +patients, and greatly adding to the mortality. + +The party, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Holstein and a friend of theirs, a +lady, remained until their services were no longer required, and then, +about the 1st of December, returned home. Busied in arrangement for the +collection and forwarding of stores, and in making trips to Antietam, +Harper's Ferry, and Frederick City, on similar business, the days wore +away until the battle of Fredericksburg. Soon after this they went to +Virginia, and entered the Second Corps Hospital near Falmouth. There in +a Sibley tent whose only floor was of the branches of the pines--in that +little Hospital on the bleak hill-side, the winter wore slowly away. The +needful army movements had rendered the muddy roads impassable. No +chaplain came to the camp until these roads were again in good order. +Men sickened and died with no other religious services performed in +their hearing than the simple reading of Scripture and prayers which +Mrs. Holstein was in the habit of using for them, and which were always +gladly listened to. + +Just previous to the battle of Chancellorsville, Mrs. Holstein returned +home for a few days, and was detained on coming back to her post by the +difficulty of getting within the lines. She found the hospital moved +some two miles from its former location, and that many of her former +patients had died, or suffered much in the change. After the battle +there was of course a great accession of wounded men. Some had lain long +upon the field--one group for eleven days, with wounds undressed, and +almost without food. The rebels, finding they did not die, reluctantly +fed them with some of their miserable corn bread, and afterwards sent +them within the Union lines. + +The site of the hospital where Mrs. Holstein was now stationed, was very +beautiful. The surgeon in charge had covered the sloping hill-side with +a flourishing garden. The convalescents had slowly and painfully planted +flower seeds, and built rustic arbors. All things had begun to assume +the aspect of a beautiful home. + +But suddenly, on the 13th of June, 1863, while at dinner, the order was +received to break up the hospital. In two hours the wounded men, so +great was their excitement at the thought of going toward _home_, were +on their way to Washington. + +All was excitement, in fact. The army was all in motion as soon as +possible. Through the afternoon the work of destruction went on. As +little as possible was left for the enemy, and when Mrs. Holstein awoke +the following morning, the plain below was covered by a living mass, and +the bayonets were gleaming in the brilliant sunlight, as the long lines +were put in motion, and the Army of the Potomac began its northern +march. + +Mr. and Mrs. Holstein accompanied it, bearing all its dangers and +discomforts in company with the men with whom they had for the time cast +their lot. The heat, dust, and fatigue were dreadful, and danger from +the enemy was often imminent. At Sangster's Station, the breaking down +of a bridge delayed the crossing of the infantry, and the order was +given to reduce the officers' baggage to twenty pounds. + +Then came many of the officers to beg leave to entrust to the care of +Mr. and Mrs. Holstein, money and valuables. They received both in large +amounts, and had the satisfaction of carrying all safely, and having +them delivered at last to their rightful owners. + +At Union Mills a battle was considered imminent, and Mrs. Holstein's +tent in the rear of the Union army, was within bugle call of the rebel +lines. In the morning it was deemed best for them to proceed by railroad +to Alexandria and Washington, whence they could readily return whenever +needed. + +At Washington, Mr. Holstein was threatened by an attack of malarious +fever, and they returned at once to their home. While there, and he +still unable to move, the battle of Gettysburg was fought. In less than +a week he left his bed, and the devoted pair proceeded thither to renew +their services, where they were then so greatly needed. + +Mrs. Holstein's first night in this town was passed upon the parlor +floor of a hotel, with only a satchel for a pillow, where fatigue made +her sleep soundly. The morning saw them at the Field Hospital of the +Second Corps, where they were enthusiastically welcomed by their old +friends. Here, side by side, just as they had been brought in from the +field, lay friends and enemies. + +Experience had taught Mr. and Mrs. Holstein how and what to do. Very +soon their tent was completed, their "Diet Kitchen" arranged, the +valuable supplies they had brought with them ready for distribution, and +their work moving on smoothly and beneficially amid all the horrors of +this terrible field. + +"There," reports Mrs. Holstein, "as in all places where I have known our +brave Union soldiers, they bore their sufferings bravely, I might almost +say _exultingly_, because they were for 'The Flag' and our country." + +The scenes of horror and of sadness enacted there, have left their +impress upon the mind of Mrs. Holstein in unfading characters. And yet, +amidst these there were some almost ludicrous, as for instance, that of +the soldier, White, of the Twentieth Massachusetts, who, supposed to be +dead, was borne, with two of his comrades, to the grave side, but +revived under the rude shock with which the stretcher was set down, and +looking down into the open grave in which lay a brave lieutenant of his +own regiment, declared, with grim fun, that he would not be "buried by +that raw recruit," and ordered the men to "carry him back." This man, +though fearfully wounded in the throat, actually lived and recovered. + +The government was now well equipped with stores and supplies, but Mrs. +Holstein writes her testimony, with that of all others, to the most +valuable supplementary aid of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, +in caring for the vast army of wounded and suffering upon this dreadful +field. + +By the 7th of August all had been removed who were able to bear +transportation, to other hospitals. Three thousand remained, who were +placed in the United States General Hospital on York Turnpike. The +Second Corps Hospital was merged in this, and Mrs. Holstein remained as +its matron until its close, and was fully occupied until the removal of +the hospital and the dedication of the National Cemetery. + +She then returned home, but after rest she was requested by the Sanitary +Commission to commence a tour among the Aid Societies of the State, for +the purpose of telling the ladies all that her experience had taught her +of the soldier's needs, and the best way of preparing and forwarding +clothing, delicacies and supplies of all kinds. She felt it impossible +to be idle, and however disagreeable this task, she would not shrink +from it. The earnestness with which she was listened to, and the +consciousness of the good to result from her labors, sustained her all +through the arduous winter's work, during which she often met two or +three audiences for an "hour and a half talk," in the course of the day. +Her husband as usual accompanied her, and in the spring, with the +commencement of Grant's campaign over the Rapidan, they both went +forward as agents of the Sanitary Commission. + +Through all this dread campaign they worked devotedly. They could not +rest to be appalled by its horrors. They could not think of the grandeur +of its conceptions or the greatness of its victories--they could only +work and wait for leisure to grasp the wonder of the passing events. As +Mrs. Holstein herself says: "While living amidst so much excitement--in +the times which form history--we were unconscious of it all--it was our +daily life!" + +Of that long period, Mrs. Holstein records two grand experiences as +conspicuous--the salute which followed the news of the completion of +Sherman's "March to the Sea," and the explosion of the mine at City +Point. + +With the first, one battery followed another with continuous +reverberation, till all the air was filled with the roar of artillery. +The other was more awful. The explosion was fearful. The smoke rose in +form like a gigantic umbrella, and from its midst radiated every kind of +murderous missile--shells were thrown and burst in all directions, +muskets and every kind of arms fell like a shower around. Comparatively +few were killed--many of the men were providentially out of the way. +Until the revelations upon the trial of Wirz, it was supposed to have +been caused by an accident, but then men learned that it was part of a +fiendish plot to destroy lives and Government property. + +The summer of 1864 was noted for its intense heat and dust, but Mr. and +Mrs. Holstein remained with the army, absorbed in their work, till +November, when Mr. Holstein's health again failed and they went home for +rest. It was not thought prudent for them to return, and Mrs. Holstein, +still accompanied by him, resumed her travels and spent some time in +"talking" to the women and children of the State. She had the +satisfaction of establishing several societies which worked vigorously +during the remainder of the war. + +In January, 1865, they went to Annapolis to do what they could for the +returned Andersonville prisoners, and to learn their actual condition +and sufferings that Mrs. Holstein might have a better hold upon the +minds of the people, to whom she talked. Let us give these brief +allusions to her experiences here, in her own words. + +"All of horror I had seen, or known, throughout the war, faded into +insignificance when contrasted with the results of this heinous _sin_--a +systematic course of starvation of brave men, made captive by the +chances of war. * * * My note-book is filled with fearful records of +suffering, and hardships unparalleled, written just as I took the +statements from the fleshless lips of these living skeletons. In +appearance they reminded me more of the bodies I had seen washed out +upon Antietam, and other battle-fields, than of anything else--only +_they_ had ceased to suffer and were at rest,--_these_ were still +living, breathing, helpless _skeletons_. + + 'In treason's prison-hold + Their martyred spirits grew + To stature like the saints of old, + While, amid agonies untold, + They _starved_ for _me_--and _you_.' + +"We remained at Annapolis from January to July, when, the war being +closed, the men were mustered out of service. The few remaining were +sent to Baltimore, and the hospitals were vacated and restored to their +former uses. + +"Much of the summer was occupied in unfinished hospital work, and in +looking after some special cases of great interest. The final close of +the war brought with it, for the first time in all these long years, +_perfect rest_ to overtasked mind and wearied body." + + + + +MRS. CORDELIA A. P. HARVEY + + +The State of Wisconsin is justly proud of a name, which, while standing +for what is noble and true in man, has received an added lustre in being +made to express also, the sympathy, the goodness, and the power of +woman. The death of the honored husband, and the public labors of the +heroic wife, in the same cause--the great cause that has absorbed the +attention and the resources of the country for four years--have given +each to the other a peculiar and thrilling interest to every loyal +American heart. + +It will be remembered that shortly after the battle of Shiloh, Governor +Harvey proceeded to the front with supplies and medical aid to assist in +caring for the wounded among the soldiers from his State, after +rendering great service in alleviating their sufferings by the aid and +comfort he brought with him, and reviving their spirits by his presence. +As he was about to embark at Savannah for home, in passing from one boat +to another, he fell into the river and was drowned. This was on the 19th +of April, 1862, a day made memorable by some of the most important +events in our country's history. Two days before he wrote to Mrs. Harvey +the last sacred letter as follows: + + "PITTSBURG LANDING, _April 17, 1862_. + + "DEAR WIFE:--Yesterday was _the day_ of my life. Thank God for the + impulse that brought me here. I am well and have done more good by + coming than I can well tell you. In haste, + + "LOUIS." + +[Illustration: MRS. CORDELIA A. P. HARVEY. + Eng^d. by A.H. Ritchie.] + +With these words ringing in her ears as from beyond the tomb, the +conviction forced itself upon her mind that the path of duty for her lay +in the direction he had so faithfully pointed out. But for a while +womanly feeling overcame all else, and she gave way beneath the shock of +her affliction, coming so suddenly and taking away at once the pride, +the hope, and the joy of life. For many weeks it seemed that the tie +that bound her to the departed was stronger than that which held her to +the earth, and her friends almost despaired of seeing her again herself. + +Hers was indeed a severe affliction. A husband, beloved and honored by +all, without a stain upon his fair fame, with a bright future and hope +of long life before him, had fallen--suddenly as by a bullet--at the +front, where his great heart had led him to look after the wants of his +own brave troops--fallen to be remembered with the long list of heroes +who have died that their country might live, and in making themselves +immortal, have made a people great. Nor was this sacrifice without its +fruit. It was this that put it into her heart to work for the soldiers, +and from the grave of HARVEY have sprung those flowers of Love and Mercy +whose fragrance has filled the land. + +Looking back now, it is easy to see how much this bereavement had to do +in fitting Mrs. Harvey for her work. It is the experience of sorrow that +prepares us to minister to others in distress. At home none could say +they had given more for their country than she, few could feel a sorrow +she had not known or with which she could not sympathize, out of +something in her own experience. In the army, in camps and hospitals, +who so fit to speak in the place of wife or mother to the sick and dying +soldier, as she, in whom the tenderest feelings of the heart had been +touched by the hand of Death? + +With the intention of devoting herself to this work, she asked of the +Governor permission to visit hospitals in the Western Department, as +agent for the State, which was cordially granted, and early in the +autumn of 1862, set out for St. Louis to commence her new work. + +To a lady who had seen nothing of military life, of course, all was +strange. The experiment she was making was one in which very many +kind-hearted women have utterly failed--rushing to hospitals from the +impulse of a tender sympathy, only to make themselves obnoxious to the +surgeons by their impertinent zeal, and, by their inexperience and +indiscretion, useless, and sometimes detrimental, to the patients. With +the wisdom that has marked her course throughout, she at once +comprehended the delicacy of the situation, and was not long in +perceiving what she could best do, and wherein she could accomplish the +most good. The facility with which she brought, not only her own best +powers, but the influence universally accorded to her position, to bear +for the benefit of the suffering soldiers, is subject of remark and +wonder among all who have witnessed her labors. + +At that time St. Louis was the theater of active military operations, +and the hospitals were crowded with sick and wounded from the camps and +battle-fields of Missouri and Tennessee. The army was not then composed +of the hardy veterans whose prowess has since carried victory into every +rebellious State, but of boys and young men unused to hardship, who, in +the flush of enthusiasm, had entered the army. Time had not then brought +to its present perfection the work of the Medical Department, and but +for the spontaneous generosity of the people in sending forward +assistance and supplies for the sick and wounded, the army could +scarcely have existed. Such was the condition of things when Mrs. Harvey +commenced her work of mercy in visiting the hospitals of that city, +filled with the victims of battle and disease. How from morning till +night for many a weary week she waited by the cots of these poor +fellows, attending to their little wants, and speaking words of cheer +and comfort, those who knew her then all well remember. The work at once +became delightful and profitable to her, calling her mind away from its +own sorrows to the physical suffering of those around her. In her +eagerness to soothe their woes, she half forgot her own, and came to +them always with a joyous smile and words of cheerful consolation. +During her stay in St. Louis her home was at the hospitable mansion of +George Partridge, Esq., an esteemed member of the Western Sanitary +Commission, whose household seem to have vied with each other in +attention and kindness to their guest. + +Hearing of great suffering at Cape Girardeau, she went there about the +1st of August, just as the First Wisconsin Cavalry were returning from +their terrible expedition through the swamps of Arkansas. She had last +seen them in all their pride and manly beauty, reviewed by her husband, +the Governor, before they left their State. Now how changed! The +strongest, they that could stand, just tottering about, the very shadows +of their former selves. The building taken as a temporary hospital, was +filled to overflowing, and the surgeons were without hospital supplies, +the men subsisting on the common army ration alone. The heat was +oppressive, and the diseases of the most fearfully contagious character. +The surgeons themselves were appalled, and the attendants shrank from +the care of the sick and the removal of the dead. In one room she found +a corpse which had evidently lain for many hours, the nurses fearing to +go near and see if the man was dead. With her own hands she bound up the +face, and emboldened by her coolness, the burial party were induced to +coffin the body and remove it from the house. Here was a field for +self-forgetfulness and heroic devotion to a holy cause; and here the +light of woman's sympathy shone brightly when all else was fear and +gloom. Patients dying with the noxious camp fever breathed into her ear +their last messages to loved ones at home, as she passed from cot to +cot, undaunted by the bolts of death which fell around her thick as on +the battle-field. She set herself to work procuring furloughs for such +as were able to travel, and discharges for the permanently disabled, to +get them away from a place of death. To this end she brought all the +art of woman to work. Once convinced that the object she sought was just +and right, she left no honorable means untried to secure it. Surgeons +were flattered and coaxed, whenever coaxing and flattering availed; or, +failing in this, she knew when to administer a gentle threat, or an +intimation that a report might go up to a higher official. One resource +failing she always had another, and never attempted anything without +carrying it out. + +Mrs. Harvey relates many touching incidents of her experience at this +place which want of space forbids us to repeat. One of her first acts +was to telegraph Mr. Yeatman, President of the Western Sanitary +Commission, at St. Louis, for hospital stores, and in two days, by his +promptness and liberality, she received an abundant supply. + +After several weeks' stay at Cape Girardeau, during which time the +condition of the hospital greatly improved, Mrs. Harvey continued her +tour of visitation which was to embrace all the general hospitals on the +Mississippi river, as well as the regimental hospitals of the troops of +her own State. Her face, cheerful with all the heart's burden of grief, +gladdened every ward where lay a Union soldier, from Keokuk as far down +as the sturdy legions of GRANT had regained possession of the Father of +Waters. + +At Memphis she was able to do great service in procuring furloughs for +men who would else have died. Often has the writer heard brave men +declare, with tearful eyes, their gratitude to her for favors of this +kind. Many came to have a strange and almost superstitious reverence for +a person exercising so powerful an influence, and using it altogether +for the good of the common soldier. The estimate formed of her authority +by some of the more ignorant class, often exhibited itself in an +extremely ludicrous manner. She would sometimes receive letters from +homesick men begging her to give them a furlough to visit their +families! and often, from deserters and others confined in military +prisons, asking to be set at liberty, and promising faithful service +thereafter! + +The spring of 1863 found General Grant making his approaches upon the +last formidable position held by the rebels on the Mississippi. Young's +Point, across the river from Vicksburg, the limit of uninterrupted +navigation at that time, will be remembered by many as a place of great +suffering to our brave boys. The high water covering the low lands on +which they were encamped during the famous canal experiment, induced +much sickness. Intent to be where her kind offices were most needed, +Mrs. Harvey proceeded thither about the first of April. After a few +weeks' labor, she, herself, overcome by the terrible miasma, was taken +seriously ill, and was obliged to return homeward. Months of rest, and a +visit to the sea-side, were required to bring back a measure of her +wonted strength, and so for the summer her services were lost to the +army. + +But though for a while withheld from her chosen work, Mrs. Harvey never +forgot the sick soldier. Her observation while with the army, convinced +her of the necessity of establishing general hospitals in the Northern +States, where soldiers suffering from diseases incurable in the South, +might be sent with prospect of recovery. Her own personal experience +deepened her conviction, and, although the plan found little favor then +among high officials, she at once gave her heart to its accomplishment. +Although repeated efforts had been made in vain to lead the Government +into this policy, Mrs. Harvey determined to go to Washington and make +her plea in person to the president. + +As the result of her interview with Mr. Lincoln, which was of the most +cordial character, a General Hospital was granted to the State of +Wisconsin; and none who visit the city of Madison can fail to observe, +with patriotic pride, the noble structure known as Harvey Hospital. As +proof of the service it has done, and as fully verifying the arguments +urged by Mrs. Harvey to secure its establishment, the reader is +referred to the reports of the surgeon in charge of the hospital. + +Her mission at Washington accomplished, Mrs. Harvey returned immediately +home, where she soon received official intelligence that the hospital +would be located at Madison and be prepared for the reception of +patients at the earliest possible moment. Upon this, she went +immediately to Memphis, Tennessee, where she was informed by the medical +director of the Sixteenth Army Corps, that there were over one hundred +men in Fort Pickering (used as a Convalescent Camp) who had been +vacillating between camp and hospital for a year, and who would surely +die unless removed North. At his suggestion, she accompanied these sick +men up the river, to get them, if possible, north of St. Louis. She +landed at Cairo, and proceeded to St. Louis by rail, and, on the arrival +of the transport, had transportation to Madison ready for the men. As +they were needy, and had not been paid, she procured of the Western +Sanitary Commission a change of clothing for every one. Out of the whole +number, only seven died, and only five were discharged. The remainder +returned, strong and healthy, to the service. + +Returning South, she visited all points on the river down to New +Orleans, coming back to make her home for the time at Vicksburg, as the +place nearest the centre of her field of labor. The Superintendent and +Matrons of the Soldiers' Home extended to her a hearty welcome, happy to +have their institution honored by her presence, and receive her +sympathizing and kindly aid. So substantial was the reputation she had +won among the army, that her presence alone, at a military post in the +West, was a power for good. Officers and attendants in charge of +hospitals knew how quick she was to apprehend and bring to light any +delinquency in the performance of their duties, and profited by this +knowledge to the mutual advantage of themselves and those thrown upon +their care. + +During the summer of 1864, the garrison of Vicksburg suffered much from +diseases incident to the season in that latitude. Perhaps in no regiment +was the mortality greater than in the Second Wisconsin Cavalry. Strong +men sickened and died within a few days, and others lingered on for +weeks, wasting by degrees, till only skin and bone were left. The +survivors, in evidence of their appreciation of her sympathy and +exertions for them in their need, presented her an elegant enameled gold +watch, beautifully set with diamonds. The presentation was an occasion +on which she could not well avoid a public appearance, and those who +were present, must have wondered that one of such power in private +conversation should have so little control, even of her own feelings, +before an assembly. Mrs. Harvey has never distinguished herself as a +_public_ speaker. Resolute, impetuous, confident to a degree bordering +on the imperious, with power of denunciation to equip an orator, she yet +shrinks from the gaze of a multitude with a woman's modesty, and the +humility of a child. She does not underestimate the worth of true +womanhood by attempting to act a distinctively manly part. + +Although known as the agent of the State of Wisconsin, Mrs. Harvey has +paid little regard to state lines, and has done a truly national work. +Throughout the time of her stay with the army, applications for her aid +came as often from the soldiers of other states as from those of her +own, and no one was ever refused relief if to obtain it was in her +power. Acting in the character of a friend to every Union soldier, from +whatever state, she has had the entire confidence of the great Sanitary +Commissions, and rendered to their agents invaluable aid in the +distribution of goods. The success that has everywhere attended Mrs. +Harvey's efforts, directly or indirectly, to benefit the soldier, has +given to her life an unusual charm, and established for her a national +reputation. + +In years to come, the war-scarred veteran will recount to listening +children around the domestic hearth, along with many a thrilling deed of +valor performed by his own right arm, the angel visits of this lady to +his cot, when languishing with disease, or how, when ready to die, her +intercessions secured him a furlough, and sent him home to feel the +curative power of his native air and receive the care of loving hands +and hearts. Not a few unfortunates will remember, if they do not tell, +how her care reached them, not only in hospital but in prison as well, +bringing clothing and comfort to them when shivering in their rags; +while others, again, will not be ashamed to relate, as we have heard +them, with tears, their gratitude for release from unjust imprisonment, +secured by her faithful exertions. + +The close of the war has brought Mrs. Harvey back to her home, and +closed her work for the soldiers. Her attention now is turned in the +direction of soothing the sorrows the war has caused among the +households of her State. Many a soldier who has died for his country, +has left his little ones to the charity of the world. Through her +exertions the State of Wisconsin now has a Soldiers' Orphan Asylum, +where all these children of our dead heroes shall be gathered in. By a +visit to Washington she has recently obtained from the United States +Government, the donation of its interest in Harvey Hospital, and has +turned it into an institution of this kind, and has set her hand and +heart to the work of securing from the people a liberal endowment for +it. + +Happy indeed has she been in her truly Christian work, begun in sadness +and opening into the joy that crowns every good work. The benedictions +of thousands of the brave and victorious rest upon her, and the purest +spirits of the martyred ones have her in their gentle care! May America +be blest with many more like her to teach us by example the nature and +practice of a true Christian heroism. + + + + +MRS. SARAH R. JOHNSTON. + + +Our northern women have won the highest meed of praise for their +devotion and self-sacrifice in the cause of their country, but great as +their labors and sacrifices have been, they are certainly inferior to +those of some of the loyal women of the South, who for the love they +bore to their country and its flag, braved all the contempt, obloquy and +scorn which Southern women could heap upon them--who lived for years in +utter isolation from the society of relatives, friends, and neighbors, +because they would render such aid and succor as was in their power to +the defenders of the national cause, in prison, in sorrow and in +suffering. Often were the lives of those brave women in danger, and the +calmness with which they met those who thirsted for their blood gave +evidence of their position of a spirit as undaunted and lofty as any +which ever faced the cannon's mouth or sought death in the high places +of the field. Among these heroines none deserves a higher place in the +records of womanly patriotism and courage than Mrs. Sarah R. Johnston. + +At the breaking out of the war Mrs. Johnston was teaching a school at +Salisbury, North Carolina, where she was born and always resided. When +the first prisoners were brought into that place, the Southern women +turned out in their carriages and with a band escorted them through the +town, and when they filed past saluted them with contemptuous epithets. +From that time Mrs. Johnston determined to devote herself to the +amelioration of the condition of the prisoners; and the testimony of +thousands of the Union soldiers confined there proved how nobly she +performed the duties she undertook. It was no easy task, for she was +entirely alone, being the only woman who openly advocated Union +sentiments and attempted to administer to the wants of the prisoners. +For fifteen months none of the women of Salisbury spoke to her or called +upon her, and every possible indignity was heaped on her as a "Yankee +sympathizer." Her scholars were withdrawn from her school, and it was +broken up, and her means were very limited; nevertheless, she +accomplished more by systematic arrangements than many would have done +with a large outlay of money. + +When the first exchange of prisoners was made, she went to the depot to +arrange some pallets for some of the sick who were leaving, when she +stumbled in the crowd, and looking down she found a young Federal +soldier who had fainted and fallen, and was in danger of being trodden +to death. She raised him up and called for water, but none of the people +would get a drop to save a "Yankee's" life. Some of the soldiers who +were in the cars threw their canteens to her, and she succeeded in +reviving him; during this time the crowd heaped upon her every insulting +epithet they could think of, and her life even was in danger. But she +braved all, and succeeded in obtaining permission from Colonel Godwin, +then in command of the post, who was a kind-hearted man, to let her +remove him to her own house, promising to take care of him as if he were +her own son, and if he died to give him Christian burial. He was in the +last stages of consumption, and she felt sure he would die if taken to +the prison hospital. None of the citizens of the place would even assist +in carrying him, and after a time two gentlemen from Richmond stepped +forward and helped convey him to her house. There she watched over him +for hours, as he was in a terrible state from neglect, having had +blisters applied to his chest which had never been dressed and were full +of vermin. + +The poor boy, whose name was Hugh Berry, from Ohio, only lived a few +days, and she had a grave dug for him in her garden in the night, for +burial had been refused in the public graveyard, and she had been +threatened that if she had him interred decently his body should be dug +up and buried in the street. They even attempted to take his body from +the house for that purpose, but she stood at her door, pistol in hand, +and said to them that the first man who dared to cross her threshold for +such a purpose should be shot like a dog. They did not attempt it, and +she performed her promise to the letter. + +During the first two years she was enabled to do a great many acts of +kindness for the prisoners, but after that time she was watched very +closely as a Yankee sympathizer, and the rules of the prison were +stricter, and what she could do was done by strategy. + +Her means were now much reduced, but she still continued in her good +work, cutting up her carpets and spare blankets to make into moccasins, +and when new squads of prisoners arrived, supplied them with bread and +water as they halted in front of her house, which they were compelled to +do for hours, waiting the routine of being mustered into the prison. +They were not allowed to leave their ranks, and she would turn an +old-fashioned windlass herself for hours, raising water from her well; +for the prisoners were often twenty-four to forty-eight hours on the +railroad without rations or water. + +Generally the officer in command would grant her request, but once a +sergeant told her, in reply, if she gave any of them a drop of water or +a piece of bread, or dared to come outside her gate for that purpose, he +would pin her to the earth with his bayonet. She defied him, and taking +her pail of water in one hand, and a basket of bread in the other, she +walked directly past him on her errand of mercy; he followed her, +placing his bayonet between her shoulders, just so that she could feel +the cold steel. She turned and coolly asked him why he did not pin her +to the earth, as he had threatened to do, but got no reply. Then some +of the rebels said, "Sergeant, you can't make anything on that woman, +you had better let her alone," and she performed her work unmolested. + +Not content with these labors, she visited the burial-place where the +deceased Union prisoners of that loathsome prison-pen at Salisbury were +buried, and transcribed with a loving fidelity every inscription which +could be found there, to let the sorrowing friends of those martyrs to +their country know where their beloved ones are laid. The number of +these marked graves is small, only thirty-one in all, for the greater +part of the four or five thousand dead starved and tortured there till +they relinquished their feeble hold on life, were buried in trenches +four or five deep, and no record of their place of burial was permitted. +Mrs. Johnston also copied from the rebel registers at Salisbury after +the place was captured the statistics of the Union prisoners, admitted, +died, and remaining on hand in each month from October, 1864, to April, +1865. The aggregates in these six months were four thousand and +fifty-four admitted, of whom two thousand three hundred and ninety-seven +died, and one thousand six hundred and fifty-seven remained. + +Mrs. Johnston came North in the summer of 1865, to visit her daughter, +who had been placed at a school in Connecticut by the kindness of some +of the officers she had befriended in prison; transportation having been +given her by Generals Schofield and Carter, who testified to the +services she had rendered our prisoners, and that she was entitled to +the gratitude of the Government and all loyal citizens. + + + + +[Illustration: MISS EMILY E. PARSONS. + Eng^d. by John Sartain.] + + +EMILY E. PARSONS. + + +Among the honorable and heroic women of New England whose hearts were +immediately enlisted in the cause of their country, in its recent +struggle against the rebellion of the slave States, and who prepared +themselves to do useful service in the hospitals as nurses, was Miss +Emily E. Parsons, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, a daughter of Professor +Theophilus Parsons, of the Cambridge Law School, and granddaughter of +the late Chief Justice Parsons, of Massachusetts. + +Miss Parsons was born in Taunton, Massachusetts, was educated in Boston, +and resided at Cambridge at the beginning of the war. She at once +foresaw that there would be need of the same heroic work on the part of +the women of the country as that performed by Florence Nightingale and +her army of women nurses in the Crimea, and with her father's approval +she consulted with Dr. Wyman, of Cambridge, how she could acquire the +necessary instruction and training to perform the duties of a skilful +nurse in the hospitals. Through his influence with Dr. Shaw, the +superintendent of the Massachusetts General Hospital, she was received +into that institution as a pupil in the work of caring for the sick, in +the dressing of wounds, in the preparation of diet for invalids, and in +all that pertains to a well regulated hospital. She was thoroughly and +carefully instructed by the surgeons of the hospital, all of whom took +great interest in fitting her for the important duties she proposed to +undertake, and gave her every opportunity to practice, with her own +hands, the labors of a good hospital nurse. Dr. Warren and Dr. +Townshend, two distinguished surgeons, took special pains to give her +all necessary information and the most thorough instruction. At the end +of one year and a half of combined teaching and practice, she was +recommended by Dr. Townshend to Fort Schuyler Hospital, on Long Island +Sound, where she went in October, 1862, and for two months performed the +duties of hospital nurse, in the most faithful and satisfactory manner, +when she left by her father's wishes, on account of the too great +exposure to the sea, and went to New York. + +While in New York Miss Parsons wrote to Miss Dix, the agent of the +Government for the employment of women nurses, offering her services +wherever they might be needed, and received an answer full of +encouragement and sympathy with her wishes. At the same time she also +made the acquaintance of Mrs. John C. Fremont, who wrote to the Western +Sanitary Commission at St. Louis, of her qualifications and desire of +usefulness in the hospital service, and she was immediately telegraphed +to come on at once to St. Louis. + +At this time, January, 1863, every available building in St. Louis was +converted into a hospital, and the sick and wounded were brought from +Vicksburg, and Arkansas Post, and Helena up the river to be cared for at +St. Louis and other military posts. At Memphis and Mound City, (near +Cairo) at Quincy, Illinois, and the cities on the Ohio River, the +hospitals were in equally crowded condition. Miss Parsons went +immediately to St. Louis and was assigned by Mr. James E. Yeatman, (the +President of the Western Sanitary Commission, and agent for Miss Dix), +to the Lawson Hospital. In a few weeks, however, she was needed for a +still more important service, and was placed as head nurse on the +hospital steamer "City of Alton," Surgeon Turner in charge. A large +supply of sanitary stores were entrusted to her care by the Western +Sanitary Commission, and the steamer proceeded to Vicksburg, where she +was loaded with about four hundred invalid soldiers, many of them sick +past recovery, and returned as far as Memphis. On this trip the strength +and endurance of Miss Parsons were tried to the utmost, and the +ministrations of herself and her associates to the poor, helpless and +suffering men, several of whom died on the passage up the river, were +constant and unremitting. At Memphis, after transferring the sick to the +hospitals, an order was received from General Grant to load the boat +with troops and return immediately to Vicksburg, an order prompted by +some military exigency, and Miss Parsons and the other female nurses +were obliged to return to St. Louis. + +For a few weeks after her return she suffered from an attack of +malarious fever, and on her recovery was assigned to duty as +superintendent of female nurses at the Benton Barracks Hospital, the +largest of all the hospitals in St. Louis, built out of the amphitheatre +and other buildings in the fair grounds of the St. Louis Agricultural +Society, and placed in charge of Surgeon Ira Russell, an excellent +physician from Natick, Mass. In this large hospital there were often two +thousand patients, and besides the male nurses detailed from the army, +the corps of female nurses consisted of one to each of the fifteen or +twenty wards, whose duty it was to attend to the special diet of the +feebler patients, to see that the wards were kept in order, the beds +properly made, the dressing of wounds properly done, to minister to the +wants of the patients, and to give them words of good cheer, both by +reading and conversation--softening the rougher treatment and manners of +the male nurses, by their presence, and performing the more delicate +offices of kindness that are natural to woman. + +In this important and useful service these women nurses, many of them +having but little experience, needed one of their own number of superior +knowledge, judgment and experience, to supervise their work, counsel and +advise with them, instruct them in their duties, secure obedience to +every necessary regulation, and good order in the general administration +of this important branch of hospital service. For this position Miss +Parsons was most admirably fitted, and discharged its duties with great +fidelity and success for many months, as long as Dr. Russell continued +in charge of the hospital. The whole work of female nursing was reduced +to a perfect system, and the nurses under Miss Parsons' influence became +a sisterhood of noble women, performing a great and loving service to +the maimed and suffering defenders of their country. In the organization +of this system and the framing of wise rules for carrying it into effect +Dr. Russell and Mr. Yeatman lent their counsel and assistance, and Dr. +Russell, as the chief surgeon, entertained those enlightened and liberal +views which gave the system a full chance to accomplish the best +results. Under his administration, and Miss Parsons' superintendence of +the nursing, the Benton Barracks Hospital became famous for its +excellence, and for the rapid recovery of the patients. + +It was not often that the army surgeons could be induced to give so fair +a trial to female nursing in the hospitals. Too often they allowed their +prejudices to interfere, and used their authority to thwart instead of +aid the best plans for making the services of women all that was needed +in the hospitals. But in the case of Dr. Russell, enlightened judgment +and humane sympathies combined to make him friendly to the highest +exertions of woman, in this holy service of humanity. And the result +entirely justified the most sanguine expectations. + +Having served six months in this capacity, Miss Parsons went to her home +at Cambridge, on a furlough from the Sanitary Commission, to recruit her +health. After a short period of rest she returned to St. Louis and +resumed her position at Benton Barracks, in which she continued till +August, 1864, when in consequence of illness, caused by malaria, she +returned to her home in Cambridge a second time. On her recovery she +concluded to enter upon the same work in the eastern department, but the +return of peace, and the disbanding of a large portion of the army +rendered her services in the hospitals no longer necessary. + +From this time she devoted herself at home to working for the freedmen +and refugees, collecting clothing and garden seeds for them, many boxes +of which she shipped to the Western Sanitary Commission, at St. Louis, +to be distributed in the Mississippi Valley, where they were greatly +needed, and were received as a blessing from the Lord by the poor +refugees and freedmen, who in many instances were without the means to +help themselves, or to buy seed for the next year's planting. + +In the spring of 1865, she took a great interest in the Sanitary Fair +held at Chicago, collected many valuable gifts for it, and was sent for +by the Committee of Arrangements to go out as one of the managers of the +department furnished by the New Jerusalem Church--the different churches +having separate departments in the Fair. This duty she fulfilled, with +great pleasure and success, and the general results of the Fair were all +that could be desired. + +Returning home from the Chicago Fair, and the war being ended, Miss +Parsons conceived a plan of establishing in her own city of Cambridge, a +Charity Hospital for poor women and children. For this most praiseworthy +object she has already collected a portion of the necessary funds, which +she has placed in the hand of a gentleman who consents to act as +Treasurer, and is entirely confident of the ultimate success of her +enterprise. There is no doubt but that she possesses the character, good +judgment, Christian motive and perseverance to carry it through, and she +has the encouragement, sympathies and prayers of many friends to sustain +her in the noble endeavor. + +In concluding this sketch of the labors of Miss Parsons in the care and +nursing of our sick and wounded soldiers, and in the Sanitary and other +benevolent enterprises called forth by the war, it is but just to say +that in every position she occupied she performed her part with judgment +and fidelity, and always brought to her work a spirit animated by the +highest motives, and strengthened by communion with the Infinite Spirit, +from whom all love and wisdom come to aid and bless the children of +men. Everywhere she went among the sick and suffering she brought the +sunshine of a cheerful and loving heart, beaming from a countenance +expressive of kindness, and good will and sympathy to all. Her presence +in the hospital was always a blessing, and cheered and comforted many a +despondent heart, and compensated in some degree, for the absence of the +loved ones at home. Her gentle ministrations so faithful and cheering, +might well have received the reverent worship bestowed on the shadow of +Florence Nightingale, so admirably described by Longfellow in his Saint +Filomena: + + "And slow, as in a dream of bliss + The speechless sufferer turned to kiss + Her shadow as it falls + Upon the darkening walls." + + + + +MRS. ALMIRA FALES. + + +Mrs. Fales, it is believed, was the first woman in America who performed +any work directly tending to the aid and comfort of the soldiers of the +nation in the late war. In truth, her labors commenced before any overt +acts of hostility had taken place, even so long before as December, +1860. Hostility enough there undoubtedly was in feeling, but the fires +of secession as yet only smouldered, not bursting into the lurid flames +of war until the following spring. + +Yet Mrs. Fales, from her home in Washington, was a keen observer of the +"signs of the times," and read aright the portents of rebellion. In her +position, unobserved herself, she saw and heard much, which probably +would have remained unseen and unheard by loyal eyes and ears, had the +haughty conspirators against the nation's life dreamed of any danger +arising from the knowledge of their projects, obtained by this humble +woman. + +So keen was the prescience founded on these things that, as has been +said, she, as early as December, 1860, scarcely a month after the +election of Abraham Lincoln, gave a pretext for secession which its +leaders were eager to avail themselves of, "began to prepare lint and +hospital stores for the soldiers of the Union, not one of whom had then +been called to take up arms." + +Of course, she was derided for this act. Inured to peace, seemingly more +eager for the opening of new territory, the spread of commerce, the gain +of wealth and power than even for the highest national honor, the North +would not believe in the possibility of war until the boom of the guns +of Sumter, reverberating from the waves of the broad Atlantic, and +waking the echoes all along its shores, burst upon their ears to tell in +awful tones that it had indeed commenced. + +But there was one--a woman in humble life, yet of wonderful benevolence, +of indomitable energy, unflagging perseverance, and unwavering purpose, +who foresaw its inevitable coming and was prepared for it. + +Almira Fales was no longer young. She had spent a life in doing good, +and was ready to commence another. Her husband had employment under the +government in some department of the civil service, her sons entered the +army, and she, too,--a soldier, in one sense, as truly as they--since +she helped and cheered on the fight. + +From that December day that commenced the work, until long after the war +closed, she gave herself to it, heart and soul--mind and body. No one, +perhaps, can tell her story of work and hardship in detail, not even +herself, for she acts rather than talks or writes. "Such women, always +doing, never think of pausing to tell their own stories, which, indeed, +can never be told; yet the hint of them can be given, to stir in the +hearts of other women a purer emulation, and to prove to them that the +surest way to happiness is to serve others and forget yourself." + +In detail we have only this brief record of what she has done, yet what +volumes it contains, what a history of labor and of self-sacrifice! + +"After a life spent in benevolence, it was in December, 1860, that +Almira Fales began to prepare lint and hospital stores for the soldiers +of the Union, not one of whom had then been called to take up arms. +People laughed, of course; thought it a 'freak;' said that none of these +things would ever be needed. Just as the venerable Dr. Mott said, at the +women's meeting in Cooper Institute, after Sumter had been fired: 'Go +on, ladies! Get your lint ready, if it will do your dear hearts any +good, though I don't believe myself that it will ever be needed.' Since +that December Mrs. Fales has emptied over seven thousand boxes of +hospital stores, and distributed with her own hands over one hundred and +fifty thousand dollars worth of comforts to sick and wounded soldiers. +Besides, she supplied personally between sixty and seventy forts with +reading matter. She was months at sea--the only woman on hospital ships +nursing the wounded and dying men. She was at Corinth, and at Pittsburg +Landing, serving our men in storm and darkness. She was at Fair Oaks. +She was under fire through the seven days' fight on the Peninsula, with +almost breaking heart ministering on those bloody fields to 'the saddest +creatures that she ever saw.' + +"Through all those years, _every day_, she gave her life, her strength, +her nursing, her mother-love to our soldiers. For her to be a soldier's +nurse meant something very different from wearing a white apron, a white +cap, sitting by a moaning soldier's bed, looking pretty. It meant days +and nights of untiring toil; it meant the lowliest office, the most +menial service; it meant the renouncing of all personal comfort, the +sharing of her last possession with the soldier of her country; it meant +patience, and watching, and unalterable love. A mother, every boy who +fought for his country was _her_ boy; and if she had nursed him in +infancy, she could not have cared for him with a tenderer care. Journey +after journey this woman has performed to every part of the land, +carrying with her some wounded, convalescing soldier, bearing him to +some strange cottage that she never saw before, to the pale, weeping +woman within, saying to her with smiling face, 'I have brought back +_your_ boy. Wipe your eyes, and take care of him.' Then, with a +fantastic motion, tripping away as if she were not tired at all, and had +done nothing more than run across the street. Thousands of heroes on +earth and in heaven gratefully remember this woman's loving care to them +in the extremity of anguish. The war ended, her work does not cease. +Every day you may find her, with her heavily-laden basket, in hovels of +white and black, which dainty and delicate ladies would not dare to +enter. No wounds are so loathsome, no disease so contagious, no human +being so abject, that she shrinks from contact; if she can minister to +their necessity." + +During the Peninsular campaign Mrs. Fales was engaged on board the +Hospital Transports, during most of the trying season of 1862. She was +at Harrison's Landing in care of the wounded and wearied men worn down +by the incessant battles and hard marches which attended the "change of +base" from the Chickahominy to the James. She spent a considerable time +in the hospitals at Fortress Monroe; and was active in her ministrations +upon the fields in the battles of Centreville, Chantilly, and the second +battle of Bull Run, indeed most of those of Pope's campaign in Virginia +in the autumn of 1862. + +At the battle of Chancellorsville, or rather at the assault upon Marye's +Heights, in that fierce assault of Sedgwick's gallant Sixth Corps on the +works which had on the preceding December defied the repeated charges of +Burnside's best troops, Mrs. Fales lost a son. About one-third of the +attacking force were killed or badly wounded in the assault, and among +the rest the son of this devoted mother, who at that very hour might +have been ministering to the wounded and dying son of some other mother. +This loss was to her but a stimulus to further efforts and sacrifices. +She mourned as deeply as any mother, but not as selfishly, as some might +have done. In this, as in all her ways of life, she but carried out its +ruling principle which was self-devotion, and deeds not words. + +Mrs. Fales may not, perhaps, be held up as an example of harmonious +development, but she has surely shown herself great in self-forgetfulness +and heroic devotion to the cause of her country. In person she is tall, +plain in dress, and with few of the fashionable and stereotyped graces +of manner. No longer young, her face still bears ample traces of former +beauty, and her large blue eyes still beam with the clear brightness of +youth. But her hands tell the story of hardship and sacrifice. + +"Poor hands! darkened and hardened by work, they never shirked any task, +never turned from any drudgery, that could lighten the load of another. +Dear hands! how many blood-stained faces they have washed, how many +wounds they have bound up, how many eyes they have closed in dying, how +many bodies they have sadly yielded to the darkness of death!" + +She is full of a quaint humor, and in all her visits to hospitals her +aim seemed to be to awake smiles, and arouse the cheerfulness of the +patients; and she was generally successful in this, being everywhere a +great favorite. One more quotation from the written testimony of a lady +who knew her well and we have done. + +"An electric temperament, a nervous organization, with a brain crowded +with a variety of memories and incidents that could only come to one in +a million--all combine to give her a pleasant abruptness of motion and +of speech, which I have heard some very fine ladies term insanity. 'Now +don't you think she is crazy, to spend all her time in such ways?' said +one. When we remember how rare a thing utter unselfishness and +self-forgetfulness is, we must conclude that she is crazy. If the +listless and idle lives which we live ourselves are perfectly sane, then +Almira Fales must be the maddest of mortals. But would it not be better +for the world, and for us all, if we were each of us a little crazier in +the same direction?" + + + + +MISS CORNELIA HANCOCK. + + +Among the most zealous and untiring of the women who ministered to the +wounded men "at the front," in the long and terrible campaign of the +Army of the Potomac in 1864-5, was Miss Cornelia Hancock, of +Philadelphia. Of this lady's early history or her previous labors in the +war, we have been unable to obtain any very satisfactory information. +She had, we are told, been active in the United States General Hospitals +in Philadelphia, and had there learned what wounded men need in the way +of food and attention. She had also rendered efficient services at +Gettysburg. Of her work among the wounded men at Belle Plain and +Fredericksburg, Mr. John Vassar, one of the most efficient agents of the +Christian Commission, writes as follows: + +"Miss Cornelia Hancock was the first lady who arrived at Fredericksburg +to aid in the care of the wounded. As one of the many interesting +episodes of the war, it has seemed that her good deeds should not be +unheralded. She was also among the very first to arrive at Gettysburg +after the fearful struggle, and for days and weeks ministered +unceasingly to the suffering. During the past winter she remained +constantly with the army in winter quarters, connecting herself with the +Second Division of the Second Corps. So attached were the soldiers, and +so grateful for her ministration in sickness, that they built a house +for her, in which she remained until the general order for all to leave +was given. + +"When the news of Grant's battles reached the North, Miss Hancock left +Philadelphia at once for Washington. Several applications were made by +Members of Congress at the War Department for a permit for her to go to +the wounded. It was each time declined, as being unfeasible and +improper. With a woman's tact, she made application to go with one of +the surgeons then arriving, as assistant, as each surgeon was entitled +to one. The plan succeeded, and I well remember the mental ejaculation +made when I saw her at such a time on the boat. I lost sight of her at +Belle Plain, and had almost forgotten the circumstance, when, shortly +before our arrival at Fredericksburg, she passed in an ambulance. On +being assigned to a hospital of the Second Corps, I found she had +preceded me, and was earnestly at work. It was no fictitious effort, but +she had already prepared soup and farina, and was dispensing it to the +crowds of poor fellows lying thickly about. + +"All day she worked, paying little attention to others, only assiduous +in her sphere. When, the next morning, I opened a new hospital at the +Methodist Church, I invited her to accompany me; she did so; and if +success and amelioration of suffering attended the effort, it was in no +small degree owing to her indefatigable labors. Within an hour from the +time one hundred and twenty had been placed in the building, she had +seen that good beef soup and coffee was administered to each, and during +the period I was there, no delicacy or nutriment attainable was wanting +to the men. + +"Were any dying, she sat by to soothe their last moments, to receive the +dying message to friends at home, and when it was over to convey by +letter the sad intelligence. Let me rise ever so early, she had already +preceded me at work, and during the many long hours of the day, she +never seemed to weary or flag; in the evening, when all in her own +hospital had been fully cared for, she would go about the town with +delicacies to administer to officers who were so situated they could not +procure them. At night she sought a garret (and it was literally one) +for her rest. + +"One can but feebly portray the ministrations of such a person. She +belonged to no association--had no compensation. She commanded respect, +for she was lady-like and well educated; so quiet and undemonstrative, +that her presence was hardly noticed, except by the smiling faces of the +wounded as she passed. While she supervised the cooking of the meats and +soups and coffee, all nice things were made and distributed by herself. +How the men watched for the dessert of farina and condensed milk, and +those more severely wounded for the draughts of milk punch! + +"Often would she make visits to the offices of the Sanitary and +Christian Commissions, and when delicacies arrived, her men were among +the first to taste them. Oranges, lemons, pickles, soft bread and +butter, and even apple-sauce, were one or the other daily distributed. +Such unwearied attention is the more appreciated, when one remembers the +number of females who subsequently arrived, and the desultory and fitful +labor performed. Passing from one hospital to another, and bestowing +general sympathy, with small works, is not what wounded men want. It was +very soon perceptible how the men in that hospital appreciated the solid +worth of the one and the tinsel of the other. + +"This imperfect recognition is but a slight testimonial to the lady-like +deportment and the untiring labors in behalf of sick and wounded +soldiers of Miss Hancock." + + + + +[Illustration: MRS. MARY MORRIS HUSBAND. + Eng. by John Sartain.] + + +MRS. MARY MORRIS HUSBAND. + + +There are some noble souls whose devotion to duty, to the welfare of the +suffering and sorrowing, and to the work which God has set before them, +is so complete that it leaves them no time to think of themselves, and +no consciousness that what they have done or are doing, is in any way +remarkable. To them it seems the most natural thing in the world to +undergo severe hardships and privations, to suffer the want of all +things, to peril health and even life itself, to endure the most intense +fatigue and loss of rest, if by so doing they may relieve another's pain +or soothe the burdened and aching heart; and with the utmost +ingenuousness, they will avow that they have done nothing worthy of +mention; that it is the poor soldier who has been the sufferer, and has +made the only sacrifices worthy of the name. + +The worthy and excellent lady who is the subject of this sketch, is one +of the representative women of this class. Few, if any, have passed +through more positive hardships to serve the soldiers than she; but few +have as little consciousness of them. + +Mrs. Mary Morris Husband, is a granddaughter of Robert Morris, the great +financier of our Revolutionary War, to whose abilities and patriotism it +was owing that we had a republic at all. She is, in her earnest +patriotism, well worthy of her ancestry. Her husband, a well-known and +highly respectable member of the Philadelphia bar, her two sons and +herself constituted her household at the commencement of the war, and +her quiet home in the Quaker City, was one of the pleasantest of the +many delightful homes in that city. The patriotic instincts were strong +in the family; the two sons enlisted in the army at the very beginning +of the conflict, one of them leaving his medical studies to do so; and +the mother, as soon as there was any hospital work to do was fully +prepared to take her part in it. She had been in poor health for some +years, but in her anxiety to render aid to the suffering, her own +ailings were forgotten. She was an admirable nurse and a skilful +housewife and cook, and her first efforts for the sick and wounded +soldiers in Philadelphia, were directed to the preparation of suitable +and palatable food for them, and the rendering of those attentions which +should relieve the irksomeness and discomforts of sickness in a +hospital. The hospital on Twenty-second and Wood streets, Philadelphia, +was the principal scene of these labors. + +But the time had come for other and more engrossing labors for the sick +and wounded, and she was to be inducted into them by the avenue of +personal anxiety for one of her sons. In that fearful "change of base" +which resulted in the seven days' battle on the peninsula, when from the +combined influence of marsh malaria, want of food, overmarching, the +heat and fatigue of constant fighting, and the depression of spirits +incident to the unexpected retreat, more of our men fell down with +mortal sickness than were slain or wounded in the battles, one of Mrs. +Husband's sons was among the sufferers from disease, and word was sent +to her that he was at the point of death. She hastened to nurse him, and +after a great struggle and frequent relapses, he rallied and began to +recover. Meantime she had not been so wholly engrossed with her care for +him as to be neglectful of the hundreds and thousands around, who, like +him, were suffering from the deadly influences of that pestilential +climate and soil, or of the wounded who were wearing out their lives in +agony, with but scant attention or care; and every moment that could be +spared from her sick boy, was given to the other sufferers around her. + +It was in this period of her work that she rendered the service to a +young soldier, now a physician of Brooklyn, New York, so graphically +described in the following extract from a letter addressed to the writer +of this sketch: + +"I was prostrated by a severe attack of camp dysentery, stagnant water +and _unctuous_ bean soup not being exactly the diet for a sick person to +thrive on. I got "no better" very rapidly, till at length, one +afternoon, I lay in a kind of stupor, conscious that I was somewhere, +though where, for the life of me I could not say. As I lay in this +state, I imagined I heard my name spoken, and opening my eyes with +considerable effort, I saw bending over me a female form. I think the +astonishment restored me to perfect consciousness (though some liquor +poured into my mouth at the same time, may have been a useful adjunct). +As soon as I could collect myself sufficiently, I discovered the lady to +be a Mrs. Husband, who, with a few other ladies, had just arrived on one +of the hospital boats. Having lost my own mother when a mere child, you +may imagine the effect her tender nursing had upon me, and when she laid +her hand upon my forehead, all pain seemed to depart. I sank into a +sweet sleep, and awoke the next morning refreshed and strengthened in +mind and in body. From that moment my recovery was rapid, and in ten +days I returned to my duty." + +As her son began to recover, she resolved, in her thankfulness for this +mercy, to devote herself to the care of the sick and wounded of the +army. She was on one of the hospital transports off Harrison's Landing, +when the rebels bombarded it, and though it was her first experience +"under fire," she stood her ground like a veteran, manifesting no +trepidation, but pursuing her work of caring for the sick as calmly as +if in perfect safety. Finding that she was desirous of rendering +assistance in the care of the disabled soldiers, she was assigned, we +believe, by the Sanitary Commission, to the position of Lady +Superintendent of one of the hospital transports which bore the wounded +and sick to New York. She made four trips on these vessels, and her +faithful attention to the sick, her skilful nursing, and her entire +forgetfulness of self, won for her the hearty esteem and regard of all +on board. The troops being all transferred to Acquia Creek and +Alexandria, Mrs. Husband went to Washington, and endeavored to obtain a +pass and transportation for supplies to Pope's army, then falling back, +foot by foot, in stern but unavailing resistance to Lee's strong and +triumphant force. These she was denied, but Miss Dix requested her to +take charge temporarily of the Camden Street Hospital, at Baltimore, the +matron of which had been stricken down with illness. After a few weeks' +stay here, she relinquished her position, and repaired to Antietam, +where the smoke of the great battle was just rolling off over the +heights of South Mountain. Here, at the Smoketown Hospital, where the +wounded from French's and some other divisions were gathered, she found +abundant employment, and at the request of that able surgeon and +excellent man, Dr. Vanderkieft, she remained in charge two months. Mrs. +Harris was with her here for a short time, and Miss Maria M. C. Hall, +during her entire stay. Her presence at this hospital brought perpetual +sunshine. Arduous as were her labors, for there were very many +desperately wounded, and quite as many dangerously sick, she never +manifested weariness or impatience, and even the sick and wounded men, +usually exacting, because forgetful of the great amount of labor which +their condition imposes upon the nurses, wondered that she never +manifested fatigue, and that she was able to accomplish so much as she +did. Often did they express their anxiety lest she should be compelled +from weariness and illness to leave them, but her smiling, cheerful face +reassured them. She and Miss Hall occupied for themselves and their +stores, a double hospital tent, and let the weather be what it might, +she was always at her post in the hospitals promptly at her hours, and +dispensed with a liberal hand to those who needed, the delicacies, the +stimulants, and medicines they required. She had made a flag for her +tent by sewing upon a breadth of calico a figure of a bottle cut out of +red flannel, and the bottle-flag flew to the wind at all times, +indicative of the medicines which were dispensed from the tent below. We +have endeavored to give a view of this tent, from which came daily such +quantities of delicacies, such excellent milk-punch to nourish and +support the patients whose condition was most critical, such finely +flavored flaxseed tea for the army of patients suffering from pulmonic +diseases ("_her_ flaxseed tea," says one of her boys, "was _never_ +insipid"), lemonades for the feverish, and something for every needy +patient. See her as she comes out of her tent for her round of hospital +duties, a substantial comely figure, with a most benevolent and motherly +face, her hands filled with the good things she is bearing to some of +the sufferers in the hospital; she has discarded hoops, believing with +Florence Nightingale, that they are utterly incompatible with the duties +of the hospital; she has a stout serviceable apron nearly covering her +dress, and that apron is a miracle of pockets; pockets before, behind, +and on each side; deep, wide pockets, all stored full of something which +will benefit or amuse her "boys;" an apple, an orange, an interesting +book, a set of chess-men, checkers, dominoes, or puzzles, newspapers, +magazines, everything desired, comes out of those capacious pockets. As +she enters a ward, the whisper passes from one cot to another, that +"mother" is coming, and faces, weary with pain, brighten at her +approach, and sad hearts grow glad as she gives a cheerful smile to one, +says a kind word to another, administers a glass of her punch or +lemonade to a third, hands out an apple or an orange to a fourth, or a +book or game to a fifth, and relieves the hospital of the gloom which +seemed brooding over it. But not in these ways alone does she bring +comfort and happiness to these poor wounded and fever-stricken men. She +encourages them to confide to her their sorrows and troubles, and the +heart that, like the caged bird, has been bruising itself against the +bars of its cage, from grief for the suffering or sorrow of the loved +ones at home or oftener still, the soul that finds itself on the +confines of an unknown hereafter, and is filled with distress at the +thought of the world to come, pours into her attentive ear, the story of +its sorrows, and finds in her a wise and kind counsellor and friend, and +learns from her gentle teachings to trust and hope. + +Hers was a truly heroic spirit. Darkness, storm, or contagion, had no +terrors for her, when there was suffering to be alleviated, or anguish +to be soothed. Amid the raging storms of the severe winter of 1862-3, +she often left her tent two or three times in the night and went round +to the beds of those who were apparently near death, from the fear that +the nurses might neglect something which needed to be done for them. +When diphtheria raged in the hospital, and the nurses fearing its +contagious character, fled from the bed-sides of those suffering from +it, Mrs. Husband devoted herself to them night and day, fearless of the +exposure, and where they died of the terrible disease received and +forwarded to their friends the messages of the dying. + +It is no matter of surprise that when the time came for her to leave +this hospital, where she had manifested such faithful and +self-sacrificing care and tenderness for those whom she knew only as the +defenders of her country, those whom she left, albeit unused to the +melting mood, should have wept at losing such a friend. "There were no +dry eyes in that hospital," says one who was himself one of its inmates; +"all, from the strong man ready again to enter the ranks to the poor +wreck of humanity lying on his death-bed gave evidence of their love for +her, and sorrow at her departure in copious tears." On her way home she +stopped for an hour or two at camps A and B in Frederick, Maryland, +where a considerable number of the convalescents from Antietam had been +sent, and these on discovering her, surrounded her ambulance and greeted +her most heartily, seeming almost wild with joy at seeing their kind +friend once more. After a brief stay at Philadelphia, during which she +visited the hospitals almost constantly, she hastened again to the +front, and at Falmouth early in 1863, after that fearful and disastrous +battle of Fredericksburg she found ample employment for her active and +energetic nature. As matron of Humphreys' Division Hospital (Fifth +Corps) she was constantly engaged in ministering to the comfort of the +wounded, and her solicitude for the welfare and prosperity of the men +did not end with their discharge from the hospital. The informalities or +blunders by which they too often lost their pay and were sometimes set +down as deserters attracted her attention, and so far as possible she +always procured the correction of those errors. Early in April, 1863, +she made a flying visit to Philadelphia, and thus details in a letter to +a friend, at the time the kind and amount of labor which almost always +filled up every hour of those journeys. "Left Monday evening for home, +took two discharged soldiers with me; heard that I could not get a pass +to return; so instead of going directly through, stayed in Washington +twenty-four hours, and fought a battle for a pass. I came off conqueror +of course, but not until wearied almost to death--my boys in the +meantime had gotten their pay--so I took them from the Commission Lodge +(where I had taken them on arriving) to the cars, and off for Baltimore. +There I placed them in the care of one of the gentlemen of the Relief +Associations, and arrived home at 1.30 A. M. I carried money home for +some of the boys, and had business of my own to attend to, keeping me +constantly going on Wednesday and Thursday; left at midnight (Thursday +night) for Washington, took the morning boat and arrived here this +afternoon." This record of five days of severe labor such as few men +could have gone through without utter prostration, is narrated in her +letter to her friend evidently without a thought that there was anything +extraordinary in it; yet it was in a constant succession of labors as +wearing as this that she lived for full three years of her army life. + +Immediately after the battles of Chancellorsville she went to United +States Ford, but was not allowed to cross, and joined two Maine ladies +at the hospital on the north side of the Rappahannock, where they +dressed wounds until dark, slept in an ambulance, and early in the +morning went to work again, but were soon warned to leave, as it was +supposed that the house used as a hospital would be shelled. They left, +and about half a mile farther on found the hospital of the Third and +Eleventh Corps. Here the surgeon in charge urged Mrs. Husband to remain +and assist him, promising her transportation. She accordingly left her +ambulance and dressed wounds until midnight. By this time the army was +in full retreat and passing the hospital. The surgeon forgot his +promise, and taking care of himself, left her to get away as best she +could. It was pitch dark and the rain pouring in torrents. She was +finally offered a part of the front seat of an army (medicine) wagon, +and after riding two or three miles on the horrible roads the tongue of +the wagon broke, and she was compelled to sit in the drenching rain for +two or three hours till the guide could bring up an ambulance, in which +she reached Falmouth the next day. + +The hospital of which she was lady matron was broken up at the time of +this battle, but she was immediately installed in the same position in +the hospital of the Third Division of the Third Corps, then filled to +overflowing with the Chancellorsville wounded. Here she remained until +compelled to move North with the army by Lee's raid into Pennsylvania in +June and July, 1863. + +On the 3d of July, the day of the last and fiercest of the Gettysburg +battles, Mrs. Husband, who had been, from inability to get permission to +go to the front, passing a few anxious days at Philadelphia, started for +Gettysburg, determined to go to the aid and relief of the soldier boys, +who, she well knew, needed her services. She reached the battle-field on +the morning of the 4th by way of Westminster, in General Meade's +mail-wagon. She made her way at first to the hospital of the Third +Corps, and labored there till that as well as the other field hospitals +were broken up, when she devoted herself to the wounded in Camp +Letterman. Here she was attacked with miasmatic fever, but struggled +against it with all the energy of her nature, remaining for three weeks +ill in her tent. She was at length carried home, but as soon as she was +convalescent, went to Camp Parole at Annapolis, as agent of the Sanitary +Commission, to fill the place of Miss Clara Davis, (now Mrs. Edward +Abbott), who was prostrated by severe illness induced by her severe and +continued labors. + +In December, 1863, she accepted the position of matron to her old +hospital, (Third Division of the Third Corps), then located at Brandy +Station, where she remained till General Grant's order issued on the +15th of April caused the removal of all civilians from the army. + +A month had not elapsed, before the terrible slaughter of the +"Wilderness" and "Spottsylvania," had made that part of Virginia a field +of blood, and Mrs. Husband hastened to Fredericksburg where no official +now barred her progress with his "red tape" prohibitions; here she +remained till the first of June, toiling incessantly, and then moving on +to Port Royal and White House, where the same sad scenes were repeated, +and where, amid so much suffering and horror, it was difficult to banish +the feeling of depression. At White House, she took charge of the low +diet kitchen for the whole Sixth Corps, to which her division had been +transferred. The number of wounded was very large, this corps having +suffered severely in the battle of Cold Harbor, and her duties were +arduous, but she made no complaint, her heart being at rest, if she +could only do something for her brave soldier boys. + +When the base was transferred to City Point, she made her way to the +Third Division, Sixth Corps' Hospital at the front, where she remained +until the Sixth Corps were ordered to the Shenandoah Valley, when she +took charge of the low diet kitchen of the Second Corps' Hospital at +City Point, and remained there until the end. Her labors among the men +in this hospital were constant and severe, but she won all hearts by +her tenderness, cheerfulness, and thoughtful consideration of the needs +of every particular ease. Each one of those under her care felt that she +was specially _his_ friend, and interesting and sometimes amusing were +the confidences imparted to her, by the poor fellows. The one bright +event of the day to all was the visit of "Mother" Husband to their ward. +The apron, with its huge pockets, always bore some welcome gift for +each, and however trifling it might be in itself, it was precious as +coming from her hands. Her friends in Philadelphia, by their constant +supplies, enabled her to dispense many articles of comfort and luxury to +the sick and wounded, which could not otherwise have been furnished. + +On the 6th of May, 1865, Mrs. Husband was gratified by the sight of our +gallant army marching through Richmond. As they passed, in long array, +they recognized her, and from hundreds of the soldiers of the Second, +Third, and Sixth Corps, rang out the loud and hearty "Hurrah for Mother +Husband!" while their looks expressed their gratitude to one who had +been their firm and faithful friend in the hour of suffering and danger. + +Mrs. Husband felt that she must do something more for her "boys" before +they separated and returned to their distant homes; she therefore left +Richmond immediately, and traveling with her accustomed celerity, soon +reached Philadelphia, and gathering up from her liberal friends and her +own moderate means, a sufficient sum to procure the necessary stores, +she returned with an ample supply, met the soldiers of the corps to +which she had been attached at Bailey's Cross Roads, and there spent six +or seven days in distributing to them the clothing and comforts which +they needed. Her last opportunity of seeing them was a few days later at +the grand review in Washington. + +There was one class of services which Mrs. Husband rendered to the +soldiers, which we have not mentioned, and in which we believe she had +no competitor. In the autumn of 1863, her attention was called to the +injustice of the finding and sentence of a court martial, which had +tried a private soldier for some alleged offence and sentenced him to be +shot. She investigated the case and, with some difficulty, succeeded in +procuring his pardon from the President. + +She began from this time to take an interest in these cases of trial by +summary court martial, and having a turn for legal investigation, to +which her early training and her husband's profession had inclined her, +and a clear judicial mind, she made each one her study, and though she +found that there were some cases in which summary punishment was +merited, yet the majority were deserving of the interposition of +executive clemency, and she became their advocate with the patient and +kind-hearted Lincoln. In scores of instances she secured, not without +much difficulty, and some abuse from officials "dressed in a little +brief authority," who disliked her keen and thorough investigation of +their proceedings, the pardon or the commutation of punishment of those +sentenced to death. Rarely, if ever, did the President turn a deaf ear +to her pleadings; for he knew that they were prompted by no sinister +motive, or simple humane impulse. Every case which she presented had +been thoroughly and carefully examined, and her knowledge of it was so +complete, that he felt he might safely trust her. + +Through all these multifarious labors and toils, Mrs. Husband has +received no compensation from the Government or the Sanitary Commission. +She entered the service as a volunteer, and her necessities have been +met from her own means, and she has also given freely to the soldiers +and to their families from her not over-full purse. Her reward is in the +sublime consciousness of having been able to accomplish an amount of +good which few could equal. All over the land, in hundreds of homes, in +thousands of hearts, her name is a household word, and as the mother +looks upon her son, the wife upon her husband, the child upon its +father, blessings are breathed forth upon her through whose skilful care +and watchful nursing these loved ones are spared to be a joy and +support. The contributions and mementoes presented by her soldier boys +form a large and very interesting museum in her home. There are rings +almost numberless, carved from animal bones, shells, stone, vulcanite, +etc., miniature tablets, books, harps, etc., inlaid from trees or houses +of historic memory, minie bullets, which have traversed bone and flesh +of patient sufferers, and shot and shell which have done their part in +destroying the fortresses of the rebellion. Each memento has its +history, and all are precious in the eyes of the recipient, as a token +of the love of those whom she has watched and nursed. + +Her home is the Mecca of the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac, and if +any of them are sick or in distress in Philadelphia, Mother Husband +hastens at once to their relief. Late may she return to the skies; and +when at last in the glory of a ripe and beautiful old age, she lies down +to rest, a grateful people shall inscribe on her monument, "Here lies +all that was mortal of one whom all delighted to honor." + + + + +HOSPITAL TRANSPORT SERVICE. + + +Among the deeds which entitle the United States Sanitary Commission to +the lasting gratitude of the American people, was the organization and +maintenance of the "Hospital Transport Service" in the Spring and Summer +of 1862. When the Army of the Potomac removed from the high lands about +Washington, to the low marshy and miasmatic region of the Peninsula, it +required but little discernment to predict that extensive sickness would +prevail among the troops; this, and the certainty of sanguinary battles +soon to ensue, which would multiply the wounded beyond all previous +precedents, were felt, by the officers of the Sanitary Commission, as +affording sufficient justification, if any were needed for making an +effort to supplement the provision of the Medical Bureau, which could +not fail to be inadequate for the coming emergency. Accordingly early in +April, 1862, Mr. F. L. Olmstead, the Secretary of the Commission, having +previously secured the sanction of the Medical Bureau, made application +to the Quartermaster-General to allow the Commission to take in hand +some of the transport steamboats of his department, of which a large +number were at that time lying idle, to fit them up and furnish them in +all respects suitable for the reception and care of sick and wounded +men, providing surgeons and other necessary attendance without cost to +Government. After tedious delays and disappointments of various +kinds--one fine large boat having been assigned, partially furnished by +the Commission, and then withdrawn--an order was at length received, +authorizing the Commission to take possession of any of the Government +transports, not in actual use, which might at that time be lying at +Alexandria. Under this authorization the Daniel Webster was assigned to +the Commission on the 25th of April, and having been fitted up, the +stores shipped, and the hospital corps for it assembled, it reached York +River on the 30th of April. + +Other boats were subsequently, (several of them, very soon) assigned to +the Commission, and were successively fitted up, and after receiving +their freights of sick and wounded, sent to Washington, Philadelphia, +New York and other points with their precious cargoes, which were to be +transferred to the general hospitals. Among these vessels were the +"Ocean Queen," the "S. R. Spaulding," the "Elm City," the "Daniel +Webster," No. 2, the "Knickerbocker," the clipper ships Euterpe and St. +Mark, and the Commission chartered the "Wilson Small," and the +"Elizabeth," two small steamers, as tender and supply boats. The +Government were vacillating in their management in regard to these +vessels, often taking them from the Commission just when partially or +wholly fitted up, on the plea of requiring them for some purpose and +assigning another vessel, often poorly adapted to their service, on +board of which the labor of fitting and supplying must be again +undergone, when that too would be withdrawn. + +To each of these hospital transports several ladies were assigned by the +Commission to take charge of the diet of the patients, assist in +dressing their wounds, and generally to care for their comfort and +welfare. Mr. Olmstead, and Mr. Knapp, the Assistant Secretary, had also +in their company, or as they pleasantly called them, members of their +staff, four ladies, who remained in the service, not leaving the +vicinity of the Peninsula, until the transfer of the troops to Acquia +Creek and Alexandria late in August. These ladies remained for the most +part on board the Daniel Webster, or the Wilson Small, or wherever the +headquarters of the Commission in the field might be. Their duties +consisted in nursing, preparing food for the sick and wounded, dressing +wounds, in connexion with the surgeons and medical students, and in +general, making themselves useful to the great numbers of wounded and +sick who were placed temporarily under their charge. Often they provided +them with clean beds and hospital clothing, and suitable food in +preparation for their voyage to Washington, Philadelphia, or New York. +These four ladies were Miss Katherine P. Wormeley, of Newport, R. I., +Mrs. William P. Griffin, of New York, one of the executive board of the +Woman's Central Association of Relief, Mrs. Eliza W. Howland, wife of +Colonel (afterward General) Joseph Howland, and her sister, Miss +Georgiana Woolsey, both of New York. + +Among those who were in charge of the Hospital Transports for one or +more of their trips to the cities we have named, and by their tenderness +and gentleness comforted and cheered the poor sufferers, and often by +their skilful nursing rescued them from the jaws of death, were Mrs. +George T. Strong, the wife of the Treasurer of the Commission, who made +four or five trips; Miss Harriet Douglas Whetten, who served throughout +the Peninsular Campaign as head of the Women's Department on the S. R. +Spaulding; Mrs. Laura Trotter, (now Mrs. Charles Parker) of Boston, who +occupied a similar position on the Daniel Webster; Mrs. Bailey, at the +head of the Women's Department on the Elm City; Mrs. Charlotte Bradford, +a Massachusetts lady who made several trips on the Elm City and +Knickerbocker; Miss Amy M. Bradley, whose faithful services are +elsewhere recorded; Mrs. Annie Etheridge, of the Fifth Michigan, Miss +Bradley's faithful and zealous co-worker; Miss Helen L. Gilson, who here +as well as everywhere else proved herself one of the most eminently +useful women in the service; Miss M. Gardiner, who was on several of the +steamers; Mrs. Balustier, of New York, one of the most faithful and +self-sacrificing of the ladies of the Hospital Transport service; Mrs. +Mary Morris Husband, of Philadelphia, who made four voyages, and whose +valuable services are elsewhere recited; Mrs. Bellows, the wife of the +President of the Commission, who made one voyage; Mrs. Merritt, and +several other ladies. + +But let us return to the ladies who remained permanently at the +Commission's headquarters in the Peninsula. Their position and duties +were in many respects more trying and arduous than those who accompanied +the sick and wounded to the hospitals of the cities. The Daniel Webster, +which, as we have said, reached York River April 30, discharged her +stores except what would be needed for her trip to New York, and having +placed them in a store-house on shore, began to supply the sick in camp +and hospital, and to receive such patients on board as it was deemed +expedient to send to New York. These were washed, their clothing +changed, they were fed and put in good clean beds, and presently sent +off to their destination. The staff then commenced putting the Ocean +Queen, which had just been sent to them, into a similar condition of +fitness for receiving the sick and wounded. She had not, on her arrival, +a single bunk or any stores on board; and before any preparation could +be made, the regimental and brigade surgeons on shore (who never would +wait) began to send their sick and wounded on board; remonstrance was +useless, and the whole party worked with all their might to make what +provision was possible. One of the party went on shore, found a rebel +cow at pasture, shot her, skinned her with his pocket-knife, and brought +off the beef. A barrel of Indian meal, forgotten in discharging the +freight of the vessel, was discovered in the hold and made into gruel +almost by magic, and cups of it were ladled out to the poor fellows as +they tottered in, with their faces flushed with typhoid fever; by dint +of constant hard work, bunks were got up, stores brought on board, two +draught oxen left behind by Franklin's Division found and slaughtered, +and nine hundred patients having been taken on board, the vessel's +anchors were weighed and she went out to sea. This was very much the +experience of the party during their stay in the Peninsula. Hard, +constant, and hurrying work were the rule, a day of comparative rest was +the exception. Dividing themselves into small parties of two or three, +they boarded and supplied with the stores of the Commission, the boats +which the Medical officers of the army had pressed into the service +filled with wounded and sent without comfort, food or attendance, on +their way to the hospitals in the vicinity of Fortress Monroe; +superintended the shipping of patients on the steamers which returned +from the North; took account of the stores needed by these boats and saw +that they were sent on board; fitted up the new boats furnished to the +Commission by the Quartermaster's orders; received, sorted and +distributed the patients brought to the landing on freight-cars, +according to orders; fed, cleansed, and gave medical aid and nursing to +all of them, and selected nurses for those to be sent North; and when +any great emergency came did their utmost to meet it. + +The amount of work actually performed was very great; but it was +performed in such a cheerful triumphant spirit, a spirit that rejoiced +so heartily in doing something to aid the nation's defenders, in +sacrificing everything that they might be saved, that it was robbed of +half its irksomeness and gloom, and most of the zealous workers retained +their health and vigor even in the miasmatic air of the bay and its +estuaries. Miss Wormeley, one of the transport corps, has supplied, +partly from her own pen, and partly from that of Miss Georgiana Woolsey, +one of her co-workers, some vivid pictures of their daily life, which, +with her permission, we here reproduce from her volume on the "United +States Sanitary Commission," published in 1863. + +"The last hundred patients were brought on board" (imagine any of the +ships, it does not matter which) "late last night. Though these +night-scenes are part of our daily living, a fresh eye would find them +dramatic. We are awakened in the dead of night by a sharp steam-whistle, +and soon after feel ourselves clawed by little tugs on either side of +our big ship, bringing off the sick and wounded from the shore. And, at +once, the process of taking on hundreds of men--many of them crazed with +fever--begins. There is the bringing of the stretchers up the +side-ladder between the two boats; the stopping at the head of it, where +the names and home addresses of all who can speak are written down, and +their knapsacks and little treasures numbered and stacked; then the +placing of the stretchers on the platform; the row of anxious faces +above and below deck; the lantern held over the hold; the word given to +'Lower;' the slow-moving ropes and pulleys; the arrival at the bottom; +the turning down of the anxious faces; the lifting out of the sick man, +and the lifting him into his bed; and then the sudden change from cold, +hunger and friendlessness, into positive comfort and satisfaction, +winding up with his invariable verdict, if he can speak,--'This is just +like home!' + +"We have put 'The Elm City' in order, and she began to fill up last +night. I wish you could hear the men after they are put into bed. Those +who _can_ speak, speak with a will; the others grunt, or murmur their +satisfaction. 'Well, this bed is most _too_ soft; I don't know as I +shall sleep, for thinking of it,' 'What have you got there?' 'That is +bread; wait till I put butter on it.' 'Butter, on _soft_ bread!' he +slowly ejaculates, as if not sure that he isn't Aladdin with a genie at +work upon him. Instances of such high unselfishness happen daily, that, +though I forget them daily, I feel myself strengthened in my trust in +human nature, without making any reflections about it. Last night, a man +comfortably put to bed in a middle berth (there were three tiers, and +the middle one incomparably the best) seeing me point to the upper berth +as the place to put the man on an approaching stretcher, cried out: +'Stop! put me up there. Guess I can stand h'isting better'n _him_.' It +was agony to both. + +"I have a long history to tell you, one of these days, of the +gratefulness of the men. I often wish,--as I give a comfort to some poor +fellow, and see the sense of rest it gives him, and hear the favorite +speech: 'O, that's good, it's just as if mother was here,'--that the man +or woman who supplied that comfort were by to see how blessed it is. +Believe me, you may all give and work in the earnest hope that you +alleviate suffering, but none of you realize what you do; perhaps you +can't conceive of it, unless you could see your gifts _in use_. * * * * + +"We are now on board 'The Knickerbocker,' unpacking and arranging +stores, and getting pantries and closets in order. I am writing on the +floor, interrupted constantly to join in a laugh. Miss ---- is sorting +socks, and pulling out the funny little balls of yarn, and big +darning-needles stuck in the toes, with which she is making a fringe +across my back. _Do_ spare us the darning-needles! Reflect upon us, +rushing in haste to the linen closet, and plunging our hands into the +bale of stockings! I certainly will make a collection of sanitary +clothing. I solemnly aver that yesterday I found a pair of drawers made +for a case of amputation at the thigh. And the slippers! Only fit for +pontoon bridges!" + +This routine of fitting up the ships as they arrived, and of receiving +the men on board as they came from the front, was accompanied by +constant hard work in meeting requisitions from regiments, with +ceaseless battlings for transportation to get supplies to the front for +camps and hospitals; and was diversified by short excursions, which we +will call "special relief;" such, for instance, as the following:-- + +"At midnight two steamers came alongside 'The Elm City,' each with a +hundred sick, bringing word that 'The Daniel Webster No. 2' (a sidewheel +vessel, not a Commission boat) was aground at a little distance, with +two hundred more, having no one in charge of them, and nothing to eat. +Of course they had to be attended to. So, amidst the wildest and most +beautiful storm of thunder and lightning, four of us pulled off to her +in a little boat, with tea, bread, brandy, and beef-essence. (No one can +tell how it tries my nerves to go toppling round at night in little +boats, and clambering up ships' sides on little ladders). We fed +them,--the usual process. Poor fellows! they were so crazy!--And then +'The Wissahickon' came alongside to transfer them to 'The Elm City.' +Only a part of them could go in the first load. Dr. Ware, with his +constant thoughtfulness, made me go in her, to escape returning in the +small boat. Just as we pushed off, the steam gave out, and we drifted +end on to the shore. Then a boat had to put off from 'The Elm City,' +with a line to tow us up. All this time the thunder was incessant, the +rain falling in torrents, whilst every second the beautiful crimson +lightning flashed the whole scene open to us. Add to this, that there +were three men alarmingly ill, and (thinking to be but a minute in +reaching the other ship) I had not even a drop of brandy for them. Do +you wonder, therefore, that I forgot your letters?" + +Or, again, the following:-- + +"Sixty men were heard of as lying upon the railroad without food, and no +one to look after them. Some of us got at once into the stern-wheeler +'Wissahickon,' which is the Commission's carriage, and, with provisions, +basins, towels, soap, blankets, etc., went up to the railroad bridge, +cooking tea and spreading bread and butter as we went. A tremendous +thunder-storm came up, in the midst of which the men were found, put on +freight-cars, and pushed to the landing;--fed, washed, and taken on the +tug to 'The Elm City.' Dr. Ware, in his hard working on shore, had found +fifteen other sick men without food or shelter,--there being 'no room' +in the tent-hospital. He had studied the neighborhood extensively for +shanties; found one, and put his men in it for the night. In the morning +we ran up on the tug, cooking breakfast for them as we ran, scrambling +eggs in a wash-basin over a spirit-lamp:--and such eggs! nine in ten +addled! It must be understood that wash-basins in the rear of an army +are made of _tin_." + +And here is one more such story: "We were called to go on board 'The +Wissahickon,' from thence to 'The Sea-shore' and run down in the latter +to West Point, to bring off twenty-five men said to be lying there sick +and destitute. Two doctors went with us. After hunting an hour for 'The +Sea-shore' in vain, and having got as low as Cumberland, we decided +(_we_ being Mrs. Howland and I, for the doctors were new and docile, and +glad to leave the responsibility upon us women) to push on in the tug, +rather than leave the men another night on the ground, as a heavy storm +of wind and rain had been going on all the day. The pilot remonstrated, +but the captain approved; and, if the firemen had not suddenly let out +the fires, and detained us two hours, we might have got our men on +board, and returned, comfortably, soon after dark. But the delay lost us +the precious daylight. It was night before the last man was got on +board. There were fifty-six of them, ten _very_ sick ones. The boat had +a little shelter-cabin. As we were laying mattresses on the floor, +whilst the doctors were finding the men, the captain stopped us, +refusing to let us put typhoid fever below the deck, on account of the +crew, he said, and threatening to push off, at once, from the shore. +Mrs. Howland and I looked at him! I did the terrible, and she the +pathetic,--and he abandoned the contest. The return passage was rather +an anxious one. The river is much obstructed with sunken ships and +trees; the night was dark, and we had to feel our way, slackening speed +every ten minutes. If we had been alone it wouldn't have mattered; but +to have fifty men unable to move upon our hands, was too heavy a +responsibility not to make us anxious. The captain and pilot said the +boat was leaking, and remarked awfully that 'the water was six fathoms +deep about there;' but we saw their motive and were not scared. We were +safe alongside 'The Spaulding' by midnight; but Mr. Olmstead's tone of +voice, as he said, 'You don't know how glad I am to see you,' showed how +much he had been worried. And yet it was the best thing we could have +done, for three, perhaps five, of the men would have been dead before +morning. To-day (Sunday) they are living and likely to live. _Is_ this +Sunday? What days our Sundays have been! I think of you all at rest, +and the sound of church bells in your ears, with a strange, distant +feeling." + +This was the general state of things at the time when the battle of Fair +Oaks was fought, June 1, 1862. All the vessels of the Commission except +"The Spaulding"--and she was hourly expected--were on the spot, and +ready. "The Elm City" happened to be full of fever cases. A vague rumor +of a battle prevailed, soon made certain by the sound of the +cannonading; and she left at once (4 A. M.) to discharge her sick at +Yorktown, and performed the great feat of getting back to White House, +cleaned, and with her beds made, before sunset of the same day. By that +time the wounded were arriving. The boats of the Commission filled up +calmly. The young men had a system by which they shipped their men; and +there was neither hurry nor confusion, as the vessels, one by one,--"The +Elm City," "The Knickerbocker," "The Daniel Webster,"--filled up and +left the landing. After them, other boats, detailed by the Government +for hospital service, came up. These boats were not under the control of +the Commission. There was no one specially appointed to take charge of +them; no one to receive the wounded at the station; no one to see that +the boats were supplied with proper stores. A frightful scene of +confusion and misery ensued. The Commission came forward to do what it +could; but it had no power, only the right of charity. It could not +control, scarcely check, the fearful confusion that prevailed, as train +after train came in, and the wounded were brought and thrust upon the +various boats. But it did nobly what it could. Night and day its members +worked: not, it must be remembered, in its own well-organized service, +but in the hard duty of making the best of a bad case. Not the smallest +preparation was found, on at least three of the boats, for the common +food of the men; and, as for sick-food, stimulants, drinks, there was +nothing of the kind on any one of the boats, and not a pail nor a cup to +distribute food, had there been any. + +No one, it is believed, can tell the story, _as it occurred_, of the +next three days;--no one can tell distinctly what boats they were, on +which they lived and worked through those days and nights. They remember +scenes and sounds, but they remember nothing as a whole; and, to this +day, if they are feverish and weary, comes back the sight of men in +every condition of horror, borne, shattered and shrieking, by +thoughtless hands, who banged the stretchers against pillars and posts, +dumped them anywhere, and walked over the men without compassion. +Imagine an immense river-steamboat filled on every deck: every berth, +every square inch of room, covered with wounded men,--even the stairs +and gangways and guards filled with those who were less badly wounded; +and then imagine fifty well men, on every kind of errand, hurried and +impatient, rushing to and fro, every touch bringing agony to the poor +fellows, whilst stretcher after stretcher comes along, hoping to find an +empty place; and then imagine what it was for these people of the +Commission to keep calm themselves, and make sure that each man, on such +a boat as that, was properly refreshed and fed. Sometimes two or even +three such boats were lying side by side, full of suffering and horrors. + +This was the condition of things with the subordinates. With the chiefs +it was aggravated by a wild confusion of conflicting orders from +headquarters, and conflicting authority upon the ground, until the +wonder is that _any_ method could have been obtained. But an earnest +purpose can do almost everything, and out of the struggle came daylight +at last. The first gleam of it was from a hospital tent and kitchen, +which, by the goodness and thoughtfulness of Captain (now Colonel) +Sawtelle, Assistant-Quartermaster, was pitched for the Commission, just +at the head of the wharf, and near the spot where the men arrived in the +cars. This tent (Dr. Ware gave to its preparation the only hour when he +might have rested through that long nightmare) became the strength and +the comfort of the Commission people. As the men passed it, from cars to +boat, they could be refreshed and stimulated, and from it meals were +sent to all the boats at the landing. During that dreadful battle-week, +three thousand men were fed from that tent. It was not the Vale of +Cashmere, but many dear associations cluster round it. + +After the pressure was over, the Commission went back to its old +routine, but upon a new principle. A member of the Commission came down +to White House for a day or two, and afterward wrote a few words about +that work. As he saw it with a fresh eye, his letter will be given here. +He says:-- + +"I wish you could have been with me at White House during my late visit, +to see how much is being done by our agents there to alleviate the +sufferings of the sick and wounded soldiers. I have seen a good deal of +suffering among our volunteers, and observed the marvellous variety and +energy of the beneficence bestowed by the patriotic and philanthropic in +camp, in hospital, and on transports for the sick; but nothing has ever +impressed me so deeply as this. Perhaps I can better illustrate my +meaning by sketching a few of the daily labors of the agents of the +Commission as I saw them. The sick and wounded were usually sent down +from the front by rail, a distance of about twenty miles, over a rough +road, and in the common freight-cars. A train generally arrived at White +House at nine P. M., and another at two A. M. In order to prepare for +the reception of the sick and wounded, Mr. Olmstead, with Drs. Jenkins +and Ware, had pitched, by the side of the railway, at White House, a +large number of tents, to shelter and feed the convalescent. These tents +were their only shelter while waiting to be shipped. Among them was one +used as a kitchen and work-room, or pantry, by the ladies in our +service, who prepared beef-tea, milk-punch, and other food and comforts, +in anticipation of the arrival of the trains. By the terminus of the +railway the large Commission steamboat 'Knickerbocker' lay in the +Pamunkey, in readiness for the reception of four hundred and fifty +patients, provided with comfortable beds and a corps of devoted +surgeons, dressers, nurses, and litter-bearers. Just outside of this +vessel lay 'The Elizabeth,' a steam-barge, loaded with the hospital +stores of the Commission, and in charge of a store-keeper, always ready +to issue supplies. Outside of this again lay 'The Wilson Small,' the +headquarters of our Commission. As soon as a train arrived, the +moderately sick were selected and placed in the tents near the railroad +and fed; those more ill were carried to the upper saloon of 'The +Knickerbocker,' while the seriously ill, or badly wounded, were placed +in the lower saloon, and immediately served by the surgeons and +dressers. During the three nights that I observed the working of the +system, about seven hundred sick and wounded were provided with quarters +and ministered to in all their wants with a tender solicitude and skill +that excited my deepest admiration. To see Drs. Ware and Jenkins, +lantern in hand, passing through the trains, selecting the sick with +reference to their necessities, and the ladies following to assuage the +thirst, or arouse, by judiciously administered stimulants, the failing +strength of the brave and uncomplaining sufferers, was a spectacle of +the most touching character. If you had experienced the debilitating +influence of the Pamunkey climate, you would be filled with wonder at +the mere physical endurance of our corps, who certainly could not have +been sustained in the performance of duties, involving labor by day and +through sleepless nights, without a strong sense of their usefulness and +success. + +"At Savage's Station, too, the Commission had a valuable depot, where +comfort and assistance was dispensed to the sick when changing from the +ambulances to the cars. I wish I could do justice to the subject of my +hasty narrative, or in any due measure convey to your mind the +impressions left on mine in observing, even casually, the operations in +the care of the sick at these two points. + +"When we remember what was done by the same noble band of laborers after +the battles of Williamsburg and Fair Oaks, in ministering to the wants +of _thousands of wounded_, I am sure that we shall join with them in +gratitude and thankfulness that they were enabled to be there." + +But the end of it all was at hand; the "change of base," of which the +Commission had some private intelligence, came to pass. The sick and +wounded were carefully gathered up from the tents and hospitals, and +sent slowly away down the winding river--"The Wilson Small" lingering as +long as possible, till the telegraph wires had been cut, and the enemy +was announced, by mounted messengers, to be at "Tunstall's;" in fact, +till the roar of the battle came nearer, and we knew that Stoneman with +his cavalry was falling back to Williamsburg, and that the enemy were +about to march into our deserted places. + +"All night we sat on the deck of 'The Small' slowly moving away, +watching the constantly increasing cloud and the fire-flashes over the +trees towards the White House; watching the fading out of what had been +to us, through these strange weeks, a sort of home, where all had worked +together and been happy; a place which is sacred to some of us now for +its intense living remembrances, and for the hallowing of them all by +the memory of one who, through months of death and darkness, lived and +worked in self-abnegation, lived in and for the suffering of others, and +finally gave himself a sacrifice for them."[F] + +[Footnote F: Dr. Robert Ware.] + +"We are coaling here to-night ('Wilson Small,' off Norfolk, June 30th, +1862). We left White House Saturday night, and rendezvoused at West +Point. Captain Sawtelle sent us off early, with despatches for Fortress +Monroe; this gave us the special fun of being the first to come +leisurely into the panic then raging at Yorktown. 'The Small' was +instantly surrounded by terror-stricken boats; the people of the big +'St. Mark' leaned, pale, over their bulwarks, to question us. Nothing +could be more delightful than to be as calm and monosyllabic as we were. +* * * * * We leave at daybreak for Harrison's Bar, James River, where +our gunboats are said to be; we hope to get further up, but General Dix +warns us that it is not safe. What are we about to learn? No one here +can tell. * * * * * (Harrison's Bar, July 2d). We arrived here yesterday +to hear the thunder of the battle,[G] and to find the army just +approaching this landing; last night it was a verdant shore, to-day it +is a dusty plain. * * * * * 'The Spaulding' has passed and gone ahead of +us; her ironsides can carry her safely past the rifle-pits which line +the shore. No one can tell us as yet what work there is for us; the +wounded have not come in." * * * * * + +[Footnote G: Malvern Hill.] + +"_Hospital Transport 'Spaulding,' July 3d._--Reached Harrison's Bar at +11 A. M., July 1st, and were ordered to go up the James River, as far as +Carter's Landing. To do this we must pass the batteries at City Point. +We were told there was no danger if we should carry a yellow flag; +_yellow flag_ we had none, so we trusted to the _red_ Sanitary +Commission, and prepared to run it. 'The Galena' hailed us to keep +below, as we passed the battery. Shortly after, we came up with 'The +Monitor,' and the little captain, with his East India hat, trumpet in +hand, repeated the advice of 'The Galena,' and added, that if he heard +firing, he would follow us. Our cannon pointed its black muzzle at the +shore, and on we went. As we left 'The Monitor,' the captain came to me, +with his grim smile, and said, 'I'll take those mattresses you spoke +of.' We had joked, as people will, about our danger, and I had suggested +mattresses round the wheel-house, never thinking that he would try it. +But the captain was in earnest; when was he anything else? So the +contrabands brought up the mattresses, and piled them against the +wheel-house, and the pilot stood against the mast, with a mattress slung +in the rigging to protect him. In an hour we had passed the danger and +reached Carter's Landing, and there was the army, 'all that was left of +it.' * * * Over all the bank, on the lawns of that lovely spot, under +the shade of the large trees that fringed the outer park, lay hundreds +of our poor boys, brought from the battle-fields of six days. It seemed +a hopeless task even to feed them. We went first into the hospital, and +gave them refreshment all round. One man, burnt up with fever, burst +into tears when I spoke to him. I held his hand silently, and at last he +sobbed out, 'You are so kind,--I--am so weak.' We were ordered by the +surgeon in charge to station ourselves on the lawn, and wait the arrival +of the ambulances, so as to give something (we had beef-tea, soup, +brandy, etc., etc.) to the poor fellows as they arrived. * * * * * Late +that night came peremptory orders from the Quartermaster, for 'The +Spaulding' to drop down to Harrison's Landing. We took some of the +wounded with us; others went by land or ambulances, and some--it seems +incredible--walked the distance. Others were left behind and taken +prisoners; for the enemy reached Carter's Landing as we left it." + +The work of the Commission upon the hospital transports was about to +close. + +But before it was all over, the various vessels had made several trips +in the service of the Commission, and one voyage of "The Spaulding" must +not pass unrecorded. + +"We were ordered up to City Point, under a flag of truce, to receive our +wounded men who were prisoners in Richmond. * * * * * At last the +whistle sounded and the train came in sight. The poor fellows set up a +weak cheer at the sight of the old flag, and those who had the strength +hobbled and tumbled off the train almost before it stopped. We took four +hundred and one on board. Two other vessels which accompanied us took +each two hundred more. The rebel soldiers had been kind to our men,--so +they said,--but the citizens had taken pains to insult them. One man +burst into tears as he was telling me of their misery: 'May God defend +me from such again.' God took him to Himself, poor suffering soul! He +died the next morning,--died because he would not let them take off his +arm. 'I wasn't going to let them have it in Richmond; I said I _would_ +take it back to old Massachusetts.' Of course we had a hard voyage with +our poor fellows in such a condition, but, at least, they were cleaned +and well fed." + + + + +OTHER LABORS OF SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF THE HOSPITAL TRANSPORT CORPS. + + +Most of the ladies connected with this Hospital Transport service, +distinguished themselves in other departments of philanthropic labor for +the soldiers, often not less arduous, and sometimes not cheered by so +pleasant companionship. Miss BRADLEY, as we have seen accomplished a +noble work in connection with the Soldiers' Home at Washington, and the +Rendezvous of Distribution; Miss GILSON and Mrs. HUSBAND were active in +every good word and work; Mrs. CHARLOTTE BRADFORD succeeded Miss Bradley +in the charge of the Soldiers' Home at Washington, where she +accomplished a world of good. Mrs. W. P. GRIFFIN, though compelled by +illness contracted during her services on the Peninsula, returned with +quickened zeal and more fervid patriotism to her work in connection with +the "Woman's Central Association of Relief," in New York, of which she +was up to the close of the war one of the most active and untiring +managers. Miss HARRIET DOUGLAS WHETTEN, who after two or three voyages +back and forth in different vessels, was finally placed in charge of the +Woman's Department on board of the Spaulding, where she remained until +that vessel was given up by the Commission, and indeed continued on +board for two or three voyages after the vessel became a Government +hospital transport. Her management on board the Spaulding was admirable, +eliciting the praise of all who saw it. When the Portsmouth Grove +General Hospital in Rhode Island was opened, under the charge of Miss +Wormeley, as Lady Superintendent, that lady invited her to become her +assistant; she accepted the invitation and remained there a year, when +she was invited to become Lady Superintendent of the Carver General +Hospital, at Washington, D. C., a position of great responsibility, +which she filled with the greatest credit and success, retaining it to +the close of the war. + +An intimate friend, who was long associated with her, says of her, "Miss +Whetten's absolute and untiring devotion to the sick men was beyond all +praise. She is a _born nurse_. She was perhaps less energetic and rapid +than others, but no one could quite come up to her in tender care, and +in that close watching and sympathetic knowledge about a patient which +belongs only to a true nurse. And when I say that she was less energetic +than some, I am in fact saying something to her honor. Her nature was +calmer and less energetic, but she worked as hard and for a longer time +together than any of us, and this was directly in opposition to her +habits and disposition, and was in fact a triumph over herself. She did +more than any one personally for the men--the rest of us worked more +generally--when a man's sufferings or necessities were relieved, we +thought no more about him--but she took a warm personal interest in the +individual. In the end this strain upon her feelings wore down her +spirits, but it was a feature of her success, and there must be many a +poor fellow, who if he heard her name 'would rise up and call her +blessed.'" + + * * * * * + +Three or four of the ladies especially connected with the headquarters +of the Commission in the Hospital Transport Service, from their +important services elsewhere, are entitled to a fuller notice. Among +these we must include the accomplished historian of the earlier work of +the Commission. + + + + +KATHERINE P. WORMELEY + + +Among the many of our countrywomen who have been active and ardent in +the soldier's cause, some may have devoted themselves to the service for +a longer period, but few with more earnestness and greater ability than +the lady whose name stands at the head of this sketch, and few have +entered into a greater variety of details in the prosecution of the +work. + +Katherine Prescott Wormeley was born in England. Her father though +holding the rank of a Rear-Admiral in the British Navy, was a native of +Virginia. Her mother is a native of Boston, Massachusetts. Miss Wormeley +may therefore be said to be alien to her birth-place, and to be an +American in fact as in feelings. She now resides with her mother at +Newport, Rhode Island. + +Miss Wormeley was among the earliest to engage in the work of procuring +supplies and aid for the volunteer soldiery. The work began in Newport +early in July, 1861. The first meeting of women was held informally at +the house of Miss Wormeley's mother. An organization was obtained, rooms +secured (being lent for the purpose), and about two thousand dollars +subscribed. The Society, which assumed the name of the "Woman's Union +Aid Society" immediately commenced the work with vigor, and shortly +forwarded to the Sanitary Commission at Washington their first cases of +clothing and supplies. Miss Wormeley remained at the head of this +society until April, 1862. It was kept in funds by private gifts, and +by the united efforts of all the churches of Newport, and the United +States Naval Academy which was removed thither from Annapolis, Maryland, +in the spring of 1861. + +During the summer of 1861 several ladies (summer residents of Newport), +were in the habit of sending to Miss Wormeley many poor women, with the +request that she would furnish them with steady employment upon hospital +clothing, the ladies paying for the work. After they left, the poor +women whom they had thus benefited, felt the loss severely, and the +thought occurred to Miss Wormeley that the outfitting of a great army +must furnish much suitable work for them could it be reached. + +After revolving the subject in her own mind, she wrote to +Quartermaster-General Meigs at Washington, making inquiries, and was by +him referred to the Department Quartermaster-General, Colonel D. H. +Vinton, United States Army, office of army clothing and equipage, New +York. Colonel Vinton replied in the kindest manner, stating the +difficulties of the matter, but expressing his willingness to give Miss +Wormeley a contract if she thought she could surmount them. + +Miss Wormeley found her courage equal to the attempt, and succeeded far +more easily than she had expected in carrying out her plans. She engaged +rooms at a low rent, and found plenty of volunteer assistance on all +sides. Ladies labored unweariedly in cutting and distributing the work +to the applicants. Gentlemen packed the cases, and attended to the +shipments. During the winter of 1861-2 about fifty thousand army shirts +were thus made, not one of which was returned as imperfect, and she was +thus enabled to circulate in about one hundred families, a sum equal to +six thousand dollars, which helped them well through the winter. + +Colonel Vinton, as was the case with other officers very generally +throughout the war, showed great kindness and appreciation of these +efforts of women. And though this contract must have given him far more +trouble than contracts with regular clothing establishments, his +goodness, which was purely benevolent, never flagged. + +During all this time the work of the Women's Union Aid Society was also +carried on at Miss Wormeley's rooms, and a large number of cases were +packed and forwarded thence, either to New York or directly to +Washington. Miss Wormeley, herself, still superintended this matter, and +though an Associate Manager of the New England Women's Branch of the +Sanitary Commission, preferred this direct transmission as a saving both +of time and expense. + +The Society was earnest and indefatigable in its exertions, acting +always with great promptness and energy while under the direction of +Miss Wormeley. On one occasion, as an instance, a telegraphic message +from Washington brought at night an urgent call for a supply of +bed-sacks. Early in the morning all the material in Newport was bought +up, as many sewing-machines as possible obtained, and seventy-five +bed-sacks finished and sent off that day, and as many more the following +day. + +Miss Wormeley was just closing up her contract when, in April, 1862, the +"Hospital Transport Service" was organized, principally by the efforts +of Mr. Frederick Law Olmstead, the General Secretary of the Sanitary +Commission. The sudden transfer of the scene of active war from the high +grounds bordering the Potomac to a low and swampy region intersected by +a network of creeks and rivers, made necessary appliances for the care +of the sick and wounded, which the Government was not at that time +prepared to furnish. Hence arose the arrangement by which certain large +steamers, chartered, but then unemployed by the Government, were +transferred to the Sanitary Commission to be fitted up as Hospital +Transports for the reception and conveyance of the sick and wounded. To +the superintendence of this work, care of the sick, and other duties of +this special service, a number of agents of the Commission, with +volunteers of both sexes, were appointed, and after protracted and +vexatious delays in procuring the first transports assembled at +Alexandria, Virginia, on the 25th of April, and embarked on the Daniel +Webster for York River, which they reached on the 30th of April. + +Miss Wormeley was one of the first to become connected with this branch +of the service, and proceeded at once to her field of duty. She remained +in this employment until August of the same year, and passed through all +the horrors of the Peninsula campaign. By this, of course, is not +understood the _battles_ of the campaign, nor the army movements, but +the reception, washing, feeding, and ministering to the sick and the +wounded--scenes which are too full of horror for tongue to tell, or pen +to describe, but which must always remain indelibly impressed upon the +minds and hearts of those who were actors in them. + +The ladies, it may be observed, who were attached to the Hospital +Transport Corps at the headquarters of the Commission, were all from the +higher walks of society, women of the greatest culture and refinement, +and unaccustomed to toil or exhausting care. Yet not one of them shrank +from hardship, or revolted at any labor or exertion which could serve to +bring comfort to the sufferers under their charge. + +Active and endowed with extraordinary executive ability, Miss Wormeley +was distinguished for her great usefulness during this time of fierce +trial, when the malaria of the Chickahominy swamps was prostrating its +thousands of brave men, and the battles of Williamsburg, White House, +and Fair Oaks, and the disastrous retreat to Harrison's Landing were +marked by an almost unexampled carnage. + +While the necessity of exertion continued, Miss Wormeley and her +associates bore up bravely, but no sooner was this ended than nearly all +succumbed to fever, or the exhaustion of excessive and protracted +fatigue. Nevertheless, within a few days after Miss Wormeley's return +home, the Surgeon-General, passing through Newport, came to call upon +her and personally solicit her to take charge of the Woman's Department +of the Lowell General Hospital, then being organized at Portsmouth +Grove, R. I. After a brief hesitation, on account of her health, Miss +Wormeley assented to the proposal, and on the 1st of September, 1862, +went to the hospital. She was called, officially, the "Lady +Superintendent," and her duties were general; they consisted less of +actual nursing, than the organization and superintendence of her +department. Under her charge were the Female Nurses, the Diet Kitchens, +and Special diet, the Linen Department, and the Laundry, where she had a +steam Washing Machine, which was capable of washing and mangling four +thousand pieces a day. + +The hospital had beds for two thousand five hundred patients. Four +friends of Miss Wormeley joined her here, and were her Assistant +Superintendents--Misses G. M. and J. S. Woolsey, Miss Harriet D. +Whetten, of New York, and Miss Sarah C. Woolsey, of New Haven. Each of +these had charge of seven Wards, and was responsible to the surgeons for +the nursing and diet of the sick men. To the exceedingly valuable +co-operation of these ladies, Miss Wormeley has, on all occasions, +attributed in a great measure the success which attended and rewarded +her services in this department of labor, as also to the kindness of the +Surgeon in charge, Dr. Lewis A. Edwards, and of his Assistants. + +She remained at Portsmouth Grove a little more than a year, carrying on +the arrangements of her department with great ability and perfect +success. On holidays, through the influence of herself and her +assistants, the inmates received ample donations for the feasts +appropriate to the occasions, and at all times liberal gifts of books, +games, &c., for their instruction and entertainment. But in September, +1863, partly from family reasons, and partly because her health gave +way, she was forced to resign and return home. + +From that time her labors in hospital ceased. But, in the following +December, at the suggestion of Mr. and Mrs. George Ticknor, of Boston, +and of other friends, she prepared for the Boston Sanitary Fair, a +charming volume entitled, "The United States Sanitary Commission; A +Sketch of its Purposes and its Work." + +This book, owing to unavoidable hindrances, was not commenced till so +late that but eleven days were allowed for its completion. But, with her +accustomed energy, having most of her materials at hand, Miss Wormeley +commenced and finished the book within the specified time, without other +assistance than that volunteered by friends in copying and arranging +papers. Graceful in style, direct in detail, plain in statement and +logical in argument, it shows, however, no traces of hasty writing. It +met with great and deserved success, and netted some hundreds of dollars +to the fair. + +Miss Wormeley attributes much of the success of her work, in all +departments, to the liberality of her friends. During the war she +received from the community of Newport, alone, over seventeen thousand +dollars, beside, large donations of brandy, wine, flannel, etc., for the +Commission and hospital use. The Newport Aid Society, which she assisted +in organizing, worked well and faithfully to the end, and rendered +valuable services to the Sanitary Commission. Since the completion of +her book, her health has not permitted her to engage in active service. + + + + +THE MISSES WOOLSEY. + + +We are not aware of any other instance among the women who have devoted +themselves to works of philanthropy and patriotism during the recent +war, in which four sisters have together consecrated their services to +the cause of the nation. In social position, culture, refinement, and +all that could make life pleasant, Misses Georgiana and Jane C. Woolsey, +and their married sisters, Mrs. Joseph and Mrs. Robert Howland, were +blessed above most women; and if there were any who might have deemed +themselves excused from entering upon the drudgery, the almost menial +service incident to the Hospital Transport service, to the position of +Assistant Superintendent of a crowded hospital, of nurse in field +hospitals after a great battle, or of instructors and superintendents of +freedmen and freedwomen; these ladies might have pleaded an apology for +some natural shrinking from the work, from its dissimilarity to all +their previous pursuits. But to the call of duty and patriotism, they +had no such objections to urge. + +Mrs. Joseph Howland was the wife of a Colonel in the Union army, and +felt it a privilege to do something for the brave men with whom her +husband's interests were identified, and accompanying him to the camp +whenever this was permitted, she ministered to the sick or wounded men +of his command with a tenderness and gentleness which won all hearts. +When the invitation was given to her and her sister to unite with others +in the Hospital Transport service, she rejoiced at the opportunity for +wider usefulness in the cause she loved; how faithfully, earnestly, and +persistently she toiled is partially revealed in the little work +published by some of her associates, under the title of "Hospital +Transports," but was fully known only by those who shared in her labors, +and those who were the recipients of her kind attentions. One of these, +a private in the Sixteenth New York Regiment (her husband's regiment), +and who had been under her care on one of the Commission's transports at +White House, expressed his gratitude in the following graceful lines + + "From old St. Paul till now + Of honorable women, not a few + Have left their golden ease, in love to do + The saintly work which Christ-like hearts pursue. + + "And such an one art thou? God's fair apostle, + Bearing his love in war's horrific train; + Thy blessed feet follow its ghastly pain, + And misery and death without disdain. + + "To one borne from the sullen battle's roar, + Dearer the greeting of thy gentle eyes + When he, a-weary, torn, and bleeding lies, + Than all the glory that the victors prize. + + "When peace shall come and homes shall smile again, + A thousand soldier hearts, in northern climes, + Shall tell their little children in their rhymes + Of the sweet saints who blessed the old war times." + + _On the Chickahominy, June 12th, 1862._ + +Impaired health, the result of the excessive labors of that battle +summer, prevented Mrs. Howland from further active service in the field; +but whenever her health permitted, she visited and labored in the +hospitals around Washington, and her thoughtful attention and words of +encouragement to the women nurses appointed by Miss Dix, and receiving a +paltry stipend from the Government, were most gratefully appreciated by +those self-denying, hard-working, and often sorely-tried women--many of +them the peers in culture, refinement and intellect of any lady in the +land, but treated with harshness and discourtesy by boy-surgeons, who +lacked the breeding or instincts of the gentleman. Her genuine modesty +and humility have led her, as well as her sisters, to deprecate any +notoriety or public notice of their work, which they persist in +regarding as unworthy of record; but so will it not be regarded by the +soldiers who have been rescued from inevitable death by their persistent +toil, nor by a nation grateful for the services rendered to its brave +defenders. + +Mrs. Robert S. Howland was the wife of a clergyman, and an earnest +worker in the hospitals and in the Metropolitan Sanitary Fair, and her +friends believed that her over-exertion in the preparation and +attendance upon that fair, contributed to shorten a life as precious and +beautiful as was ever offered upon the altar of patriotism. Mrs. Howland +possessed rare poetic genius, and some of her effusions, suggested by +incidents of army or hospital life, are worthy of preservation as among +the choicest gems of poetry elicited by the war. "A Rainy Day in Camp," +"A Message from the Army," etc., are poems which many of our readers +will recall with interest and pleasure. A shorter one of equal merit and +popularity, we copy not only for its brevity, but because it expresses +so fully the perfect peace which filled her heart as completely as it +did that of the subject of the poem: + + IN THE HOSPITAL. + + "S. S----, a Massachusetts Sergeant, worn out with heavy marches, + wounds and camp disease, died in ---- General Hospital, in + November, 1863, in 'perfect peace.' Some who witnessed daily his + wonderful sweet patience and content, through great languor and + weariness, fancied sometimes they 'could already see the brilliant + particles of a halo in the air about his head.' + + "I lay me down to sleep, + With little thought or care. + Whether my waking find + Me here--or THERE! + + "A bowing, burdened head, + That only asks to rest, + Unquestioning, upon + A loving Breast. + + "My good right-hand forgets + Its cunning now-- + To march the weary march + I know not how. + + "I am not eager, bold, + Nor strong--all that is past: + I am ready NOT TO DO + At last--at last! + + "My half-day's work is done, + And this is all my part; + I give a patient God + My patient heart. + + "And grasp his banner still, + Though all its blue be dim; + These stripes, no less than stars. + Lead after Him." + +Mrs. Howland died in the summer of 1864. + +Miss Georgiana M. Woolsey, was one of the most efficient ladies +connected with the Hospital Transport service, where her constant +cheerfulness, her ready wit, her never failing resources of contrivance +and management in any emergency, made the severe labor seem light, and +by keeping up the spirits of the entire party, prevented the scenes of +suffering constantly presented from rendering them morbid or depressed. +She took the position of assistant superintendent of the Portsmouth +Grove General Hospital, in September, 1862, when her friend, Miss +Wormeley, became superintendent, and remained there till the spring of +1863, was actively engaged in the care of the wounded at Falmouth after +the battle of Chancellorsville, was on the field soon after the battle +of Gettysburg, and wrote that charming and graphic account of the labors +of herself and a friend at Gettysburg in the service of the Sanitary +Commission which was so widely circulated, and several times reprinted +in English reviews and journals. We cannot refrain from introducing it +as one of those narratives of actual philanthropic work of which we have +altogether too few. + + + THREE WEEKS AT GETTYSBURG. + +"_July, 1863._ + +"DEAR ----: _What we did at Gettysburg_, for the three weeks we were +there, you will want to know. 'We,' are Mrs.[H] ---- and I, who, +happening to be on hand at the right moment, gladly fell in with the +proposition to do what we could at the Sanitary Commission Lodge after +the battle. There were, of course, the agents of the Commission, already +on the field, distributing supplies to the hospitals, and working night +and day among the wounded. I cannot pretend to tell you what was done by +all the big wheels of the concern, but only how two of the smallest ones +went round, and what turned up in the going. + +[Footnote H: Her mother, Mrs. Woolsey.] + +"Twenty-four hours we were in making the journey between Baltimore and +Gettysburg, places only four hours apart in ordinary running time; and +this will give you some idea of the difficulty there was in bringing up +supplies when the fighting was over, and of the delays in transporting +wounded. Coming toward the town at this crawling rate, we passed some +fields where the fences were down and the ground slightly tossed up: +'That's where Kilpatrick's Cavalry-men fought the rebels,' some one +said; 'and close by that barn a rebel soldier was found day before +yesterday, sitting dead'--no one to help, poor soul,--'near the whole +city full.' The railroad bridge broken up by the enemy, Government had +not rebuilt as yet, and we stopped two miles from the town, to find +that, as usual, just where the Government had left off the Commission +came in. There stood their temporary lodge and kitchen, and here, +hobbling out of their tents, came the wounded men who had made their +way down from the corps-hospitals, expecting to leave at once in the +return-cars. + +"This is the way the thing was managed at first: The surgeons left in +care of the wounded three or four miles out from the town, went up and +down among the men in the morning, and said, 'Any of you boys who can +make your way to the cars can go to Baltimore.' So off start all who +think they feel well enough; anything better than the 'hospitals,' so +called, for the first few days after a battle. Once the men have the +surgeons' permission to go, they are off; and there may be an interval +of a day, or two days, should any of them be too weak to reach the train +in time, during which these poor fellows belong to no one,--the hospital +at one end, the railroad at the other,--with far more than a chance of +falling through between the two. The Sanitary Commission knew this would +be so of necessity, and, coming in, made a connecting link between these +two ends. + +"For the first few days the worst cases only came down in ambulances +from the hospitals; hundreds of fellows hobbled along as best they could +in heat and dust, for hours, slowly toiling; and many hired farmers' +wagons, as hard as the farmers' fists themselves, and were jolted down +to the railroad, at three or four dollars the man. Think of the +disappointment of a soldier, sick, body and heart, to find, at the end +of this miserable journey, that his effort to get away, into which he +had put all his remaining stock of strength, was useless; that 'the cars +had gone,' or 'the cars were full;' that while he was coming others had +stepped down before him, and that he must turn all the weary way back +again, or sleep on the road-side till the next train 'to-morrow!' Think +what this _would_ have been, and you are ready to appreciate the relief +and comfort that _was_. No men were turned back. You fed and you +sheltered them just when no one else could have done so; and out of the +boxes and barrels of good and nourishing things, which you people at +home had supplied, we took all that was needed. Some of you sent a stove +(that is, the money to get it), some of you the beef-stock, some of you +the milk and fresh bread; and all of you would have been thankful that +you had done so, could you have seen the refreshment and comfort +received through these things. + +"As soon as the men hobbled up to the tents, good hot soup was given all +round; and that over, their wounds were dressed,--for the gentlemen of +the Commission are cooks or surgeons, as occasion demands,--and, +finally, with their blankets spread over the straw, the men stretched +themselves out and were happy and contented till morning, and the next +train. + +"On the day that the railroad bridge was repaired, we moved up to the +depot, close by the town, and had things in perfect order; a first-rate +camping-ground, in a large field directly by the track, with unlimited +supply of delicious cool water. Here we set up two stoves, with four +large boilers, always kept full of soup and coffee, watched by four or +five black men, who did the cooking, under our direction, and sang (not +under our direction) at the top of their voices all day,-- + + 'Oh darkies, hab you seen my Massa?' + 'When this _cruel_ war is _over_.' + +Then we had three large hospital tents, holding about thirty-five each, +a large camp-meeting supply tent, where barrels of goods were stored, +and our own smaller tent, fitted up with tables, where jelly-pots, and +bottles of all kinds of good syrups, blackberry and black currant, stood +in rows. Barrels were ranged round the tent-walls; shirts, drawers, +dressing-gowns, socks, and slippers (I wish we had had more of the +latter), rags and bandages, each in its own place on one side; on the +other, boxes of tea, coffee, soft crackers, tamarinds, cherry brandy, +etc. Over the kitchen, and over this small supply-tent, we women rather +reigned, and filled up our wants by requisition on the Commission's +depot. By this time there had arrived a 'delegation' of just the right +kind from Canandaigua, New York, with surgeons' dressers and +attendants, bringing a first-rate supply of necessities and comforts for +the wounded, which they handed over to the Commission. + +"Twice a day the trains left for Baltimore or Harrisburg, and twice a +day we fed all the wounded who arrived for them. Things were +systematized now, and the men came down in long ambulance trains to the +cars; baggage-cars they were, filled with straw for the wounded to lie +on, and broken open at either end to let in the air. A Government +surgeon was always present to attend to the careful lifting of the +soldiers from ambulance to car. Many of the men could get along very +nicely, holding one foot up, and taking great jumps on their crutches. +The latter were a great comfort; we had a nice supply at the Lodge; and +they traveled up and down from the tents to the cars daily. Only +occasionally did we dare let a pair go on with some very lame soldier, +who begged for them; we needed them to help the new arrivals each day, +and trusted to the men being supplied at the hospitals at the journey's +end. Pads and crutches are a standing want,--pads particularly. We +manufactured them out of the rags we had, stuffed with sawdust from +brandy-boxes; and with half a sheet and some soft straw, Mrs. ---- made +a poor dying boy as easy as his sufferings would permit. Poor young +fellow, he was so grateful to her for washing and feeding and comforting +him. He was too ill to bear the journey, and went from our tent to the +church hospital, and from the church to his grave, which would have been +coffinless but for the care of ----; for the Quartermaster's Department +was overtaxed, and for many days our dead were simply wrapped in their +blankets and put into the earth. It is a soldierly way, after all, of +lying wrapped in the old war-worn blanket,--the little dust returned to +dust. + +"When the surgeons had the wounded all placed, with as much comfort as +seemed possible under the circumstances, on board the train, our detail +of men would go from car to car, with soup made of beef-stock or fresh +meat, full of potatoes, turnips, cabbage, and rice, with fresh bread +and coffee, and, when stimulants were needed, with ale, milk-punch, or +brandy. Water-pails were in great demand for use in the cars on the +journey, and also empty bottles to take the place of canteens. All our +whisky and brandy bottles were washed and filled up at the spring, and +the boys went off carefully hugging their extemporized canteens, from +which they would wet their wounds, or refresh themselves till the +journey ended. I do not think that a man of the sixteen thousand who +were transported during our stay, went from Gettysburg without a good +meal. Rebels and Unionists together, they all had it, and were pleased +and satisfied. 'Have you friends in the army, madam?' a rebel soldier, +lying on the floor of the car, said to me, as I gave him some milk. +'Yes, my brother is on ----'s staff,' 'I thought so, ma'am. You can +always tell; when people are good to soldiers they are sure to have +friends in the army,' 'We are rebels, you know, ma'am,' another said. +'Do you treat rebels _so_?' It was strange to see the good brotherly +feeling come over the soldiers, our own and the rebels, when side by +side they lay in our tents. 'Hullo, boys! this is the pleasantest way to +meet, isn't it? We are better friends when we are as close as this than +a little farther off.' And then they would go over the battles together, +'We were here,' and 'you were there,' in the friendliest way. + +"After each train of cars daily, for the three weeks we were in +Gettysburg, trains of ambulances arrived too late--men who must spend +the day with us until the five P. M. cars went, and men too late for the +five P. M. train, who must spend the night till the ten A. M. cars went. +All the men who came in this way, under our own immediate and particular +attention, were given the best we had of care and food. The surgeon in +charge of our camp, with his most faithful dresser and attendants, +looked after all their wounds, which were often in a shocking state, +particularly among the rebels. Every evening and morning they were +dressed. Often the men would say, 'That feels good. I haven't had my +wound so well dressed since I was hurt. Something cool to drink is the +first thing asked for after the long, dusty drive; and pailfuls of +tamarinds and water, 'a beautiful drink,' the men used to say, +disappeared rapidly among them. + +"After the men's wounds were attended to, we went round giving them +clean clothes; had basins and soap and towels, and followed these with +socks, slippers, shirts, drawers, and those coveted dressing-gowns. Such +pride as they felt in them! comparing colors, and smiling all over as +they lay in clean and comfortable rows, ready for supper,--'on dress +parade,' they used to say. And then the milk, particularly if it were +boiled and had a little whisky and sugar, and the bread, with _butter_ +on it, and _jelly_ on the butter: how good it all was, and how lucky we +felt ourselves in having the immense satisfaction of distributing these +things, which all of you, hard at work in villages and cities, were +getting ready and sending off, in faith. + +"Canandaigua sent cologne with its other supplies, which went right to +the noses and hearts of the men. 'That is good, now;'--'I'll take some +of that;'--'worth a penny a sniff;' 'that kinder gives one life;'--and +so on, all round the tents, as we tipped the bottles up on the clean +handkerchiefs some one had sent, and when they were gone, over squares +of cotton, on which the perfume took the place of hem,--'just as good, +ma'am.' We varied our dinners with custard and baked rice puddings, +scrambled eggs, codfish hash, corn-starch, and always as much soft +bread, tea, coffee, or milk as they wanted. Two Massachusetts boys I +especially remember for the satisfaction with which they ate their +pudding. I carried a second plateful up to the cars, after they had been +put in, and fed one of them till he was sure he had had enough. Young +fellows they were, lying side by side, one with a right and one with a +left arm gone. + +"The Gettysburg women were kind and faithful to the wounded and their +friends, and the town was full to overflowing of both. The first day, +when Mrs. ---- and I reached the place, we literally begged our bread +from door to door; but the kind woman who at last gave us dinner would +take no pay for it. 'No, ma'am, I shouldn't wish to have that sin on my +soul when the war is over.' She, as well as others, had fed the +strangers flocking into town daily, sometimes over fifty of them for +each meal, and all for love and nothing for reward; and one night we +forced a reluctant confession from our hostess that she was meaning to +sleep on the floor that we might have a bed, her whole house being full. +Of course we couldn't allow this self-sacrifice, and hunted up some +other place to stay in. We did her no good, however, for we afterwards +found that the bed was given up that night to some other stranger who +arrived late and tired: 'An old lady, you know; and I couldn't let an +old lady sleep on the floor.' Such acts of kindness and self-denial were +almost entirely confined to the women. + +"Few good things can be said of the Gettysburg farmers, and I only use +Scripture language in calling them 'evil beasts.' One of this kind came +creeping into our camp three weeks after the battle. He lived five miles +only from the town, and had 'never seen a rebel.' He heard we had some +of them, and had come down to see them. 'Boys,' we said,--marching him +into the tent which happened to be full of rebels that day, waiting for +the train,--'Boys, here's a man who never saw a rebel in his life, and +wants to look at you;' and there he stood with his mouth wide open, and +there they lay in rows, laughing at him, stupid old Dutchman. 'And why +haven't you seen a rebel?' Mrs. ---- said; 'why didn't you take your gun +and help to drive them out of your town?' 'A feller might'er got +hit!'--which reply was quite too much for the rebels; they roared with +laughter at him, up and down the tent. + +"One woman we saw, who was by no means Dutch, and whose pluck helped to +redeem the other sex. She lived in a little house close up by the field +where the hardest fighting was done,--a red-cheeked, strong, country +girl. 'Were you frightened when the shells began flying?' 'Well, no. +You see we was all a-baking bread around here for the soldiers, and had +our dough a-rising. The neighbors they ran into their cellars, but I +couldn't leave my bread. When the first shell came in at the window and +crashed through the room, an officer came and said, 'You had better get +out of this;' but I told him I _could not_ leave my bread; and I stood +working it till the third shell came through, and then I went down +cellar; but' (triumphantly) 'I left my bread in the oven.' 'And why +didn't you go before?' 'Oh, you see, if I had, the rebels would 'a' come +in and daubed the dough all over the place.' And here she had stood, at +the risk of unwelcome plums in her loaves, while great holes (which we +saw) were made by shot and shell through and through the room in which +she was working. + +"The streets of Gettysburg were filled with the battle. People thought +and talked of nothing else; even the children showed their little spites +by calling to each other, 'Here, you rebel;' and mere scraps of boys +amused themselves with percussion-caps and hammers. Hundreds of old +muskets were piled on the pavements, the men who shouldered them a week +before, lying underground now, or helping to fill the long trains of +ambulances on their way from the field. The private houses of the town +were, many of them, hospitals; the little red flags hung from the upper +windows. Beside our own men at the Lodge, we all had soldiers scattered +about whom we could help from our supplies; and nice little puddings and +jellies, or an occasional chicken, were a great treat to men condemned +by their wounds to stay in Gettysburg, and obliged to live on what the +empty town could provide. There was a colonel in a shoe-shop, a captain +just up the street, and a private round the corner whose young sister +had possessed herself of him, overcoming the military rules in some way, +and carrying him off to a little room, all by himself, where I found her +doing her best with very little. She came afterward to our tent and got +for him clean clothes, and good food, and all he wanted, and was +perfectly happy in being his cook, washerwoman, medical cadet, and +nurse. Besides such as these, we occasionally carried from our supplies +something to the churches, which were filled with sick and wounded, and +where men were dying,--men whose strong patience it was very hard to +bear,--dying with thoughts of the old home far away, saying, as last +words, for the women watching there and waiting with a patience equal in +its strength, 'Tell her I love her.' + +"Late one afternoon, too late for the cars, a train of ambulances +arrived at our Lodge with over one hundred wounded rebels, to be cared +for through the night. Only one among them seemed too weak and faint to +take anything. He was badly hurt, and failing. I went to him after his +wound was dressed, and found him lying on his blanket stretched over the +straw,--a fair-haired, blue-eyed young lieutenant, with a face innocent +enough for one of our own New England boys. I could not think of him as +a rebel; he was too near heaven for that. He wanted nothing,--had not +been willing to eat for days, his comrades said; but I coaxed him to try +a little milk gruel, made nicely with lemon and brandy; and one of the +satisfactions of our three weeks is the remembrance of the empty cup I +took away afterward, and his perfect enjoyment of that supper. 'It was +_so_ good, the best thing he had had since he was wounded,'--and he +thanked me so much, and talked about his 'good supper' for hours. Poor +fellow, he had had no care, and it was a surprise and pleasure to find +himself thought of; so, in a pleased, childlike way, he talked about it +till midnight, the attendant told me, as long as he spoke of anything; +for at midnight the change came, and from that time he only thought of +the old days before he was a soldier, when he sang hymns in his father's +church. He sang them now again in a clear, sweet voice. 'Lord, have +mercy upon me;' and then songs without words--a sort of low intoning. +His father was a Lutheran clergyman in South Carolina, one of the rebels +told us in the morning, when we went into the tent, to find him sliding +out of our care. All day long we watched him,--sometimes fighting his +battles over, often singing his Lutheran chants, till, in at the +tent-door, close to which he lay, looked a rebel soldier, just arrived +with other prisoners. He started when he saw the lieutenant, and quickly +kneeling down by him, called, 'Henry! Henry!' But Henry was looking at +some one a great way off, and could not hear him. 'Do you know this +soldier?' we said. 'Oh, yes, ma'am; and his brother is wounded and a +prisoner, too, in the cars, now.' Two or three men started after him, +found him, and half carried him from the cars to our tent. 'Henry' did +not know him, though; and he threw himself down by his side on the +straw, and for the rest of the day lay in a sort of apathy, without +speaking, except to assure himself that he could stay with his brother, +without the risk of being separated from his fellow-prisoners. And there +the brothers lay, and there we strangers sat watching and listening to +the strong, clear voice, singing, 'Lord, have mercy upon me.' The Lord +_had_ mercy; and at sunset I put my hand on the lieutenant's heart, to +find it still. All night the brother lay close against the coffin, and +in the morning went away with his comrades, leaving us to bury Henry, +having 'confidence;' but first thanking us for what we had done, and +giving us all that he had to show his gratitude,--the palmetto ornament +from his brother's cap and a button from his coat. Dr. W. read the +burial service that morning at the grave, and ---- wrote his name on the +little head-board: 'Lieutenant Rauch, Fourteenth Regiment South Carolina +Volunteers.' + +"In the field where we buried him, a number of colored freedmen, working +for Government on the railroad, had their camp, and every night they +took their recreation, after the heavy work of the day was over, in +prayer-meetings. Such an 'inferior race,' you know! We went over one +night and listened for an hour, while they sang, collected under the fly +of a tent, a table in the middle where the leader sat, and benches all +round the sides for the congregation--men only,--all very black and very +earnest. They prayed with all their souls, as only black men and slaves +can; for themselves and for the dear, white people who had come over to +the meeting; and for 'Massa Lincoln,' for whom they seemed to have a +reverential affection,--some of them a sort of worship, which confused +Father Abraham and Massa Abraham in one general cry for blessings. +Whatever else they asked for, they must have strength, and comfort, and +blessing for 'Massa Lincoln.' Very little care was taken of these poor +men. Those who were ill during our stay were looked after by one of the +officers of the Commission. They were grateful for every little thing. +Mrs. ---- went into the town and hunted up several dozen bright +handkerchiefs, hemmed them, and sent them over to be distributed the +next night after meeting. They were put on the table in the tent, and +one by one, the men came up to get them. Purple, and blue, and yellow +the handkerchiefs were, and the desire of every man's heart fastened +itself on a yellow one; they politely made way for each other, +though,--one man standing back to let another pass up first, although he +ran the risk of seeing the particular pumpkin-color that riveted his +eyes taken from before them. When the distribution is over, each man +tied his head up in his handkerchief, and they sang one more hymn, +keeping time all round, with blue and purple and yellow nods, and +thanking and blessing the white people in 'their basket and in their +store,' as much as if the cotton handkerchiefs had all been gold leaf. +One man came over to our tent next day, to say, 'Missus, was it you who +sent me that present? I never had anything so beautiful in all my life +before;' and he only had a blue one, too. + +"Among our wounded soldiers one night, came an elderly man, sick, +wounded, and crazy, singing and talking about home. We did what we could +for him, and pleased him greatly with a present of a red flannel shirt, +drawers, and red calico dressing-gown, all of which he needed, and in +which he dressed himself up, and then wrote a letter to his wife, made +it into a little book with gingham covers, and gave it to one of the +gentlemen to mail for him. The next morning he was sent on with the +company from the Lodge; and that evening two tired women came into our +camp--his wife and sister, who hurried on from their home to meet him, +arriving just too late. Fortunately we had the queer little gingham book +to identify him by, and when some one said, 'It is the man, you know, +who screamed so,' the poor wife was certain about him. He had been crazy +before the war, but not for two years, now, she said. He had been +fretting for home since he was hurt; and when the doctor told him there +was no chance of his being sent there, he lost heart, and wrote to his +wife to come and carry him away. It seemed almost hopeless for two lone +women, who had never been out of their own little town, to succeed in +finding a soldier among so many, sent in so many different directions; +but we helped them as we could, and started them on their journey the +next morning, back on their track, to use their common sense and Yankee +privilege of questioning. + +"A week after, Mrs. ---- had a letter full of gratitude, and saying that +the husband was found and secured for _home_. That same night we had had +in our tents two fathers, with their wounded sons, and a nice old German +mother with her boy. She had come in from Wisconsin, and brought with +her a patchwork bed-quilt for her son, thinking he might have lost his +blanket; and there he laid all covered up in his quilt, looking so +homelike, and feeling so, too, no doubt, with his good old mother close +at his side. She seemed bright and happy,--had three sons in the +Army,--one had been killed,--this one wounded; yet she was so pleased +with the tents, and the care she saw taken there of the soldiers, that, +while taking her tea from a barrel-head as table, she said, 'Indeed, if +_she_ was a man, she'd be a soldier too, right off.' + +"For this temporary sheltering and feeding of all these wounded men, +Government could make no provision. There was nothing for them, if too +late for the cars, except the open field and hunger, in preparation for +their fatiguing journey. It is expected when the cars are ready that the +men will be promptly sent to meet them, and Government cannot provide +for mistakes and delays; so that, but for the Sanitary Commission's +Lodge and comfortable supplies, for which the wounded are indebted to +the hard workers at home, men badly hurt must have suffered night and +day, while waiting for the 'next train.' We had on an average sixty of +such men each night for three weeks under our care,--sometimes one +hundred, sometimes only thirty; and with the 'delegation,' and the help +of other gentlemen volunteers, who all worked devotedly for the men, the +whole thing was a great success, and you and all of us can't help being +thankful that we had a share, however small, in making it so. Sixteen +thousand good meals were given; hundreds of men kept through the day, +and twelve hundred sheltered at night, their wounds dressed, their +supper and breakfast secured--rebels and all. You will not, I am sure, +regret that these most wretched men, these 'enemies,' 'sick and in +prison,' were helped and cared for through your supplies, though, +certainly, they were not in your minds when you packed your barrels and +boxes. The clothing we reserved for our own men, except now and then +when a shivering rebel needed it; but in feeding them we could make no +distinctions. + +"Our three weeks were coming to an end; the work of transporting the +wounded was nearly over; twice daily we had filled and emptied our +tents, and twice fed the trains before the long journey. The men came in +slowly at the last,--a lieutenant, all the way from Oregon, being among +the very latest. He came down from the corps hospitals (now greatly +improved), having lost one foot, poor fellow, dressed in a full suit of +the Commission's cotton clothes, just as bright and as cheerful as the +first man, and all the men that we received had been. We never heard a +complaint. 'Would he like a little rice soup?' 'Well, no, thank you, +ma'am;' hesitating and polite. 'You have a long ride before you, and had +better take a little; I'll just bring it and you can try.' So the good, +thick soup came. He took a very little in the spoon to please me, and +afterwards the whole cupful to please himself. He 'did not think it was +this kind of soup I meant. He had some in camp, and did not think he +cared for any more; his "cook" was a very small boy, though, who just +put some meat in a little water and stirred it round.' 'Would you like a +handkerchief?' and I produced our last one, with a hem and cologne too. +'Oh, yes; that is what I need; I have lost mine, and was just borrowing +this gentleman's.' So the lieutenant, the last man, was made +comfortable, thanks to all of you, though he had but one foot to carry +him on his long journey home. + +"Four thousand soldiers, too badly hurt to be moved, were still left in +Gettysburg, cared for kindly and well at the large, new Government +hospital, with a Sanitary Commission attachment. + +"Our work was over, our tents were struck, and we came away after a +flourish of trumpets from two military bands who filed down to our door, +and gave us a farewell 'Red, white, and blue.'" + +One who knows Miss Woolsey well says of her, "Her sense, energy, +lightness, and quickness of action; her thorough knowledge of the work, +her amazing yet simple resources, her shy humility which made her regard +her own work with impatience, almost with contempt--all this and much +else make her memory a source of strength and tenderness which nothing +can take away." Elsewhere, the same writer adds, "Strength and +sweetness, sound practical sense, deep humility, merriment, playfulness, +a most ready wit, an educated intelligence--were among her +characteristics. Her _work_ I consider to have been better than any +which I saw in the service. It was thorough, but accomplished rapidly. +She saw a need before others saw it, and she supplied it often by some +ingenious contrivance which answered every purpose, though no one but +Georgy would ever have dreamt of it. Her pity for the sufferings of the +men was something pathetic in itself, but it was never morbid, never +unwise, never derived from her own shock at the sight, always practical +and healthy." Miss Woolsey remained in the service through the war, a +part of the time in charge of hospitals, but during Grant's great +campaign of the spring, summer, and autumn of 1864, she was most +effectively engaged at the front, or rather at the great depots for the +wounded, at Belle Plain, Port Royal, Fredericksburg, White House, and +City Point. Miss Jane S. Woolsey, also served in general hospitals as +lady superintendent until the close of the war, and afterward +transferred her efforts to the work among the Freedmen at Richmond, +Virginia. + +A cousin of these ladies, Miss Sarah C. Woolsey, daughter of President +Woolsey of Yale College, was also engaged during the greater part of the +war in hospital and other philanthropic labors for the soldiers. She was +for ten months assistant superintendent of the Portsmouth Grove General +Hospital, and her winning manners, her tender and skilful care of the +patients, and her unwearied efforts to do them good, made her a general +favorite. + + + + +ANNA MARIA ROSS. + + +Anna Maria Ross, the subject of this sketch, was a native of +Philadelphia, in which city the greater part of her life was spent, and +in which, on the 22d of December, 1863, she passed to her eternal rest. + +It was a very beautiful life of which we have now to speak--a life of +earnest activity in every work of benevolence and Christian kindness. +She had gathered about her, in her native city, scores of devoted +friends, who loved her in life, and mourned her in death with the +sentiments of a true bereavement. + +Miss Ross was patriotic by inheritance, as well as through personal +loyalty. Her maternal relatives were largely identified with the war of +American Independence. Her mother's uncle, Jacob Root, held a captain's +commission in the Continental army, and it is related of her great +grandmother that she served voluntarily as a moulder in an establishment +where bullets were manufactured to be used in the cause of freedom. + +Her mother's name was Mary Root, a native of Chester County, +Pennsylvania. Her father was William Ross, who emigrated early in life +from the county of Derry, Ireland. There may have been nothing in her +early manifestations of character to foreshow the noble womanhood into +which she grew. There remains, at any rate, a small record of her +earliest years. The wonderful powers which she developed in mature +womanhood possess a greater interest for those who know her chiefly in +connection with the labors which gave her so just a claim to the title +of "The Soldier's Friend." + +Endowed by nature with great vigor of mind and uncommon activity and +energy, of striking and commanding personal appearance and pleasing +address, she had been, before the war, remarkably successful in the +prosecution of those works of charity and benevolence which made her +life a blessing to mankind. Well-known to the public-spirited and humane +of her native city, her claims to attention were fully recognized, and +her appeals in behalf of the needy and suffering were never allowed to +pass unheeded. + +"I have little hope of success," she said once to her companion, in +going upon an errand of mercy: "yet we may get one hundred dollars. The +lady we are about to visit is not liberal, though wealthy. Let us pray +that her heart may be opened to us. Many of my most earnest prayers have +been made while hurrying along the street on such errands as this." The +lady gave her three hundred dollars. + +On one occasion she was at the house of a friend, when a family was +incidentally mentioned as being in great poverty and affliction. The +father had been attacked with what is known as "black small pox," and +was quite destitute of the comforts and attentions which his situation +required, some of the members of his own family having left the house +from fear of the infection. The quick sympathies of Miss Ross readily +responded to this tale of want and neglect. "While God gives me health +and strength," she earnestly exclaimed, "no man shall thus suffer!" With +no more delay than was required to place in a basket articles of +necessity and comfort she hastened to the miserable dwelling; nor did +she leave the poor sufferer until he was beyond the reach of human aid +forever. And her thoughtful care ceased not even here. From her own +friends she sought and obtained the means of giving him a respectable +burial. + +The lady to whom the writer is indebted for the above incident, relates +that on the day when all that was mortal of Anna Maria Ross was +consigned to its kindred dust, as she was entering a street-car, the +conductor remarked, "I suppose you have been to see the last of Miss +Ross." Upon her replying in the affirmative, he added, while tears +flowed down his cheeks, "I did not know her, but she watched over my +wife for four weeks when she had a terrible sickness. She was almost an +entire stranger to her when she came and offered her assistance." + +Her work for the soldier was chiefly performed in connection with the +institution known as the Cooper Shop Hospital, a branch of the famous +Cooper Shop Refreshment Saloon, for Soldiers. Miss Ross was appointed +Lady Principal of this Institution, and devoted herself to it with an +energy that never wearied. Day and night she was at her post--watching +while others slept, dressing with her own hands the most loathsome +wounds; winning the love and admiration of all with whom she was +associated. Her tasks were arduous, her sympathies were drawn upon to +the utmost, her responsibilities were great. + +One who knew her well, and often saw her within the walls of the "Cooper +Shop," thus gives us some incidents of her work there. The benevolence +expressed in her glowing countenance, and the words of hearty welcome +with which she greeted a humble coadjutor in her loving labors, will +never be forgotten. It was impossible not to be impressed at once by the +tender earnestness with which she engaged in her self-imposed duties, +and her active interest in everything which concerned the well-being of +those committed to her charge. When they were about to leave her +watchful care forever, a sister's thoughtfulness was exhibited in her +preparations for their comfort and convenience. The wardrobe of the +departing soldier was carefully inspected, and everything needful was +supplied. It was her custom also to furnish to each one who left, a sum +of money, "that he might have something of his own" to meet any +unexpected necessity by the way. And if the donation-box at the entrance +of the hospital chanced to be empty, her own purse made good the +deficiency. The writer well remembers the anxious countenance with +which she was met one morning by Miss Ross, when about taking her place +for the day's duty. "I am so sorry!" was her exclamation. "When +C---- left for Virginia last night I forgot, in the confusion, to give +him money; and I am afraid that he has nothing of his own, for he had +not received his pay. I thought of it after I was in bed, and it +disturbed my sleep." + +The tenderness of Miss Ross's nature was never more touchingly exhibited +than in the case of Lieutenant B----, of Saratoga, New York. He was +brought to the hospital by his father for a few days' rest before +proceeding to his home. Mortally wounded, he failed so rapidly that he +could not be removed. During two days and nights of agonizing suffering +Miss Ross scarcely left his side, and while she bathed his burning brow +and moistened his parched lips she mingled with these tender offices +words of Christian hope and consolation. "Call me Anna," she said, "and +tell me all which your heart prompts you to say." And as life ebbed away +he poured into her sympathizing ear the confidences which his mother, +alas! could not receive. With tearful eyes and sorrowing heart this +new-found friend watched by him to the last--then closed the heavy eyes, +and smoothed the raven locks, and sent the quiet form, lovely even in +death, to her who waited its arrival in bitter anguish. + +To those who best knew the subject of this sketch, it seems a hopeless +task to enumerate the instances of unselfish devotion to the good of +others with which that noble life was filled. It was the same tale again +and again repeated. Alike the pain, the anxiety, the care; alike the +support, the encouragement, the consolation. No marvel was it that the +sinking soldier, far from home and friends, mistook the gentle ministry +for that which marks earth's strongest tie, and at her approach, +whispered "mother." + +It would be impossible to enumerate a tithe of the special instances of +her kindly ministrations, but there are some that so vividly illustrate +prominent points in her character that we cannot refrain from the +record. One of these marked traits was her perseverance in the +accomplishment of any plan for the good of her charges, and may well be +mentioned here. + +For a long time an Eastern soldier, named D----, was an inmate of her +hospital, and as, though improving, his recovery was slow, and it seemed +unlikely that he would soon be fit for service in the ranks, she got him +the appointment of hospital steward, and he remained where he could +still have care. + +After the battle of Gettysburg he relapsed, and from over-work and +over-wrought feeling, sank into almost hopeless depression. The death of +a beloved child, and an intense passionate longing to revisit his home +and family, aided this deep grief, and gave it a force and power that +threatened to deprive him of life or reason. It was at this crisis that +with her accustomed energy Miss Ross directed all her efforts toward +restoring him to his family. After the preliminary steps had been taken +she applied to the captain of a Boston steamer, but he refused to +receive a sick passenger on account of the want of suitable +accommodations. The case was urgent. He must go or die. "There is no +room," repeated the captain. + +"Give him a place upon the floor," was the rejoinder, "and I will +furnish everything needful." "But a sick man cannot have proper +attendance under such circumstances," persisted the captain. "I will go +with him if necessary," she replied, "and will take the entire charge of +his comfort." "Miss Ross, I am sorry to refuse you, but I cannot comply +with your request. This answer must be final." + +What was to be done? The unsuccessful pleader covered her face with her +hands for a few moments; then raising her head said, slowly and sadly, +"Captain ----, I have had many letters from the friends of New England +soldiers, thanking me with overflowing hearts for restoring to them the +dearly loved husband, son, or brother while yet alive. From D.'s wife I +shall receive no such message. This is his only chance of life. He +cannot bear the journey by land. He must go by water or die. He will die +here--far from friends and home." This appeal could not be resisted. "I +_will_ take him, Miss Ross," was the answer; "but it must be only upon +the condition that you will promise not to ask such a favor of me again +whatever the case may be." "Never!" was the quick reply, "never will I +bind myself by such a promise while an Eastern soldier needs a friend or +a passage to his home! You are the first man to whom I should apply." +"Then let him come without a promise. You have conquered; I will do for +him all that can be done." + +Could such friendship fail to win the hearts of those to whom this +inestimable woman gave the cheerful service of her life's best days? "Do +you want to see Florence Nightingale?" said one, who had not yet left +the nursing care which brought him back to life and hope, to a companion +whom he met. "If you do, just come to our hospital and see Miss Ross." + +This was the only reward she craved--a word of thoughtful gratitude from +those she sought to serve; and in this was lost all remembrance of days +of toil and nights of weariness. So from week to week and from month to +month the self-consecration grew more complete--the self-forgetfulness +more perfect. But the life spent in the service of others was drawing +near its end. The busy hands were soon to be folded, the heavy eyelids +forever closed, the weary feet were hastening to their rest. + +The spring of 1863 found Miss Ross still occupied in the weary round of +her labors at the hospital. She had most remarkable strength and vigor +of constitution, and that, with every other gift and talent she +possessed was unsparingly used for the promotion of any good cause to +which she was devoted. During this spring, in addition to all her other +and engrossing labors, she was very busy in promoting the interests of a +large fair for the purpose of aiding in the establishment of a permanent +Home for discharged soldiers, who were incapacitated for active labor. +She canvassed the city of Philadelphia, and also traveled in different +parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey in order to obtain assistance in +this important undertaking. "Is it not wrong," a friend once asked, +"that you should do so much, while so many are doing nothing?" "Oh, +there are hundreds who would gladly work as I do," was her reply, "but +they have not my powers of endurance." + +The fair in which she was so actively interested took place in June, and +a large sum was added to the fund previously obtained for the benefit of +the "Soldiers' Home." The work now progressed rapidly, and the personal +aid and influence of Miss Ross were exerted to forward it in every +possible way. Yet while deeply absorbed in the promotion of this object, +which was very near to her heart, she found time to brighten, with +characteristic tenderness and devotion, the last hours of the Rev. Dr. +Clay, the aged and revered minister of the ancient church, in which the +marriage of her parents had taken place so many years before. With his +own family she watched beside his bed, and with them received his +parting blessing. + +The waning year found the noble undertaking, the object of so many +prayers and the goal of such ardent desire, near a prosperous +completion. A suitable building had been obtained, and many busy days +were occupied in the delightful task of furnishing it. At the close of a +day spent in this manner, the friend who had been Miss Ross's companion +proposed that the remaining purchases should be deferred to another +time, urging, in addition to her extreme fatigue, that many of the +stores were closed. "Come to South Street with me," she replied. "They +keep open there until twelve o'clock, and we may find exactly what we +want." The long walk was taken, and when the desired articles were +secured she yielded to her friend's entreaties, and at a late hour +sought her home. As she pursued her solitary way came there no +foreshadowing of what was to be? no whisper of the hastening summons? no +token of the quick release? Wearily were the steps ascended, which +echoed for the last time the familiar tread. Slowly the door closed +through which she should pass on angelic mission nevermore. Was there no +warning? + +"I am tired," she said, "and so cold that I feel as if I never could be +warm again." It was an unusual complaint for her to whom fatigue had +seemed almost unknown before. But it was very natural that exhaustion +should follow a day of such excessive labor, and she would soon be +refreshed. So thought those who loved her, unconscious of the +threatening danger. The heavy chill retained its grasp, the resistless +torpor of paralysis crept slowly on, and then complete insensibility. In +this utter helplessness, which baffled every effort of human skill, +night wore away, and morning dawned. There was no change and days passed +before the veil was lifted. + +She could not believe that her work was all done on earth and death +near, "but," she said, "God has willed it--His will be done." There was +no apparent mental struggle. Well she knew that she had done her +uttermost, and that God was capable of placing in the field other +laborers, and perhaps better ones than she; and she uttered no +meaningless words when, without a murmur, she resigned herself to His +will. + +A few words of fond farewell, she calmly spoke to the weeping friends +about her. Then with fainter and fainter breathing, life fled so gently +that they knew not when the shadowy vale was passed. So, silently and +peacefully the Death-angel had visited her, and upon her features lay +the calm loveliness of perfect rest. + +On the 22d of December, 1863, the friends, and sharers of her labors +were assembled at the dedication of the Soldiers' Home. It was the +crowning work of her life, and it was completed; and thus, at the same +hour, this earthly crown was laid upon her dying brow, and the freed +soul put on the crown of a glorious immortality. + +Her funeral was attended by a sorrowing multitude, all of whom had +known, and many, yea, most of whom, had been blest by her labors. For +even they are blest to whom it has happened to know and appreciate a +character like hers. + +They made her a tomb, in the beautiful Monument Cemetery, beneath the +shadow of a stately cedar. Nature itself, in the desolation of advancing +winter, seemed to join in the lament that such loveliness and worth was +lost to earth. + +But with returning summer, the branches of her overshadowing cedar are +melodious with the song of birds, while roses and many flowering plants +scatter fragrance to every passing breeze as their petals falling hide +the dark soil beneath. The hands of friends have planted these--an +odorous tribute to the memory of her they loved and mourn, and have +raised beside, in the enduring marble, a more lasting testimony of her +worth. + +The tomb is of pure white marble, surmounted by a tablet of the same, +which in alto relievo, represents a female figure ministering to a +soldier, who lies upon a couch. Beneath, is this inscription: + + ERECTED BY HER FRIENDS + + IN MEMORY OF + ANNA M. ROSS, + DIED, DECEMBER 22, 1863. + +Her piety was fruitful of good works. The friendless child, the fugitive +slave, and the victim of intemperance were ever objects of her tenderest +solicitude. + +When civil war disclosed its horrors, she dedicated her life to the sick +and wounded soldiers of her country, and died a martyr to Humanity and +Patriotism. + +So closes the brief and imperfect record of a beautiful life; but the +light of its lovely example yet remains. + + + + +MRS. G. T. M. DAVIS. + + +Among the large number of the ladies of New York city who distinguished +themselves for their devotion to the welfare of the soldiers of our +army, of whom so many in all forms of suffering were brought there +during the war, it seems almost invidious to select any individual. But +it is perhaps less so in the case of the subject of this sketch, than of +many others, since from the very beginning of the war till long after +its close, she quietly sacrificed the ease and luxury of her life to +devote herself untiringly, and almost without respite, to the duties +thus voluntarily assumed and faithfully performed. + +Mrs. Davis is the wife of Colonel G. T. M. Davis, who served with great +distinction in the Mexican war, but who, having entered into commercial +pursuits, is not at present connected with the army. Her maiden name was +Pomeroy, and she is a native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Her brother, +Robert Pomeroy, Esq., of that town, a wealthy manufacturer, was noted +for his liberal benefactions during the war, and with all his family +omitted no occasion of showing his devotion to his country and to its +wounded and suffering defenders. His daughter, near the close of the +war, became the wife of one of the most distinguished young officers in +the service, General Bartlett. + +General Bartlett, at twenty-two, and fresh from the classic precincts of +Harvard, entered the service as a private. He rose rapidly through the +genius and force of his commanding character. He lost a leg, we believe +at the siege of Yorktown, left the service, until partially recovered, +when he again re-entered it as the Colonel of the Forty-ninth +Massachusetts Regiment, which was raised in Berkshire County. For months +he rode at the head of his regiment with his crutch attached to the back +of his saddle. It was after his return from the South-west, (where the +gallant Forty-ninth distinguished itself at Port Hudson, Plain's Stone, +and other hard-won fields), with a maimed arm, that he was rewarded with +the hand of one of Berkshire's fairest daughters, a member of this +patriotic family. Several other young men, members of the same family, +have also greatly distinguished themselves in the service of their +country. + +At the very outset of the war, or as soon as the sick among the +volunteers who were pouring into New York, demanded relief, Mrs. Davis +began to devote time and care to them. Daily leaving her elegant home, +she sought out and ministered to her country's suffering defenders, at +the various temporary barracks erected for their accommodation. + +When the Park Barracks Ladies' Association was formed, she became its +Secretary, and so continued for a long period, most faithful and +energetic in her ministrations. This association included in its work +the Hospital on Bedloe's Island, and Mrs. Davis was one of the first who +commenced making regular visits there. + +Most of the men brought to Bedloe's Island in the earlier part of the +war, were sick with the various diseases consequent upon the +unaccustomed climate and the unwonted exposure they had encountered. +They needed a very careful and regular diet, one which the army rations, +though perhaps suitable and sufficient for men in health, were unable to +supply. It was but natural that these ladies, full of the warm sympathy +which prompted them to the unusual tasks they had undertaken, should +shrink from seeing a half-convalescent fever patient fed with hard-bread +and salt pork, or the greasy soups of which pork was the basis. They +brought delicacies, often prepared by their own hands or in their own +kitchens, and were undoubtedly injudicious, sometimes, in their +administration. Out of this arose the newspaper controversy between the +public and the surgeons in charge, at Bedloe's Island, which is probably +yet fresh in many minds. It was characterized by a good deal of +acrimony. + +Mrs. Davis avers that neither she nor her friends gave food to the +patients without the consent of the physicians. The affair terminated, +as is well-known, by the removal of the surgeon in charge. + +The Ladies Park Barracks' Association was, as a body, opposed to +extending its benefactions beyond New York and its immediate vicinity. +Mrs. Davis was of a different opinion, and was, beside, not altogether +pleased with the management of the association. She therefore, after a +time, relinquished her official connection with it, though never for one +instant relaxing her efforts for the same general object. + +For a long series of months Mrs. Davis repaired almost daily to the +large General Hospital at David's Island, where thousands of sick and +wounded men were sometimes congregated. Here she and her chief +associates, Mrs. Chapman, and Miss Morris, established the most amicable +relations with the surgeon in charge, Dr. McDougall, and were welcomed +by him, as valued coadjutors. + +On the opening of the Soldiers' Rest, in Howard Street, an association +of ladies was formed to aid in administering to the comfort of the poor +fellows who tarried there during their transit through the city, or were +received in the well-conducted hospital connected with the institution. +Of this association Mrs. Davis was the Secretary, during the whole term +of its existence. + +This association, as well as the institution itself, was admirably +conducted, and perhaps performed as much real and beneficial work as any +other in the vicinity of New York. It was continued in existence till +several months after the close of the war. + +Besides her visits at David's Island and Howard Street, which were most +assiduous, Mrs. Davis as often as possible visited the Central Park, or +Mount St. Vincent Hospital, the Ladies' Home Hospital, at the corner of +Lexington Avenue and Fifty-first Street, and the New England Rooms in +Broadway. At all of these she was welcomed, and her efforts most +gratefully received. Seldom indeed did a day pass, during the long four +years of the war, and for months after the suspension of hostilities, +that her kind face was not seen in one or more of the hospitals. + +Her social position, as well as her genuine dignity of manners enforced +the respect of all the officials, and won their regard. Her untiring +devotion and kindness earned her the almost worshipping affection of the +thousands of sufferers to whom she ministered. + +Letters still reach her, at intervals, from the men who owe, perhaps +life, certainly relief and comfort to her cherishing care. Ignorant men, +they may be, little accustomed to the amenities of life, capable only of +composing the strangely-worded, ill-spelled letters they send, but the +gratitude they express is so abundant and so genuine, that one overlooks +the uncouthness of manner, and the unattractive appearance of the +epistles. And seldom does she travel but at the most unexpected points +scarred and maimed veterans present themselves before her, and with the +deepest respect beg the privilege of once more offering their thanks. +She may have forgotten the faces, that in the great procession of +suffering flitted briefly before her, but they will never forget the +face that bent above their couch of pain. + +The native county of Mrs. Davis, Berkshire, Massachusetts, was famous +for the abundance and excellence of the supplies it continually sent +forward to the sick and suffering soldiers. The appeals of Mrs. Davis to +the women of Berkshire, were numerous and always effective. Her letters +were exceedingly graphic and spirited, and were published frequently in +the county papers, reaching not only the villages in the teeming valleys +but the scattered farm-houses among the hills; and they continually +gave impulse and direction to the noble charities of those women, who, +in their quiet homes, had already sent forth their dearest and best to +the service of the country. + +Mrs. Davis for herself disclaims all merit, but has no word of praise +too much for these. They made the real sacrifices, these women who from +their small means gave so much, who rose before the sun, alike in the +cold of winter and the heat of summer, who performed the most menial +tasks and the hardest toil that they might save for the soldiers, that +they might gain time to work for the soldiers. It was they who gave +much, not the lady who laid aside only the soft pleasures of a luxurious +life, whose well-trained servants left no task unfinished during her +absence, whose bath, and dress, and dinner were always ready on her +return from the tour of visiting, who gave only what was not missed from +her abundance, and made no sacrifice but that of her personal ease. So +speaks Mrs. Davis, in noble self-depreciation of herself and her class. +There is a variety of gifts. God and her country will decide whose work +was most worthy. + + + + +[Illustration: MISS MARY J. SAFFORD. + Eng. by John Sartain.] + + +MISS MARY J. SAFFORD + + +Miss Mary J. Safford, is a native of New England, having been born in +Vermont, though her parents, very worthy people, early emigrated to the +West, and settled in Northern Illinois, in which State she has since +resided, making her home most of the time in Crete, Joliet, Shawneetown +and Cairo; the last named place is her present home. + +Miss Safford, early in life, evinced an unusual thirst for knowledge, +and gave evidence of an intellect of a superior order; and, with an +energy and zeal seldom known, she devoted every moment to the attainment +of an education, the cultivation of her mind--and the gaining of such +information as the means at hand afforded. Her love of the beautiful and +good was at once marked, and every opportunity made use of to satisfy +her desires in these directions. + +Her good deeds date from the days of her childhood, and the remarkably +high sense of duty of which she is possessed, makes her continually in +search of some object of charity upon which to exert her beneficence and +kindly care. + +The commencement of the late rebellion, found her a resident of Cairo, +Illinois, and immediately upon the arrival of the Union soldiers there, +she set about organizing and establishing temporary hospitals throughout +the different regiments, in order that the sick might have immediate and +proper care and attention until better and more permanent arrangements +could be effected. Every day found her a visitor and a laborer among +these sick soldiers, scores of whom now bear fresh in their memories the +_petite_ form, and gentle and loving face of that good angel of mercy to +whom they are indebted, through her kind and watchful care and nursing, +for the lives they are now enjoying. + +The morning after the battle of Belmont, found her,--the only +lady--early on the field, fearlessly penetrating far into the enemies' +lines, with her handkerchief tied upon a little stick, and waving above +her head as a flag of truce,--ministering to the wounded, which our army +had been compelled to leave behind, to some extent--and many a Union +soldier owes his life to her almost superhuman efforts on that occasion. +She continued her labors with the wounded after their removal to the +hospitals, supplying every want in her power, and giving words of +comfort and cheer to every heart. + +As soon as the news of the terrible battle of Pittsburg Landing reached +her, she gathered together a supply of lints and bandages, and provided +herself with such stimulants and other supplies as might be required, +not forgetting a good share of delicacies, and hastened to the scene of +suffering and carnage, where she toiled incessantly day and night in her +pilgrimage of love and mission of mercy for more than three weeks, and +then only returned with a steamboat-load of the wounded on their way to +the general hospitals. She continued her labors among the hospitals at +Cairo and the neighborhood, constantly visiting from one to the other. +Any day she could be seen on her errands of mercy passing along the +streets with her little basket loaded with delicacies, or +reading-matter, or accompanied with an attendant carrying ample supplies +to those who had made known to her their desire for some favorite dish +or relish. On Christmas day, 1861, there were some twenty-five regiments +stationed at Cairo, and on that day she visited all the camps, and +presented to every sick soldier some little useful present or token. The +number of sad hearts that she made glad that day no one will ever know +save He who knoweth all things. Her zeal and energy in this good work +was so far in excess of her physical abilities, that she labored beyond +her endurance, and her health finally became so much impaired that she +was induced to leave the work and make a tour in Europe, where at this +writing she still is, though an invalid. Her good deeds even followed +her in her travels in a foreign land, and no sooner had the German +States become involved in war, than she was called upon and consulted as +to the establishment of hospital regulations and appointments there--and +even urged to take charge of and establish and direct the whole system. + +Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission, who has +known as much of Miss Safford's work, as any one connected with the +service, writes thus of her: + +"Miss Safford commenced her labors immediately, when Cairo was occupied. +I think she was the _very first woman_ who went into the camps and +hospitals, in the country; I know she was in the West. There was no +system, no organization, nothing to do with. She systematized everything +in Cairo, furnished necessaries with her own means, or rather with her +brother's, who is wealthy; went daily to the work, and though surgeons +and authorities everywhere were opposed to her efforts, she disarmed all +opposition by her sweetness and grace and beauty. _She did just what she +pleased._ At Pittsburg Landing, where she was found in advance of other +women, she was hailed by dying soldiers, who did not know her name, but +had seen her at Cairo, as the 'Cairo Angel.' She came up with boat-load +after boat-load of sick and wounded soldiers who were taken to hospitals +at Cairo, Paducah, St. Louis, etc., cooking all the while for them, +dressing wounds, singing to them, and praying with them. She did not +undress on the way up from Pittsburg Landing, but worked incessantly. + +"She was very frail, as _petite_ as a girl of twelve summers, and +utterly unaccustomed to hardships. Sleeping in hospital tents, working +on pestilential boats, giving up everything to this life, carrying the +sorrows of the country, and the burdens of the soldier on her heart like +personal griefs, with none of the aids in the work that came afterwards, +she broke down at the end of the first eighteen months, and will never +again be well. Her brother sent her immediately to Paris, where she +underwent the severest treatment for the cure of the injury to the +spine, occasioned by her life in the army and hospitals. The physicians +subsequently prescribed travel, and she has been since that time in +Europe. She is highly educated, speaks French and German as well as +English, and some Italian. She is the most indomitable little creature +living, heroic, uncomplaining, self-forgetful, and will yet 'die in +harness.' When the war broke out in Italy, she was in Florence, and at +Madame Mario's invitation, immediately went to work to assist the +Italian ladies in preparing for the sick and wounded of their soldiers. +In Norway, she was devising ways and means to assist poor girls to +emigrate to America, where they had relatives--and so everywhere. She +must be counted among those who have given up health, and ultimately +life for the country." + +We add also the following extracts from a letter from Cairo, published +in one of the Chicago papers, early in the war. + + + AN ANGEL AT CAIRO. + + "I cannot close this letter from Cairo without a passing word of + one whose name is mentioned by thousands of our soldiers with + gratitude and blessing. Miss Mary Safford is a resident of this + town, whose life since the beginning of the war, has been devoted + to the amelioration of the soldier's lot, and his comfort in the + hospitals. She is a young lady, _petite_ in figure, unpretending, + but highly cultivated, by no means officious, and so wholly + unconscious of her excellencies, and the great work she is + achieving, that I fear this public allusion to her may pain her + modest nature. Her sweet, young face, full of benevolence, pleasant + voice, and winning manner instate her in every one's heart + directly; and the more one sees her, the more he admires her great + soul and her noble nature. Not a day elapses but she is found in + the hospitals, unless indeed she is absent on an errand of mercy up + the Tennessee, or to the hospitals in Kentucky. + + "Every sick and wounded soldier in Cairo knows and loves her; and + as she enters the ward, every pale face brightens at her approach. + As she passes along, she inquires of each one how he has passed the + night, if he is well supplied with reading matter, and if there is + anything she can do for him. All tell her their story frankly--the + man old enough to be her father, and the boy of fifteen, who should + be out of the army, and home with his mother. One thinks he would + like a baked apple if the doctor will allow it--another a rice + pudding, such as she can make--a third a tumbler of buttermilk--a + fourth wishes nothing, is discouraged, thinks he shall die, and + breaks down utterly, in tears, and him she soothes and encourages, + till he resolves for her sake, to keep up a good heart, and hold on + to life a little longer--a fifth wants her to write to his wife--a + sixth is afraid to die, and with him, and for him, her devout + spirit wrestles, till light shines through the dark valley--a + seventh desires her to sit by him and read, and so on. Every + request is attended to, be it ever so trivial, and when she goes + again, if the doctor has sanctioned the gratification of the sick + man's wish, the buttermilk, baked apple, rice pudding, etc., are + carried along. Doctors, nurses, medical directors, and army + officers, are all her true friends; and so judicious and + trustworthy is she, that the Chicago Sanitary Commission have given + her _carte blanche_ to draw on their stores at Cairo for anything + she may need in her errands of mercy. She is performing a noble + work, and that too in the quietest and most unconscious manner. + Said a sick soldier from the back woods, in the splendid hospital + at Mound City, who was transferred thither from one of the + miserable regimental hospitals at Cairo, 'I'm taken care of here a + heap better than I was at Cairo; but I'd rather be there than here, + for the sake of seeing that little gal that used to come in every + day to see us. I tell you what, she's an angel, if there is any.' + To this latter assertion we say amen! most heartily." + +Miss Safford is the sister of A. B. Safford, Esq., a well-known and +highly respected banker at Cairo, Illinois, and of Hon. A. P. K. Safford +of Nevada. + + + + +MRS. LYDIA G. PARRISH. + + +At the outbreak of hostilities Mrs. Parrish was residing at Media, +Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. Her husband, Dr. Joseph Parrish, had +charge of an institution established there for idiots, or those of +feeble mental capacity, and it cannot be doubted that Mrs. Parrish, with +her kindly and benevolent instincts, and desire for usefulness, found +there an ample sphere for her efforts, and a welcome occupation. + +But as in the case of thousands of others, all over the country, Mrs. +Parrish found the current of her life and its occupations marvellously +changed, by the war. There was a new call for the efforts of woman, such +an one as in our country, or in the world, had never been made. English +women had set the example of sacrifice and work for their countrymen in +arms, but their efforts were on a limited scale, and bore but a very +small proportion to the great uprising of loyal women in our country, +and their varied, grand persistent labors during the late civil war in +America. Not a class, or grade, or rank, of our countrywomen, but was +represented in this work. The humble dweller in the fishing cabins on +the bleak and desolate coast, the woman of the prairie, and of the +cities, the wife and daughter of the mechanic, and the farmer, of the +merchant, and the professional man, the lady from the mansion of wealth, +proud perhaps of her old name, of her culture and refinement--all met +and labored together, bound by one common bond of patriotism and of +sympathy. + +Mrs. Parrish was one of the first to lay her talents and her efforts +upon the altar of her country. In 1861, and almost as soon as the need +of woman's self-sacrificing labors became apparent, she volunteered her +services in behalf of the sick and wounded soldiers of the Union. + +She visited Washington while the army was yet at the capital and in its +vicinity. Her husband, Dr. Parrish, had become connected with the newly +organized Sanitary Commission, and in company with him and other +gentlemen similarly connected, she examined the different forts, +barracks, camps, and hospitals then occupied by our troops, for the +purpose of ascertaining their condition, and selecting a suitable sphere +for the work in which she intended to engage. + +On the first day of 1862, she commenced her hospital labors, selecting +for that purpose the Georgetown Seminary Hospital. She wrote letters for +the patients, read to them, and gave to them all the aid and comfort in +her power; and she was thus enabled to learn their real wants, and to +seek the means of supplying them. Their needs were many, and awakened +all her sympathies and incited her to ever-renewed effort. After one +day's trial of these new scenes, she wrote thus in her journal, January +2, 1862: "My heart is so oppressed with the sight of suffering I see +around me that I am almost unfitted for usefulness; such sights are new +to me. I feel the need of some resource, where I may apply for +delicacies and comforts, which are positively necessary. The Sanitary +Commission is rapidly becoming the sinew of strength for the sick and +wounded, and I will go to their store-rooms." Application was made to +the Commission, and readily and promptly responded to. She was +authorized to draw from their stores, and was promised aid and +protection from the organization. + +Both camps and hospitals were rapidly filling up; the weather was +inclement and the roads bad, but at the solicitation of other earnest +workers, she made occasional visits to camps in the country, and +distributed clothing, books and comforts of various kinds. The "Berdan +Sharp-shooters" were encamped a few miles from the city, and needed +immediate assistance. She was requested by the Secretary of the +Commission to "visit the camps, make observations, inquire into their +needs, and report to the Commission." She reached the camp through +almost impassable roads, and was received by the officers with respect +and consideration, upon announcing the object of her visit. She made +calls upon the men in hospitals and quarters, returned to Washington, +reported "two hundred sick, tents and streets needing police, small pox +breaking out, men discouraged, and officers unable to procure the +necessary aid, that she had distributed a few jellies to the sick, +checker boards to a few of the tents, and made a requisition for +supplies to meet the pressing want." This little effort was the means of +affording speedy relief to many suffering men. She did not however feel +at liberty to abandon her hospital service, as we learn from a note in +her diary, that "this outside work does not seem to be my mission. I +have become thoroughly interested in my daily rounds at the city +hospitals, particularly at Georgetown Seminary, where my heart and +energies are fully enlisted." She passed several weeks in this service, +going from bed to bed with her little stores, which she dispensed under +instructions from the surgeon, without being known by name to the many +recipients of her attention and care. + +The stores of the Commission were not then as ample as they afterward +became, when its noble aims had become more fully understood, and its +grand mission of benevolence more widely known, and the sick and wounded +were in need of many things not obtainable from either this source or +the Government supplies. Mrs. Parrish determined, therefore, to return +to her northern home and endeavor to interest the people of her +neighborhood in the cause she had so much at heart. She found the people +ready to respond liberally to her appeals, and soon returned to +Washington well satisfied with the success of her efforts. + +She felt now that her time, and if need be her life, must be +consecrated to this work, and as her diary expresses it, she "could not +remain at home," and that if she could be of service in her new sphere +of labor she "must return." + +After her brief absence, she re-entered the Georgetown Seminary +Hospital. Death had removed some of her former patients, others had +returned to duty, but others whom she left there welcomed her with +enthusiasm as the "orange lady," a title she had unconsciously earned +from the fact that she had been in the habit of distributing oranges +freely to such of the patients as were allowed to have them. + +The experience of life often shows us the importance of little acts +which so frequently have an entirely disproportionate result. Mrs. +Parrish found this true in her hospital ministrations. Little gifts and +attentions often opened the way to the closed hearts of those to whom +she ministered, and enabled her to reach the innermost concealed +thought-life of her patients. + +A soldier sat in his chair, wrapped in his blanket, forlorn, haggard +from disease, sullen, selfish in expression, and shrinking from her +notice as she passed him. To her morning salutation, he would return +only a cold recognition. He seemed to be bristling with defenses against +encroachment. And thus it remained till one day a small gift penetrated +to the very citadel of his fortress. + +"Shall I read to you?" she commenced, kindly, to which he replied, +surlily, "Don't want reading." "Shall I write to any of your friends?" +she continued. "I hav'n't any friends," he said in the sourest tone. +Repulsed, but not baffled, she presently, and in the same kind manner, +took an orange from her basket, and gently asked him if he would accept +it. There was a perceptible brightening of his face, but he only +answered, in the same surly tone, as he held forth his hand, "Don't care +if I do." + +And yet, in a little time, his sullen spirit yielded--he spread all his +troubles before the friend he had so long repulsed, and opening his +heart, showed that what had seemed so selfish and moody in him, arose +from a deep sense of loneliness and discouragement, which disappeared +the moment the orange had unlocked his heart, and admitted her to his +confidence and affection. + +About six weeks she spent thus in alternate visits to the various +hospitals in the vicinity of Washington, though her labors were +principally confined to the Georgetown Hospital, where they commenced, +and where her last visit was made. + +As her home duties called her at that time, she returned thither, +briefly. Soon after she reached home, she received a letter from one of +her former patients to whom she had given her address, requesting her to +call at the Broad and Cherry Street Hospital, in Philadelphia. She did +so, and on entering the building found herself surrounded by familiar +faces. Her old Washington friends had just arrived, and welcomed her +with cordial greetings. The stronger ones approached her with +outstretched hands--some, too feeble to rise, covered their faces and +wept with joy--she was the only person known to them in all the great +lonely city. The surgeon-in-charge, observing this scene, urged her to +visit the hospital often, where her presence was sure to do the men +great good. + +During her stay at home she assisted in organizing a Ladies' Aid Society +at Chester. She was appointed Directress for the township where she +resided, and as the hospital was about to be located near Chester, she, +with others, directed her attention to preparing and furnishing it. +Sewing-circles were formed, and as a result of the efforts made, by the +time the soldiers arrived, a plentiful supply of nice clothing, +delicacies, etc., etc., was ready for them. + +Mrs. Parrish united with other women of the vicinity in organizing a +corps of volunteer nurses, who continued to perform their duties with +regularity and faithfulness until some time after, a new order dispensed +with their services. + +Her labors during the summer and autumn of 1862 visibly affected her +health, and were the cause of a severe illness which continued for +several weeks. + +Her health being at length restored, she went to Washington, spent a few +days in visiting the hospitals there, and then, with a pass sent her by +Major-General Sumner, from Falmouth, she joined Mrs. Dr. Harris and +started, January 17th, 1863, for Falmouth via Acquia Creek. + +The army was in motion and much confusion existed, but they found +comfortable quarters at the Lacy House, where they were under the +protection of the General and his staff. + +Here Mrs. Parrish found much to do, there being a great deal of sickness +among the troops. The weather was stormy, and the movement of the army +was impeded; and though she underwent much privation for want of +suitable food, and on account of the inclement season she continued +faithful at her post and accomplished much good. + +In December of the same year she accompanied her husband, with the +Medical Director of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, on a +tour of inspection to the hospitals of Yorktown, Fortress Monroe, +Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Newbern, North Carolina. While at Old Point she +learned that there was about to be an exchange of prisoners, and +desiring to render some services in this direction obtained permission +from General Butler to proceed, in company with a friend, Miss L. C. on +the flag-of-truce boat to City Point, witness the exchange, and render +such aid as was possible to our men on their return passage. + +There were five hundred Confederate prisoners on board, who, as her +journal records, "sang our National airs, and seemed to be a jolly and +happy healthy company." + +Our men were in a very different condition--"sick and weary," and +needing the Sanitary Commission supplies, which had been brought for +them, yet shouting with feeble voices their gladness at being once more +under the old flag, and in freedom. Mrs. Parrish fed and comforted +these poor men as best she could, till the steamer anchored off Old +Point again. + +It had been intended to continue the exchange much further, but a +dispute arising concerning the treatment of negro prisoners, the +operations of the cartel were arrested, and the exchange suspended. She +found, therefore, no further need of her services in this direction, and +so returned home. + +For many months to come, as one of the managers of the women's branch of +the United States Sanitary Commission, she found ample employment in +preparation for the great Philadelphia Fair, in which arduous service +she continued until its close, in July, 1864. The exhausting labors of +these months, and the heat of the weather during the continuance of the +Fair, made it necessary for her to have a respite for the remainder of +the summer. + +It was in the early winter of this year that she accompanied her husband +on a tour of inspection to the hospitals of Annapolis, and became so +interested in the condition of the returned prisoners, who needed so +much done for them in the way of personal care, that she gladly +consented, at the solicitation of the medical officers and agent of the +Commission, to serve there for a season. + +Of the usefulness of her work among the prisoners, testimony is +abundant. What she saw, and what she did, is most touchingly set forth +in the following letters from her pen, extracted from the Bulletin of +the United States Sanitary Commission: + + ANNAPOLIS, _December 1, 1864_. + + "The steamer _Constitution_ arrived this morning with seven hundred + and six men, one hundred and twenty-five of whom were sent + immediately to hospitals, being too ill to enjoy more than the + sight of their 'promised land.' Many indeed, were in a dying + condition. Some had died a short time before the arrival of the + boat. Those who were able, proceeded to the high ground above the + landing, and after being divided into battalions, each was + conducted in turn to the Government store-house, under charge of + Captain Davis, who furnished each man with a new suit of clothes + recorded his name, regiment and company. They then passed out to + another building near by, where warm water, soap, towels, brushes + and combs awaited them. + + "After their ablutions they returned to the open space in front of + the building, to look around and enjoy the realities of their new + life. Here they were furnished with paper, envelopes, sharpened + pencils, hymn-books and tracts from the Sanitary Commission, and + sat down to communicate the glad news of their freedom to friends + at home. In about two hours most of the men who were able, had + sealed their letters and deposited them in a large mail bag which + was furnished, and they were soon sent on their way to hundreds of + anxious kindred and friends. + + "Captain Davis very kindly invited me to accompany him to another + building, to witness the administration of the food. Several + cauldrons containing nice coffee, piles of new white bread, and + stands covered with meat, met the eye. Three dealers were in + attendance. The first gave to each soldier a loaf of bread, the + second a slice of boiled meat, the third, dipping the new tin-cup + from the hand of each, into the coffee cauldron, dealt out hot + coffee; and how it was all received I am unable to describe. The + feeble ones reached out their emaciated hands to receive gladly, + that which they were scarcely able to carry, and with brightening + faces and grateful expressions went on their way. The stouter ones + of the party, however, must have their jokes, and such expressions + as the following passed freely among them: 'No stockade about this + bread,' 'This is no confederate dodge,' etc. One fellow, whose skin + was nearly black from exposure, said, 'That's more bread than I've + seen for two months.' Another, 'That settles a man's plate.' A + bright-eyed boy of eighteen, whose young spirit had not been + completely crushed out in rebeldom, could not refrain from a + hurrah, and cried out, 'Hurrah for Uncle Sam, hurrah! No + Confederacy about this bread.' One poor feeble fellow, almost too + faint to hold his loaded plate, muttered out, 'Why, this looks as + if we were going to live, there's no grains of corn for a man to + swallow whole in this loaf.' Thus the words of cheer and hope came + from almost every tongue, as they received their rations and walked + away, each with his 'thank you, thank you;' and sat down upon the + ground, which forcibly reminded me of the Scripture account where + the multitude sat down in companies, 'and did eat and were filled.' + + "Ambulances came afterwards to take those who were unable to walk + to Camp Parole, which is two miles distant. One poor man, who was + making his way behind all the rest to reach the ambulance, thought + it would leave him, and with a most anxious and pitiful expression, + cried out, 'Oh, wait for me!' I think I shall never forget his look + of distress. When he reached the wagon he was too feeble to step + in, but Captain Davis, and Rev. J. A. Whitaker, Sanitary Commission + agent, assisted him till he was placed by the side of his + companions, who were not in much better condition than himself. + When he was seated, he was so thankful, that he wept like a child, + and those who stood by to aid him could do no less. Soldiers--brave + soldiers, officers and all, were moved to tears. That must be a sad + discipline which not only wastes the manly form till the sign of + humanity is nearly obliterated, but breaks the manly spirit till it + is as tender as a child's." + + + "_December 6, 1864._ + + "The St. John's College Hospital, is under the management of Dr. + Palmer, surgeon-in-charge, and his executive officer, Dr. Tremaine. + These gentlemen are worthy of praise for the systematic arrangement + of its cleanly apartments, and for the very kind attention they + bestow on their seven hundred patients. I visited the hospital a + day or two ago, and, from what I saw there, can assure the + relatives at home, that the sufferers are well provided for. If + they could only be seen, how comfortable they look in their neat + white-spread beds, much pain would be spared them. One of the + surgeons informed me that all the appliances are bestowed either by + the Government or the Sanitary Commission. + + "As I passed through the different wards, I noticed that each one + was well supplied with rocking-chairs, and alluding to the great + comfort they must be to the invalids, the surgeon replied: 'Yes, + this is one of the rich gifts made to us by the Sanitary + Commission.' An invalid took up the words and remarked: 'I think + it's likely that all about me is from the Sanitary, for I see my + flannel shirt, this wrapper, and pretty much all I've got on, has + the stamp of the United States Sanitary Commission on it.' + + "The diet kitchen is under the care of Miss Rich, who, with her + assistants, was busy preparing delicacies of various kinds, for two + hundred patients who were not able to go to the convalescent's + table. The whole atmosphere was filled with the odor of savory + viands. On the stove I counted mutton-chops, beef-steaks, oysters, + chicken, milk, tea, and other very palatable articles cooking. A + man stood by a table, buttering nicely toasted bread; before him + were eight to ten rows of the staff of life, rising up like pillars + of strength to support the inner man. The chief cook in this + department, informed me that he buttered twelve hundred slices of + bread, or toast daily, for the diet patients, and prepared + eighty-six different dishes at each meal. While in conversation + with this good-natured person, the butcher brought in a supply of + meat, amounting, he informed me, to one hundred pounds per day for + the so-called diet kitchen, though this did not sound much like it. + Before we left this attractively clean place the oysterman was met + emptying his cans. Upon inquiring how many oysters he had, he + replied, 'Six gallons is my every day deposit here;' and oh! they + were so inexpressibly fine-looking, I could not resist robbing some + poor fellow of one large bivalve to ascertain their quality. Next + we were shown the store-room, where there was a good supply of + Sanitary stores, pads, pillows, shirts, drawers, arm-slings, stock + of crutches, fans, and other comforts, which, the doctor said, had + been deposited by the United States Sanitary Commission Agent. + These were useful articles that were not furnished by the + Government. + + "The executive officer having given us permission to find our way + among the patients, we passed several hours most profitably and + interestingly, conversing with those who had none to cheer them for + many months, and writing letters for those who were too feeble to + use the pen. When the day closed our labors we felt like the + disciple of old, who said, 'Master, it is good to be here,' and + wished that we might set up our tabernacle and glorify the Lord by + doing good to the sick, the lame, and those who had been in + prison." + + + "_December 8, 1864._ + + "No human tongue or pen can ever describe the horrible suffering we + have witnessed this day. + + "I was early at the landing, eight and a-half o'clock in the + morning, before the boat threw out her ropes for security. The + first one brought two hundred bad cases, which the Naval surgeon + told me should properly go to the hospital near by, were it not + that others were coming, every one of whom was in the most wretched + condition imaginable. They were, therefore, sent in ambulances to + Camp Parole hospital, distant two miles, after being washed and fed + at the barracks. + + "In a short time another boat-load drew near, and oh! such a scene + of suffering humanity I desire never to behold again. The whole + deck was a bed of straw for our exhausted, starved, emaciated, + dying fellow-creatures. Of the five hundred and fifty that left + Savannah, the surgeon informed me not over two hundred would + survive; fifty had died on the passage; three died while the boat + was coming to the land. I saw five men dying as they were carried + on stretchers from the boat to the Naval Hospital. The + stretcher-bearers were ordered by Surgeon D. Vanderkieft to pause a + moment that the names of the dying men might be obtained. To the + credit of the officers and their assistants it should be known that + everything was done in the most systematic and careful manner. Each + stretcher had four attendants, who stood in line and came up + promptly, one after the other, to receive the sufferers as they + were carried off the boat. There was no confusion, no noise; all + acted with perfect military order. Ah! it was a solemn funeral + service to many a brave soldier, that was thus being performed by + kind hearts and hands. + + "Some had become insane; their wild gaze, and clenched teeth + convinced the observer that reason had fled; others were idiotic; a + few lying in spasms; perhaps the realization of the hope long + cherished, yet oft deferred, or the welcome sound of the music, + sent forth by the military band, was more than their exhausted + nature could bear. When blankets were thrown over them, no one + would have supposed that a human form lay beneath, save for the + small prominences which the bony head and feet indicated. Oh! God + of justice, what retribution awaits the perpetrators of such slow + and awful murder. + + "The hair of some was matted together, like beasts of the stall + which lie down in their own filth. Vermin are over them in + abundance. Nearly every man was darkened by scurvy, or black with + rough scales, and with scorbutic sores. One in particular was + reduced to the merest skeleton; his face, neck, and feet covered + with thick, green mould. A number who had Government clothes given + them on the boat were too feeble to put them on, and were carried + ashore partially dressed, hugging their clothing with a death-grasp + that they could not be persuaded to yield. It was not unfrequent to + hear a man feebly call, as he was laid on a stretcher, "Don't take + my clothes;" "Oh, save my new shoes;" "Don't let my socks go back + to Andersonville." In their wild death-struggle, with bony arms and + hands extended, they would hold up their new socks, that could not + be put on because of their swollen limbs, saying 'Save 'em till I + get home.' In a little while, however, the souls of many were + released from their worn-out frames, and borne to that higher home + where all things are registered for a great day of account. + + "Let our friends at home have open purses and willing hands to keep + up the supplies for the great demand that must necessarily be made + upon them. Much more must yet be done. + + "Thousands now languish in Southern prisons, that may yet be + brought thus far toward home. Let every Aid Society be more + diligent, that the stores of the Sanitary Commission may not fail + in this great work." + +Her services at Annapolis were cut short, and prematurely discontinued; +for returning to her home for a short stay, to make preparations for a +longer sojourn at Annapolis, she was again attacked by illness, which +rendered it impossible for her to go thither again. + +On her recovery, knowing that an immense amount of ignorance existed +among officers and men concerning the operations of the Sanitary +Commission, she compiled a somewhat elaborate, yet carefully condensed +statement of its plans and workings, together with a great amount of +useful information in relation to the facilities embraced in its system +of special relief, giving a list of all Homes and Lodges, and telling +how to secure back pay for soldiers, on furlough or discharged, +bounties, pensions, etc., etc. Bound up with this, is a choice +collection of hymns, adapted to the soldier's use, the whole forming a +neat little volume of convenient size for the pocket. + +The manuscript was submitted to the committee, accepted, and one hundred +thousand copies ordered to be printed for gratuitous distribution in all +the hospitals and camps. The "Soldiers' Friend," as it was called, was +soon distributed in the different departments and posts of the army, and +was even found in the Southern hospitals and prisons, while it was the +pocket companion of men in the trenches, as well as of those in quarters +and hospital. Many thousands were instructed by this little directory, +where to find the lodges, homes and pension offices of the Commission, +and were guarded against imposture and loss. So urgent was the demand +for it, and so useful was it, that the committee ordered a second +edition. + +Perhaps no work published by the Sanitary Commission has been of more +real and practical use than this little volume, or has had so large a +circulation. It was the last public work performed for the Commission by +Mrs. Parrish. At the close of the war her labors did not end; but +transferring her efforts to the amelioration of the condition of the +freedmen, she still found herself actively engaged in a work growing +directly out of the war. + + + + +MRS. ANNIE WITTENMEYER + + +Mrs. Annie Wittenmeyer, who, during the early part of the war was widely +known as the State Sanitary Agent of Iowa, and afterward as the +originator of the Diet Kitchens, which being attached to hospitals +proved of the greatest benefit as an adjunct of the medical treatment, +was at the outbreak of the rebellion, residing in quiet seclusion at +Keokuk. With the menace of armed treason to the safety of her country's +institutions, she felt all her patriotic instincts and sentiments +arousing to activity. She laid aside her favorite intellectual pursuits, +and prepared herself to do what a woman might in the emergency which +called into existence a great army, and taxed the Government far beyond +its immediate ability in the matter of Hospital Supplies and the proper +provision for, and care of the sick and wounded. + +Early in 1861 rumors of the sufferings of the volunteer soldiery, called +so suddenly to the field, and from healthy northern climates to +encounter the unwholesome and miasmatic exhalations of more southern +regions, as well as the pain of badly-dressed wounds, began to thrill +and grieve the hearts which had willingly though sadly sent them forth +in their country's defense. Mrs. Wittenmeyer saw at once that a field of +usefulness opened before her. Her first movement was to write letters to +every town in her State urging patriotic women in every locality to +organize themselves into Aid Societies, and commence systematically the +work of supplying the imperative needs of the suffering soldiers. These +appeals, and the intense sympathy and patriotism that inspired the +hearts of the women of the North, proved quite sufficient. In Iowa the +earlier Reports were addressed to her, and societies throughout the +State forwarded their goods to the Keokuk Aid Society with which she was +connected. As the agent of this society Mrs. Wittenmeyer went to the +field and distributed these supplies. + +Thus her work had its inception--and being still the chosen agent of +distribution, she gave herself no rest. In fact, from the summer of 1861 +until the close of the war, she was continually and actively employed in +some department of labor for the soldiers, and did not allow herself so +much as one week for rest. + +From June, 1861, to April 1st, 1862, she had received and distributed +goods to the value of $6,000. From that to July 1st, $12,564, and from +that until September 25th, 1862, $2,000, making a total of $20,564 +received before her appointment of that date by the Legislature as State +Agent. From that time until her resignation of the office, January 13th, +1864, she received $115,876.93. Thus, in about two years and a half, she +received and distributed more than $136,000 worth of goods and sanitary +stores contributed for the benefit of suffering soldiers. + +But while laboring so constantly in the army, Mrs. Wittenmeyer did not +overlook the needs of the destitute at home. In October, 1863, a number +of benevolent individuals, of whom she was one, called a Convention of +Aid Societies, which had for its foremost object to take some steps +toward providing for the wants of the orphans of soldiers. That +Convention led to the establishment of the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home, +an Institution of which the State is now justly proud, and which is +bestowing upon hundreds of children bountiful care and protection. + +While laboring in the hospitals at Chattanooga in the winter of 1863-4, +Mrs. Wittenmeyer matured her long-cherished plan for supplying food for +the lowest class of hospital patients, and this led to the establishment +of Diet Kitchens. Believing her idea could be better carried out by the +Christian Commission, than under any other auspices, she soon after +resigned her position as State agent, and became connected with that +organization. + +From a little work entitled "Christ in the Army," composed of sketches +by different individuals, and published by the Christian Commission, and +from the Fourth Report of the Maryland Branch of the Christian +Commission, we make the following extracts, relative to Mrs. +Wittenmeyer's labors in this sphere of effort: + +"The sick and wounded suffer greatly from the imperfect cooking of the +soldier nurses. To remedy this evil, a number of ladies have offered +themselves as delegates of the Christian Commission, and arrangements +have been made with the medical authorities to establish Diet Kitchens, +where suitable food may be prepared by ladies' hands for our sick +soldiers,--the Government furnishing the staple articles, and the +Christian Commission providing the ladies and the delicacies and +cordials. One of these at Knoxville is thus described by a correspondent +of _The Lutheran_:-- + +"There have been several large hospitals in this city, but recently they +have been all consolidated into one. In connection with this hospital is +a 'Special Diet Kitchen.' Many of our readers will doubtless wonder what +these 'Special Diet Kitchens' are. They have been originated by Mrs. +Annie Wittenmeyer, of Keokuk, formerly State Sanitary Agent of Iowa. In +her arduous labors in the Army of the Cumberland, she met with a large +number of patients who suffered for want of suitably prepared, delicate +and nutritious food. None of the benevolent institutions in connection +with the army have been able to reach this class of persons. She says, +in her report to the General Assembly of the State: 'This matter has +given me serious and anxious thought for the past year, but I have +recently submitted to the Christian Commission a plan by which I believe +this class of patients may be reached and relieved. The plan proposed, +is the establishment of "Special Diet Kitchens," in connection with that +Commission, to be superintended by earnest, prudent Christian women, +who will secure the distribution of proper food to this class of +patients--taking such delicate articles of food as our good people +supply _to the very bed-sides_ of the poor languishing soldiers, and +administering, with words of encouragement and sympathy, to their +pressing wants; such persons to co-operate with the surgeons in all +their efforts for the sick.' This plan of operations has been sanctioned +and adopted by the United States Christian Commission. There is one in +successful operation at Nashville, under the direction, I believe, of a +daughter of the Honorable J. K. Moorehead, of Pittsburg. The one here is +under the direction of Mrs. R. E. Conrad, of Keokuk, Iowa, and her two +sisters. They are doing a great and good work now in Knoxville. From +three to five hundred patients are thus daily supplied with delicate +food, who would otherwise have scarcely anything to eat. The success of +their labors has demonstrated beyond a doubt the practicability of the +plan of Mrs. Wittenmeyer. The good resulting from their arduous labor +proves that much can be done by these special efforts to rescue those +who are laid upon languishing beds of sickness and pain, and have passed +almost beyond the reach of ordinary means. The great need we have in +connection with these 'Diet Kitchens,' is the want of canned fruits, +jellies, preserves, etc. If our good people, who have already done so +much, will provide these necessary means, they will be distributed to +the most needy, and in such a way as to accomplish the most good." + +The War Department is so well satisfied with the value of these Diet +Kitchens, in saving the lives of thousands of invalids, that it has +issued the following special Order:-- + + SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 362. + + WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, + WASHINGTON, D. C., _October 24, 1864_. + [EXTRACT.] + + * * * * 56. Permission to visit the United States General + Hospitals, within the lines of the several Military Departments of + the United States, for the purpose of superintending the + preparation of food in the Special Diet Kitchens of the same, is + hereby granted Mrs. Annie Wittenmeyer, Special Agent United States + Christian Commission, and such ladies as she may deem proper to + employ, by request of the United States surgeons. The + Quartermaster's Department will furnish the necessary + transportation. + + BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: + E. D. TOWNSEND, + _Assistant Adjutant-General._ + OFFICIAL: + + + DIET KITCHENS. + +Mrs. Annie Wittenmeyer suggested and introduced the use of the Diet +Kitchen into the hospitals. The Kitchen was used extensively among the +Branch Offices of the West. The design of the Kitchen was, to have +prepared for the men who were under treatment, such articles of food and +delicacies as are grateful to the sick, and at the same time may be +allowed with safety. The ladies who were engaged in this department +performed their labors under the direction of the surgeons, who +appointed their stations and approved their preparations. The process +was very much like that of the house in which the surgeon directs, and +the family provides, the nourishing food that is needed for the patient. + +Mrs. Wittenmeyer had the Diet Kitchens under her supervision. She was +the agent of the Commission for the purpose. She operated under +regulations which were approved by the Commission and by the War +Department. These regulations were printed and circulated among the +managers of the Kitchens. So effective were the orders under which the +department was conducted, that not the least difficulty or +misunderstanding occurred, notwithstanding the responsible relations of +the co-operators, part being officials of the army and part under the +direction of a voluntary service. Each of the managers was furnished +with a copy of the rules, which, with the endorsement of the branch +office with which the service was connected, constituted the commission +of the manager. + +The Special Diet Kitchens, were first adopted in the Department of the +Cumberland, and in that of the Mississippi, and with results so +unexpectedly beneficial, that Mrs. Wittenmeyer was earnestly solicited +to extend the work to the Army of the Potomac. This she did in the +winter of 1864, and it continued until the close of the war with great +success. + +Much of this success was undoubtedly owing to the class of ladies +engaged in the work. Many of them were from the highest circles of +society, educated, refined and accomplished, and each was required to +maintain the life and character of an earnest Christian. They thus +commanded the respect of officers and men, and proved a powerful +instrument of good. As we have seen, the Christian Commission has borne +ample testimony to the value of the efforts of Mrs. Wittenmeyer, and her +associates in this department of hospital service. + +Mrs. Wittenmeyer continued actively engaged in the service of the +Christian Commission, in the organizing of Diet Kitchens, and similar +labors, until the close of the war, and the disbanding of that +organization, when she returned to her home in Keokuk, to resume the +quiet life she had abandoned, and to gain needed repose, after her four +years' effort in behalf of our suffering defenders. + + + + +MISS MELCENIA ELLIOTT. + + +Among the heroic and devoted women who have labored for the soldiers of +the Union in the late war, and endured all the dangers and privations of +hospital life, is Miss Melcenia Elliott, of Iowa. Born in Indiana, and +reared in the Northern part of Iowa, she grew to womanhood amid the +scenes and associations of country life, with an artless, impulsive and +generous nature, superior physical health, and a heart warm with the +love of country and humanity. Her father is a prosperous farmer, and +gave three of his sons to the struggle for the Union, who served +honorably to the end of their enlistment, and one of them re-enlisted as +a veteran, performing oftentimes the perilous duties of a spy, that he +might obtain valuable information to guide the movements of our forces. +The daughter, at the breaking out of the war, was pursuing her studies +at Washington College, in Iowa, an institution open to both sexes, and +under the patronage of the United Presbyterian Church. But the sound of +fife and drum, the organization of regiments composed of her friends and +neighbors, and the enlistment of her brothers in the grand army of the +Union fired her ardent soul with patriotism, and an intense desire to +help on the cause in which the soldiers had taken up the implements of +warfare. + +For many months her thoughts were far more with the soldiers in the +field than on the course of study in the college, and as soon as there +began to be a demand for female nurses in the hospitals, she was prompt +to offer her services and was accepted. + +The summer and autumn of 1862, found her in the hospitals in Tennessee, +ready on all occasions for the most difficult posts of service, +ministering at the bed-side of the sick and desponding, cheering them +with her warm words of encouragement and sympathy, and her pleasant +smile and ready mirthfulness, the very best antidote to the depression +of spirits and home-sickness of the worn and tired soldier. In all +hospital work, in the offices of nursing and watching, and giving of +medicines, in the preparation of special diet, in the care and attention +necessary to have the hospital beds clean and comfortable, and the wards +in proper order, she was untiring and never gave way to weariness or +failed in strength. It was pleasant to see with what ease and +satisfaction she could lift up a sick soldier's head, smooth and arrange +his pillow, lift him into an easier position, dress his wounds, and make +him feel that somebody cared for him. + +During the winter of 1862-3, she was a nurse in one of the hospitals at +Memphis, and rendered most useful and excellent service. An example of +her heroism and fortitude occurred here, that is worthy of being +mentioned. In one of the hospitals there was a sick soldier who came +from her father's neighborhood in Iowa, whom she had known, and for +whose family she felt a friendly interest. She often visited him in the +sick ward where he was, and did what she could to alleviate his +sufferings, and comfort him in his illness. But gradually he became +worse, and at a time when he needed her sympathy and kind attention more +than ever, the Surgeon in charge of the hospital, issued an order that +excluded all visitors from the wards, during those portions of the day +when she could leave the hospital where she was on duty, to make these +visits to her sick neighbor and friend. The front entrance of the +hospital being guarded, she could not gain admission; but she had too +much resolution, energy and courage, and too much kindness of heart, to +be thwarted in her good intentions by red tape. Finding that by scaling +a high fence in the rear of the hospital, she could enter without being +obstructed by guards, and being aided in her purpose by the nurses on +duty in the ward, she made her visits in the evening to the sick man's +bed-side till he died. As it was his dying wish that his remains might +be carried home to his family, none of whom were present, she herself +undertook the difficult and responsible task. Getting leave of absence +from her own duties, without the requisite funds for the purpose, she +was able, by her frank and open address, her self-reliance, intelligence +and courage to accomplish the task, and made the journey alone, with the +body in charge; all the way from Memphis to Washington, Iowa, overcoming +all difficulties of procuring transportation, and reaching her +destination successfully. By this act of heroism, she won the gratitude +of many hearts, and gave comfort and satisfaction to the friends and +relatives of the departed soldier. + +Returning as far as St. Louis, she was transferred to the large military +hospital at Benton Barracks and did not return to Memphis. Here for many +months, during the spring, summer and autumn of 1863, she served most +faithfully, and was considered one of the most efficient and capable +nurses in the hospital. At this place she was associated with a band of +noble young women, under the supervision of that excellent lady, Miss +Emily Parsons, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who came out from her +pleasant New England home to be at the head of the nursing department of +this hospital, (then in charge of Surgeon Ira Russell, United States +Volunteers), and to do her part towards taking care of the sick and +wounded men who had perilled their lives for their country. A warm +friendship grew up between these noble women, and Miss Parsons never +ceased to regard with deep interest, the tall, heroic, determined girl, +who never allowed any obstacle to stand between her and any useful +service she could render to the defenders of her country. + +Another incident of her fearless and undaunted bravery will illustrate +her character, and especially the self-sacrificing spirit by which she +was animated. During the summer of 1863, it became necessary to +establish a ward for cases of erysipelas, a disease generating an +unhealthy atmosphere and propagating itself by that means. The surgeon +in charge, instead of assigning a female nurse of his own selection to +this ward, called for a _volunteer_, among the women nurses of the +hospital. There was naturally some hesitancy about taking so trying and +dangerous a position, and, seeing this reluctance on the part of others, +Miss Elliott promptly offered herself for the place. For several months +she performed her duties in the erysipelas ward with the same constancy +and regard for the welfare of the patients that had characterized her in +other positions. It was here the writer of this sketch first became +acquainted with her, and noticed the cheerful and cordial manner in +which she waited upon the sufferers under her care, going from one to +another to perform some office of kindness, always with words of genuine +sympathy, pleasantry and good will. + +Late in the fall of 1863, Miss Elliott yielded to the wishes of the +Western Sanitary Commission, and became matron of the Refugee Home of +St. Louis--a charitable institution made necessary by the events of the +war, and designed to give shelter and assistance to poor families of +refugees, mostly widows and children, who were constantly arriving from +the exposed and desolated portions of Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, +Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, sent North often by military authority +as deck passengers on Government boats to get them away from the +military posts in our possession further South. For one year Miss +Elliott managed the internal affairs of this institution with great +efficiency and good judgment, under circumstances that were very trying +to her patience and fortitude. Many of the refugees were of the class +called "the poor white trash" of the South, filthy, ragged, proud, +indolent, ill-mannered, given to the smoking and chewing of tobacco, +often diseased, inefficient, and either unwilling or unable to conform +to the necessary regulations of the Home, or to do their own proper +share of the work of the household, and the keeping of their apartments +in a state of cleanliness and order. + +It was a great trial of her Christian patience to see families of +children of all ages, dirty, ragged, and ill-mannered, lounging in the +halls and at the front door, and their mothers doing little better +themselves, getting into disputes with each other, or hovering round a +stove, chewing or smoking tobacco, and leaving the necessary work +allotted to them neglected and undone. But out of this material and this +confusion Miss Elliott, by her efficiency and force of character, +brought a good degree of cleanliness and order. Among other things she +established a school in the Home, gathered the children into it in the +evening, taught them to spell, read and sing, and inspired them with a +desire for knowledge. + +At the end of a year of this kind of work Miss Elliott was called to the +position of matron of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home, at Farmington, Iowa, +which she accepted and filled for several months, with her usual +efficiency and success, when, after long and arduous service for the +soldiers, for the refugees and for the orphans of our country's +defenders, she returned to the home of her family, and to the society +and occupations for which she was preparing herself before the war. + + + + +MARY DWIGHT PETTES. + + +To one who was accustomed to visit the military hospitals of St. Louis, +during the first years of the war, the meeting with Mary Dwight Pettes +in her ministry to the sick and wounded soldiers must always return as a +pleasant and sacred memory. And such an one will not fail to recall how +she carried to the men pleasant reading, how she sat by their bed-sides +speaking words of cheer and sympathy, and singing songs of country, +home, and heaven, with a voice of angelic sweetness. Nor, how after +having by her own exertions procured melodeons for the hospital chapels, +she would play for the soldiers in their Sabbath worship, and bring her +friends to make a choir to assist in their religious services. + +Slender in form, her countenance radiant with intelligence, and her dark +eyes beaming with sympathy and kindness, it was indeed a pleasant +surprise to see one so young and delicate, going about from hospital to +hospital to find opportunities of doing good to the wan and suffering, +and crippled heroes, who had been brought from hard-fought battle-fields +to be cared for at the North. + +But no one of the true Sisters of Mercy, who gave themselves to this +service during the war, felt more intense and genuine satisfaction in +her labors than she, and not one is more worthy of our grateful +remembrance, now that she has passed away from the scene of her joys and +her labors forever. + +Mary Dwight Pettes was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in the year 1841, +and belonged to a family who were eminent for their intelligence, and +religious and moral worth. The circumstances of her early life and +education are unknown to the writer of this sketch, but must have been +such as to develop that purity of mind and manners, that sweetness and +amiability of temper, that ready sympathy and disinterestedness of +purpose and conduct, which, together with rare conversational and +musical powers, she possessed in so high a degree. + +Having an uncle and his family resident in St. Louis, the first year of +the war found her in that city, engaged in the work of ministering to +the soldiers in the hospitals with her whole heart and soul. During the +first winter of the great rebellion (1862) St. Louis was filled with +troops, and there were thirteen hospitals thronged with the sick and +wounded from the early battle-fields of the war. On the 30th of January +of that year she thus wrote to the Boston _Transcript_, over her own +initials, some account of her labors and observations at that time. +Speaking of the hospitals she said, "It is here that the evils and +horrors of the war become very apparent. Here stout hearts are broken. +You see great numbers of the brave young men of the Western States, who +have left their homes to fight for their country. They were willing to +be wounded, shot, to die, if need be, but after months of inaction they +find themselves conquered by dysentery or fever. Some fifty or sixty +each week are borne to their long home. This may have been unavoidable, +but it is hard to bear. * * * * Last night I returned home in the +evening. It was dark, rainy, cold and muddy. I passed an ambulance in +the street. The two horses had each a leader walking beside them, which +indicated that a very sick soldier was within. It was a sad sight; and +yet this poor man could not be moved, when he arrived at the +hospital-door, until his papers were examined to see if they conformed +to 'Army Regulations,' I protest against the coldness with which the +Regulations treat the sick and wounded soldiers." + +No doubt her sympathetic heart protested against all delays and all +seeming indifference to the welfare of the poor fellows on whose +bravery and devotion the salvation of the country depended. + +In her devotion to the sick and wounded in the hospitals, and her labors +of love among them, she sacrificed many of her own comforts and +pleasures. Notwithstanding the delicacy of her own health she _would_ go +about among them doing them good. + +She took great interest in seeing the soldiers engaged in religious +worship, and in assisting to conduct the exercises of praise and +thanksgiving. When these services were ended she used to go from ward to +ward, and passing to the bed-side of those who were too weak to join the +worship in the chapel would read to them the blessed words of comfort +contained in the Book of Life, and sing to them the sweet hymn, "Jesus, +I love thy charming name." + +In one of her papers she has left this record. "For a year I have +visited the hospitals constantly, and during that time they have been +crowded with sick and wounded soldiers. I never had any idea what +suffering was until I had been in the wards after the battles of Fort +Donelson, Pittsburg Landing, and Pea Ridge. The poor fellows are so +patient too, and so grateful for any little service or attention." + +In another letter, speaking of the great civil war in which we were then +engaged, she wrote, "Still I have hope, trusting in the justice of God. +Being a constant visitor to the hospitals in and about this city, I have +taken great pleasure in relieving the physical as well as the spiritual +wants of the sick and wounded, as far as it has been in my power, +proving to them that they have sympathizing friends near them, although +their home-friends may be far away. I have encouraged them to be +cheerful, and bear their sufferings with heroic fortitude, trusting in +God, and a happier and better future. It has seemed to me that I do them +some good when I find them watching for my coming, and that every face +brightens as I enter the ward, while many say to me, 'We are always glad +to see you come. It cheers and comforts us mightily to have you come so +bright and smiling, asking us how we do, and saying always some pleasant +word, and giving us something good to read. Then we love to hear you +sing to us. Sometimes it makes the tears come in our eyes, but it kind +o' lifts us up, and makes us feel better. We sometimes wonder you come +here so much among us poor fellows, but we have come to the conclusion +that your heart is in the cause for which we are fighting, and that you +want to help and cheer us so that we may get well and go back to our +regiments, and finish up the work of putting down this infernal +rebellion.'" + +"One day as I lifted up the head of a poor boy, who was languidly +drooping, and smoothed and fixed his pillow, he said, 'Thank you; that's +nice. You are so gentle and good to me that I almost fancy I am at home, +and that sister Mary is waiting upon me.'" + +"Such expressions of their interest and gratitude," she adds, "encourage +me in this work, and I keep on, though often my strength almost fails +me, and my heart is filled with sadness, as I see one after another of +the poor fellows wasting away, and in a few days their cots are empty +and they sleep the sleep that knows no waking this side of the grave." + +Thus she labored on in her work of self-sacrificing love and devotion, +with no compensation but the satisfaction that she was doing good, until +late in the month of December, 1862, she was attacked with the typhoid +fever, which she, no doubt, had contracted in the infected air of the +hospitals, and died on the 14th of January, 1863. During her five weeks +of illness her thoughts were constantly with the soldiers, and in her +delirium she would imagine she was among them in their sick wards, and +would often speak to them words of consolation and sympathy. + +In a letter of Rev. Dr. Eliot, the Unitarian Pastor, of St. Louis, +published in the _Christian Register_ on the following May, he gives the +impression she had left upon those with whom she had been sometimes +associated in her labors. Miss Pettes was a Unitarian in her religious +faith, and this fact was known to one of the excellent Chaplains who +regularly officiated in the hospitals at St. Louis, and who belonged to +the Old School Presbyterian Church. He had, however, been very glad of +her co-operation and assistance in his work, and in conducting religious +worship in the hospitals, and thus spoke of her to Dr. Eliot, some +months after her death. "Chaplain P. said to me to-day, 'Can you not +send me some one to take the place of Mary Pettes, who died literally a +martyr to the cause six months ago?' 'I don't think,' said he, 'that you +can find another as good as she, for her whole heart was in it, and she +was like sunshine to the hospital. But,' he added, 'all your people [the +Unitarians] work as if they really cared for the soldiers and loved the +cause, and I want more of them.'" + +Such was the impression of her goodness and worth, and moral beauty left +by this New England girl upon the minds of those who saw her going about +in the hospitals of St. Louis, during the first year and a-half of the +war, trying to do her part in the great work given us to do as a nation, +and falling a martyr, quite as much as those who fell on the field of +battle, to the cause of her country and liberty:--such the brief record +of a true and spotless life given, in its virgin purity and loveliness, +as a sacrifice well pleasing to God. + + + + +LOUISA MAERTZ. + + +During the winter of 1863, while stationed at Helena, Arkansas, the +writer was greatly impressed with the heroic devotion to the welfare of +the sick soldier, of a lady whom he often met in the hospitals, where +she was constantly engaged in services of kindness to the suffering +inmates, attending to their wants, and alleviating their distress. He +soon learned that her name was Louisa Maertz, of Quincy, Illinois, who +had come from her home all the way to Helena--at a time when the +navigation of the river was rendered dangerous by the firing of +guerrillas from the shore upon the passing steamers--that she might +devote herself to the work of a hospital nurse. At a later period, when +he learned that she had left a pleasant home for this arduous service, +and saw how bravely she endured the discomforts of hospital life in +Helena, where there was not a single well-ordered and well-provided +hospital; how she went from one building to another through the filthy +and muddy town, to carry the delicacies she had obtained from the +Sanitary Commission, and dispense them to the sick, with her own hands, +he was still more impressed with these evidences of her "good, heroic +womanhood," and her disinterested benevolence. Recently he has procured +a few particulars of her history, which will serve for a brief sketch. + +Miss Maertz was born in Quincy, Illinois, in 1838. Her parents were of +German birth, and among the early settlers of the place. From infancy +she was of a delicate constitution, and suffered much from ill health; +and at the age of eighteen years she was sent to Europe in the hope that +she might derive benefit from the mineral springs of Germany and from +travel and change of climate. Two years in Germany, Switzerland and +Italy were spent in traveling and in the society of her relatives, some +of whom were the personal friends of the Monods of Paris, Guizot, the +Gurneys of England, Merle D'Aubigne, of Geneva, and other literary +people of Europe, with several of whom she became acquainted. From this +visit abroad she received much benefit, and her general health was +greatly improved. + +From an early period she had cherished two strong aspirations, the +desire of knowledge, and the wish to devote herself to works of charity. +Her heart was always ready to sympathize with the sufferings and sorrows +of humanity; and the cause of the orphan, the slave, the poor and the +helpless excited a deep interest in her mind, and a desire to devote +herself in some way to their relief. After her return from Europe it +became an absorbing aspiration and the subject of earnest prayer that +God would show her some way in which she could be useful to humanity. + +As she was thus becoming prepared for the work upon which she afterwards +entered, the great rebellion, which involved the country in the late +civil war, broke forth; the early battles in Missouri, and at Fort +Donelson and Belmont led to the establishment of hospitals in St. Louis, +at Mound City, and at Quincy, Illinois; and the opportunity came to Miss +Maertz, which she had so long desired, to undertake some work of charity +and benevolence. During the months of October and November, 1861, she +commenced the daily visitation of the hospitals in Quincy, carried with +her delicacies for the sick and distributed them, procured the redress +of any grievances they suffered, read the Scriptures and conversed with +them, wrote letters for them to their friends, dressed their wounds, and +furnished them books, papers, and sources of amusement. Although her +physical strength at this period was very moderate, she seemed, on +entering the hospital, and witnessing the sufferings of brave men, who +had dared everything for their country, to be infused with a new and +strange vigor that sustained her through every exertion. + +In particular cases of tedious convalescence, retarded by inferior +hospital accommodations, she--with her parents' consent--obtained +permission to take them home, and nurse them till they were restored to +health. Thus she labored on through the fall and winter of 1861-2 till +the battles of Shiloh and Pea Ridge filled the hospitals with wounded +men, at St. Louis and Mound City, and at Louisville and Evansville and +Paducah, and she began to feel that she must go where her services were +more needed, and give herself wholly to this work of caring for and +nursing the wounded patriots of the war. + +After waiting some time for an opportunity to go she wrote to Mr. James +E. Yeatman, at St. Louis, the agent of Miss Dorothea L. Dix for the +appointment of women nurses in the hospitals of the Western Department, +and was accepted. On reporting herself at St. Louis she was commissioned +as a nurse, and in the fall of 1862 proceeded to Helena, where the army +of the Southwest had encamped the previous July, under Major-General +Curtis, and where every church and several private buildings had to be +converted into hospitals to accommodate the sick of his army. + +It was here, during the winter of 1863, that the writer of this sketch +first met with Miss Maertz, engaged in the work of a hospital nurse, +enduring with rare heroism sacrifices and discomforts, labors and +watchings in the service of the sick soldiers that won the reverence and +admiration of all who saw this gentle woman thus nobly employed. It was +of her the following paragraph was written in the History of the Western +Sanitary Commission. + +"Another one we also know whose name is likewise in this simple record, +who, at Helena, Arkansas, in the fall and winter of 1862-3, was almost +the only female nurse in the hospitals there, going from one building to +another, in which the sick were quartered, when the streets were almost +impassable with mud, administering sanitary stores and making delicate +preparations of food, spending her own money in procuring milk and other +articles that were scarce and difficult to obtain, and doing an amount +of work which few persons could sustain, living without the pleasant +society to which she had been accustomed at home, never murmuring, +always cheerful and kind, preserving in the midst of a military camp +such gentleness, strength and purity of character that all rudeness of +speech ceased in her presence, and as she went from room to room she was +received with silent benedictions, or an audible 'God bless you, dear +lady,' from some poor sufferer's heart." + +The last time I saw Miss Maertz, while engaged in her hospital work, was +at the grave of a soldier, who was buried at Helena in the spring of +1863. He was one of the persecuted Union men of Arkansas, who had +enlisted in the Union army on the march of General Curtis through +Arkansas, and had fallen sick at Helena. For several weeks Miss Maertz +had nursed and cared for him with all a woman's tenderness and delicacy, +and perceiving that he must die had succeeded in sending a message to +his wife, who lived sixty miles in the interior of Arkansas, within the +enemy's lines. On the afternoon of his death and but a few hours before +it she arrived, having walked the whole distance on foot with great +difficulty, because she was partially blind; but had the satisfaction of +receiving the parting words of her husband and attending his burial. +Miss Maertz sent word to me, asking me to perform the burial service, +and the next day I met her leading the half-blind widow, in her poverty +and sorrow, to the grave. Some months later this poor soldier's widow +came to the Refugee Home, at St. Louis, and was cared for, and being +recognized and the scene of the lonely burial referred to, she related +with tears of gratitude the kindness she received from the good lady, +who nursed her husband in his last illness at Helena. + +At a later period in the service, Miss Maertz was transferred to the +hospitals at Vicksburg, where she continued her work of benevolence till +she was obliged to return home to restore her own exhausted energies. At +this time her parents urged her to go with them to Europe, wishing to +take her away from scenes of suffering, and prostrating disease, but she +declined to go, and, on regaining a measure of health, entered the +service again and continued in it at New Orleans to the end of the war. + +In real devotion to the welfare of the soldiers of the Union; in high +religious and patriotic motives; in the self-sacrificing spirit with +which she performed her labors; in the heroism with which she endured +hardship for the sake of doing good; in the readiness with which she +gave up her own interests and the offer of personal advantages and +pleasure to serve the cause of patriotism and humanity, she had few +equals. + + + + +MRS. HARRIET R. COLFAX. + + +This lady whose services merit all the praise which has been bestowed +upon them, is a resident of Michigan City, Indiana, the still youthful +widow of a near relative of the Honorable Schuyler Colfax, the present +Speaker of the House of Representatives. + +Her father, during her youth, was long an invalid, and his enforced +seclusion from all business pursuits was spent in bestowing instruction +upon his children. His conversations with his children, and the lessons +in history which he gave them were made the means of instilling great +moral ideas, and amidst all others an ardent love of their native +country and its institutions. At the same period of the life of Mrs. +Colfax, she was blest with a mother whose large and active benevolence +led her to spend much time in visiting and ministering to the sick. Her +daughter often accompanied her, and as often was sent alone upon like +errands. Thus she learned the practice of the sentiments which caused +her, in the hour of her country's trial, to lend such energetic and +cheerful aid to its wounded defenders. + +Previous to the commencement of the war Mrs. Colfax had lost her husband +and her father. Her mother remained to advise and guide the young widow +and her fatherless children, and it was to her that she turned for +counsel, when, on the announcement of the need of female nurses in the +hospitals that were so soon filled with sick and wounded, Mrs. Colfax +felt herself impelled to devote herself to this service and ministry. + +Her mother and other friends disapproved of her going, and said all +they could in opposition. She listened, and delayed, but finally felt +that she must yield to the impulse. The opposition was withdrawn, and on +the last of October, 1861, she started for St. Louis to enter the +hospitals there. + +Her heart was very desolate as she entered this strange city alone, at +ten o'clock at night. Mr. Yeatman, with whom communication had been +opened relative to her coming, had neglected to give her definite +directions how to proceed. But she heard some surgeons talking of the +hospitals, and learned that they belonged to them. From them she +obtained the address of Mr. Yeatman. A gentleman, as she left the cars, +stepped forward and kindly and respectfully placed her in the omnibus +which was to take her across the river. She turned to thank him, but he +was gone. Yet these occurrences, small as they were, had given her +renewed courage--she no longer felt quite friendless, but went +cheerfully upon her way. + +She proceeded to the Fifth Street Hospital, where Mr. Yeatman had his +quarters, and was admitted by the use of his name. The night nurse, Mrs. +Gibson, took kind charge of her for that night, and in the morning she +was introduced to the matron, Mrs. Plummer, and to Mr. Yeatman. She had +her first sight of wounded men on the night of her arrival, and the +thought of their sufferings, and of how much could be done to alleviate +them, made her forget herself, an obliviousness from which she did not +for weeks recover. + +She was assigned to the first ward in which there had been till then no +female nurse, and soon found full employment for hands, mind and heart. +The reception room for patients was on the same floor with her ward, and +the sufferers had to be taken through it to reach the others, so that +she was forced to witness every imaginable phase of suffering and +misery, and her sympathies never became blunted. Many of these men lived +but a short time after being brought in, and one man standing with his +knapsack on to have his name and regiment noted down, fell to the floor +as it was supposed in a swoon, but was found to be dead. + +For some time when men were dying all around with typhus fever and +wounds, no clergyman of any denomination visited them. Mrs. Colfax and +other ladies would often at their request offer up prayers, but they +felt that regular religious ministrations were needed. After a time +through the intercession of a lady, a resident of St. Louis, the Rev. +Dr. Schuyler came often to supply this want, giving great comfort to the +sufferers. + +About this time, the ward surgeon was removed, and another substituted +in his place, Dr. Paddock. This gentleman thus speaks of the services +and character of Mrs. Colfax: + + + ST. LOUIS, _March_ 2d, 1866. + + "Among the many patriotic and benevolent Christian ladies who + volunteered their services to aid, comfort, and alleviate the + suffering of the sick and wounded soldiers of the Union Army in the + late wicked and woful Rebellion, I know of none more deserving of + honorable mention and memory, than Mrs. Harriet R. Colfax. I first + met her in the Fifth Street General Hospital of this city, where I + was employed in the spring of 1862; and subsequently in the General + Hospital, at Jefferson Barracks, in 1863. In both these hospitals + she was employed in the wards under my care, and subject to my + immediate orders and observation. In both, she was uniformly the + same industrious, indefatigable, attentive, kind, and sympathizing + nurse and friend of the sick and wounded soldier. She prepared + delicacies and cordials, and often obtained them to prepare from + her friends abroad, in addition to such as were furnished by the + Sanitary Commission. She administered them with her own hands in + such a manner as only a sympathizing and loving woman can; and thus + won the heartfelt gratitude and affection of every soldier to whom + it was her duty and her delight to administer. No female nurse in + either of the hospitals above named, and there was a large number + in each of them, was more universally beloved and respected, than + was Mrs. Colfax. I had not the opportunity to witness her services + and privations, and vexations on hospital steamers, or elsewhere + than in the two places named above; but I know that they were + considerable; and that everywhere and under all circumstances, she + was alike active and honored." + +In Dr. Paddock, Mrs. Colfax truly found a friend, and she was able to +accomplish a greater amount of good under his kind directions. The Ward +was crowded. The wounded arrived from Fort Donelson in a miserable +condition. From exposure, many were dangerously ill with pneumonia, and +died very soon; few recovered, but the wounded did much better than the +sick, and were so patient and cheerful, that even those suffering from +the worst wounds, or amputations, would hardly have been known not to be +well, save by their pale faces and weak voices. Many would not give way +till the last moment, but with strong courage, and brave cheerfulness, +would close their eyes on things of earth, and pass silently into the +unseen world. + +In the spring, Mrs. Colfax, finding herself much worn by severe work and +frequent colds, gladly availed herself of the change offered by a trip +on the Hospital-boat, Louisiana, then just fitted up by the Sanitary +Commission. + +At Cairo, they received orders to proceed to Island No. 10, and there +unexpectedly found themselves in the well-known battle which took place +at that point on the 16th, 17th, and 18th of March, 1862. + +The Batteries of the enemy, on the banks and Island, were engaged with +the Union gunboats. The firing was incessant and protracted, but not +very disastrous. At last the firing from one of the gunboats resulted in +the killing and wounding of a number of the enemy, which last were +brought on board the Louisiana for care. After remaining there ten days, +the Louisiana returned to Cairo, and receiving on board the wounded from +Mound City Hospital, carried them to Cincinnati. Mrs. Colfax and her +friends were very busy in the care of these poor men, many of them very +low, giving unceasing attentions to them, and even then feeling that +they had not done half enough. + +Immediately after their return to Cairo, they left for Savannah and +Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee River. They took from the latter +place two hundred and fifty men, leaving again before the battle of +Shiloh. This took place immediately after they left, and they ran up to +St. Louis, landed their freight of wounded, and returned immediately for +another load. + +Two hundred and seventy-five desperately wounded men from the battle of +Shiloh, formed this load. They quickly made their way Northward with +their freight of misery and suffering. This was beyond the power of the +imagination to conceive, and the nurses were too busy in their cares to +sleep or eat. The sorrowful labor was at last performed, the wounded +were transferred to the hospitals at St. Louis, and Mrs. Colfax returned +to her duties there. + +After remaining some time in the Fifth Street Hospital, and making +occasional trips on the Hospital-boats, Mrs. Colfax was sent to the +Hospital at Jefferson Barracks, where she remained a long time, and +where her services, so eminently kind, efficient and womanly, met the +success they so much deserved. + +She remained in the service as a hospital nurse two years and a half. +Except while on the hospital boats, and during brief stays at the +various hospitals of the South-west, while attached to the Transport +Service, she spent the entire time at Fifth Street Hospital, St. Louis, +and at Jefferson Barracks. In each and every place her services were +alike meritorious, and though she encountered many annoyances, and +unpleasant incidents, she does not now regret the time and labor she +bestowed in doing her share of the woman's work of the war. + +Like all earnest, unselfish workers, in this eminently unselfish +service, Mrs. Colfax delights to bear testimony to the efficient labors +of others. + +All who worked with her were her friends, and she has the fullest +appreciation of their best qualities, and their earnest efforts. Among +those she names thus feelingly, are Mrs. Plummer, the matron of the +Fifth Street Hospital, St. Louis, Miss Addie E. Johnson, Mrs. Gibson, +and others, her fellow-workers there. + +Early in 1864, quite worn out with her protracted labors, Mrs. Colfax +returned to her home in Michigan City, where she still resides, honored, +beloved and respected, as her character and services demand. + + + + +MISS CLARA DAVIS. + + +This lady, now the wife of the Rev. Edward Abbott, of Cambridgeport, +Massachusetts, was one of the earliest, most indefatigable and useful of +the laborers for Union soldiers during the war. Her labors commenced +early in the winter of 1861-62, in the hospitals of Philadelphia, in +which city she was then residing. + +Her visits were at first confined to the Broad and Cherry Street +Hospital, and her purpose at first was to minister entirely to the +religious wants of the sick, wounded and dying soldiers. Her interest in +the inmates of that institution was never permitted to die out. + +It was not patriotism,--for Miss Davis was not a native of this +country--but rather a profound sympathy with the cause in which they +were engaged which led her, in company with the late Rev. Dr. Vaughan of +Philadelphia (of whose family she was an inmate) to visit this place and +aid him in his philanthropic and official duties. The necessity of the +case led her to labor regularly and assiduously to supply the lack of +many comforts which was felt here, and the need of woman's nursing and +comforting ways. By the month of May, ensuing, she was giving up her +whole time to these ministrations, and this at a considerable sacrifice, +and extending her efforts so as to alleviate the temporal condition of +the sufferers, as well as to minister to their spiritual ones. + +In the early part of this summer, memorable as the season of the +Peninsula Campaign, she, in company with Mrs. M. M. Husband, of +Philadelphia, entered upon the transport service on the James and +Potomac Rivers, principally on board the steamer "John Brooks"--passing +to and fro with the sick and wounded between Harrison's Landing, +Fortress Monroe and Philadelphia. This joint campaign ended with a +sojourn of two months at Mile Creek Hospital, Fortress Monroe. + +Her friend, Mrs. H. thus speaks of her. "A more lovely Christian +character, a more unselfishly devoted person, than Miss Davis, I have +never known. Her happy manner of approaching the soldiers, especially +upon religious subjects, was unequalled; the greatest scoffer would +listen to her with respect and attention, while the majority followed +her with a glance of veneration as if she were a being of a superior +order. I heard one say, 'there must be wings hidden beneath her cloak.'" + +After leaving Fortress Monroe, Miss Davis returned to Philadelphia, and +recruited her supplies for the use of the soldiers. She was anxious to +be permitted to serve in the field hospitals, but owing to unusual +strictness of regulation at that time, she was not permitted to do so. +Later in the season she accompanied Mrs. Husband to Frederick City, +Harper's Ferry and Antietam, at which latter place, by the invitation of +Surgeon Vanderkieft, and Miss Hall, she remained several weeks doing +very acceptable service. + +During the winter of 1863 she renewed her efforts to gain permission to +serve in the field hospitals of the army, then in winter quarters +between Falmouth and Acquia Creek, but was again repulsed. In the spring +she once more renewed her efforts, but without success. Again visiting +Washington, she was requested to become the agent of the Sanitary +Commission, at Camp Parole, Annapolis, Maryland. + +She commenced her laborious duties at Camp Parole about the 1st of May, +1863. She made numerous friends here, among all classes with whom she +came in contact, and did a most admirable work among the returned +prisoners. She remained here the whole summer, never allowing herself +one day's absence, until October. She suffered from ague, and her labors +were far too great for her strength. Camp, or typhoid fever, seized her, +and after long striving against weakness and pain, she was obliged to +return to her home to recruit. She made great efforts to again take up +her work where she had been obliged to leave it, but her strength would +not admit. + +She did not recover from this illness until the following February, nor +even then could she be said to have fully recovered. As soon as the +state of her health permitted, indeed before her physician gave his +consent, she resumed her labors at Camp Parole, but in a few weeks the +fever set in again, and further service was rendered impossible. Thus +closed the ministrations in field and hospital, of one, of whom a friend +who knew her well, and appreciated her fully, simply says, "Her deeds +were beyond praise." + +Her health was so undermined by her labors, that it has never been fully +recovered, and she still suffers, as she perhaps will to the end of her +life, from the weakness and diseases induced, by her unwonted exertions, +and the fevers which so greatly prostrated her. + +Nearly two years, as we have seen, she gave to her labors in camp and +hospital, labors which, as we have seen, were principally directed to +the relief of physical sufferings, though she never forgot to mingle +with them the spiritual ministrations which were the peculiar feature of +her usefulness. + +The interest of Miss Davis was not limited to soldiers in hospitals, any +more than were her labors confined to efforts for their relief. From her +numerous friends, and from societies, she was in constant receipt of +money, delicacies, reading matter, and many other things, both valuable +and useful to the soldiers, and not embraced in the government supplies, +nor sold by sutlers. These she distributed among both sick and well, as +their needs required. + +"She corresponded largely with the friends of sick soldiers; she +represented their needs to those who had the means to relieve them; she +used her influence in obtaining furloughs for the convalescents, and +discharges for the incurables; she importuned tape-bound officials for +passes, that the remains of the poor unpaid soldier might be buried +beside his parents; she erected head-boards at every soldier's grave at +that time in the cemetery at West Philadelphia, as a temporary memorial +and record." + +In the heat of Virginian summers, and the inclement winters, it was with +her the same steady unchanged work, till sickness put an end to her +labors. Till the last her intercourse with the soldiers was always both +pleasant, and in the highest sense profitable. + + + + +MRS. R. H. SPENCER. + + +Of all the band of noble women who during the war gave their time and +best labors with devotedness and singleness of purpose to the care of +the suffering defenders of their country, few, perhaps, have been as +efficient and useful in their chosen sphere as Mrs. Spencer. + +That she left a home of quiet ease and comfort, and gave herself, with +her whole soul, to the cause she loved, is not more than very many +others have done, but she incited her husband to offer himself to his +country, and gladly accompanied him, sharing all his privations, and +creating for him, amid the rudest surroundings, home with all its +comforts and enjoyments. + +At the commencement of the war, Mrs. Spencer was living at Oswego, New +York, which had been her residence for many years. Her husband, Captain +R. H. Spencer, had been formerly commander of several of the finest +vessels which sail from that port in the trade upon the upper lakes. But +for some years he had remained on shore, and devoted himself to the +occupation of teaching, in which he had a very fine reputation. Mrs. +Spencer was also a teacher, and both were connected with the public +schools for which that city is celebrated. + +Mr. Spencer was a member of that wing of the Democratic party which +opposed the war, and his age already exempted him from military duty. + +[Illustration: MRS. R. H. SPENCER. + Eng^d. by A.B. Walter.] + +When, therefore, immediately after the battle of Antietam he announced +to Mrs. Spencer that he had resolved to enlist in the Regiment then +rapidly forming in that city, she knew well, as did all who knew him, +that only an imperative sense of personal duty had led to the decision. + +Oswego had to mourn the most irreparable losses in that battle. The +flower of her young men had been cut down, and many homes made desolate. +Mr. Spencer, like many others, felt impelled to add himself to the +patriot ranks, and help to fill the gaps left by the fallen. + +Mrs. Spencer, whose name and person had long been familiar to the sick +and suffering at home, had often longed for the power of ministering to +those who had taken their lives in their hands, and gone forth in the +service of their country. And she now not only gave her husband to the +work, but resolved to aid him in it. She might not stand by his side, in +the armed ranks, but there was, for her, service as arduous and +important, for which she was peculiarly fitted, not only by the extreme +kindness and benevolence of her nature, but by experience in the care of +the sick. + +When her husband had enlisted and was sworn into the service, she, too, +took the oath to faithfully serve her country, and her place by his +side. + +The regiment (one hundred and forty-seventh New York) left Oswego the +27th of September, 1862, and arrived in Washington the 1st of October. +Mrs. Spencer, fatigued and ill, overcome with the excitement of +preparation, perhaps, and the grief of parting with her friends, found +herself thus in a strange city and upon the threshold of a strange new +life. She obtained a little sleep upon a bench outside the Soldiers' +Rest, and though scarcely refreshed commenced her duties early on the +following morning by feeding from her own stores six wounded men from +the battle of Antietam, who had arrived during the night. After making +tea for them, and doing all she could for their comfort, she was obliged +to leave, as the regiment was _en route_ for Arlington Heights. + +Mrs. Spencer remained in the neighborhood of Washington until the middle +of the December following. The regiment had gone forward some time +previously, leaving herself and husband in charge of the hospital +stores. Her husband was ward-master of the hospital, and she was matron +and nurse. + +When the hospital tents and stores were sent to Acquia Creek, to the +regiment, Mr. and Mrs. Spencer remained for a time to care for the sick +and wounded in Washington, and volunteered to take care of the wounded +from the first battle of Fredericksburg, who were brought to the Patent +Office. + +On the 12th of January Mr. Spencer went to join the regiment at +Falmouth, while Mrs. Spencer proceeded to New York for supplies, and on +the 17th returned and joined the regiment at Belle Plain, proceeding +almost immediately to Wind Mill Point, in company with the sick and +wounded removed thither. Here she remained six months, engaged in her +arduous duties as matron in the hospital of the First Corps, to which +her husband was also attached. + +From this place they were transferred to Belle Plain, and after a short +stay from thence to Acquia Creek, where they remained attached to the +hospital until the 13th of June, when they were ordered to report to +their regiment, then lying near Falmouth. + +Mrs. Spencer had by this time, by much practice, become an expert +horse-woman, often foraging on her own account for supplies for the sick +and wounded under her care. By the order of Dr. Hurd, the Medical +Director of the First Corps, she took with her the horse she had been +accustomed to ride, and a few days afterwards commenced on horseback the +march to Gettysburg--now become historical. + +Nearly two weeks were consumed in this march, one of which was spent in +an encampment on Broad Run. + +Mrs. Spencer's horse carried, besides herself, her bedding, sundry +utensils for cooking, and a scanty supply of clothing, about three +hundred and fifty pounds of supplies for the sick. In addition to this +she often took charge of huge piles of coats belonging to the weary men, +which otherwise they would have thrown away as superfluous during the +intense heat of midday, to miss them sorely afterward amid the twilight +dews, or the drenching rains. + +The battle had already commenced as the long slow-moving train, to which +they were attached, approached Gettysburg, and the awful roar of cannon +and the scattering rattle of musketry reached their ears. + +The day previous an ammunition-wagon in their train had exploded, and +Mrs. Spencer had torn up the thick comforter which usually formed her +bed, that the driver of the wagon, who was fearfully burned, might be +wrapped in the cotton and bandaged by the calico of which it was made. +Mr. Spencer remained to care for the man, and at night--a dark and rainy +night--she found herself for the first time separated from her husband, +and unprotected by any friend. But the respectful and chivalric +instincts of American soldiers proved sufficient for her defense against +any evil that might have menaced her. They spread their rubber blankets +upon the muddy ground, and made a sort of tent with others, into which +she crept and slept guarded and secure through the long dark hours. At +morning they vied with each other in preparing her breakfast, and +waiting upon her with every possible respect and attention, and she went +on her way, rested and refreshed. + +In the course of the morning Mr. Spencer rejoined her. After the firing +was heard, telling the tale of the awful conflict that was progressing, +she felt that she could no longer remain with the halting train, but +must press on to some point where her work of mercy might commence. + +This was found in an unoccupied barn, not far from the field, where, by +the assistance of her husband, she got a fire and soon had her +camp-kettles filled with fragrant coffee, which she distributed to +every weary and wounded man who applied for the refreshing beverage. + +Wounded in considerable numbers from the Eleventh Corps were placed in +this barn to gain which they crossed the fields between two rows of +artillery, stationed there. Mrs. Spencer had two knapsacks and two +haversacks suspended from her saddle, and supplied with materials for +making tea, coffee and beef-tea--with these and crackers, she contrived +to provide refreshment. Meanwhile the balls and shells were falling fast +around the barn, and orders came to move further back. + +But this brave woman with her husband chose to move forward rather, in +search of her own regiment, though the enemy were then gaining upon the +Union troops. As they went on toward the battle, they found their +regiment stationed on a hill above them, and halting they made a fire +and prepared refreshments which they gave to all they could reach. + +While working here the Surgeon of the First Division came hurrying past, +and peremptorily called on Mrs. Spencer to go and help form a hospital. +When she and Mr. Spencer found that many men of their own regiment were +in the train of ambulances which was going slowly past with the +sufferers, they followed. + +They crossed to the White Church, on the Baltimore turnpike, about four +miles from Gettysburg, and reached there after dark. They had sixty +wounded undergoing every variety of suffering and torture. The church +was small, having but one aisle, and the narrow seats were fixtures. A +small building adjoining provided boards which were laid on the tops of +the seats, and covered with straw, and on these the wounded were laid. + +The supply train had been sent back fourteen miles. A number of surgeons +were there, but none had instruments, and could do very little for the +wounded, and Mrs. Spencer found the stores contained in her knapsacks +and haversacks most useful in refreshing these sufferers. + +In the course of a few days the confusion subsided. The hospital was +thoroughly organized. The Sanitary and Christian Commissions and the +people came and aided them, and order came out of the chaos that +followed this awful battle. + +On the 5th of July, the buildings and tents which formed this hospital +contained over six hundred Union troops, and more than one hundred +wounded prisoners, and Mrs. Spencer found herself constantly and fully +employed, nursing the wounded, and daily riding into town for supplies. + +It was here that she gained, and very justly as it would seem, the +credit of saving the life of a wounded soldier, a townsman of her own. +The man was shot in the mouth and throat, a huge gaping orifice on the +side of his neck showing where the ball found exit. The surgeons gave +him but a few days to live, as he could swallow nothing, the liquids +which were all he even could attempt to take, passing out by the wound. +Tearfully he besought Mrs. Spencer's aid. Young and strong, and full of +life, he could not contemplate a death of slow starvation. Mrs. Spencer +went to the surgeons and besought their aid. None of them could give +hope, for none conceived the strength of will in nurse or patient. + +"Do as I tell you ----, and you shall not die," said Mrs. Spencer. "Can +you bear to go without food a week?" + +Gratefully the man signed "yes," and with the tough unyielding patience +of a hero, he bore the pains of wound and hunger. In the meantime the +chief appliance was the basin of pure cold water from which he was +directed to keep his wound continually wet, that horrid wound which it +seemed no human skill could heal. + +In a few days the inflammation began to subside, even the surgeons +decided the symptoms good, and began to watch the case with interest. +The ragged edges of the wound, when the swelling subsided, could be +closed up. Then, by direction of his kind nurse, he plunged his face +into a basin of broth, and supped from it strength, since it did not +all escape from the still unhealed wound. Every day witnessed an +improvement. In a little time he took his food like a human being; each +day witnessed new strength and healing, and then he was saved, and the +nurse proved wiser, for once, than the doctor! + +For three weeks Mrs. Spencer remained in the White Church Hospital. She +then accompanied some wounded to New York City, and took a brief respite +from her duties, and the awful scenes she had witnessed. + +On her return to Gettysburg, she received as a mark of the esteem felt +for her by those who had witnessed her labors and devotion to the work, +and the confidence reposed in her, the appointment of Agent of the State +of New York, in the care of its sick and wounded soldiers in the field. +Large discretionary powers, both as to the purchase and the distribution +of supplies, were granted her; and every effort was made to have this +appointment distinguished as a mark of the high appreciation and esteem +which she had won in the discharge of her duties. + +As her husband was detailed as clerk in the Medical Purveyor's Office, +at Gettysburg, she remained there in the active performance of her +duties for a considerable time. + +Beside the supplies furnished by the State of New York, a large amount +were entrusted to her, by various Ladies' Aid Societies, and kindred +associations. + +After leaving Gettysburg, Mrs. Spencer was variously but usefully +employed at various places, and in various ways, but always making her +duties as State agent for the New York troops prominent, and of the +first importance. She was for some time at Brandy Station. While there +her husband received his discharge from the Volunteer Service, but +immediately entered the regular service, as Hospital Steward, and was +attached to the Medical Purveyor's Department. + +From Brandy Station, Mrs. Spencer went to Alexandria, and remained there +until after the battle of the Wilderness, when she was ordered by the +Surgeon-General to repair to Rappahannock Station, with needful supplies +for the wounded. On arriving there, no wounded were found, and it was +rumored that the ambulances containing them had been intercepted by the +enemy, and turned another way. + +The party therefore returned to Alexandria, and there received orders to +repair with stores to Belle Plain. The Steamer on which Mrs. Spencer +was, arrived at day-break at its destination, but she could not for some +time get on shore. As soon as possible she landed, anxious to let her +services be of some avail to the many wounded who stood in immediate +need of assistance, and thinking she might at least make coffee or tea +for some of them. + +After distributing what supplies she had, she found in another part of +the field several Theological Students, delegates of the Sanitary +Commission, who were making coffee in camp kettles for the wounded. Her +services were thankfully accepted by them. All the day, and far into the +night they worked, standing inches deep in the tenacious Virginia mud, +till thousands had been served. + +All the afternoon the wounded were arriving. Thousands were laid upon +the ground, upon the hill-side, perhaps under the shelter of a bush, +perhaps with only the sky above them, from which the rain poured in +torrents. + +All with scarcely an exception were patient, cheerful, and +thoughtful--when asked as to their own condition, seeming more troubled +by the risk she ran in taking cold, than of their own sufferings. + +Late in the night, she remembered that she was alone, and must rest +somewhere. A wagon driver willingly gave her his place in the wagon, and +thoroughly drenched with rain, and covered with mud, she there rested +for the first time in many hours. Her sad and anxious thoughts with her +physical discomforts prevented sleep, but with the dawn she had rested +so much, as to be able to resume her labors. + +Another, and another day passed. The wounded from those fearful battles +continued to arrive, and to be cared for, as well as was possible under +the circumstances. The workers were shortly afterward made as +comfortable as was possible. For two weeks Mrs. Spencer remained, and +labored at Belle Plain, remained till her clothing of which, not +expecting to remain, she had brought no change, was nearly worn out. The +need was so pressing, of care for the wounded, that she scarcely thought +of herself. + +In the latter part of May, she left Belle Plain, and went to Port Royal, +where similar scenes were enacted, save that there a shelter was +provided. She had joined forces with the Sanitary Commission, and the +facilities were now good and the workers numerous, yet it was barely +possible, with all these, and with Government and Commission supplies, +and private contributions, to feed the applicants. + +The Medical Purveyor's boat with her husband on board, having arrived, +Mrs. Spencer proceeded on that boat to White House, where she was placed +in Superintendence of the Government Cooking Barge, continuing at the +same time her supervision of the wants of the New York soldiery. + +Here they fed the first wounded who arrived from the field, and here +Mrs. Spencer continued many days directing the feeding of thousands +more, ever remembering the regiments from her own State, as her special +charge, and assisted by many volunteers and others in her arduous task. + +On the 18th of June, 1864, Mrs. Spencer arrived at City Point. The +wounded were still arriving, and there was enough for all to do. A +Hospital was here established, a mile from the landing. The Government +kitchen was kept up, till the hospitals and their kitchens were in full +operation, when it was discontinued, and Mrs. Spencer relieved from her +double task. + +From that time, Mrs. Spencer confined herself mostly to the duties of +her agency, and continued to make City Point her headquarters and base +of operations until the close of the war closed the agency, and left +her free once again to seek the welcome seclusion of her home. + +She occasionally visited the General Hospitals to distribute supplies to +her New York soldiers and others, but these being now well organized, +did not, owing to the plenty of attendants greatly need her services, +and they were mostly confined to visits to soldiers in the field, at the +Front, Field Hospitals, and in the Rifle Pits.[I] + +[Footnote I: Every facility was furnished her by the various officers in +command, and a special and permanent pass by General Grant.] + +Her equestrian skill now often came in use. Often a ride of from twenty +to forty miles in the day would enable her to visit some outlying +regiment or picket station, or even to reach the Rifle Pits that +honeycombed plain and hill-side all about Petersburg and Richmond, and +return the same day. On these occasions she was warmly and +enthusiastically welcomed by the soldiers, not only for what she +brought, but for the comfort and solace of her presence. + +She was often in positions of great peril from whizzing shot and +bursting shell, but was never harmed during these dangerous visits. On +one occasion, she was probably by reason of her black hat and feather, +mistaken for an officer, as she for a moment carelessly showed the upper +part of her person, from a slight eminence near the rifle pits, and was +fired at by one of the enemy's sharp-shooters. The ball lodged in a +tree, close by her side, from which she deliberately dug it out with her +penknife, retaining it as a memento of her escape. + +Few of us whose days have been passed in the serene quietude of home, +can imagine the comfort and joy her presence and cheering words brought +to the "boys" undergoing the privations and discomforts of their station +at the "Front," in those days of peril and siege. As she approached, her +name would be heard passing from man to man, with electric swiftness, +and often the shouts that accompanied it, would receive from the enemy +a warlike response in the strange music of the whistling shot, or the +bursting shell. + +Through all this she seemed to bear a charmed life. "I never believed I +should be harmed by shot or shell," she says, and her simple faith was +justified. + +She even escaped nearly unharmed the fearful peril of the great +explosion at City Point, when, as it is now supposed, by rebel +treachery, the ammunition barge was fired, and hundreds of human beings +without an instant's warning, were hurried into eternity. + +When this event occurred, she was on horseback near the landing, and in +turning to flee was struck, probably by a piece of shell, in the side. +Almost as by a miracle she escaped with only a terrible and extensive +bruise, and a temporary paralysis of the lower limbs. The elastic steel +wires of her crinoline, had resisted the deadly force of the blow, which +otherwise would undoubtedly have killed her. A smaller missile, nearly +cut away the string of her hat, which was found next day covered by the +ghastly smear of human blood and flesh, which also sprinkled all her +garments. + +After the surrender of Richmond, Mrs. Spencer, with a party of friends, +visited that city, and she records that she experienced a very human +sense of satisfaction, as she saw some rebel prisoners marching into +that terrible Libby Prison, to take the place of the Union prisoners who +had there endured such fearful and nameless sufferings. + +On the 8th of April the President came to visit the hospitals at City +Point, shaking hands with the convalescents, who were drawn up to +receive him, and speaking cheering words to all. A week later he had +fallen the victim of that atrocious plot which led to his assassination. + +Mrs. Spencer remained at City Point, engaged in her duties, till all the +wounded had been removed, and the hospitals broken up. On the 31st of +May, she went on the medical supply boat to Washington. She there +offered her services to aid in any way in care of the wounded, while she +remained, which she did for several days. About the middle of June she +once more found herself an inmate of her own home, and, after the long +season of busy and perilous days, gladly retired to the freedom and +quiet of private life. She remained in the service about three years, +and the entire time, with only the briefest intervals of rest, was well +and profitably occupied in her duties, a strong will and an excellent +constitution having enabled her to endure fatigues which would soon have +broken down a person less fitted, in these respects, for the work. + +Mrs. Spencer has received from soldiers, (who are all her grateful +friends) from loyal people in various parts of the country, and from +personal friends and neighbors, many tokens of appreciation, which she +enumerates with just pride and gratitude. Not the least of these is her +house and its furniture, a horse, a sewing machine, silver ware, and +expensive books; beside smaller articles whose chief value arises from +the feeling that caused the gifts. Her health has suffered in +consequence of her labors but she now hopes for permanent recovery. + + + + +MRS. HARRIET FOOTE HAWLEY. + + +Among the many heroic women who gave their services to their country in +our recent warfare, few deserve more grateful mention than Mrs. Harriet +Foote Hawley, wife of Brevet Major-General Hawley, the present Governor +of Connecticut. + +Mrs. Hawley is of a fragile and delicate constitution, and one always +regarded by her friends as peculiarly unfitted to have part in labors or +hardships of any kind. But from the beginning to the end of the war, she +was an exemplification of how much may be done by one "strong of +spirit," even with the most delicate physical frame. + +She went alone to Beaufort, South Carolina, in November, 1862, to engage +in teaching the colored people. While there she regularly visited the +army hospitals, and interested herself in the practical details of +nursing, to which she afterwards more particularly devoted herself, and +that spring and summer did the same at Fernandina and St. Augustine. + +In November, 1863, she rejoined her husband on St. Helena Island, to +which he had returned with his regiment from the siege of Charleston. +She visited the Beaufort and Hilton Head General Hospitals, as well as +the post hospital at St. Helena frequently during the winter, especially +after the severe battle of Olustee, in February, 1864. When the Tenth +Corps went to Fortress Monroe, to join General Butler's army, Mrs. +Hawley went with them, and failing to find work in the Chesapeake +Hospital, went to Washington and was assigned the charge of a ward in +the Armory Square Hospital, on the very morning when the wounded began +to arrive from the battles of the Wilderness. + +Her ward was one of the two in the armory itself, which for a +considerable time contained more patients than any other in that +hospital. "Armory Square" being near the Potomac, usually received the +most desperate cases, which could with difficulty be moved far. There +could be no operating room connected with this ward, and the operations, +however painful or dreadful, were of necessity performed in the ward +itself. The scenes presented were enough to appal the stoutest nerves. +The men exhausted by marching and by a long journey after their wounds, +died with great rapidity--in one day forty-eight were carried out +dead--many reaching the hospital only in time to die. + +Among scenes like these Mrs. Hawley took up her abode, and labored with +an untiring zeal over four months in the hottest of the summer +weather--never herself strong--often suffering to a degree that would +have confined others to the bed of an invalid. She was ever at her post, +a guiding, directing, and comforting presence, until worn-out nature +required a temporary rest. After two months of repose she again returned +to the same ward, and continued her labors from November to the last of +March, 1865. + +About the first of March, directly after its capture, her husband had +been assigned to the command of Wilmington, North Carolina. + +She arrived at Wilmington, directly after nine thousand Union prisoners +had been delivered there, of whom more than three thousand needed +hospital treatment. + +The army was entirely unprovided with any means of meeting this +exigency. The horrible condition of the prisoners, and the crowds of +half-fed whites and blacks collected in the town, bred a pestilence. +Typhus or jail fever appeared in its most dreadful form, and the deaths +were terribly frequent. The medical officers tried all their energies to +get supplies. + +The garrison, the loyal citizens, and all good people gave their spare +clothing, and all delicacies of food within reach, to alleviate the +suffering. At one time nearly four thousand sick soldiers, together with +some wounded from the main army, were scattered through the dwellings +and churches of the town, and a considerable time elapsed before one +clean garment could be found for each sufferer. The principal surgeon, +Dr. Buzzell, of New Hampshire, died of over exertion and typhoid fever. +Of five northern ladies, professional nurses, three were taken sick and +two died. Chaplain Eaton died of the fever, and other chaplains were +severely sick. To the detailed soldiers the fever and climate proved a +greater danger than a battle-field. Through all these scenes of trial +and danger Mrs. Hawley exerted herself to the utmost, in the hospitals, +and among the poor of the town, avoiding no danger of contagion, not +even that of small-pox. + +Gradually supplies arrived, better hospitals were provided, the town was +cleansed, and by the latter part of June--though the city was still +unhealthy--but few cases remained in the hospitals. + +Mrs. Hawley accompanied her husband to Richmond about the 1st of July, +where he had been appointed chief of staff to General Terry. In October, +while returning from the battle-ground of Five Forks, where she had been +with an uncle to find the grave of his son (Captain Parmerlee, First +Connecticut Cavalry) she received an injury on the head by the upsetting +of the ambulance, through which unfortunately she remains still an +invalid. + +Her name and memory must be dear to hundreds whose sufferings she has +shared and relieved, and she will be followed in her retirement by the +prayers of grateful hearts. + +Although it does not perhaps belong to the purpose of this book, it +seems not inappropriate to make mention of the labors of Mrs. Hawley in +the education of the freedmen and their families. Both she and her +sister, Miss Kate Foote, labored in this sphere long and assiduously. + +Governor Hawley was one of the speakers at the Boston anniversaries, in +May, 1866. Colonel Higginson, in alluding to his personal services, said +he would tell of his better half. When Colonel Hawley went as commander +of the Seventh Connecticut to Port Royal, to do his share of conquering +and to conquer, he took with him a thousand bayonets on one side, and a +Connecticut woman with her school-books on the other (applause). Where +he planted the standard of the Union, she planted its institutions; and +where he waved the sword, she waved the primer. + + + + +ELLEN E. MITCHELL. + + +This lady, better known among those to whom she ministered as "Nellie +Mitchell," was at the opening of the late war a resident of Montrose, +Pennsylvania, where, surrounded by friends, the inmate of a pleasant +home, amiable, highly educated and accomplished, her early youth had +been spent. Her family was one of that standing often named as "our +first families," and her position one every way desirable. + +Perhaps her own words extracted from a letter to the writer of this +sketch will give the best statement of her views and motives. + +"I only did my duty, did what I could, and did it because it would have +been a great act of self-denial not to have done it. + +"I have ever felt that those who cheerfully gave their loved ones to +their country's cause, made greater sacrifices, manifested more heroism, +were worthy of more honor by far, than those of us who labored in the +hospitals or on the fields. I had not these 'dear ones' to give, so gave +heartily what I could, myself to the cause, with sincere gratitude, I +trust, to God, for the privilege of thus doing." + +Miss Mitchell left her home in Montrose early in May, 1861, and +proceeded to New York city, where she went through a course of +instruction in surgical nursing at Bellevue Hospital, preparatory to +assuming the duties of an army nurse. The unwonted labors, the terrible +sights, and close attendance so impaired her health that after six weeks +she concluded to go to Woodbury, Connecticut, where she remained with +friends while awaiting orders, and in consequence did not join the army +as soon as she otherwise would. Being absent from New York, one or two +opportunities were lost, and it was not until September that her labors +in the military hospitals commenced. + +She had intended to give her services to her country, but after +witnessing the frequent destitution of comforts among those to whom she +ministered, she decided to receive the regular pay of a nurse from the +Government, and appropriated it entirely to the benefit of the suffering +ones around her. + +Luxuries sent by her friends for her own use she applied in the same +manner. The four years of her service were filled with self-sacrifice +and faithful devoted labor. + +Miss Mitchell spent the first three months in Elmore Hotel Hospital, +Georgetown, District of Columbia. Around this place cluster some of the +pleasantest, as well as the saddest memories of her life. The want of a +well-arranged, systematic plan of action in this hospital, made the +tasks of the nurses peculiarly arduous and trying. Yet Miss Mitchell +records that she never found more delight in her labors, and never +received warmer expressions of gratitude from her "boys." On being +brought for the first time to a place associated in their minds only +with gloom and suffering the joyful surprise of these poor fellows at +finding kind hearts and willing hands ready to minister to their wants +with almost motherly, or sisterly affection, exceeded words and called +forth such manifestations of gratitude as amply rewarded those who thus +watched over them for all their toils. Often as they saw these kindly +women engaged in their busy tasks of mercy, their eyes would glisten as +they followed them with the most intense earnestness, and their lips +would unconsciously utter remarks like these, so homely and spontaneous +as to leave no doubt of their sincerity. "How good! how home-like to +see women moving around! We did not expect anything like this!" + +But much as she loved her work and had become attached to her charges, +circumstances of a very painful nature soon compelled Miss Mitchell to +resign her post in this hospital. Very unworthy hands sometimes assume a +ministry of kindness. There were associations here so utterly repugnant +to Miss Mitchell, that with a sorrowful heart she at last forced herself +to turn her back upon the suffering, in order to be free from them. + +But Providence soon opened the way to another engagement. In less than +two weeks she entered St. Elizabeth's Hospital. This was situated in +Washington across the Eastern branch of the Potomac in an unfinished +wing of the Insane Retreat. + +Her initiation here was a sad, lonely night-watch, by the bed-side of a +dying nurse, who about ten o'clock the following day, with none but +strangers to witness her dying conflicts, passed from this scene of pain +and struggle. + +It was about the last of December that she entered here, and in February +she was compelled to relinquish the care of her ward by a severe and +dangerous illness which lasted seven weeks. Her greatest joy in +returning health consisted in her restoration to the duties in which she +had learned to delight. + +During this illness Miss Mitchell was constantly attended and nursed by +Miss Jessie Home, a young woman of Scottish birth, of whom mention is +made in another place, a most excellent and self-sacrificing woman who +afterwards lost her life in the cause of her adopted country. + +This kindly care and the assiduous and skilful attentions of Dr. +Stevens, who was the surgeon of the hospital were, as she gratefully +believes, the means of preserving her life. + +Miss Mitchell had scarcely recovered from this illness when she was +unexpectedly summoned home to stand by the death-bed of a beloved +mother. After a month's absence, sadly occupied in this watch of +affection, she again returned to Washington, whence she was sent +directly to Point Lookout, in Maryland, at the entrance of the Potomac +into Chesapeake Bay, where a hospital had recently been established. + +She remained about two months at Point Lookout, and was surrounded there +with great suffering in all its phases, besides meeting with peculiar +trials, which rendered her stay at this hospital the most unsatisfactory +part of her "soldier life." + +Her next station was at the Ware House Hospital, Georgetown, District of +Columbia, where she was employed in the care of the wounded from the +second battle of Bull Run. Most of these poor men were suffering from +broken limbs, had lain several days uncared for upon the field, and were +consequently greatly reduced in strength. They had besides suffered so +much from their removal in the jolting ambulances, that many of them +expressed a wish that they had been left to die on the field, rather +than to have endured such torment. Miss Mitchell found here a sphere +decidedly fitted to her peculiar powers, for she was always best pleased +to labor in the surgical wards, and would dress and care for wounds with +almost the skill, and more than the tenderness of a practiced surgeon. + +After some time this hospital being very open, became untenantable, and +in February was closed, and Miss Mitchell was transferred to Union Hotel +Hospital, where five of the nurses being at that time laid up by +illness, her duties became unusually arduous. + +Since her former labors here the hospital had been closed, refitted, and +reopened under every way improved auspices. The "boys" found themselves +in every respect so kindly cared for, and so surrounded by home-like +experience that it was with great regret they saw the hospital broken +up, in March. + +Miss Mitchell's inclination would then, as often before, have led her to +the front, but she was forced to obey orders, "soldier-like," and found +herself transferred to Knight Hospital, New Haven, as the next scene of +her labors. Here she remained three months actively and usefully +employed, but at the end of that time she had become so worn out with +her long continued and arduous services, as to feel compelled to resign +her position as army nurse. She soon after accepted a desirable +situation in the Treasury Department, upon the duties of which she +entered in July, 1863. + +Miss Mitchell has never quite reconciled her conscience to this act, +which she fears was too much tinged with selfishness and induced by +interested motives. Feeling thus, she again enlisted as army nurse after +a few months, resolving never again to abandon the service, while the +war continued and strength was given her to labor. + +This was in the beginning of May, 1864, and she was immediately sent to +Fredericksburg to assist in caring for the wounded from the battle of +the Wilderness. The scenes and labors of that terrible period are beyond +description. Miss Mitchell was amidst them all, and like an angel of +mercy made herself everywhere useful to the crowds of ghastly sufferers +from those fields of awful carnage, which marked the onward march of +Grant to victory, and the suppression of the rebellion. + +When our army left Fredericksburg, most of the wounded were transferred +to Washington, Miss Mitchell would again have preferred to go to the +front, but obeyed orders, and went instead to Judiciary Square Hospital, +Washington, where she found many of her former patients. After she had +spent one day there, she would not willingly have left those poor men +whom she found so greatly needing a woman's care. For weeks the +mortality was fearful, and she found herself surrounded by the dead and +dying, but gradually this was lessened, and she became engaged in the +more delightful duty of superintending the improvement of convalescents, +and watching the return to health of many a brave hero who had perhaps +sacrificed limbs, and well-nigh life, in the service of his country. +Here she remained, with ever-increasing satisfaction in her labors, +until the final closing of the Hospital in June, 1865. + +Here also ended her army services, with the occasion for them. She had +rendered them joyfully, and she resigned them with regret and sadness at +parting with those who had so long been her charge, and whom she would +probably see no more forever. But in all joy or sadness, in all her +life, she will not cease to remember with delight and gratitude how she +was enabled to minister to the suffering, and thus perform a woman's +part in the great struggle which redeemed our country from slavery, and +made us truly a free people. + +Few have done better service, for few have been so peculiarly adapted to +their work. In all she gratefully acknowledges the aid and sustaining +sympathy of her friends in New Milford, Pa., and elsewhere, to which she +was so greatly indebted for the ability to minister with comforts to the +sufferers under her charge. + +As these lines are written some letters from a soldier who was long +under her kind care in Washington, lie upon the writer's table with +their appreciative mention of this excellent woman; which coming from +one who knew and experienced her goodness, may well be regarded as the +highest testimony of it. Here is one brief extract therefrom. + +"As for Miss Mitchell herself--she has a cheerful courage, faith and +patience which take hold of the duties of this place with a will that +grasps the few amenities and pleasures found here, and works them all up +into sunshine; and looks over and beyond the fatiguing work, and +unavoidable brutalities of the present. Do we not call this happiness? +Happiness is not to be pitied--nor is she!" + +In another place he speaks of her unswerving, calm devotion--her entire +self-abnegation, as beyond all he has seen of the like traits elsewhere. +And still there were many devoted women--perhaps many Ellen Mitchells! +Again he compares the hospital work of Miss Mitchell and her +fellow-laborers with that of the sisters of charity, in whose care he +had previously been--the one human, alert, sympathizing--not loving sin, +nor sinful men, but laboring for them, sacrificing for them, pardoning +them as Christ does--the other working with machine-like accuracy, but +with as little apparent emotion, showing none in fact beyond a prudish +shrinking from these sufferers from the outer world, of which they know +nothing but have only heard of its wickedness. The contrast is powerful, +and shows Miss Mitchell and her friends in fairest colors. + + + + +MISS JESSIE HOME. + + +Jessie Home was a native of Scotland. No ties bound her to this, her +adopted land. No relative of hers, resided upon its soil. She was +alone--far from kindred and the friends of her early youth. But the +country of her adoption had become dear to her. She loved it with the +ardor and earnestness which were a part of her nature, and she was +willing, nay anxious, to devote herself to its service. + +At the commencement of the war Miss Home was engaged in a pleasant and +lucrative pursuit, which she abandoned that she might devote herself to +the arduous and ill-paid duties of a hospital nurse. + +She entered the service early in the war, and became one of the corps of +Government nurses attached to the hospitals in the vicinity of +Washington. Like others, regularly enlisted, and under orders from Miss +Dix, the Government Superintendent of nurses, she was transferred from +point to point and from hospital to hospital, as the exigencies of the +service required. But she had only to be known to be appreciated, and +her companions, her patients, and the surgeons under whom she worked, +were equally attached to her, and loud in her praises. She entered into +her work with her whole soul--untiring, faithful, of a buoyant +temperament, she possessed a peculiar power of winning the love and +confidence of all with whom she came in contact. + +She was quite dependent upon her own resources, and in giving herself to +the cause yielded up a profitable employment and with it her means of +livelihood. Yet she denied herself all luxuries, everything but the +merest necessities, that out of the pittance of pay received from the +Government, out of the forty cents per day with which her labors were +_rewarded_, she might save something for the wants of the suffering ones +under her care. + +And be it remembered always, that in this work it was not alone the +well-born and the wealthy who made sacrifices, and gave grand gifts. Not +from the sacrifice of gauds and frippery did the humble charities of +these hired nurses come, but from the yielding up of a thousand needed +comforts for themselves, and the forgetfulness of their own wants, in +supplying the mightier wants of the suffering. It is impossible to +mention them with words of praise beyond their merit. + +For about two years Miss Home labored thus untiringly and faithfully, +always alert, cheerful, active. During this time she had drawn to +herself hosts of attached friends. + +At the end of that period she fell a martyr to her exertions in the +cause to which she had so nobly devoted herself. + +When attacked with illness, she must have felt all the horrors of +desolation--for she was without means or home. But Providence did not +desert her in this last dread hour of trial. Miss Rebecca Bergen of +Brooklyn, N. Y., who had learned her worth by a few months' hospital +association, deemed it a privilege to receive the sufferer at her own +home, and to watch over the last hours of this noble life as it drew to +a close, ministering to her sufferings with all the kindness and +affection of a sister, and smoothing her passage to the grave. + +Thus, those, who without thought for themselves, devote their lives and +energies to the welfare of others, are often unexpectedly cared for in +the hour of their own extremity, and find friends springing up to +protect them, and to supply their wants in the day of their need. Far +from kindred and her native land, this devoted woman thus found friends +and kindly care, and the stranger hands that laid her in an alien grave +were warm with the emotion of loving hearts. + + + + +M. VANCE AND M. A. BLACKMAR. + + +Miss Mary Vance is a Pennsylvanian. Before the War, she was teaching +among the Indians of Kansas or Nebraska, but it becoming unsafe there, +she was forced to leave. She came to Miss Dix, who sent her to a +Baltimore Hospital, in which she rendered efficient service, as she +afterward did in Washington and Alexandria. In September, 1863, she went +to the General Hospital, Gettysburg, where she was placed in charge of +six wards, and no more indefatigable, faithful and judicious nurse was +to be found on those grounds. She labored on continuously, going from +point to point, as our army progressed towards Richmond, at +Fredericksburg, suffering much from want of strengthening and proper +food, but never murmuring, doing a vast amount of work, in such a quiet +and unpretending manner, as to attract the attention from the +lookers-on. Few, but the recipients of her kindness, knew her worth. At +City Point, she was stationed in the Second Corps Hospital, where she, +as usual, won the respect and esteem of the Surgeons and all connected +with her. + +Miss Vance labored the whole term of the War, with but three weeks' +furlough, in all that time. A record, that no other woman can give, and +but few soldiers. + +Miss Blackmar, one of Michigan's worthy daughters, was one of the +youngest of the band of Hospital nurses. She, for ten months, labored +unceasingly at City Point. More than usually skilful in wound dressing, +she rendered efficient service to her Surgeons, as well as in saving +many poor boys much suffering from the rough handling of inexperienced +soldier-nurses. A lad was brought to her Wards, with a wound in the +temple, which, in the course of time, ate into the artery. This she had +feared, and was always especially careful in watching and attending to +him. But, in her absence, a hemorrhage took place, the nurse endeavored +to staunch the blood, but at last, becoming frightened, sent for a +Surgeon. When she came back to the Ward, there lay her boy pale and +exhausted, life almost gone. But she persevered in her efforts, and at +last had the satisfaction of witnessing his recovery. + +At City Point, Miss Vance and Miss Blackmar were tent-mates, and +intimate friends--both noted for their untiring devotion to their work, +their prudent and Christian deportment. As an instance of the wearying +effects of the labors of a Hospital nurse, Mrs. Husband, who was the +firm friend, and at City Point, the associate of these two young ladies, +relates the following; these two ladies, wearied as usual, retired one +very cold night, Miss Blackmar taking a hot brick with her, for her +feet. They slept the sound sleep of exhaustion for some time, when Miss +Vance struggled into consciousness, with a sensation of smothering, and +found that the tent was filled with smoke. After repeatedly calling her +companion, she was forced to rise and shake her, telling her that she +must be on fire. This at last aroused Miss Blackmar, who found that the +brick had burned through the cloth in which it was wrapped, the +straw-bed and two army blankets. By the application of water, the fire +was quenched, and after airing the tent, they were soon sleeping as +soundly as ever. But, in the morning, Miss Blackmar, to her +consternation, found that her feet and ankles were badly burned, covered +with blisters and very painful, though her sleep had been too sound to +feel it before. + + + + +[Illustration: MISS HATTIE A. DADA. + Eng^d. by A.H. Ritchie.] + + +H. A. DADA AND S. E. HALL. + + +Miss Hattie A. Dada and Miss Susan E. Hall, were among the most earnest +and persistent workers in a field which presented so many opportunities +for labor and sacrifice. Both offered themselves to the Women's Central +Association of Relief, New York, immediately on the formation of that +useful organization for any service, or in any capacity, where their aid +could be made available. Both had formerly been employed by one of the +Missionary Societies, in mission labors among the Indians of the +Southwest, and were eminently fitted for any sphere of usefulness which +the existing condition of our country could present to woman. + +They were received by the Association, and requested to join the class +of women who, with similar motives and intentions, were attending the +series of lectures and surgical instructions which was to prepare them +for the duties of nurses in the army hospitals. + +On Sunday, July 21st, 1861, a memorable day, the first battle of Bull +Run took place. On the following day, the 22d, the disastrous tidings of +defeat and rout was received in New York, and the country was thrilled +with pain and horror. + +At noon, on Monday, the 22d, Miss Dada and Miss Hall received +instructions to prepare for their journey to the scene of their future +labors, and at six P.M. they took the train for Washington, with orders +to report to Miss Dix. Tuesday morning found them amidst all the +terrible excitement which reigned in that city. The only question Miss +Dix asked, was, "Are you ready to work?" and added, "You are needed in +Alexandria." + +And toward Alexandria they were shortly proceeding. There were +apprehensions that the enemy might pursue our retreating troops, of whom +they met many as they crossed the Long Bridge, and passed the +fortifications all filled with soldiers watching for the coming foe who +might then so easily have invaded the Federal City. + +In some cabins by the road-side they first saw some wounded men, to whom +they paused to administer words of cheer, and a "cup of cold water." +They were in great apprehension that the road might not be safe, and a +trip to Richmond, in the capacity of prisoners was by no means to be +desired. + +At last they reached Alexandria, and in a dark stone building on +Washington Street, formerly a seminary, found their hospital. They were +denied admittance by the sentinel, but the surgeon in charge was called, +and welcomed them to their new duties. + +There they lay, the wounded, some on beds, many on mattresses spread +upon the floor, covered with the blood from their wounds, and the dust +of that burning summer battle-field, many of them still in their +uniforms. The retreat was so unexpected, the wounded so numerous, and +the helpers so few, that all were at once extremely busy in bringing +order and comfort to that scene of suffering. + +Their labors here were exceedingly arduous. No soldiers were detailed as +attendants for the first few weeks, and even the most menial duties fell +upon these ladies. Sometimes a contraband was assigned them as +assistant, but he soon tired of steady employment and left. They had +little sleep and food that was neither tempting nor sufficient. So busy +were they that two weeks elapsed before Miss Dada, whose letters furnish +most of the material for this sketch, found time to write home, and +inform her anxious friends "where she was." + +A busy month passed thus, and then the numbers in the hospital began to +decrease, many of the convalescent being sent North, or having +furloughs, till only the worst cases remained. + +As the winter approached typhus fever began to prevail among the troops, +and many distressing cases, some of which despite all their efforts +proved mortal, came under the care of these ladies. + +About the beginning of April, 1862, soon after the battle of Winchester, +and the defeat of Stonewall Jackson by General Shields, Miss Dada and +Miss Hall were ordered thither to care for the wounded. Here they were +transferred from one hospital to another, without time to become more +than vaguely interested in the individual welfare of their patients. At +length at the third, the Court-House Hospital, they were permitted to +remain for several weeks. Here many interesting cases were found, and +they became much attached to some of the sufferers under their care, and +found great pleasure in their duties. + +On the 22d of May they were ordered to Strasburg, and proceeded thither +to the care of several hundred sick, entirely unsuspicious of personal +danger, not dreaming that it could be met with beside the headquarters +of General Banks. But on the following day troops were observed leaving +the town on the Front Royal road, and the same night the memorable +retreat was ordered. + +It was indeed a sad sight which met their eyes in the gray of early +dawn. Ambulances and army wagons filled the streets. Soldiers from the +hospitals, scarcely able to walk, crawled slowly and painfully along, +while the sick were crowded into the overfilled ambulances. + +Pressing forward they arrived at Winchester at noon, but the ambulances +did not arrive till many hours later, with their dismal freight. The +fright and suffering had overpowered many, and many died as they were +carried into the hospitals. A little later the wounded began to come in, +and the faithful, hard-worked surgeons and nurses had their hands full. +The retreating Union forces came pouring through the town, the rebels in +close pursuit. The shouts of the combatants, and the continued firing, +created great confusion. Fear was in every heart, pallor on every cheek, +anxiety in every eye, for they knew not what would be their fate, but +had heard that the wounded had been bayonetted at Front Royal the +previous day. Many dying men, in their fright and delirium, leaped from +their beds, and when laid down soon ceased to breathe. + +Soon the rebels had possession of the town, and the ladies found +themselves prisoners with a rebel guard placed about their hospital. + +Their supplies were now quite reduced, and it was not until personal +application had been made by the nurses to the rebel authorities, that +suitable food was furnished. + +When the army left Winchester, enough men were ordered to remain to +guard the hospitals, and an order was read to all the inmates, that any +of them seen in the streets would be shot. + +Miss Dada and her friend remained at this place until the months of June +and July were passed. In August they were assigned to Armory Square +Hospital, Washington. + +Previous to the second battle of Bull Run, all the convalescent men were +sent further North, and empty beds were in readiness for the wounded, +who on the evening after the battle were brought in, in great numbers, +covered with the dust and gore of the field of conflict. Here the +ministering care of these ladies was most needed. They hastened with +basins and sponges, cold water and clean clothes, and soon the sufferers +felt the benefits of cleanliness, and were laid, as comfortably as their +wounds would admit, in those long rows of white beds that awaited them. +All were cheerful, and few regretted the sacrifices they had made. But +in a few days many of these heroes succumbed before the mighty +Conqueror. Their earthly homes they were never to see, but, one by one, +they passed silently to their last home of silence and peace, where the +war of battle and the pain of wounds never disturb. One poor fellow, a +Michigan soldier, wounded in the throat, could take no nourishment, nor +scarcely breathe. His sufferings were intense, and his restlessness kept +him constantly in motion as long as the strength for a movement +remained. But at last, he silently turned his face to the wall, and so +died. Another, a victim of lockjaw, only yielded to the influence of +chloroform. Another, whom the surgeons could only reach the second day, +had his arm amputated, but too late. Even while he believed himself on +the road to recovery, bad symptoms had intervened; and while with +grateful voice he was planning how he would assist Miss Dada as soon as +he was well enough, in the care of other patients, the hand of death was +laid upon him, and he soon passed away. + +Such are a few of the heart-rending scenes and incidents through which +these devoted ladies passed. + +The month of November found Miss Dada at Harper's Ferry. Miss Hall had +been at Antietam, but the friends had decided to be no longer separated. + +They found that the Medical Director of the Twelfth Army Corps was just +opening a hospital there, and the next day the sick and wounded from the +regimental hospitals were brought in. They had suffered for lack of +care, but though the new hospital was very scantily furnished, they +found that cause of trouble removed. Many of them had long been ill, and +want of cleanliness and vermin had helped to reduce them to extreme +emaciation. Their filthy clothes were replaced by clean ones, and burned +or thrown into the river, their heads shaven, and their revolting +appearance removed. But many a youth whom sickness and suffering had +given the appearance of old age, succumbed to disease and suffering, and +joined the long procession to the tomb. + +These were sad days, the men were dying rapidly. One day a middle-aged +woman came in inquiring for her son. Miss Dada took from her pocket a +slip of paper containing the name of one who had died a day or two +previously--it was the name of the son of this mother. She sought the +surgeon, and together they undertook the painful task of conveying to +the mother the tidings that her visit was in vain. Poor mother! How +many, like her, returned desolate to broken homes, from such a quest! + +May and June, 1863, Miss Dada and Miss Hall spent at Acquia Creek, in +care of the wounded from the battle of Chancellorsville, and the 8th of +July found them at Gettysburg--Miss Dada at the hospital of the Twelfth +Army Corps, at a little distance from the town, and Miss Hall at that of +the First Army Corps, which was within the town. The hospital of the +Twelfth Army Corps was at a farm-house. The house and barns were filled +with wounded, and tents were all around, crowded with sufferers, among +whom were many wounded rebel prisoners, who were almost overwhelmed with +astonishment and gratitude to find that northern ladies would extend to +them the same care as to the soldiers of their own army. + +The story of Gettysburg, and the tragical days that followed, has been +too often told to need repetition. The history of the devotion of +Northern women to their country's defenders, and of their sacrifices and +labors was illustrated in brightest characters there. Miss Hall and Miss +Dada remained there as long as their services could be made available. + +In December, 1863, they were ordered to Murfreesboro', Tennessee, once a +flourishing town, but showing everywhere the devastations of war. Two +Seminaries, and a College, large blocks of stores, and a hotel, had been +taken for hospitals, and were now filled with sick and wounded men. A +year had passed since the awful battle of Stone River,--the field of +which, now a wide waste lay near the town--but the hospitals had never +been empty. + +When they arrived, they reported to the medical director, who "did not +care whether they stayed or not," but, "if they remained wished them to +attend exclusively to the preparation of the Special Diet." They +received only discouraging words from all they met. They found shelter +for the night at the house of a rebel woman, and were next day +assigned--Miss Hall to No. 1 Hospital, Miss Dada to No. 3. + +When they reported, the surgeon of No. 1 Hospital, for their +encouragement, informed them that the chaplain thought they had better +not remain. Miss Dada also was coldly received, and it was evident that +the Surgeons and chaplains were very comfortable, and desired no outside +interference. They believed, however, that there was a work for them to +do, and decided to remain. + +Miss Dada found in the wards more than one familiar face from the +Twelfth Army Corps, and the glad enthusiasm of her welcome by the +patients, contrasted with the chilling reception of the officers. + +Most of these men had been wounded at Lookout Mountain, a few days +before, but many others had been suffering ever since the bloody battle +of Chickamauga. + +Miss Hall was able to commence her work at once, but Miss Dada was often +exhorted to patience, while waiting three long weeks for a stove, before +she could do more than, by the favor of the head cook of the full diet +kitchen, occasionally prepare at his stove, some small dishes for the +worst cases. + +Here the winter wore away. Many a sad tale of the desolations of war was +poured into their ears, by the suffering Union women who had lost their +husbands, fathers, sons, in the wild warfare of the country in which +they lived. And many a scene of sorrow and suffering they witnessed. + +In January, they had a pleasant call from Dr. M----, one of the friends +they had known at Gettysburg. This gentleman, in conversation with the +medical director, told him he knew two of the ladies there. The reply +illustrates the peculiar position in which they were placed. "Ladies!" +he answered with a sneer, "We have no ladies here! A hospital is no +place for a lady. We have some women here, who are cooks!" + +But they remembered that one has said--"The lowest post of service is +the highest place of honor," and that Christ had humiliated himself to +wash the feet of his disciples. + +In the latter part of the ensuing May, they went to Chattanooga. They +were most kindly received by the surgeons, and found much to be done. +Car-loads of wounded were daily coming from the front, all who could +bear removal were sent further north, and only the worst cases retained +at Chattanooga. They were all in good spirits, however, and rejoicing at +Sherman's successful advance--even those upon whom death had set his +dark seal. + +Miss Dada often rejoiced, while here, in the kindness of her friends at +home, which enabled her to procure for the sick those small, but at that +place, costly luxuries which their condition demanded. + +As the season advanced to glowing summer, the mortality became dreadful. +In her hospital alone, not a large one, and containing but seven hundred +beds, there were two hundred and sixty-one deaths in the month of June, +and there were from five to twenty daily. These were costly sacrifices, +often of the best, noblest, most promising,--for Miss Dada +records--"Daily I see devoted Christian youths dying on the altar of our +country." + +With the beginning of November came busy times, as the cars daily came +laden with their freight of suffering from Atlanta. On the 26th, Miss +Dada records, "One year to-day since Hooker's men fought above the +clouds on Lookout. To-day as I look upon the grand old mountain the sun +shines brightly on the graves of those who fell there, and all is +quiet." + +Again, after the gloomy winter had passed, she writes, in March, 1865, +"Many cases of measles are being brought in, mostly new soldiers, many +conscripts, and so down-spirited if they get sick. It was a strange +expression a poor fellow made the other day, 'You are the +_God-blessedest_ woman I ever saw.' He only lived a few days after being +brought to the hospital." + +Their work of mercy was now well-nigh over, as the necessity for it +seemed nearly ended. Patients were in May being mustered out of the +service, and the hospitals thinning. Miss Dada and Miss Hall thought +they could be spared, and started eastward. But when in Illinois, word +reached them that all the ladies but one had left, and help was needed, +and Miss Dada returned to Chattanooga. Here she was soon busy, for, +though the war was over, there were still many sick, and death often +claimed a victim. + +Miss Dada remained till the middle of September, engaged in her duties, +when, having given more than four years to the service of her country, +she at last took her leave of hospital-life, and returned to home and +its peaceful pleasures. + +Before leaving she visited the historical places of the vicinity--saw a +storm rise over Mission Ridge, and heard the thunders of heaven's +artillery where once a hundred guns belched forth their fires and swept +our brave boys to destruction. She climbed Lookout, amidst its vail of +clouds, and visited "Picket Rock," where is the spring at which our +troops obtained water the night after the battle, and the "Point" where, +in the early morn, the Stars and Stripes proclaimed to the watching +hosts below, that they were victors. + + + + +MRS. SARAH P. EDSON. + + +Mrs. Edson is a native of Fleming, Cayuga County, New York, where her +earlier youth was passed. At ten years of age she removed with her +parents to Ohio, but after a few years again returned to her native +place. Her father died while she was yet young, and her childhood and +youth were clouded by many sorrows. + +Gifted with a warm imagination, and great sensitiveness of feeling, at +an early age she learned to express her thoughts in written words. Her +childhood was not a happy one, and she thus found relief for a thousand +woes. At length some of her writings found their way into print. + +She spent several years as a teacher, and was married and removed to +Pontiac, Michigan, in 1845. During her married life she resided in +several States, but principally in Maysville, Kentucky. + +Here she became well known as a writer, but her productions, both in +prose and poetry, were usually written under various _nommes de plume_, +and met very general acceptance. + +She at various times edited journals devoted to temperance and general +literature in the Western States, and became known as possessing a +keenly observing and philosophic mind. This experience, perhaps, +prepared and eminently fitted her for the service into which she entered +at the breaking out of the war, and enabled her to comprehend and +provide for the necessities and emergencies of "the situation." + +Mrs. Edson arrived in Washington November 1st, 1861, and commenced +service as nurse in Columbia College Hospital. She remained there +serving with great acceptance until early in March when the army was +about to move and a battle was in anticipation, when by arrangement with +the Division Surgeon, Dr. Palmer, she joined Sumner's Division at Camp +California, Virginia, where she was to remain and follow to render her +services in case the anticipation was verified. The enemy, however, had +stolen away, and "Quaker" guns being the only armament encountered, her +services were not needed. + +She soon after received an appointment from Surgeon-General Finley to +proceed to Winchester, Virginia, to assist in the care of the wounded +from General Banks' army. She found the hospital there in a most +deplorable condition. Gangrene was in all the wards, the filth and +foulness of the atmosphere were fearful. Men were being swept off by +scores, and all things were in such a state as must ever result from +inexperience, and perhaps incompetence, on the part of those in charge. +Appliances and stores were scanty, and many of the surgeons and persons +in charge, though doing the least that was possible, were totally unfit +for their posts through want of experience and training. + +The Union Hotel Hospital was placed in charge of Mrs. Edson, and the +nurses who accompanied her were assigned to duty there. It was to be +thoroughly cleansed and rendered as wholesome as possible. + +The gratitude of the men for their changed condition, in a few days +amply attested the value of the services of herself and associates, and +demonstrated the fact that women have an important place in a war like +ours. + +Mrs. Edson next proceeded to join the army before Yorktown, about the +1st of May, 1862, and was attached to the Hospital of General Sumner's +corps. She arrived the day following the battle of Williamsburg, and +learning that her son was among the wounded left in a hospital several +miles from Yorktown, she at once started on foot to find him. After a +walk of twelve miles she discovered him apparently in a dying state, he +and his comrades imperatively demanding care. Here she spent four +sleepless days and nights of terrible anxiety, literally flying from hut +to hut of the rebel-built hospitals, to care for other sick and wounded +men, whenever she could leave her son. + +She remained thus till imperative orders were received to break up this +hospital and go to Yorktown. The men were laid in army wagons and +transported over the rough roads from nine in the morning till six in +the evening. Arriving exhausted by their terrible sufferings, they found +no provision made for their reception. That was a dreadful day, and to +an inexperienced eye and a sympathetic heart the suffering seemed +frightful! + +The 21st of May, Mrs. Edson went to Fortress Monroe, to care for her son +and others, remaining a week. From thence she proceeded to White House +and the "front." Arriving here the enemy were expected, and it was +forbidden to land. At daylight the "only woman on board" was anxiously +inquiring if there was any suffering to relieve. Learning that some +wounded had just been brought in, she left the boat notwithstanding the +prohibition, and found over three hundred bleeding and starved heroes +lying upon the ground. The Sanitary Commission boats had gone, and no +supplies were left but coffee and a little rice. As she stepped ashore, +a soldier with a shattered arm came up to her, almost timidly, and with +white trembling lips asked her if she could give them something to +eat--they had lost everything three days before, and had been without +food since. What an appeal to the sympathy of a warm heart! + +It was feared that no food could be obtained, but after great search a +barrel of cans of beef was found. Some camp kettles were gathered up, +and a fire kindled. In the shortest possible time beef soup and coffee +were passing round among these delighted men. Their gratitude was beyond +words. At four o'clock, that afternoon, the last man was put on board +the ship which was to convey them within reach of supplies and care. + +Mrs. Edson was left alone. One steamer only of the quartermaster's +department remained. The quartermaster had no authority to admit her on +board. But in view of the momently expected arrival of the enemy he told +her to go on board and remain, promising not to interfere with her until +she reached Harrison's Landing. And this was all that could be gained by +her who was so busily working for the soldier--this the alternative of +being left to the tender mercy of the enemy. + +She remained at Harrison's Landing until the 12th of August, and passed +through all the terrible and trying scenes that attended the arrival of +the defeated, demoralized, and depressed troops of McClellan's army. +These baffle description. Enough, that hands and heart were full--full +of work, and full of sympathy, with so much frightful suffering all +around her! She was here greatly aided and sustained by the presence and +help of that excellent man, Chaplain Arthur B. Fuller, who passed away +to his reward long ere the close of the struggle, into which he had +entered with so true an appreciation and devotion. Again, here as +everywhere, gratitude for kindness, and cheerfulness in suffering marked +the conduct of the poor men under her care. + +When the army left she repaired again to Fortress Monroe, and was on +duty there at Hygeia Hospital during the transit of the army. + +She returned to Alexandria the 30th of August, and almost immediately +heard rumors of the fighting going on at the front. She applied for +permission to proceed to the field, but was informed that the army was +retreating. The next tidings was of the second battle of Bull Run, and +the other disastrous conflicts of Pope's campaign. As she could not go +to the front to give aid and comfort to that small but heroic army in +its retreat she did what she could for the relief of any sufferers who +came under her notice, until the news of the conflict at Antietam was +received, with rumors of its dreadful slaughter. Her heart was fired +with anxiety to proceed thither, but permission was again denied her, +the surgeon-general replying that she was evidently worn out and must +rest for a time. He was right, for on the ensuing day she was seized +with a severe illness which prevented any further exertion for many +weeks. + +During the slow hours of convalescence from this illness she revolved a +plan for systematizing the female branch of the relief service. Her idea +was to provide a home for volunteer nurses, where they could be +patiently educated and instructed in the necessities of the work they +were to assume, and where they could retire for rest when needed, or in +the brief intervals of their labors. + +Her first labor on recovery was to proceed to Warrenton with supplies, +but she found the army moving and the sick already on board the cars. +She did what was possible for them under the circumstances. The trains +moved off and she was left to wait for one that was to convey her back +to Alexandria. This, however, was cut off by the rebels, and she found +herself with no resource but to proceed with the army to Acquia Creek. +She records that she reached Acquia, after several days, and a new and +interesting experience, which was kindness and courtesy from all with +whom she came in contact. + +Immediately after her return to Washington, Mrs. Edson attempted to +systematize her plan for a home and training school for nurses. A +society was formed, and Mrs. Caleb B. Smith at first (but soon after in +consequence of her resignation) Mrs. B. F. Wade, was appointed +President, and Mrs. Edson, Secretary. + +Many meetings were held. The attention of commanding and medical +officers was drawn to the plan. Almost unanimously they expressed +approval of it. + +Mrs. Edson was the soul of the work, hers was the guiding brain, the +active hand, and as is usual in similar cases most of the labor fell +upon her. She visited the army at Fredericksburg, and carefully +examined the hospitals to ascertain their needs in this respect. This +with other journeys of the same kind occupied a considerable portion of +the winter. + +State Relief Societies had been consulted and approved the plan. Mrs. +Edson visited the Sanitary Commission and laid the plan before them, but +while they admitted the necessity of a home and place of rest for +nurses, which they soon after established, they regarded a training +school for them unnecessary, believing that those who were adapted to +their work would best acquire the needed skill in it in the hospital +itself, and that their imperative need of attendants in the hospitals +and in the departments of special and field relief, did not admit of the +delay required to educate nurses for the service. + +The surgeon-general, though at first favorably impressed with the idea, +on more mature consideration discouraged it, and withheld his approval +before the Senate Committee, who had a bill before them for the +establishment of such an institution. Thus thwarted in the prosecution +of the plan on which she had set her heart, Mrs. Edson did not give up +in despair, nor did she suffer her sympathy and zeal in its prosecution +to prevent her from engaging in what she rightly regarded as the +paramount work of every loyal woman who could enter upon it, the care of +the sick and wounded after the great battles. The fearfully disastrous +battle of Fredericksburg in December, 1862, called her to the front, and +she was for several weeks at Falmouth caring tenderly for the wounded +heroes there. This good work accomplished she returned to Washington, +and thence visited New York city, and made earnest endeavors to enlist +the aid of the wealthy and patriotic in this movement. She was familiar +with Masonic literature and with the spirit of Masonry. Her husband had +been an advanced member of the Order, and she had herself taken all the +"Adoptive Degrees." These reasons induced her to seek the aid of the +Order, and she was pleased to find that she met with much encouragement. +The "Army Nurses' Association" was formed in New York, and commenced +work under the auspices of the Masons. In the spring of 1864, when +Grant's campaign commenced with the terrible battles of the Wilderness, +Mrs. Edson hastened to the "front." Almost immediately the surgeons +requested her to send for ten of the nurses then receiving instruction +as part of her class at Clinton Hall, New York. + +She did so. They were received, transportation found, and rations and +pay granted. And they were found to be valuable workers, Mrs. Edson +receiving from the Surgeons in charge, the highest testimonials of their +usefulness. She had at first mentioned it to the Surgeons as an +experiment, and said that funds and nurses would not be wanting if it +proved a success. The day on which the order for the evacuation of +Fredericksburg was issued, she was told that her "experiment was more +than a success--it was a triumph." And this by one of the highest +officials of the Medical department. + +Eighty more nurses were at once ordered. + +The interest taken by the Masons in this movement, led to the formation +of the "Masonic Mission," with a strong "Advisory Board," composed of +leading and wealthy Masons. + +Mrs. Edson, with unquestioning confidence in the integrity of Masons, +and in the honor of the gentlemen who had given the movement the great +strength of their names, continued ardently carrying out her plan. More +nurses were sent out, and all received the promise of support by the +"Mission." Much good--how much none may say, was performed by these +women. They suffered and labored, and sacrificed much. They gave their +best efforts and cares. Many of them were poor women, unable to give +their time and labor without remuneration. But, alas! the purposes and +promises of the Masonic Mission, were never fulfilled. Many of the women +received no remuneration, and great suffering and dissatisfaction was +the result. The good to the suffering of the army was perhaps the same. + +Amidst all her sorrows and disappointments, Mrs. Edson continued her +labors till the end of the war. Nothing could keep her from the +fulfilment of what she regarded as an imperative duty, and nobly she +achieved her purpose, so far as her individual efforts were concerned. + +A lady, herself ardently engaged in the work of relief, and supply for +the soldiers, visited the Army of the Potomac in company with Mrs. +Edson, in the winter of 1865, not long before the close of the war. She +describes the reception of Mrs. Edson, among these brave men to whom she +had ministered during the terrific campaign of the preceding summer, as +a complete ovation. The enthusiasm was overwhelming to the quiet woman +who had come among them, not looking nor hoping for more than the +privilege of a pleasant greeting from those endeared to her by the very +self-sacrificing efforts by which she had brought them relief, and +perhaps been the means of saving their lives. + +Irrepressible shouts, cheers, tears and thanks saluted her on every +side, and she passed on humbled rather than elated by the excess of this +enthusiastic gratitude. + + + + +MISS MARIA M. C. HALL. + + +Although the Federal City, Washington, was at the outbreak of the war +more intensely Southern in sentiment than many of the Southern cities, +at least so far as its native, or long resident inhabitants could make +it so, yet there were even in that Sardis, a few choice spirits, reared +under the shadow of the Capitol, whose patriotism was as lofty, earnest +and enduring as that of any of the citizens of any Northern or Western +state. + +Among these, none have given better evidence of their intense love of +their country and its institutions, than Miss Hall. Born and reared in +the Capital, highly educated, and of pleasing manners and address, she +was well fitted to grace any circle, and to shine amid the gayeties of +that fashionable and frivolous city. But the religion of the +compassionate and merciful Jesus had made a deep lodgment in her heart, +and in imitation of his example, she was ready to forsake the halls of +gayety and fashion, if she might but minister to the sick, the suffering +and the sorrowing. Surrounded by Secessionists, her father too far +advanced in years to bear arms for the country he loved, with no brother +old enough to be enrolled among the nation's defenders, her patriotism +was as fervid as that of any soldier of the Republic, and she resolved +to consecrate herself to the service of the nation, by ministrations to +the sick and wounded. Her first opportunity of entering upon this duty +was by the reception into her father's house of one of the sick soldiers +before the first battle of Bull Run, who by her kindly care was +restored to health. When the Indiana Hospital was established in the +Patent Office building on the 1st of August, 1861, Miss Hall sought a +position there as nurse; but Miss Dix had already issued her circular +announcing that no nurses under thirty-five years of age would be +accepted; and in vain might she plead her willingness and ability to +undergo hardships and the uncomfortable duties pertaining to the nurse's +position. She therefore applied to the kind-hearted but eccentric Mrs. +Almira Fales, whose hearty and positive ways had given her the entrée of +the Government hospitals from the first, but she too discouraged her +from the effort, assuring her, in her blunt way, that there was no +poetry in this sort of thing, that the men were very dirty, hungry and +rough, and that they would not appreciate refinement of manner, or be +grateful for the attention bestowed on them by a delicate and educated +lady. Finding that these representations failed to divert Miss Hall, and +her sister who accompanied her, from their purpose, Mrs. Fales threw +open the door of one of the wards, saying as she did so, "Well, girls, +here they are, with everything to be done for them. You will find work +enough." + +There was, indeed, work enough. The men were very dirty, the "sacred +soil" of Virginia clinging to their clothing and persons in plenty. +Their hair was matted and tangled, and often, not free from vermin, and +they were as Mrs. Fales had said, a rough set. But those apparently +fragile and delicate girls had great energy and resolution, and the +subject of our sketch was not disposed to undertake an enterprise and +then abandon it. She had trials of other kinds, to bear. The surgeons +afforded her few or no facilities for her work; and evidently expected +that her whim of nursing would soon be given over. Then came the general +order for the removal of volunteer nurses from the hospitals; this she +evaded by enrolling herself as nurse, and drawing army pay, which she +distributed to the men. For nearly a year she remained in this position, +without command, with much hard work to do, and no recognition of it +from any official source; but though the situation was not in any +respect agreeable, there was a consciousness of usefulness, of service +of the Master in it to sustain her; and while under her gentle +ministrations cleanliness took the place of filth, order of disorder, +and profanity was banished, because "the lady did not like it," it was +also her privilege occasionally to lead the wanderer from God back to +the Saviour he had deserted, and to point the sinner to the "Lamb of God +that taketh away the sins of the world." In the summer of 1862, Miss +Hall joined the Hospital Transport service, first on the Daniel Webster, +No. 2, a steamer which had been used for the transportation of troops +from Washington. After the sick and wounded of this transport had been +disposed of, Miss Hall was transferred to the Daniel Webster, the +original hospital transport of the Sanitary Commission, where she +labored faithfully for some weeks after the change of base to Harrison's +Landing, when she was associated with Mrs. Almira Fales in caring for +the suffering wounded on shore. They found the poor fellows in a +terrible plight, in rotten and leaky tents, and lying on the damp soil, +sodden with the heavy rains, and poisonous from the malarial +exhalations, in need of clothing, food, medicine, and comfort; and +though but scantily supplied with the needful stores, these ladies +spared no labor or exertion to improve their condition, and they were +successful to a greater extent than would have seemed possible. When the +army returned to Alexandria, Miss Hall visited her home for a short +interval of rest; but the great battle of Antietam called her again to +her chosen work; she went to the battle-field, intending to join Mrs. +Harris, of the Ladies' Aid Society of Philadelphia, who was already at +work there, and had telegraphed for her; but being unable to find her at +first, she entered a hospital of wounded Rebel prisoners, and ministered +to them until Mrs. Harris having ascertained her situation, sent for her +to come to Smoketown General Hospital, where at that time the wounded of +French's Division were gathered, and which ultimately received the +wounded of the different corps who were unable to endure the fatigue of +transportation to Washington, Baltimore or Philadelphia. Dr. +Vanderkieft, an accomplished physician and a man of rare tenderness, +amiability and goodness, was at this time the surgeon of the Smoketown +Hospital, and appreciating Miss Hall's skill and adaptation to her work, +he welcomed her cordially, and did everything in his power to render her +position pleasant. Mrs. Harris was soon called to other scenes, and +after Fredericksburg, went to Falmouth and remained there several +months, but Miss Hall, and Mrs. Husband who was now associated with her +remained at Smoketown; and when Mrs. Husband left, Miss Hall still +continued till May, 1863, when the hospital was broken up, and the +remaining inmates sent to other points.[J] + +[Footnote J: The following letter addressed to Miss Hall, by one of the +wounded soldiers under her care at the Smoketown Hospital, a Frenchman +who, while a great sufferer, kept the whole tent full of wounded men +cheerful and bright with his own cheerfulness, singing the Marseillaise +and other patriotic songs, is but one example of thousands, of the +regard felt for her, by the soldiers whose sufferings she had relieved +by her gentle and kindly ministrations. + + "MANCHESTER, MASS. _June 28th_, 1866. + + "Miss M. M. C. Hall:--There are kind deeds received which a _man_ + cannot ever forget, more especially when they are done by one who + does not expect any rewards for them, but the satisfaction of + having helped humanity. + + "But as one who first unfortunate, and next fortunate enough to + come under your kind cares, I come rather late perhaps to pay you a + tribute of gratitude which should have been done ere this. I say + pay,--I do not mean that with few lines in a broken English, I + expect to reward you for your good care of me while I was lying at + Smoketown--no, words or gold could not repay you for your + sufferings, privations, the painful hard sights which the angels of + the battle-field are willing to face,--no, God alone can reward + you. Yet, please accept, Miss, the assurance of my profound + respect, and my everlasting gratitude. May the God of Justice, + Freedom and love, ever protect you, and reward you for your conduct + on this earth is the wish of + + "Your obedient and respectful servant, + "JULIUS F. RABARDY." + + The Frenchman who sometimes sang the Marseillaise--formerly of the + 12th Massachusetts Volunteers.] + +One feature of this Hospital-life both at Smoketown, and the other +Hospitals with which Miss Hall was connected, a feature to which many of +those under her care revert with great pleasure, was the evening or +family prayers. Those of the convalescent soldiers who cared to do so +were accustomed to assemble every evening at her tent, and engage in +social worship, the chaplain usually being present and taking the lead +of the meeting, and in the event of his absence, one of the soldiers +being the leader. This evening hour was looked for with eagerness, and +to some, we might say, to many, it was the beginning of new hopes and a +new life. Many, after rejoining their regiments, wrote back to their +friends, "We think of you all at the sweet hour of prayer, and know that +you will remember us when you gather in the little tent." The life in +the Hospital, was by this and other means, rendered the vestibule of a +new and holy life, a life of faith and Christian endeavor to many, and +this young Christian woman was enabled to exercise an influence for good +which shall endure through the untold ages of eternity. + +After a short period of rest, Miss Hall again reported for duty at the +Naval Academy Hospital, Annapolis, whither considerable numbers of the +wounded from Gettysburg were brought, and where her old friend Dr. +Vanderkieft was the Surgeon-in-charge. After a time, the exchanged +prisoners from Belle Isle and Libby Prison, and subsequently those from +Andersonville, Florence, Salisbury and Wilmington, began to come into +this Hospital, and it was Miss Hall's painful privilege to be permitted +to minister to these poor victims of Rebel cruelty and hate, who amid +the horrors of the charnel houses, had not only lost their health, but +almost their semblance to humanity, and reduced by starvation and +suffering to a condition of fatuity, often could not remember their own +names. In these scenes of horror, with the patience and tenderness born +only of Christianity, she ministered to these poor helpless men, +striving to bring them back to life, and health, and reason, comforting +them in their sufferings, pointing the dying to a suffering Saviour, +and corresponding with their friends as circumstances required. + +It was at Dr. Vanderkieft's request, that she came to this Hospital, and +at first she was placed in charge of Section Five, consisting of the +Hospital tents outside of the main building. Mrs. Adaline Tyler, (Sister +Tyler), was at this time lady Superintendent of the entire Hospital, and +administered her duties with great skill and ability. When, in the +spring of 1864, as we have elsewhere recorded, the impaired health of +Mrs. Tyler rendered her further stay in the Hospital impossible. Miss +Hall, though young, was deemed by Dr. Vanderkieft, most eminently +qualified to succeed her in the general superintendency of this great +Hospital, and she remained in charge of it till it was closed in the +summer of 1865. Here she had at times, more than four thousand of these +poor sufferers under her care, and although she had from ten to twenty +assistants, each in charge of a section, yet her own labors were +extremely arduous, and her care and responsibility such as few could +have sustained. The danger, as well as the care, was very much increased +by the prevalence of typhus-fever, in a very malignant form in the +Hospital, brought there by some of the poor victims of rebel barbarity +from Andersonville. Three of her most valued assistants contracted this +fearful disease from the patients whom they had so carefully watched +over and died, martyrs to their philanthropy and patriotism. + +During her residence at this Hospital, Miss Hall often contributed to +"THE CRUTCH," a soldier's weekly paper, edited by Miss Titcomb, one of +the assistant superintendents, to which the other ladies, the officers +and some of the patients were also contributors. This paper created much +interest in the hospital. + +Our record of the work of this active and devoted Christian woman is but +brief, for though there were almost numberless instances of suffering, +of heroism and triumph passing constantly under her eye, yet the work of +one day was so much like that of every other, that it afforded little of +incident in her own labors to require a longer narrative. Painful as +many of her experiences were, yet she found as did many others who +engaged in it that it was a blessed and delightful work, and in the +retrospect, more than a year after its close, she uttered these words in +regard to it, words to which the hearts of many other patriotic women +will respond, "I mark my Hospital days as my happiest ones, and thank +God for the way in which He led me into the good work, and for the +strength which kept me through it all." + + + + +THE HOSPITAL CORPS AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY HOSPITAL, ANNAPOLIS. + + +Though the Naval Academy buildings at Annapolis had been used for +hospital purposes, from almost the first months of the war, they did not +acquire celebrity, or accommodate a very large number of patients until +August, 1863, when Surgeon Vanderkieft took charge of it, and it +received great numbers of the wounded men from Gettysburg. As the number +of these was reduced by deaths, convalescence and discharge from the +army, their places were more than supplied by the returning prisoners, +paroled or discharged, from Libby, Belle Isle, Andersonville, Millen, +Salisbury, Florence and Wilmington. These poor fellows under the +horrible cruelties, systematically practiced by the rebel authorities, +with the avowed intention of weakening the Union forces, had been +starved, frozen, maimed and tortured until they had almost lost the +semblance of humanity, and one of the noble women who cared for them so +tenderly, states that she often found herself involuntarily placing her +hand upon her cheek to ascertain whether their flesh was like hers, +human and vitalized. The sunken hollow cheeks, the parchment skin drawn +so tightly over the bones, the great, cavernous, lackluster eyes, the +half idiotic stare, the dreamy condition, the loss of memory even of +their own names, and the wonder with which they regarded the most +ordinary events, so strange to them after their long and fearful +experience, all made them seem more like beings from some other world, +than inhabitants of this. Many of them never recovered fully their +memory or reason; the iron had entered the soul. Others lingered long on +the confines of two worlds, now rallying a little and then falling back, +till finally the flickering life went out suddenly; a few of the +hardiest and toughest survived, and recovered partial though seldom or +never complete health. During a part of the first year of Dr. +Vanderkieft's administration, Mrs. Adaline Tyler ("Sister Tyler") was +Lady Superintendent of the hospital, and the sketch elsewhere given of +her life shows how earnestly and ably she labored to promote the +interest of its inmates. During most of this time Miss Maria M. C. Hall +had charge of section five, consisting of the hospital tents which +occupied a part of the academical campus. Miss Helen M. Noye, a young +lady from Buffalo, a very faithful, enthusiastic and cheerful worker, +was her assistant, and remained for nearly a year in the hospital. + +When in the spring of 1864, Miss Hall was appointed Mrs. Tyler's +successor as Lady Superintendent of the hospital, its numerous large +wards required several assistant superintendents who should direct the +preparation of the special diet, and the other delicacies so desirable +for the sick, attend to the condition of the men, ascertain their +circumstances and history, correspond with their friends, and endeavor +so far as possible to cheer, comfort and encourage their patients. + +When the number of patients was largest twenty of these assistants were +required, and the illness of some, or their change to other fields, +rendered the list a varying one, over thirty different ladies being +connected with the hospital during the two years from July, 1863, to +July, 1865. + +A considerable number of these ladies had accompanied Mrs. Tyler to +Annapolis, having previously been her assistants in the general hospital +at Chester, Pennsylvania. Among these were nine from Maine, viz., Miss +Louise Titcomb, Miss Susan Newhall, Miss Rebecca R. Usher, Miss Almira +Quimby, Miss Emily W. Dana, Miss Adeline Walker, Miss Mary E. Dupee, +Miss Mary Pierson, and Mrs. Eunice D. Merrill, all women of excellent +abilities and culture, and admirably adapted to their work. One of this +band of sisters, Miss Adeline Walker, died on the 28th of April, 1865, +of malignant typhus, contracted in the discharge of her duties in the +hospital. + +Of her Miss Hall wrote in the _Crutch_, "She slept at sunset, sinking +into the stillness of death as peacefully as a melted day into the +darkness of the night. For two years and a half--longer than almost any +other here--she had pursued her labors in this hospital, and with her +ready sympathy with the suffering or wronged, had ministered to many +needy ones the balm of comfort and healing. Her quick wit and keen +repartee has served to brighten up many an hour otherwise dull and +unhomelike in our little circle of workers, gathered in our quarters off +duty. + +"So long an inmate of this hospital its every part was familiar to her; +its trees and flowers she loved; in all its beauties she rejoiced. We +could almost fancy a hush in nature's music, as we walked behind her +coffin, under the beautiful trees in the bright May sunshine. + +"It was a touching thing to see the soldier-boys carrying the coffin of +her who had been to them in hours of pain a minister of good and +comfort. Her loss is keenly felt among them, and tears are on the face +of more than one strong man as he speaks of her. One more veteran +soldier has fallen in the ranks, one more faithful patriot-heart is +stilled. No less to her than to the soldier in the field shall be +awarded the heroic honor. + + 'For God metes to each his measure; + And the woman's patient prayer, + No less than ball or bayonet + Brings the victory unaware.' + +"Patient prayer and work for the victory to our country was the life of +our sister gone from us; and in the dawning of our brighter days, and +the coming glory of our regenerated country, it is hard to lay her away +in unconsciousness; hard to close her eyes against the bright sunshine +of God's smile upon a ransomed people; hard to send her lifeless form +away from us, alone to the grave in her far off home; hard to realize +that one so familiar in our little band shall go no more in and out +among us. But we say farewell to her not without hope. Her earnest +spirit, ever eager in its questioning of what is truth, was not at rest +with simply earthly things. Her reason was unsatisfied, and she longed +for more than was revealed to her of the Divine. To the land of full +realities she is gone. We trust that in his light she shall see light; +that waking in his likeness, she shall be satisfied, and evermore at +rest. We cannot mourn that she fell at her post. Her warfare is +accomplished, and the oft-expressed thought of her heart is in her death +fulfilled. She has said, 'It is noble to die at one's post, with the +armor on; to fall where the work has been done.'" + +One of her associates from her own State thus speaks of her: "Miss +Walker left many friends and a comfortable home in Portland, in the +second year of the war. Her devotion and interest in the work so +congenial to her feelings, increased with every year's experience, until +she found herself bound to it heart and hand. Her large comprehension, +too, of all the circumstances connected with the soldier's experience in +and outside of hospital, quickened her sympathies and adapted her to the +part she was to share, as counsellor and friend. Many a soldier lives, +who can pay her a worthy tribute of gratitude for her care and sympathy +in his hour of need; and in the beyond, of the thousands who died in the +cause of liberty, there are many who may call her 'blessed.'" + +Massachusetts was also largely represented among the faithful workers of +the Naval Academy Hospital, at Annapolis. Among these Miss Abbie J. +Howe, of Brookfield; Miss Kate P. Thompson, of Worcester, whose +excessive labors and the serious illness which followed, have probably +rendered her an invalid for life; Miss Eudora Clark, of Boston, Miss +Ruth L. Ellis, of Bridgewater, Miss Sarah Allen, of Wilbraham, Miss +Agnes Gillis, of Lowell, and Miss Maria Josslyn, of Roxbury, were those +who were most laborious and faithful. From New Jersey there came a +faithful and zealous worker, Miss Charlotte Ford, of Morristown. From +New York there were Miss Helen M. Noye, of Buffalo, already named, Mrs. +Guest, also of Buffalo, Miss Emily Gove, of Peru, Miss Mary Cary, of +Albany, Miss Ella Wolcott, of Elmira, and Miss M. A. B. Young, of +Morristown, New York. This lady, one of the most devoted and faithful of +the hospital nurses, was also a martyr to her fidelity and patriotism, +dying of typhus fever contracted in her attendance upon her patients, on +the 12th of January, 1865. + +Miss Young left a pleasant home in St. Lawrence County, New York, soon +after the commencement of the war, with her brother, Captain James +Young, of the Sixtieth New York Volunteers, and was an active minister +of good to the sick and wounded of that regiment. She took great pride +in the regiment, wearing its badge and having full faith in its valor. +When the Sixtieth went into active service, she entered a hospital at +Baltimore, but _her_ regiment was never forgotten. She heard from it +almost daily through her soldier-brother, between whom and herself +existed the most tender devotion and earnest sympathy. From Baltimore +she was transferred to Annapolis early in Mrs. Tyler's administration. +In 1864, she suffered from the small-pox, and ever after her recovery +she cared for all who were affected with that disease in the hospital. + +Her thorough identity with the soldier's life and entire sacrifice to +the cause, was perhaps most fully and touchingly evidenced by her oft +repeated expression of a desire to be buried among the soldiers. When in +usual health, visiting the graves of those to whom she had ministered in +the hospital, she said, "If I die in hospital, let me buried here among +my boys." This request was sacredly regarded, and she was borne to her +last resting-place by soldiers to whom she had ministered in her own +days of health. + +Another of the martyrs in this service of philanthropy, was Miss Rose M. +Billing, of Washington, District of Columbia, a young lady of most +winning manners, and spoken of by Miss Hall as one of the most devoted +and conscientious workers, she ever knew--an earnest Christian, caring +always for the spiritual as well as the physical wants of her men. She +was of delicate, fragile constitution, and a deeply sympathizing nature. +From the commencement of the war, she had been earnestly desirous of +participating in the personal labors of the hospital, and finally +persuaded her mother, (who, knowing her frail health, was reluctant to +have her enter upon such duties), to give her consent. She commenced her +first service with Miss Hall, in the Indiana Hospital, in the Patent +Office building, in the autumn of 1861, and subsequently served in the +Falls Church Hospital, and at Fredericksburg. Early in 1863 she came to +Annapolis, and no one of the nurses was more faithful and devoted in +labors for the soldiers. Twice she had been obliged to leave her chosen +work for a short time in consequence of illness, but she had hastened +back to it with the utmost alacrity, as soon as she could again +undertake her work. She had been eminently successful, in bringing up +some cases of the fever, deemed by the surgeons, hopeless, and though +she herself felt that she was exceeding her strength, or as she +expressed it, "wearing out," she could not and would not leave her +soldier boys while they were so ill; and when the disease fastened upon +her, she had not sufficient vital energy left to throw it off. She +failed rapidly and died on the 14th of January, 1865, after two weeks' +illness. Her mother, after her death, received numerous letters from +soldiers for whom she had cared, lamenting her loss and declaring that +but for her faithful attentions, they should not have been in the land +of the living. Among those who have given their life to the cause of +their country in the hospitals, no purer or saintlier soul has exchanged +the sorrows, the troubles and the pains of earth for the bliss of +heaven, than Rose M. Billing. + + + + +OTHER LABORS OF SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF THE ANNAPOLIS HOSPITAL CORPS. + + +Some of the ladies named in the preceding sketch had passed through +other experiences of hospital life, before becoming connected with the +Naval Academy Hospital at Annapolis. Among these, remarkable for their +fidelity to the cause they had undertaken to serve, were several of the +ladies from Maine, the _Maine-stay_ of the Annapolis Hospital, as Dr. +Vanderkieft playfully called them. We propose to devote a little space +to sketches of some of these faithful workers. + +Miss Louise Titcomb, was from Portland, Maine, a young lady of high +culture and refinement, and from the beginning of the War, had taken a +deep interest in working for the soldiers, in connection with the other +patriotic ladies of that city. When in the early autumn of 1862, Mrs. +Adaline Tyler, as we have already said in our sketch of her, took charge +as Lady Superintendent of the Hospital at Chester, Pennsylvania, which +had previously been in the care of a Committee of ladies of the village, +she sought for volunteer assistants in her work, who would give +themselves wholly to it. + +Miss Titcomb, Miss Susan Newhall, and Miss Rebecca R. Usher, all from +Portland, were among the first to enter upon this work. They remained +there eight months, until the remaining patients had become +convalescent, and the war had made such progress Southward that the post +was too far from the field to be maintained as a general hospital. + +The duties of these ladies at Chester, were the dispensing of the extra +and low diet to the patients; the charge of their clothing; watching +with, and attending personally to the wants of those patients whose +condition was most critical; writing for and reading to such of the sick +or wounded as needed or desired these services, and attending to +innumerable details for their cheer and comfort. Dr. Le Comte, the +Surgeon-in-charge, and the assistant Surgeons of the wards, were very +kind, considerate and courteous to these ladies, and showed by their +conduct how highly they appreciated their services. + +In August, 1863, when Mrs. Tyler was transferred to the Naval Academy +Hospital, at Annapolis, these ladies went thither with her, where they +were joined soon after by Miss Adeline Walker, Miss Almira F. Quimby, +and Miss Mary Pierson, all of Portland, and Miss Mary E. Dupee, Miss +Emily W. Dana, and Mrs. Eunice D. Merrill, all from Maine. Their duties +here were more varied and fatiguing than at Chester. One of them +describes them thus: "The Hospital was often crowded with patients +enduring the worst forms of disease and suffering; and added to our +former duties were new and untried ones incident to the terrible and +helpless condition of these returned prisoners. Evening Schools were +instituted for the benefit of the convalescents, in which we shared as +teachers; at the Weekly Lyceum, through the winter, the ladies in turn +edited and read a paper, containing interesting contributions from +inmates of the Hospital; they devised and took part in various +entertainments for the benefit of the convalescents; held singing and +prayer-meetings frequently in the wards; watched over the dying, were +present at all the funerals, and aided largely in forwarding the +effects, and where it was possible the bodies of the deceased to their +friends." Five of these faithful nurses were attacked by the typhus +fever, contracted by their attention to the patients, exhausted as they +were by overwork, from the great number of the very sick and helpless +men brought to the hospital in the winter of 1864-5; and the illness of +these threw a double duty upon those who were fortunate enough to escape +the epidemic. To the honor of these ladies, it should be said that not +one of them shrank from doing her full proportion of the work, and +nearly all who survived, remained to the close of the war. For twenty +months, Miss Titcomb was absent from duty but two days, and others had a +record nearly as satisfactory. Nearly all would have done so but for +illness. + +Miss Rebecca Usher, of whom we have spoken as one of Miss Titcomb's +associates, in the winter of 1864-5, accepted the invitation of the +Maine Camp and Hospital Association, to go to City Point, and minister +to the sick and wounded, especially of the Maine regiments there. She +was accompanied by Miss Mary A. Dupee, who was one of the assistants at +Annapolis, from Maine. + +The Maine Camp and Hospital Association, was an organization founded by +benevolent ladies of Portland, and subsequently having its auxiliaries +in all parts of the state, having for its object the supplying of +needful aid and comfort, and personal attention, primarily to the +soldiers of Maine, and secondarily to those from other states. Mrs. +James E. Fernald, Mrs. J. S. Eaton, Mrs. Elbridge Bacon, Mrs. William +Preble, Miss Harriet Fox, and others were the managers of the +association. Of these Mrs. J. S. Eaton, the widow of a Baptist +clergyman, formerly a pastor in Portland, went very early to the front, +with Mrs. Isabella Fogg, the active agent of the association, of whom we +have more to say elsewhere, and the two labored most earnestly for the +welfare of the soldiers. Mrs. Fogg finally went to the Western armies, +and Mrs. Eaton invited Miss Usher and Miss Dupee, with some of the other +Maine ladies to join her at City Point, in the winter of 1864-5. Mrs. +Ruth S. Mayhew had been a faithful assistant at City Point from the +first, and after Mrs. Fogg went to the West, had acted as agent of the +association there. Miss Usher joined Mrs. Eaton and Mrs. Mayhew, in +December, 1864, but Miss Dupee did not leave Annapolis till April, +1865. The work at City Point was essentially different from that at +Annapolis, and less saddening in its character. The sick soldiers from +Maine were visited in the hospital and supplied with delicacies, and +those who though in health were in need of extra clothing, etc., were +supplied as they presented themselves. The Maine Camp and Hospital +Association were always ready to respond to a call for supplies from +their agents, and there was never any lack for any length of time. In +May, 1865, Mrs. Eaton and her assistants established an agency at +Alexandria, and they carried their supplies to the regiments encamped +around that city, and visited the comparatively few sick remaining in +the hospitals. The last of June their work seemed to be completed and +they returned home. + +Miss Mary A. Dupee was devoted to the cause from the beginning of the +war. She offered her services when the first regiment left Portland, and +though they were not then needed, she held herself in constant readiness +to go where they were, working meantime for the soldiers as opportunity +presented. When Mrs. Tyler was transferred to Annapolis, she desired +Miss Susan Newhall, a most faithful and indefatigable worker for the +soldiers, who had been with her at Chester, to bring with her another +who was like-minded. The invitation was given to Miss Dupee, who gladly +accepted it. At Annapolis she had charge of thirteen wards and had a +serving-room, where the food was sent ready cooked, for her to +distribute according to the directions of the surgeons to "her boys." +Before breakfast she went out to see that that meal was properly served, +and to ascertain the condition of the sickest patients. Then forenoon +and afternoon, she visited each one in turn, ministering to their +comfort as far as possible. The work, though wearing, and at times +accompanied with some danger of contagion, she found pleasant, +notwithstanding its connection with so many sad scenes. The +consciousness of doing good more than compensated for any toil or +sacrifice, and in the review of her work, Miss Dupee expresses the +belief that she derived as much benefit from this philanthropic toil as +she bestowed. As we have already said, she was for three months at City +Point and elsewhere ministering to the soldiers of her native State. + +Miss Abbie J. Howe, of Brookfield, Massachusetts, was another of the +Annapolis Hospital Corps deserving of especial mention for her untiring +devotion to the temporal and spiritual welfare of the sick and wounded +who were under her charge. We regret our inability to obtain so full an +account of her work and its incidents as we desired, but we cannot +suffer her to pass unnoticed. Miss Howe had from the beginning of the +war been earnestly desirous to enter upon the work of personal service +to the soldiers in the hospitals, but considerations of duty, the +opposition of her friends, etc., had detained her at home until the way +was unexpectedly opened for her in September, 1863. She came directly to +Annapolis, and during her whole stay there had charge of the same wards +which she first entered, although a change was made in the class of +patients under her care in the spring of 1864. At first these wards were +filled with private soldiers, but in April, 1864, they were occupied by +the wounded and sick officers of the Officers' Hospital at that time +established in the Naval Academy under charge of Surgeon Vanderkieft. + +Miss Howe brought to her work not only extraordinary skill and tact in +the performance of her duties, but a deep _personal_ interest in her +patients, a care and thoughtfulness for what might be best adapted to +each individual case, as if each had been her own brother, and beyond +this, an intense desire to promote their spiritual good. An earnest and +devoted Christian, whose highest motive of action was the desire to do +something for the honor and glory of the Master she loved, she entered +upon her duties in such a spirit as we may imagine actuated the saints +and martyrs of the early Christian centuries. + +We cannot forbear introducing here a brief description of her work from +one who knew her well:--"She came to Annapolis with a spirit ready and +eager to do all things and suffer all things for the privilege of being +allowed to work for the good of the soldiers. Nothing was too trivial +for her to be engaged in for their sakes,--nothing was too great to +undertake for the least advantage to one of her smallest and humblest +patients. This was true of her regard to their bodily comfort and +health--but still more true of her concern for their spiritual good. I +remember very well that when she had been at work only a day or two she +spoke to me with real joy of one of her sick patients, telling me of a +hope she had that he was a Christian and prepared for death. * * * She +loved the soldiers for the cause for which they suffered--but she loved +them _most_, because she was actuated in all things by her love for her +Saviour, and for them He had died. * * * I used to feel that her +_presence_ and _influence_, even if she had not been strong enough to +_work_ at all, would have been invaluable--the soldiers so instinctively +recognized her true interest in them,--her regard for the right and her +abhorrence of anything like deceit or untruthfulness, that they could +not help trying to be good for her sake." + +Miss Howe took a special interest in the soldier-nurses--the men +detailed for extra duty in the wards. She had a very high opinion of +their tenderness and faithfulness in their most trying and wearying +work, and of their devotion to their suffering comrades. This estimate +was undoubtedly true of most of those in her wards, and perhaps of a +majority of those in the Naval Academy Hospital; but it would have been +difficult for them to have been other than faithful and tender under the +influence of her example and the loyalty they could not help feeling to +a woman "so nobly good and true." Like all the others engaged in these +labors among the returned prisoners, Miss Howe speaks of her work as one +which brought its own abundant reward, in the inexpressible joy she +experienced in being able to do something to relieve and comfort those +poor suffering ones, wounded, bleeding, and tortured for their country's +sake, and at times to have the privilege of telling the story of the +cross to eager dying men, who listened in their agony longing to know a +Saviour's love. + + + + +MRS. A. H. AND MISS S. H. GIBBONS. + + +Mrs. Gibbons is very well known in the City of New York where she +resides, as an active philanthropist, devoting a large portion of her +time and strength to the various charitable and reformatory enterprises +in which she is engaged. This tendency to labors undertaken for the good +of others, is, in part, a portion of her inheritance. The daughter of +that good man, some years ago deceased, whose memory is so heartily +cherished, by all to whom the record of a thousand brave and kindly +deeds is known, so warmly by a multitude of friends, and by the +oppressed and suffering--Isaac T. Hopper--we are justified in saying +that his mantle has fallen upon this his favorite child. + +The daughter of the noble and steadfast old Friend, could hardly fail to +be known as a friend of the slave. Like her father she was ready to +labor, and sacrifice and suffer in his cause, and had already made this +apparent, had borne persecution, the crucial test of principle, before +the war which gave to the world the prominent idea of freedom for all, +and thus wiped the darkest stain from our starry banner, was +inaugurated. + +The record of the army work of Mrs. Gibbons, does not commence until the +autumn of 1861. Previous to that time, her labors for the soldier had +been performed at home, where there was much to be done in organizing a +class of effort hitherto unknown to the women of our country. But she +had always felt a strong desire to aid the soldiers by personal +sacrifices. + +It was quite possible for her to leave home, which so many mothers of +families, whatever their wishes, were unable to do. Accordingly, +accompanied by her eldest daughter, Miss Sarah H. Gibbons, now Mrs. +Emerson, she proceeded to Washington, about the time indicated. + +There, for some weeks, mother and daughter regularly visited the +hospitals, of which there were already many in the Capitol City, +ministering to the inmates, and distributing the stores with which they +were liberally provided by the kindness of friends, from their own +private resources, and from those of "The Woman's Central Association of +Relief," already in active and beneficent operation in New York. + +Their work was, however, principally done in the Patent Office Hospital, +where they took a regular charge of a certain number of patients, and +rendered excellent service, where service was, at that time, greatly +needed. + +While thus engaged they were one day invited by a friend from New York +to take a drive in the outskirts of the city. Washington was at that +time like a great camp, and was environed by fortifications, with the +camps of different divisions, brigades, regiments, to each of which were +attached the larger and smaller hospitals, where the sick and suffering +languished, afar from the comforts and affectionate cares of home, and +not yet inured to the privations and _discomforts_ of army life. It can +without doubt be said that they were patient, and when we remember that +the most of them were volunteers, fresh from home, and new to war, that +perhaps was all that could reasonably be expected of them. + +The drive of Mrs. Gibbons, and her friends extended further than was at +first intended, and they found themselves at Fall's Church, fifteen +miles from the city. Here was a small force of New York troops, and +their hospital containing about forty men, most of them very sick with +typhoid fever. + +Mrs. Gibbons and her daughter entered the hospital. All around were the +emaciated forms, and pale, suffering faces of the men--their very looks +an appeal for kindness which it was hardly possible for these ladies to +resist. + +One of them, a young man from Penn Yan, New York, fixed his sad +imploring gaze upon the face of Mrs. Gibbons. Pale as if the seal of +death had already been set upon his features, dreadfully emaciated, and +too feeble for the least movement, except those of the large, dark, +restless eyes, which seemed by the very intensity of their expression to +draw her toward him. She approached and compassionately asked if there +was anything she could do for him. The reply seemed to throw upon her a +responsibility too heavy to be borne. + +"Come and take care of me, and I shall get well. If you do not come, I +shall die." + +It was very hard to say she could not come, and with the constantly +recurring thought of his words, every moment made it harder. It was, +however, impossible at that time. + +After distributing some little offerings they had brought, the party was +forced to leave, carrying with them a memory of such suffering and +misery as they had not before encountered. Fall's Church was situated in +a nest of secessionists, who would have been open rebels except for the +presence of the troops. No woman had ever shown her face within the +walls of its hospital. The routine of duty had probably been obeyed, but +there had been little sympathy and only the blundering care of men, +entirely ignorant of the needs of the sick. The men were dying rapidly, +and the number in the hospital fast diminishing, not by convalescence, +but by death. + +After she had gone away, the scene constantly recurred to Mrs. Gibbons, +and she felt that a field of duty opened before her, which she had no +right to reject. In a few days an opportunity for another visit +occurred, which was gladly embraced. The young volunteer was yet living, +but too feeble to speak. Again his eyes mutely implored help, and seemed +to say that only that could beat back the advances of death. This time +both ladies had come with the intention of remaining. + +The surgeon was ready to welcome them, but told them there was no place +for them to live. But that difficulty was overcome, as difficulties +almost always are by a determined will. The proprietor of a neighboring +"saloon," or eating-house, was persuaded to give the ladies a loft +floored with unplaned boards, and boasting for its sole furniture, a +bedstead and a barrel to serve as table and toilet. Here for the sum of +five dollars per week, each, they were allowed to sleep, and they took +their meals below. + +There were at the date of their arrival thirty-nine sick men in the +hospital, and six lay unburied in the dead-house. Two or three others +died, and when they left, five or six weeks afterward, all had +recovered, sufficiently at least to bear removal, save three whom they +left convalescing. The young volunteer who had fastened his hope of life +on their coming, had been able to be removed to his home, at Penn Yan, +and they afterwards learned that he had entirely recovered his health. + +Under their reign, cleanliness, order, quiet, and comfortable food, had +taken the place of the discomfort that previously existed. The sick were +encouraged by sympathy, and stimulated by it, and though they had +persisted in their effort through great hardship, and even danger, for +they were very near the enemy's lines, they felt themselves fully +rewarded for all their toils and sacrifices. + +During the month of January, their patients having nearly all recovered, +Mrs. and Miss Gibbons, cheerfully obeyed a request to proceed to +Winchester, and take their places in the Seminary Hospital there. This +hospital was at that time devoted to the worst cases of wounded. + +There were a large number of these in this place, most of them severely +wounded, as has been said, and many of them dangerously so. The closest +and most assiduous care was demanded, and the ladies found themselves at +once in a position to tax all their strength and efforts. They were in +this hospital over four months, and afterwards at Strasburg, where they +were involved in the famous retreat from that place, when the enemy took +possession, and held the hospital nurses, even, as prisoners, till the +main body of their army was safely on the road that led to Dixie. + +Many instances of that retreat are of historical interest, but space +forbids their repetition here. It is enough to state that these ladies +heroically bore the discomfort of their position, and their own losses +in stores and clothing, regretting only that it was out of their power +to secure the comforts of the wounded, who were hurried from their +quarters, jolted in ambulances in torture, or compelled to drag their +feeble limbs along the encumbered road. + +After the retreat, and the subsequent abandonment of the Valley by the +enemy, Mrs. Gibbons and her daughter returned for a short time to their +home in New York. + +Their rest, however, was not long, for on the 19th of July, they arrived +at Point Lookout, Maryland, where Hammond United States General Hospital +was about to be opened. + +On the 20th, the day following, the first installment of patients +arrived, two hundred and eighteen suffering and famished men from the +rebel prison of Belle Isle. + +A fearful scene was presented on the arrival of these men. The transport +on which they came was full of miserable-looking wretches, lying about +the decks, many of them too feeble to walk, and unable to move without +help. Not one of the two hundred and eighty, possessed more than one +garment. Before leaving Belle Isle, they had been permitted to bathe. +The filthy, vermin-infected garments, which had been their sole covering +for many months, were in most cases thrown into the water, and the men +had clothed themselves as best they could, in the scanty supply given +them. Many were wrapped in sheets. A pair of trowsers was a luxury to +which few attained. + +They were mostly so feeble as to be carried on stretchers to the +hospital. Mrs. Gibbons' first duty was to go on board the transport with +food, wine and stimulants, to enable them to endure the removal; and +when once removed, and placed in their clean beds, or wards, there was +sufficient employment in reducing all to order, and nursing them back to +health. Many were hopelessly broken down by their past sufferings, but +most eventually recovered their strength. + +Mrs. and Miss Gibbons remained at Point Lookout fifteen months. After a +short time Mrs. Gibbons finding her usefulness greatly impaired by being +obliged to act under the authority of Miss Dix, who was officially at +the head of all nurses, applied for, and received from Surgeon-General +Hammond an independent appointment in this hospital, which gave her sole +charge of it, apart from the medical supervision. In this appointment +the Surgeon-General was sustained by the War Department. In her +application Mrs. Gibbons was influenced by no antagonism to Miss Dix, +but simply by her desire for the utmost usefulness. + +The military post of Point Lookout was at that time occupied by two +Maryland Regiments, of whom Colonel Rogers had the command. If not in +sympathy with rebellion, they undoubtedly were with slavery. Large +numbers of contrabands had flocked thither, hoping to be protected in +their longings for freedom. In this, however, they were disappointed. As +soon as the Maryland masters demanded the return of their absconding +property, the Maryland soldiers were not only willing to accede to the +demand, but to aid in enforcing it. + +Mrs. Gibbons found herself in a continual unpleasant conflict with the +authorities. Sympathy, feeling, sense of justice, the principles of a +life, were all on the side of the enslaved, and their attempt to escape. +She worked for them, helped them to evade the demands of their former +masters, and often sent them on their way toward the goal of their hopes +and efforts, the mysterious North. + +She endured persecution, received annoyances, anonymous threats, and had +much to bear, which was borne cheerfully for the sake of these oppressed +ones. General Lockwood, then commander of the post, was always the +friend of herself and her protegés, a man of great kindness of heart, +and a lover of justice. + +As has been said, they remained at Point Lookout fifteen months. The +summer following her introduction to the place, Mrs. Gibbons visited +home, and after remaining but a short time returned to her duties. She +had left all at home tranquil and serene, and did not dream of the +hidden fires which were even then smouldering, and ready to burst into +flame. + +She had not long returned before rumors of the riots in New York, the +riots of July, 1863, reached Point Lookout. + +"If private houses are attacked, ours will be one of the first," said +Miss Gibbons, on the reception of these tidings, and though her mother +would not listen to the suggestion, she very well knew it was far from +impossible. + +That night they retired full of apprehension, and had not fallen asleep +when some one knocked at their door with the intimation that bad news +had arrived for them. They asked if any one was dead, and on being +assured that there was not, listened with comparative composure when +they learned that their house in New York had been sacked by the mob, +and most of its contents destroyed. + +The remainder of the night was spent in packing, and in the morning they +started for home. + +It was a sad scene that presented itself on their arrival. There was not +an unbroken pane of glass in any of the windows. The panels of the doors +were many of them beaten in as with an axe. The furniture was mostly +destroyed, bureaus, desks, closets, receptacles of all kinds had been +broken open, and their contents stolen or rendered worthless; the +carpets, soaked with a trampled conglomerate of mud and water, oil and +filth, the debris left by the feet of the maddened, howling crowd, were +entirely ruined; beds and bedding, mirrors, and smaller articles had +been carried away, the grand piano had had a fire kindled on the +key-board, as had the sofas and chairs upon their velvet seats, fires +that were, none knew how, extinguished. + +Over all were scattered torn books and valuable papers, the +correspondence with the great minds of the country for years, trampled +into the grease and filth, half burned and defaced. The relics of the +precious only son, who had died a few years before--the beautiful +memorial room, filled with pictures he had loved, beautiful vases, where +flowers always bloomed; and a thousand tokens of the loved and lost, had +shared the universal ruin. So had the writings and the clothing of the +lamented father, Isaac T. Hopper--of all these priceless mementoes, +there remained only the marble, life-size, bust of the son, which Mr. +Gibbons had providentially removed to a place of safety, and a few minor +objects. And all this ruin, and irreparable loss, had been visited upon +this charitable and patriotic family, by a furious, demoniac mob, +because they loved Freedom, Justice, and their country. + +After this disaster the family were united beneath a hired roof for some +time, while their own house was repaired, and the fragments of its +scattered plenishing, and abundant treasures, were gathered together and +reclaimed. + +Mrs. Gibbons returned for a brief space to Point Lookout, where her +purpose was to instal the Misses Woolsey, and then leave them in charge +of the hospital. + +Circumstances, however, prevented her from leaving the Point for a much +longer period than she had intended to stay, and when she did leave, she +was accompanied by the Misses Woolsey, and the whole party returned to +New York together. + +We have no record of the further army work of Mrs. and Miss Gibbons +until the opening of the grand campaign of the Army of the Potomac, the +following May. + +Immediately after the battle of the Wilderness, Mrs. Gibbons received a +telegram desiring her to come to the aid of the wounded. She resolved at +once to go, and urged her daughter to accompany her, as she had always +done before. Miss Gibbons had, in the meantime, married, and in the +course of a few weeks become a widow. She felt reluctant to return to +the work she had so loved, but her mother's wish prevailed. The next day +they started, and in a very short space of time found themselves amidst +the horrible confusion and suffering which prevailed at Belle Plain. + +Their stay there was but brief, and in a short time they were themselves +established at Fredericksburg. There Mrs. Gibbons was requested to take +charge of a hospital, or rather a large unfurnished building, which was +to be used as one. In great haste straw was found to fill the empty +bed-sacks, which were placed upon the floor, and the means to feed the +suffering mass who were expected. The men, in all the forms of +suffering, were placed upon these beds, and cared for as well as they +could be, as fast as they arrived, and Mrs. Emerson prepared food for +them, standing unsheltered in rain or sultry heat. + +For weeks they toiled thus. One day when the town was beautiful and +fragrant with the early roses, some regiments of Northern soldiers +landed and marched through the town, on their way to the front. The +patriotic women gathered there, cheered them as they marched on, and +gathered roses which they offered in a fragrant shower, with which the +men decorated caps and button-holes. They passed on; but two days later +the long train of ambulances crept down the hill, bringing back these +heroes to their pitying countrywomen, the roses withering on their +breasts, and dyed with their sacred patriot blood. + +Through all the horrors of this sad campaign, Mrs. Gibbons and Mrs. +Emerson remained, doing whatever their hands could find to do. When +Fredericksburg was evacuated, they accompanied the soldiers, riding in +the open box-cars, and on the way administering to them as they could. + +They were for a time at White House, where thousands of wounded required +and received their aid, and afterwards at City Point, where they +remained for several weeks in charge of the hospital of the Second +Division, being from first to last, among the most useful of the many +noble women who were engaged in this work. + +After their return home, Mrs. Gibbons accepted an appointment at the +hospital in Beverly, New Jersey, where she had charge under Dr. Wagner, +the excellent surgeon she had known, and to whom she had become much +attached, at Point Lookout. As usual, Mrs. Emerson accompanied her to +this place, and lent her efforts to the great work to which both had +devoted themselves. + +There were about nineteen hundred patients in this hospital, and the +duties were arduous. They boarded with the family of Dr. Wagner, +adjacent to the hospital, and after the labors of the day were mostly +finished, they went there to dine, at seven o'clock. Often, despite +pleasant conversation, and attractive viands, the sense of fatigue, +before unfelt, would attack Mrs. Gibbons, and at the table she would +fall asleep. But the morning would find her with strength restored, and +ready for the toil of the coming day. + +The winter of 1865 will long be remembered in New York for the ravages +of small-pox in that city. The victims were not confined to any class, +or locality, and there were perhaps as many in the homes of wealth, as +in the squalid dwelling-places of the poor. + +Mrs. Gibbons was suddenly summoned home to nurse her youngest daughter, +in an attack of varioloid. This was accomplished, and the young lady +recovered. But this closed the army labors of the mother. She did not +return, though Mrs. Emerson remained till the close of the hospital the +following spring, when the end of the war rendered their further +services in this work unnecessary, and they once more found themselves +settled in the quiet of home. + + + + +MRS. E. J. RUSSELL. + + +We have spoken in previous sketches of the faithfulness and devotion of +many of the government nurses, appointed by Miss Dix. No salary, +certainly not the meagre pittance doled out by the government could +compensate for such services, and the only satisfactory reason which can +be offered for their willingness to render them, is that their hearts +were inspired by a patriotism equally ardent with that which actuated +their wealthier sisters, and that this pitiful salary, hardly that +accorded to a green Irish girl just arrived in this country from the +bogs of Erin, was accepted rather as affording them the opportunity to +engage more readily in their work, than from any other cause. In many +instances it was expended in procuring necessary food or luxuries for +their soldier-patients, and in others, served to prevent dependence upon +friends, who had the disposition but perhaps hardly the ability to +furnish these heroic and self-denying nurses with the clothing or +pocket-money they needed in their work. + +It is of one of these nurses, a lady of mature age, a widow, that we +have now to speak. Mrs. E. J. Russell, of Plattekill, Ulster County, New +York, was at the commencement of the war engaged in teaching in New York +city. In common with the other ladies of the Reformed Dutch Church, in +Ninth Street, of which she was a member, she worked for the soldiers at +every spare moment, but the cause seemed to her to need her personal +services in the hospital, and in ministrations to the wounded or sick, +and when the call came for nurses, she waited upon Miss Dix, was +accepted, and sent first to the Regimental Hospital of the Twentieth New +York Militia, National Guard, then stationed at Annapolis Junction. On +arriving there she found that the regiment consisted of men from her own +county, her former neighbors and acquaintances. The regiment was soon +after ordered to Baltimore, and being in the three months' service, was +mustered out soon after, and Mrs. Russell was assigned by Miss Dix to +Columbia College Hospital, Washington. Here she remained in the quiet +discharge of her duties, until June, 1864, not without many trials and +discomforts, for the position of the hired nurse in these hospitals +about Washington, was often rendered very uncomfortable by the +discourtesy of the young assistant surgeons. Her devotion to her duties +had been so intense that her health was seriously impaired, and she +resigned, but after a short period of rest, her strength was +sufficiently recruited for her to resume her labors, and she reported +for duty at West Building Hospital, Baltimore, where she remained until +after Lee's surrender. She was in the service altogether four years, +lacking eighteen days. During this time nine hundred and eighty-five men +were under her care, for varying periods from a few days to thirteen +months; of these ninety died, and she closed the eyes of seventy-six of +them. Her service in Baltimore was in part among our returned prisoners, +from Belle Isle, Libby and other prisons, and in part among the wounded +rebel prisoners. + +Many of the incidents which Mrs. Russell relates of the wounded who +passed under her care are very touching. Many of her earlier patients +were in the delirium of typhoid fever, and her ears and heart were often +pained in hearing their piteous calls for their loved ones to come to +them,--to forgive them--or to help them. Often had she occasion to offer +the consolations of religion to those who were evidently nearing the +river of death, and sometimes she was made happy in finding that those +who were suffering terribly from racking pain, or the agony of wounds, +were comforted and cheered by her efforts to bring them to think of the +Saviour. One of these, suffering from an intense fever, as she seated +herself by the side of his cot, and asked him in her quiet gentle way, +if he loved Jesus as his Saviour, clasped her hand in his and folding it +to his heart, asked so earnestly, "Do you love Jesus too? Oh, yes, I +love him. I do not fear to die, for then I shall join my dear mother who +taught me to love him." He then repeated with great distinctness a +stanza of the hymn, "Jesus can make a dying bed," etc., and inquired if +she could sing. She could not, but she read several hymns to him. His +joy and peace made him apparently oblivious of his suffering from the +fever, and he endeavored as well as his failing strength would permit, +to tell her of his hopes of immortality, and to commend to her prayers +his only and orphaned sister. + +Another, a poor fellow from Maine, dying of diphtheria, asked her to +pray for him and to read to him from the Bible. She commended him +tenderly to the Good Shepherd, and soon had the happiness of seeing, +even amid his sufferings, that his face was radiant with joy. He +selected a chapter of the Bible which he wished her to read, and then +sent messages by her to his mother and friends, uttering the words with +great difficulty, but passing away evidently in perfect peace. + +Since the war, Mrs. Russell has resumed her profession as a teacher at +Newburgh, New York. + + + + +MRS. MARY W. LEE. + + +It is somewhat remarkable that a considerable number of the most +faithful and active workers in the hospitals and in other labors for the +soldier during the late war, should have been of foreign birth. Their +patriotism and benevolence was fully equal to that of our women born +under the banner of the stars, and their joy at the final triumph of our +arms was as fervent and hearty. Our readers will recall among these +noble women, Miss Wormeley, Miss Clara Davis, Miss Jessie Home, Mrs. +General Ricketts, Mrs. General Turchin, Bridget Divers, and others. + +Among the natives of a foreign land, but thoroughly American in every +fibre of her being, Mrs. Mary W. Lee stands among the foremost of the +earnest persistent toilers of the great army of philanthropists. She was +born in the north of Ireland, of Scotch parentage, but came with her +parents to the United States when she was five years of age, and has +ever since made Philadelphia her home. Here she married Mr. Lee, a gold +refiner, and a man of great moral worth. An interesting family had grown +up around them, all, like their parents thoroughly patriotic. One son +enlisted early in the war, first, we believe, in the Pennsylvania +Reserve Corps, and afterward in the Seventy-second Pennsylvania +Volunteers, and served throughout the war, and though often in peril, +escaped any severe wounds. A daughter, Miss Amanda Lee, imbued with her +mother's spirit, accompanied her in most of her labors, and emulated +her example of active usefulness. + +Mrs. Lee was one of the noble band of women whose hearts were moved with +the desire to do something for our soldiers, when they were first +hastening to the war in April, 1861, and in the organization of the +Volunteer Refreshment Saloon at Philadelphia, an institution which fed, +during the war, four hundred thousand of our soldiers as they passed to +and from the battle-fields, and brought comfort and solace to many +thousands of the sick and wounded, she was one of the most active and +faithful members of its committee. The regiments often arrived at +midnight; but whatever the hour, whether night or day, at the firing of +the signal gun, which announced that troops were on their way to +Philadelphia, Mrs. Lee and her co-workers hastened to the Union +Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, near the Navy Yard, and prepared an ample +repast for the soldiers, caring at the same time for any sick or wounded +among them. No previous fatigue or weariness, no inclemency of the +weather, or darkness of the night was regarded by these heroic women as +a valid excuse from these self-imposed duties or rather this glorious +privilege, for so they deemed it, of ministering to the comfort of the +defenders of the Union. And through the whole four and a-third years +during which troops passed through Philadelphia, no regiment or company +ever passed unfed. The supplies as well as the patience and perseverance +of the women held out to the end, and scores of thousands who but for +their voluntary labors and beneficence must have suffered severely from +hunger, had occasion to bless God for the philanthropy and practical +benevolence of the women of Philadelphia. + +But this field of labor, broad as it was, did not fully satisfy the +patriotic ardor of Mrs. Lee. She had heard of the sufferings and +privations endured by our soldiers at the front, and in hospitals remote +from the cities; and she longed to go and minister to their wants. +Fortunately, she could be spared for a time at least from her home. +Though of middle age, she possessed a vigorous constitution, capable of +enduring all necessary hardships, and was in full health and strength. +She was well known as a skilful cook, an admirable nurse, and an +excellent manager of household affairs. The sickness of some members of +her family delayed her for a time, but when this obstacle was removed, +she felt that she could not longer be detained from her chosen work. It +was July, 1862, the period when the Army of the Potomac exhausted by its +wearisome march and fearful battles of the seven days, lay almost +helpless at Harrison's Landing. The sick poisoned by the malaria of the +Chickahominy Swamps, and the wounded, shattered and maimed wrecks of +humanity from the great battles, were being sent off by thousands to the +hospitals of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and New +England, and yet other thousands lay in the wretched field hospitals +around the Landing, with but scant care, and in utter wretchedness and +misery. The S. R. Spaulding, one of the steamers assigned to the United +States Sanitary Commission for its Hospital Transport Service, had +brought to Philadelphia a heavy cargo of the sick and wounded, and was +about to return for another, when Mrs. Lee, supplied with stores by the +Union Volunteer Refreshment Committee, and her personal friends, +embarked upon it for Harrison's Landing, where she was to be associated +with Mrs. John Harris in caring for the soldiers. The Spaulding arrived +in due time in the James River, and lay off in the stream while the +Ruffin house was burning. On landing, Mrs. Lee found Mrs. Harris, and +the Rev. Isaac O. Sloan, one of the Agents of the Christian Commission +ready to welcome her to the toilsome duties that were before her. +Wretched indeed was the condition of the poor sick men, lying in +mildewed, leaky tents without floors, and the pasty tenacious mud ankle +deep around them, the raging thirst and burning fever of the marshes +consuming them, with only the warm and impure river water to drink, and +little even of this; with but a small supply of medicines, and no food +or delicacies suitable for the sick, the bean soup, unctuous with rancid +pork fat, forming the principal article of low diet; uncheered by kind +words or tender sympathy, it is hardly matter of surprise that hundreds +of as gallant men as ever entered the army died here daily. + +The supplies of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, and those sent +to Mrs. Harris and Mrs. Lee, from the Ladies' Aid Society, and the Union +Volunteer Refreshment Committee, administered by such skilful nurses as +Mrs. Harris and Mrs. Lee, Mrs. Fales, Mrs. Husband, and Miss Hall, soon +changed the aspect of affairs, and though the malarial fever still +raged, there was a better chance of recovery from it, and the sick men +were as rapidly as possible transferred to a better climate, and a +healthier atmosphere. In the latter part of August, the Army of the +Potomac having left the James River for Acquia Creek and Alexandria, +Mrs. Lee returned home for a brief visit. + +On the 5th of September, she started for Washington, to enter again upon +her chosen work. Finding that the Army were just about moving into +Maryland, she spent a few days in the Hospital of the Epiphany at +Washington, nursing the sick and wounded there; but learning that the +Army of the Potomac were in hot pursuit of the Rebel Army, and that a +severe battle was impending, she could not rest; she determined to be +near the troops, so that when the battle came, she might be able to +render prompt assistance to the wounded. It was almost impossible to +obtain transportation, the demand for the movement of sustenance and +ammunition for the army filling every wagon, and still proving +insufficient for their wants; but by the kind permission of Captain +Gleason of the Seventy-first Pennsylvania Volunteers, she was permitted +to follow with her stores in a forage wagon, and arrived at the rear of +the army the night before the battle of Antietam. The battle commenced +with the dawn on the 17th of September, and during its progress, she was +stationed on the Sharpsburg road, where she had her supplies and two +large tubs of water, one to bathe and bind up the wounds of those who +had fallen in the fight, and the other to refresh them when suffering +from the terrible thirst which gun-shot wounds always produce. As the +hours drew on, the contents of one assumed a deeper and yet deeper +crimson hue and the seemingly ample supply of the other grew less and +less. Her supply of soft bread had given out, and she had bought of an +enterprising sutler who had pushed his way to a place of danger in the +hope of gain, at ten and twenty cents a loaf, till her money was nearly +exhausted; but to the honor of this sutler, it should be said, that the +noble example of Mrs. Lee, in seeking to alleviate the sufferings of the +wounded so moved his feelings, that he exclaimed, "Great God! I can't +stand this any longer; Take this bread, and give it to that woman," +(Mrs. Lee), and forgetting for the time the greed of gain which had +brought him thither, he lent a helping hand most zealously to the care +of the wounded. During the day, General McClellan's head-quarters were +at Boonsboro', and his aids were constantly passing back and forth over +the Sharpsburg road, near which Mrs. Lee had her station. + +The battle closed with the night-fall, and Mrs. Lee immediately went +into the Sedgwick Division Hospital, where were five hundred severely +wounded men, and among the number, Major-General Sedgwick. Here she +commenced preparing food for the wounded, but was greatly annoyed by a +gang of villainous camp followers, who hung around her fires and stole +everything from them if she was engaged for a moment. At last she +entered the hospital, and inquired if there was any officer there who +had the authority to order her a guard. General Sedgwick immediately +responded to her request, by authorizing her to call upon the first +soldier she could find for the purpose, and she had no further +annoyance. + +She remained for several days at this hospital, doing all she could with +the means at her command, to make the condition of the wounded +comfortable, but on the arrival of Mrs. Arabella Barlow, whose husband, +then Colonel, afterward Major-General Barlow, was very severely wounded, +she gave up the charge of this hospital to her, and went to the Hoffman +Farm's Hospital, where there were over a thousand of the worst cases. +Here she was the only lady for several weeks, until the hospital was +removed to Smoketown, where she was joined by Miss M. M. C. Hall, Mrs. +Husband, Mrs. Harris, and Miss Tyson, of Baltimore. She remained at +Smoketown General Hospital, nearly three months. The worst cases, those +which could not bear removal to Washington, Baltimore, or Philadelphia, +were collected in this hospital, and there was much suffering and many +deaths in it. + +Mrs. Lee returned home on the 14th of December, 1862, and on the 29th of +the same month, she again set out for the front, arriving safely at +Falmouth on the 31st, where the wounded of Fredericksburg were gathered +by thousands. After four weeks of earnest labor here, she again returned +home, but early in March, she was again at the front, in the Hospital of +the Second Corps, which had been removed from Falmouth to Potomac Creek. +She continued in this Hospital until the battle of Chancellorsville, +when she went up to the Lacy House, at Falmouth, to assist Mrs. Harris +and Mrs. Beck. She accompanied Mrs. Harris, and several of the gentlemen +of the Christian Commission in an Ambulance to take nourishment to the +wounded of General Sedgwick's command, and witnessed the taking of +Marye's Heights, the balls from the batteries passing over the heads of +her company. Her anxiety in regard to this conflict was heightened by +the fact that her son was in one of the regiments which made the charge +upon the Heights, and great was her gratitude in finding that he was not +among the wounded. + +After the wounded were sent to Washington she returned to Potomac Creek, +where she remained until Lee's second invasion of Maryland and +Pennsylvania, when she moved with the army as far as Fairfax +Court-House, enduring many hardships. From Fairfax Court-House she went +to Alexandria to await the result of the movement, and after some delay +returned home. The battle of Gettysburg called her again into the field. +Arriving several days after the battle, she went directly to the Second +Corps Hospital, and labored there until it was broken up. For her +services in this hospital she received from the officers and men a gold +medal--a trefoil, beautifully engraved, and with an appropriate +inscription. She went next to Camp Letterman General Hospital, where she +remained for some weeks, her stay at Gettysburg being in all about two +months. Her health was impaired by her excessive labors at Gettysburg +and previously in Virginia, and she remained at home for a longer time +than usual, giving her attention, however, meanwhile to the Volunteer +Refreshment Saloon, but early in February, 1864, she established herself +in a new hospital of the Second Division, Second Corps, at Brandy +Station, Virginia. Here, soon after, her daughter joined her, and the +old routine of the hospital at Potomac Creek was soon established. Mrs. +Lee has the faculty of making the most of her conveniences and supplies. +Her daughter writing home from this hospital thus describes the +furniture of her "Special Diet Kitchen:"--"Mother has a small stove; +until this morning it has smoked very much, but it is now doing very +well. The top is about half a yard square. On this she is now boiling +potatoes, stewing some chicken-broth, heating a kettle of water, and has +a large bread-pudding inside. She has made milk-punch, lemonade, +beef-tea, stewed cranberries, and I cannot think what else since +breakfast." With all this intense activity the spiritual interests of +her patients were not forgotten. Mrs. Lee is a woman of deep and +unaffected piety, and her tact in speaking a word in season, and in +bringing the men under religious influences was remarkable. This +hospital soon became remarkable for its order, neatness and +cheerfulness. + +The order of General Grant on the 15th of April, 1864, for the removal +of all civilians from the army, released Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Husband, who +had been associated with her, from their duties at Brandy Station. But +in less than a month both were recalled to the temporary base of the +army at Belle Plain and Fredericksburg, to minister to the thousands of +wounded from the destructive battles of the Wilderness and +Spottsylvania. At Fredericksburg, where the whole town was one vast +hospital, the surgeon in charge entrusted her with the care of the +special diet of the Second Corps' hospitals. Unsupplied with kitchen +furniture, and the surgeon being entirely at a loss how to procure any, +her woman's wit enabled her to improvise the means of performing her +duties. She remembered that Mrs. Harris had left at the Lacy House in +Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg, the year before, an old stove which +might be there yet. Procuring an ambulance, she crossed the river, and +found the old stove, much the worse for wear, and some kettles and other +utensils, all of which were carefully transported to the other side, and +after diligent scouring, the whole were soon in such a condition that +boiling, baking, stewing and frying could proceed simultaneously, and +during her stay in Fredericksburg, the old stove was kept constantly +hot, and her skilful hands were employed from morning till night and +often from night till morning again in the preparation of food and +delicacies for the sick. Nothing but her iron constitution enabled her +to endure this incessant labor. + +From Fredericksburg she went over land to White House and there, aided +by Miss Cornelia Hancock, her ministrations to the wounded were renewed. +Thence soon after they removed to City Point. Here for months she +labored amid such suffering and distress that the angels must have +looked down in pity upon the accumulated human woe which met their +sympathizing eyes. Brave, noble-hearted men fell by hundreds and +thousands, and died not knowing whether their sacrifices would be +sufficient to save their country. At length wearied with her intense and +protracted labors, Mrs. Lee found herself compelled to visit home and +rest for a time. But her heart was in the work, and again she returned +to it, and was in charge of a hospital near Petersburg at the time of +Lee's surrender. She remained in the hospitals of Petersburg and +Richmond, until the middle of May, and then returned to her quiet home, +participating to the very last in the closing work of the Volunteer +Refreshment Saloon, where she had commenced her labors for the soldiers. +Other ladies may have engaged in more extended enterprises, may have had +charge of larger hospitals, or undertaken more comprehensive and +far-reaching plans for usefulness to the soldier--but in untiring +devotion to his interests, in faithfully performed, though often irksome +labor, carried forward patiently and perseveringly for more than four +years, Mrs. Lee has a record not surpassed in the history of the deeds +of American women. + + + + +MISS CORNELIA M. TOMPKINS. + + +Miss Cornelia M. Tompkins, of Niagara Falls, was one of the truly heroic +spirits evoked by the war. Related to a distinguished family of the same +name, educated, accustomed to the refinements and social enjoyments of a +Christian home she left all to become a hospital nurse, and to aid in +saving the lives of the heroes and defenders of her native land. +Recommended by her friend, the late Margaret Breckinridge, of whom a +biographical notice is given in this volume, she came to St. Louis in +the summer of 1863, was commissioned as a nurse by Mr. Yeatman, and +assigned to duty at the Benton Barracks Hospital, under the +superintendence of Miss Emily E. Parsons, and the general direction of +Surgeon Ira Russell. In this service she was one of the faithful band of +nurses, who, with Miss Parsons, brought the system of nursing to such +perfection at that hospital. + +In the fall of that year she was transferred to the hospital service at +Memphis, by Mr. Yeatman, to meet the great demand for nurses there, +where she became favorably known as a most judicious and skilful nurse. + +In the spring of 1864 she returned to St. Louis, and was again assigned +to duty at Benton Barracks, where she remained till mid-summer, when +having been from home a year, she obtained a furlough, and went home for +a short period of rest, and to visit her family. + +On her return to St. Louis she was assigned to duty at the large +hospital at Jefferson Barracks, and continued there till the end of the +war, doing faithful and excellent service, and receiving the cordial +approbation of the surgeons in charge, and the Western Sanitary +Commission, as well as the gratitude of the sick and wounded soldiers, +to whom she was a devoted friend and a ministering angel in their +sorrows and distress. + +In her return to the quiet and enjoyment of her own home, within the +sound of the great cataract, she has carried with her the consciousness +of having rendered a most useful service to the patriotic and heroic +defenders of her country, in their time of suffering and need, the +approval of a good conscience and the smile of heaven upon her noble and +heroic soul. + + + + +MRS. ANNA C. McMEENS. + + +Mrs. Anna C. McMeens, of Sandusky, Ohio, was born in Maryland, but +removed to the northern part of Ohio, in company with her parents when +quite young. She is therefore a western woman in her habits, +associations and feelings, while her patriotism and philanthropy are not +bounded by sectional lines. Her husband, Dr. McMeens, was appointed +surgeon to an Ohio regiment, which was one of the first raised when Mr. +Lincoln called for troops, after the firing upon Sumter. In the line of +his duty he proceeded to Camp Dennison, where he had for some time +principal charge of the medical department. Mrs. McMeens resolved to +accompany her husband, and share in the hardships of the campaign, for +the purpose of doing good where she could find it to do. She was +therefore one of the first,--if not the first woman in Ohio, to give her +exclusive, undivided time in a military hospital, in administering to +the necessities of the soldiers. When the regiment left Camp Dennison, +she accompanied it, until our forces occupied Nashville. Dr. McMeens +then had a hospital placed under his charge, and his faithful wife +assisted as nurse for several months, contributing greatly to the +efficiency of the nursing department, and to the administration of +consolation and comfort in many ways to our sick soldier boys, who were +necessarily deprived of the comforts of home. Subsequently at the battle +of Perryville, Mrs. McMeens' husband lost his life from excessive +exertions while in attention to the sick and wounded. Being deprived of +her natural protector, she returned to her home in Sandusky, which was +made desolate by an additional sacrifice to the demon of secession. +While at home, not content to sit idle in her mourning for her husband, +she was busily occupied in aiding the Sanitary Commission in obtaining +supplies, of which she so well knew the value by her familiarity with +the wants of the soldiers in field, camp and hospitals. She however very +soon felt it her duty to participate more actively in immediate +attentions upon the sick and wounded soldiers. A fine field offered +itself in the hospitals at Washington, to which place she went; and +remained nearly one year in attention, and rendering assistance daily +among the various hospitals of the Nation's capital. It would be feeble +praise to say that her duties were performed in the most energetic and +judicious manner. Few women have made greater sacrifices in the war than +the subject of our sketch; none have been made from a purer sense of +duty, or a fuller knowledge of the magnitude of the cause in which we +have been engaged. + +At present the necessity for attention to soldiers has happily ceased, +and we find her busily engaged in missionary work among the sailors, +which she has an excellent opportunity of performing while at her +beautiful summer home on the island of Gibraltar, Lake Erie. + + + + +MRS. JERUSHA R. SMALL. + + +This young lady was one of the martyrs of the war. She resided in +Cascade, Dubuque County, Iowa, and just previous to the commencement of +the war had buried her only child, a sweet little girl of four years. +When volunteers were called for from Iowa, her husband, Mr. J. E. Small, +felt it his duty to take up arms for his country, and as his wife had no +home ties she determined to go with him and make herself useful in +caring for the sick and wounded of his regiment, or of other regiments +in the same division. She proved a most excellent nurse, and for months +labored with untiring energy in the regimental hospitals, and to +hundreds of the wounded from Belmont, Donelson, and Shiloh, as well as +to the numerous sick soldiers of General Grant's army she was an angel +of mercy. Her constant care and devotion had considerably impaired her +health before the battle of Shiloh. + +At this battle her husband was badly wounded and taken prisoner, but was +retaken by the Union troops. In the course of the battle, the tent which +she occupied and where she was ministering to the wounded came within +range of the enemy's shells, and she with her wounded husband and a +large number of other wounded soldiers, were obliged to fly for their +lives, leaving all their goods behind them. Previous to her flight, +however, she had torn up all her spare clothing and dresses to make +bandages and compresses and pillows for the wounded soldiers. She found +her way with her wounded patients to one of the hospitals extemporized +by the Cincinnati ladies. Her husband and many of his comrades of the +Twelfth Iowa Regiment were among this company of wounded men. She craved +admission for them and remained to nurse her husband and the others for +several weeks, but when her husband became convalescent, she was +compelled to take to her bed; her fatigue and exposure, acting upon a +somewhat frail and delicate constitution had brought on galloping +consumption. She soon learned from her physician that there was no hope +of her recovery, and then the desire to return home and die in her +mother's arms seemed to take entire possession of her soul. Permission +was obtained for her to go, and for her husband to accompany her, and +when she was removed from the boat to the cars, Mrs. Dr. Mendenhall of +the Cincinnati Branch of the Sanitary Commission accompanied her to the +cars, and having provided for her comfortable journey, gave her a +parting kiss. Mrs. Small was deeply affected by this kindness of a +stranger, and thanking her for her attention to herself and husband, +expressed the hope that they should meet in a better world. A lady, who +evidently had little sympathy with the war or with those who sought to +alleviate the sufferings of the soldiers, stepped up and said to Mrs. +Small; "You did very wrong to go and expose yourself as you have done +when you were so young and frail." "No!" replied the dying woman, "I +feel that I have done right, I think I have been the means of saving +some lives, and that of my dear husband among the rest; and these I +consider of far more value than mine, for now they can go and help our +country in its hour of need." + +Mrs. Small lived to reach home, but died a few days after her arrival. +She requested that her dead body might be wrapped in the national flag, +for next to her husband and her God, she loved the country which it +represented, best. She was buried with military honors, a considerable +number of the soldiers of the Twelfth Iowa who were home on furlough, +taking part in the sad procession. + + + + +MRS. S. A. MARTHA CANFIELD. + + +This lady was the wife of Colonel Herman Canfield, of the Seventy-first +Ohio Regiment. She accompanied her husband to the field, and devoted +herself to the care and succor of the sick and wounded soldiers, until +the battle of Shiloh, where her husband was mortally wounded, and +survived but a few hours. She returned home with his body and remained +for a short time, but feeling that it was in her power to do something +for the cause to which her husband had given his life, she returned to +the Army of the Mississippi and became attached to the Sixteenth Army +Corps, and spent most of her time in the hospitals of Memphis and its +vicinity. But though she accomplished great good for the soldiers, she +took a deep interest also in the orphans of the freedmen in that region, +and by her extensive acquaintance and influence with the military +authorities, she succeeded in establishing and putting upon a +satisfactory basis, the Colored Orphan Asylum in Memphis. She devoted +her whole time until the close of the war to these two objects; the +welfare of the soldiers in the hospitals and the perfecting of the +Orphan Asylum, and not only gave her time but very largely also of her +property to the furthering of these objects. The army officers of that +large and efficient army corps bear ample testimony to her great +usefulness and devotion. + + + + +MRS. E. THOMAS, AND MISS MORRIS. + + +These two ladies, sisters, volunteered as unpaid nurses for the War, +from Cincinnati. They commenced their duties at the first opening of the +Hospitals, and remained faithful to their calling, until the hospitals +were closed, after the termination of the war. In cold or heat, under +all circumstances of privation, and often when all the other nurses were +stricken down with illness, they never faltered in their work, and, +although not wealthy, gave freely of their own means to secure any +needed comfort for the soldiers. Mrs. Mendenhall, of Cincinnati, who +knew their abundant labors, speaks of them as unsurpassed in the extent +and continuousness of their sacrifices. + + + + +MRS. SHEPARD WELLS. + + +This lady, the wife of Rev. Shepard Wells, was, with her husband, driven +from East Tennessee by the rebellion, because of their loyalty to the +Union. They found their way to St. Louis at an early period of the War, +where he entered into the work of the Christian Commission for the Union +soldiers, and she became a member of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, of +St. Louis, and gave herself wholly to sanitary labors for the sick and +wounded in the Hospitals of that city, acting also as one of the +Secretaries of the Society, and as its agent in many of its works of +benevolence, superintending at one time the Special Diet Kitchen, +established by the Society at Benton Barracks, and doing an amount of +work which few women could endure, animated and sustained by a genuine +love of doing good, by noble and Christian purposes, and by true +patriotism and philanthropy. + +The incidents of the persecutions endured by Mr. and Mrs. Wells, in East +Tennessee, and of her life and labors among the sick and wounded of the +Union army, would add very much to the interest of this brief notice, +but the particulars are not sufficiently familiar to the writer to be +narrated by him, and he can only record the impressions he received of +her remarkable faithfulness and efficiency, and her high Christian +motives, in the labors she performed in connection with the Ladies' +Union Aid Society, of St. Louis,--that noble Society of heroic women +who, during the whole war, performed an amount of sanitary, hospital +and philanthropic work for the soldiers, the refugees and the freedmen, +second only to the Western Sanitary Commission itself, of which it was a +most faithful ally and co-worker. + +United with an earnest Christian faith, Mrs. Wells possessed a kind and +generous sympathy with suffering, and a patriotic ardor for the welfare +of the Union soldiers, so that she was never more in her element than +when laboring for the poor refugees, for the families of those brave men +who left their all to fight for their country, for the sick and wounded +in the hospitals, and for the freedmen and their families. The labors +she performed extended to all these objects of sympathy and charity, +and, from the beginning to the end of her service, she never seemed +weary in well-doing; and there can be no doubt that when her work on +earth is finished, and she passes onward to the heavenly life, she will +hear the approving voice of her Saviour, saying, "Well done, good and +faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." + + + + +MRS. E. C. WITHERELL. + + +In the month of December, 1861, on a visit made by the writer to the +Fourth Street Hospital, in St. Louis, he was particularly impressed with +the great devotion of one of the female nurses to her sick patients. At +the conclusion of a religious service held there, as he passed through +the wards to call on those who had been too ill to attend worship, he +found her seated by the bed-side of a sick soldier, suffering from +pneumonia, on whose pale, thin face the marks of approaching dissolution +were plainly visible. She held in her hand a copy of the New Testament, +from which she had been reading to him, in a cheerful and hopeful +manner, and a little book of prayers, hymns and songs from which she had +been singing, "There is rest for the weary," and "The Shining Shore." +The soldier's bed was neatly made; his special diet had been given; his +head rested easily on his pillow; and his countenance beamed with a +sweet and pleasant smile. It was evident the patient enjoyed the kind +attentions, the conversation, the reading and singing of his faithful +nurse. The lady who sat by his bed-side was of middle age, having a +countenance expressive of goodness, benevolence, purity of motive, +intelligence and affection. It was plain that she regarded her patient +with a tender care, and that her influence calmed and soothed his +spirit. Her name was Mrs. E. C. Witherell, and the sick soldier was a +mere boy, who had shouldered his musket to fight for the cause of the +Union, and had contracted his fatal disease in the marches and the +exposure of the army in Missouri, and was now about to die away from +friends and home. The interest felt by Mrs. Witherell in this soldier +boy, was motherly, full of affection and sympathy, and creditable to her +noble and generous heart. As I drew near and introduced myself as a +chaplain, she welcomed me, introduced me to the patient, and we sat down +and conversed together; the young man was in a state of peaceful +resignation; was willing to die for his country; and only regretted that +he could not see his mother and sisters again; but he said that Mrs. +Witherell had been as a mother to him, and if he could have hold of her +hand he should not be afraid to die. He even hoped that with her kind +care and nursing he might get well. Mrs. Witherell and myself then sang +the "Shining Shore;" a brief prayer of hope and trust was offered; the +other patients in the room seemed equally well cared for, and interested +in all that was said and done; and I passed on to another ward, and +never saw either the nurse or patient again. But I learned that the +soldier died; and that Mrs. Witherell continued in the service, until +she also died, a martyr to her heroic devotion to the cause of the sick +and wounded soldiers, for whom she laid down her life, that they might +live to fight the battles of their country. + +The only facts that I have been able to learn about this noble lady, +were that at one time she resided in Louisville, and was greatly +esteemed by her pastor, Rev. John H. Heywood, of the Unitarian Church; +that she chose this work of the hospitals from the highest motives of +religious patriotism and love of humanity; that after serving several +months in the Fourth Street Hospital, at St. Louis, she was assigned to +the hospital steamer, "Empress," in the spring of 1862, as matron, or +head nurse; that she continued on this boat during the next few months, +while so many sick and wounded were brought from Pittsburg Landing, +after the battle of Shiloh, and from other battle-fields along the +rivers, to the hospitals at Mound City and St. Louis; that she was +always constant, faithful and never weary of doing good; and that at +last, from her being so much in the infected atmosphere of the sick and +wounded, she became the victim of a fever, and died on the 10th of July, +1862. + +On the occurrence of the sad event, the Western Sanitary Commission, who +had known and appreciated her services, and from whom she held her +commission, passed a series of resolutions, as a tribute to her worth, +and her blessed memory, in which she was described as one who was +"gentle and unobtrusive, with a heart warm with sympathy, and +unshrinking in the discharge of duty, energetic, untiring, ready to +answer every call, and unwilling to spare herself where she could +alleviate suffering, or minister to the comfort of others," as "not a +whit behind the bravest hero on the battle-field;" and as worthy to be +held "in everlasting remembrance." + + + + +MISS PHEBE ALLEN. + + +This noble woman, who laid down her life in the cause of her country, +was a teacher in Washington, Iowa, and left her school to enter the +service as a hospital nurse. In the summer of 1863 she was commissioned +by Mr. Yeatman, at St. Louis, and assigned to duty in the large hospital +at Benton Barracks, where she belonged to the corps of women nurses, +under the superintendence of Miss Emily E. Parsons, and under the +general direction of Surgeon Ira Russell. + +In the fulfilment of the duties of a hospital nurse she was very +conscientious, faithful and devoted; won the respect and confidence of +all who knew her, and is most pleasantly remembered by her associates +and superior officers. + +In the autumn of 1863 she went home on a furlough, was recalled by a +letter from Miss Parsons; returned to duty, and continued in the service +till the summer of 1864, when she was taken ill of malarious fever and +died at Benton Barracks in the very scene of her patriotic and Christian +labors, leaving a precious memory of her faithfulness and truly noble +spirit to her friends and the world. + + + + +MRS. EDWIN GREBLE. + + +Among the ardently loyal women of Philadelphia, by whom such great and +untiring labors for the soldiers were performed, few did better service +in a quiet and unostentatious manner than Mrs. Greble. Indeed so very +quietly did she work that she almost fulfilled the Scripture injunction +of secrecy as to good deeds. + +The maiden name of Mrs. Greble was Susan Virginia Major. She was born in +Chester County, Pennsylvania, being descended on the mother's side from +a family of Quakers who were devoted to their country in the days of the +Revolution with a zeal so active and outspoken as to cause them to lose +their membership in the Society of Friends. Fighting Quakers there have +been in both great American wars, men whose principles of peace, though +not easily shaken, were less firm than their patriotism, and their +traits have in many instances been emulated in the female members of +their families. This seems to have been the case with Mrs. Greble. + +Her eldest son, John, she devoted to the service of his country. He +entered the Military Academy at West Point in 1850, at the age of +sixteen, graduating honorably, and continuing in the service until June, +1861, when he fell at the disastrous battle of Great Bethel, one of the +earliest martyrs of liberty in the rebellion. Another son, and the only +one remaining after the death of the lamented Lieutenant Greble, when +but eighteen years of age, enlisted, served faithfully, and nearly lost +his life by typhoid fever. A son-in-law, Lieutenant-Colonel of the +Ninetieth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and a brave soldier, was for many +months a prisoner of war, and experienced the horrors of three different +Southern prisons. Thus, by inheritance, patriotic, and by personal +suffering and loss keenly aroused to sympathy with her country's brave +defenders, Mrs. Greble from the first devoted herself earnestly and +untiringly to every work of kindness and aid which suggested itself. +Blessed with abundant means, she used them in the most liberal manner in +procuring comforts for the sick and wounded in hospitals. + +There was ample scope for such labors among the numerous hospitals of +Philadelphia. Now it was blankets she sent to the hospital where they +were most needed. Again a piece of sheeting already hemmed and washed. +Almost daily in the season of fruit she drove to the hospitals with +bushel baskets filled with the choicest the market afforded, to tempt +the fever-parched lips, and refresh the languishing sufferers. Weekly +she made garments for the soldiers. Leisure moments she employed in +knitting scores of stockings. On holidays her contributions of poultry, +fruit, and pies, went far toward making up the feasts offered by the +like-minded, to the convalescents in the various institutions, or to +soldiers on their way to or from the seat of war. + +It was in this mode that Mrs. Greble served her country, amply and +freely, but so quietly as to attract little notice. She withheld nothing +that was in her power to bestow, giving even of her most precious +treasures, her children, and continuing her labors unabated to the close +of the war. + + + + +MRS. ISABELLA FOGG. + + +Maine has given to the cause of the Union many noble heroes, brave +spirits who have perilled life and health to put down the rebellion, and +not a few equally brave and noble-hearted women, who in the +ministrations of mercy have laid on the altar of patriotism their +personal services, their ease and comfort, their health and some of them +even life itself to bring healing and comfort to the defenders of their +country. Among these, few, none perhaps save those who have laid down +their lives in the service, are more worthy of honor than Mrs. Fogg. + +The call for seventy-five thousand men to drive back the invaders and +save the National Capital, met with no more hearty or patriotic +responses than those that came from the extreme northeastern border of +our Union, "away towards the sun-rising." Calais, in the extreme eastern +part of Maine, raised its quota and more, upon the instant, and sent +them forward promptly. The hearts of its women, too were stirred, and +each was anxious to do something for the soldier. Mrs. Fogg felt that +she was called to leave her home and minister in some way, she hardly +knew how, to the comfort of those who were to fight the nation's +battles. At that time, however, home duties were so pressing that, most +reluctantly, she was compelled to give up for the time the purpose. +Three months later came the seeming disaster, the real blessing in +disguise, of Bull Run, and again was her heart moved, this time to more +definite action, and a more determined purpose. Her son, a mere boy, +had left school and enlisted to help fill the ranks from his native +State, and she was ready now to go also. Applying to the patriotic +governor of Maine and to the surgeon-general of the State for permission +to serve the State, without compensation, as its agent for distributing +supplies to the sick and wounded soldiers of Maine, she was encouraged +by them and immediately commenced the work of collecting hospital stores +for her mission. In September, 1861, she in company with Mrs. Ruth S. +Mayhew, went out with one of the State regiments, and caring for its +sick, accompanied it to Annapolis. The regiment was ordered, late in the +autumn, to join General T. W. Sherman's expedition to Port Royal, and +Mrs. Fogg was desirous of accompanying it, but finding this +impracticable, she turned her attention to the hospital at Annapolis, in +which the spotted typhus fever had broken out and was raging with +fearful malignity. The disease was exceedingly contagious, and there was +great difficulty in finding nurses who were willing to risk the +contagion. With her high sense of duty, Mrs. Fogg felt that here was the +place for her, and in company with Mrs. Mayhew, another noble daughter +of Maine, she volunteered for service in this hospital. For more than +three months did these heroic women remain at their post, on duty every +day and often through the night for week after week, regardless of the +infectious character of the disease, and only anxious to benefit the +poor fever-stricken sufferers. The epidemic having subsided, Mrs. Fogg +placed herself under the direction of the Sanitary Commission, and took +part in the spring of 1862, in that Hospital Transport Service which we +have elsewhere so fully described. The month of June was passed by her +at the front, at Savage's Station, with occasional visits to the brigade +hospitals, and to the regimental hospitals of the most advanced posts. +She remained at her post at Savage's Station, until the last moment, +ministering to the wounded until the last load had been dispatched, and +then retreating with the army, over land to Harrison's Landing. Here, +under the orders of Dr. Letterman, the medical director, she took +special charge of the diet of the amputation cases; and subsequently +distributed the much needed supplies furnished by the Sanitary +Commission to the soldiers in their lines. + +When the camps at Harrison's Landing were broken up, and the army +transferred to the Potomac, she accompanied a ship load of the wounded +in the S. R. Spaulding, to Philadelphia, saw them safely removed to the +general hospital, and then returned to Maine, for a brief period of +rest, having been absent from home about a year. Her _rest_ consisted +mainly in appeals for further and larger supplies of hospital and +sanitary stores for the wounded men of Maine, who in the battles of +Pope's campaign, and Antietam had been wounded by hundreds. She was +successful, and early in October returned to Washington and the +hospitals of northern Maryland, where she proved an angel of mercy to +the suffering. When McClellan's army crossed the Potomac, she followed, +and early in December, 1862, was again at the front, where she was on +the 13th, a sad spectator of the fatal disaster of Fredericksburg. The +Maine Camp Hospital Association had been formed the preceding summer, +and Mrs. J. S. Eaton, one of its managers, had accompanied Mrs. Fogg to +the front. During the sad weeks that followed the battle of +Fredericksburg, these devoted ladies labored with untiring assiduity in +the hospitals, and dispensed their supplies of food and clothing, not +only to the Maine boys, but to others who were in need. + +When the battles of Chancellorsville were fought in the first days of +May, 1863, Mrs. Fogg and Mrs. Eaton spent almost a week of incessant +labor, much of the time day and night, in the temporary hospitals near +United States Ford, their labors being shared for one or two days by +Mrs. Husband, in dressing wounds, and attending to the poor fellows who +had suffered amputation, and furnishing cordials and food to the wounded +who were retreating from the field, pursued by the enemy. One of these +Hospitals in which they had been thus laboring till they were +completely exhausted, was shelled by the enemy while they were in it, +and while it was filled with the wounded. The attack was of short +duration, for the battery which had shelled them was soon silenced, but +one of the wounded soldiers was killed by a shell. + +In works like these, in the care of the wounded who were sent in by flag +of truce, and the distribution to the needy of the stores received from +Maine, the days passed quickly, till the invasion of Pennsylvania by +General Lee, which culminated in the battle of Gettysburg. Mrs. Fogg +pushed forward and reached the battle-field the day after the final +battle, but she could not obtain transportation for her stores at that +time, and was obliged to collect what she could from the farmers in the +vicinity, and use what was put into her hands for distribution by +others, until hers could be brought up. She labored with her usual +assiduity and patience among this great mass of wounded and dying men, +for nearly two weeks, and then, abundant helpers having arrived, she +returned to the front, and was with the Army as a voluntary Special +Relief agent, through all its changes of position on and about the +Rapidan, at the affair of Mine Run, the retreat and pursuit to Bristow +Station, and the other movements prior to General Grant's assumption of +the chief command. In the winter of 1864, she made a short visit home, +and the Legislature voted an appropriation of a considerable sum of +money to be placed at her disposal, to be expended at her discretion for +the comfort and succor of Maine soldiers. + +At the opening of the great Campaign of May, 1864, she hastened to Belle +Plain and Fredericksburg, and there, in company with scores of other +faithful and earnest workers, toiled night and day to relieve so far as +possible the indescribable suffering which filled that desolated city. +After two or three weeks, she went forward to Port Royal, to White +House, and finally to City Point, where, in connection with Mrs. Eaton +of the Maine Camp Hospital Association, she succeeded in bringing one of +the Hospitals up to the highest point of efficiency. This accomplished, +she returned to Maine, and was engaged in stimulating the women of her +State to more effective labors, when she received the intelligence that +her son who had been in the Army of the Shenandoah, had been mortally +wounded at the battle of Cedar-Run. + +With all a mother's anxieties aroused, she abandoned her work in Maine, +and hastened to Martinsburg, Virginia, to ascertain what was really her +son's fate. Here she met a friend, one of the delegates of the Christian +Commission, and learned from him, that her son had indeed been badly +wounded, and had been obliged to undergo the amputation of one leg, but +had borne the operation well, and after a few days had been transferred +to a Baltimore Hospital. To that city she hastened, and greatly to her +joy, found him doing well. Anxiety and over exertion soon prostrated her +own health, and she was laid upon a sick bed for a month or more. + +In November, her health being measurably restored, she returned to +Washington, and asked to be assigned to duty by the Christian +Commission. She was directed to report to Mrs. Annie Wittenmeyer, who +was the Commission's Agent for the establishment of Special Diet +Kitchens in the Hospitals. Mrs. Wittenmeyer assigned her a position in +charge of the Special Diet Kitchen, on one of the large hospital-boats +plying between Louisville and Nashville. While on duty on board this +boat in January, 1865, she fell through one of the hatchways, and +received injuries which will probably disable her for life, and her +condition was for many months so critical as not to permit her removal +to her native State. It would seem that here was cause for repining, had +she been of a querulous disposition. Herself an invalid for life, among +strangers, her only son permanently crippled from wounds received in +battle, with none but stranger hands to minister to her necessities, who +had done so much to soothe the anguish and mitigate the sorrows of +others, there was but little to outward appearance, to compensate her +for her four years of arduous toil for others, and her present +condition of helplessness. Yet we are told, that amid all these +depressing circumstances, this heroic woman was full of joy, that she +had been permitted to labor so long, and accomplish so much for her +country and its defenders, and that peace had at last dawned upon the +nation. Even pain could bring no cloud over her brow, no gloom to her +heart. To such a heroine, the nation owes higher honors than it has ever +bestowed upon the victors of the battle-field. + + + + +MRS. E. E. GEORGE. + + +Old age is generally reckoned as sluggish, infirm, and not easily roused +to deeds of active patriotism and earnest endeavor. The aged think and +deliberate, but are slow to act. Yet in this glorious work of American +Women during the late war, aged women were found ready to volunteer for +posts of arduous labor, from which even those in the full vigor of adult +womanhood shrank. We shall have occasion to notice this often in the +work of the Volunteer Refreshment Saloons, the Soldiers' Homes, etc., +where the heavy burdens of toil were borne oftenest by those who had +passed the limits of three score years and ten. + +Another and a noble example of heroism even to death in a lady advanced +in years, is found in the case of Mrs. E. E. George. The Military Agency +of Indiana, located at the capital of the State, became, under the +influence and promptings of the patriotic and able Governor Morton, a +power for good both in the State and in the National armies. Being in +constant communication with every part of the field, it was readily and +promptly informed of suffering, or want of supplies by the troops of the +State at any point, and at once provided for the emergency. The supply +of women-nurses for camp, field, or general hospital service, was also +made a part of the work of this agency, and the efficient State Agent, +Mr. Hannaman, sent into the service two hundred and fifty ladies, who +were distributed in the hospitals and at the front, all over the region +in insurrection. + +One of these, Mrs. E. E. George, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, first applied +to Mr. Hannaman for a commission in January, 1863. She brought with her +strong recommendations, but her age was considered by the agent a +serious objection. She admitted this, but her health was excellent, and +she possessed more vigor than many ladies much younger. She was, +besides, an accomplished and skilful nurse. + +She was sent by Mr. Hannaman to Memphis where the wounded from the +unsuccessful attack on Chickasaw Bluffs,--and the successful but bloody +assault on Arkansas Post,--were gathered, and her thorough +qualifications for her position, her dignity of manner and her high +intelligence, soon gave her great influence. During the whole Vicksburg +campaign, and into the autumn of 1863, she remained in the Memphis +hospitals, working incessantly. After a short visit home, in September, +she went to Corinth where Sherman's Fifteenth Corps were stationed, and +remained there until their departure for Chattanooga. She then visited +Pulaski and assisted in opening a hospital there, Mrs. Porter and Mrs. +Bickerdyke co-operating with her, and several times she visited Indiana +and procured supplies for her hospital. When Sherman commenced his +forward movement toward Atlanta, in May, 1864, Mrs. George and her +friends, Mrs. Porter and Mrs. Bickerdyke, accompanied the army, and +during the succession of severe battles of that campaign, she was always +ready to minister to the wounded soldiers in the field. When Atlanta was +invested in the latter part of July, 1864, she took charge of the +Fifteenth Army Corps Hospital as Matron, and in the battles which +terminated in the surrender of Atlanta, on the 1st of September, she was +under fire. After the fall of Atlanta she returned home to rest and +prepare for another campaign. She could not accompany Sherman's army to +Savannah, but went to Nashville, where during and after Hood's siege of +that city she found abundant employment. + +Learning that Sherman's army was at Savannah, she set out for that +city, via New York, intending to join the Fifteenth Corps, to which she +had become strongly attached; but through some mistake, she was not +provided with a pass, and visiting Washington to obtain one, Miss Dix +persuaded her to change her plans and go to Wilmington, North Carolina, +which had just passed into Union hands, and where great numbers of Union +prisoners were accumulating. She had but just reached the city when +eleven thousand prisoners, just released from Salisbury, and in the +worst condition of starvation, disease and wretchedness were brought in. +Mrs. George, though supplied with but scant provision of hospital stores +or conveniences, gave herself most heartily to the work of providing for +those poor sufferers, and soon found an active coadjutor in Mrs. Harriet +F. Hawley, the wife of the gallant general in command of the post. +Heroically and incessantly these two ladies worked; Mrs. George gave +herself no rest day or night. The sight of such intense suffering led +her to such over exertion that her strength, impaired by her previous +labors, gave way, and she sank under an attack of typhus, then +prevailing among the prisoners. A skilful physician gave her the most +careful attention, but it was of no avail. She died, another of those +glorious martyrs, who more truly than the dying heroes of the +battle-field have given their lives for their country. To such patient +faithful souls there awaits in the "Better Land" that cordial +recognition foreshadowed by the poet: + + "While valor's haughty champions wait, + Till all their scars be shown, + Love walks unchallenged through the gate + To sit beside the Throne." + + + + +MRS. CHARLOTTE E. McKAY. + + +This lady, a resident of Massachusetts, had early in the war been +bereaved of her husband and only child, not by the vicissitudes of the +battle-field but by sickness at home, and her heart worn with grief, +sought relief, where it was most likely to find it, in ministering to +the sufferings of others. + +She accepted an appointment under Miss Dix as a hospital nurse, and +commenced her hospital life in Frederick City, Maryland, in March, 1862, +where she was entrusted with the care of a large number of wounded from +the first battle of Winchester. Her life here passed without much of +special interest, till September, 1862, when the little Maryland city +was filled for two or three days with Stonewall Jackson's Corps on their +way to South Mountain and Antietam. The rebels took possession of the +hospital, and filled it for the time with their sick and wounded men. +Resistance was useless, and Mrs. McKay treated the rebel officers and +men courteously, and did what she could for the sick; her civility and +kindness were recognized, and she was treated with respect by all. After +the battle of Antietam, Frederick City and its hospitals were filled +with the wounded, and Mrs. McKay's heart and hands were full--but as +soon as the wounded became convalescent, she went to Washington and was +assigned to duty for a time in the hospitals of the Capital. In January, +she went to Falmouth and found employment as a nurse in the Third Corps +Hospital. Here by her skill and tact she soon effected a revolution, +greatly to the comfort of the poor fellows in the hospital. From being +the worst it became the best of the corps hospitals at the front. +General Birney and his excellent wife, seconded and encouraged all her +efforts for its improvement. + +The battles which though scattered over a wide extent of territory, and +fought at different times and by different portions of the contending +forces, have yet been known under the generic name of Chancellorsville, +were full of horrors for Mrs. McKay. She witnessed the bloody but +successful assault on Marye's Heights, and while ministering to the +wounded who covered all the ground in front of the fortified position, +received the saddening intelligence that her brother, who was with +Hooker at Chancellorsville, had been instantly killed in the protracted +fighting there. Other of her friends too had fallen, but crushing the +agony of her own loss back into her heart, she went on ministering to +the wounded. Six weeks later she was in Washington, awaiting the battle +between Lee's forces and Hooker's, afterwards commanded by General +Meade. When the intelligence of the three days' conflict at Gettysburg +came, she went to Baltimore, and thence by such conveyance as she could +find, to Gettysburg, reaching the hospital of her division, five miles +from Gettysburg, on the 7th of July. Here she remained for nearly two +months, laboring zealously for the welfare of a thousand or fifteen +hundred wounded men. In the autumn she again sought the hospital of the +Third Division, Third Corps, at the front, which for the time was at +Warrenton, Virginia. After the battle of Mine Run, she had ample +employment in the care of the wounded; and later in the season she had +charge of one of the hospitals at Brandy Station. Like the other ladies +who were connected with hospitals at this place, she was compelled to +retire by the order of April 15th; but like them she returned to her +work early in May, at Belle Plain, Fredericksburg, White House, and City +Point, where she labored with great assiduity and success. The changes +in the army organization in June, 1864, removed most of her friends in +the old third corps, and Mrs. McKay, on the invitation of the surgeon in +charge of the cavalry corps hospital, took charge of the special diet of +that hospital, where she remained for nearly a year, finally leaving the +service in March, 1865, and remaining in Virginia in the care and +instruction of the freedmen till late in the spring of 1866. The +officers and men who had been under her care in the Cavalry Corps +Hospital, presented her on Christmas day, 1864, with an elegant gold +badge and chain, with a suitable inscription, as a testimonial of their +gratitude for her services. She had previously received from the +officers of the Seventeenth Maine Volunteers, whom she had cared for +after the battle of Chancellorsville, a magnificent Kearny Cross, with +its motto and an inscription indicating by whom it was presented. + + + + +MRS. FANNY L. RICKETTS. + + +Mrs. Ricketts is the daughter of English parents, though born at +Elizabeth, New Jersey. She is the wife of Major-General Ricketts, United +States Volunteers, who at the time of their marriage was a Captain in +the First Artillery, in the United States Army, and with whom she went +immediately after their union, to his post on the Rio Grande. After a +residence of more than three years on the frontier, the First Artillery +was ordered in the spring of 1861, to Fortress Monroe, and her husband +commenced a school of practice in artillery, for the benefit of the +volunteer artillerymen, who, under his instruction, became expert in +handling the guns. + +In the first battle of Bull Run, Captain Ricketts commanded a battery of +light artillery, and was severely, and it was supposed, mortally wounded +and taken prisoner. The heroic wife at once applied for passes to go to +him, and share his captivity, and if need be bring away his dead body. +General Scott granted her such passes as he could give; but with the +Rebels she found more difficulty, her parole being demanded, but on +appeal to General J. E. Johnston, she was supplied with a pass and +guide. She found her husband very low, and suffering from inattention, +but his case was not quite hopeless. It required all her courage to +endure the hardships, privations and cruelties to which the Union women +were, even then, subject, but she schooled herself to endurance, and +while caring for her husband during the long weeks when his life hung +upon a slender thread, she became also a minister of mercy to the +numerous Union prisoners, who had not a wife's tender care. When removed +to Richmond, Captain Ricketts was still in great peril, and under the +discomforts of his situation, grew rapidly worse. For many weeks he was +unconscious, and his death seemed inevitable. At length four months +after receiving his wound, he began very slowly to improve, when +intelligence came that he was to be taken as one of the hostages for the +thirteen privateersmen imprisoned in New York. Mrs. Ricketts went at +once to Mrs. Cooper, the wife of the Confederate Adjutant-General, and +used such arguments, as led the Confederate authorities to rescind the +order, so far as he was concerned. He was exchanged in the latter part +of December, 1861, and having partially recovered from his wounds, was +commissioned Brigadier-General, in March, 1862, and assigned to the +command of a brigade in McDowell's Corps, at Fredericksburg. He passed +unscathed through Pope's Campaign, but at Antietam was again wounded, +though not so severely as before, and after two or three months' +confinement, was in the winter of 1862-3, in Washington, as President of +a Military Commission. + +General Ricketts took part in the battles of Chancellorsville and +Gettysburg, and escaped personal injury, but his wife in gratitude for +his preservation, ministered to the wounded, and for months continued +her labors of love among them. + +In Grant's Campaign in 1864, General Ricketts distinguished himself for +bravery in several battles, commanding a division; and at the battle of +Monocacy, though he could not defeat the overwhelming force of the +Rebels, successfully delayed their advance upon Baltimore. He then +joined the Army of the Shenandoah, and in the battle of Middletown, +October 19th, was again seriously, and it was thought mortally wounded. +Again for four months did this devoted wife watch most patiently and +tenderly over his couch of pain, and again was her tender nursing +blessed to his recovery. In the closing scenes in the Army of the +Potomac which culminated in Lee's surrender, General Ricketts was once +more in the field, and though suffering from his wounds, he did not +leave his command till by the capitulation of the Rebel chief, the war +was virtually concluded. The heroic wife remained at the Union +headquarters, watchful lest he for whom she had perilled life and health +so often, should again be smitten down, but she was mercifully spared +this added sorrow, and her husband was permitted to retire from the +active ranks of the army, covered with scars honorably won. + + + + +MRS. JOHN S. PHELPS. + + +At the commencement of the War, Mrs. Phelps was residing in her pleasant +home at Springfield, Missouri, her husband and herself, were both +originally from New England, but years of residence in the Southwest, +had caused them to feel a strong attachment for the region and its +institutions. They were both, however, intensely loyal. Mr. Phelps was a +member of Congress, elected as a Union man, and when it became evident +that the South would resort to war, he offered his services to the +General Government, raised a regiment and went into the field under the +heroic Lyon. After the battle of Wilson's Creek, Mrs. Phelps succeeded +in rescuing the body of General Lyon, and had it buried where it was +within her control, and as soon as possible forwarded it to his friends +in Connecticut. Her home was plundered subsequently by the Rebels, and +nearly ruined. At the battle of Pea Ridge, Mrs. Phelps accompanied her +husband to the field, and while the battle was yet raging, she assisted +in the care of the wounded, tore up her own garments for bandages, +dressed their wounds, cooked food, and made soup and broth for them, +with her own hands, remaining with them as long as there was anything +she could do, and giving not only words but deeds of substantial +kindness and sympathy. + +Col. Phelps was subsequently made Military Governor of Arkansas, and in +the many bloody battles in that State, she was ready to help in every +way in her power; and in her visits to the East, she plead the cause of +the suffering loyalists of Missouri and Arkansas, among her friends with +great earnestness and success. + + + + +MRS. JANE R. MUNSELL. + + +Maryland, though strongly claimed by the Rebels as their territory +almost throughout the War, had yet, many loyal men and women in its +country villages as well as in its larger cities. The legend of Barbara +Freitchie's defiance of Stonewall Jackson and his hosts, has been +immortalized in Whittier's charming verse, and the equally brave +defiance of the Rebels by Mrs. Effie Titlow, of Middletown, Maryland, +who wound the flag about her, and stood in the balcony of her own house, +looking calmly at the invading troops, who were filled with wrath at her +fearlessness deserves a like immortality. Mrs. Titlow proved after the +subsequent battle of Gettysburg, that she possessed the disposition to +labor for the wounded faithfully and indefatigably, as well as the +gallantry to defy their enemies. + +Mrs. Jane R. Munsell, of Sandy Spring, Maryland, was another of these +Maryland heroines, but her patriotism manifested itself in her incessant +toils for the sick and wounded after Antietam and Gettysburg. For their +sake, she gave up all; her home and its enjoyments, her little property, +yea, and her own life also, for it was her excessive labor for the +wounded soldiers which exhausted her strength and terminated her life. A +correspondent of one of the daily papers of New York city, who knew her +well, says of her: "A truer, kinder, or more lovely or loving woman +never lived than she. Her name is a household word with the troops, and +her goodnesses have passed into proverbs in the camps and sick-rooms and +hospitals. She died a victim to her own kind-heartedness, for she went +far beyond her strength in her blessed ministrations." + + + + +PART III. + +LADIES WHO ORGANIZED AID SOCIETIES, AND SOLICITED, RECEIVED AND +FORWARDED SUPPLIES TO THE HOSPITALS, DEVOTING THEIR WHOLE TIME TO THE +WORK, ETC., ETC. + + + + +WOMAN'S CENTRAL ASSOCIATION OF RELIEF. + + +When President Lincoln issued his proclamation, a quick thrill shot +through the heart of every mother in New York. The Seventh Regiment left +at once for the defense of Washington, and the women met at once in +parlors and vestries. Perhaps nothing less than the maternal instinct +could have forecast the terrible future so quickly. From the parlors of +the Drs. Blackwell, and from Dr. Bellows' vestry, came the first call +for a public meeting. On the 29th of April, 1861, between three and four +thousand women met at the Cooper Union, David Dudley Field in the chair, +and eminent men as speakers. + +The object was to concentrate scattered efforts by a large and formal +organization. Hence the "Woman's Central Association of Relief," the +germ of the Sanitary Commission. Dr. Bellows, and Dr. E. Harris, left +for Washington as delegates to establish those relations with the +Government, so necessary for harmony and usefulness. The board of the +Woman's Central, after many changes, consisted of, + +VALENTINE MOTT, M.D., _President_, +HENRY W. BELLOWS, D.D., _Vice President_, +GEORGE F. ALLEN, Esq., _Secretary_, +HOWARD POTTER, Esq., _Treasurer_. + +EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. + +H. W. Bellows, D.D., _Chairman_. +Mrs. G. L. Schuyler.[K] +Miss Ellen Collins. +F. L. Olmstead, Esq. +Valentine Mott, M.D. +Mrs. T. d'Orémieulx. +W. H. Draper, M.D. +G. F. Allen, Esq. + +REGISTRATION COMMITTEE. + +E. Blackwell, M.D., _Chairman_. +Mrs. H. Baylis. +Mrs. V. Botta. +Wm. A. Muhlenburg, D.D. +Mrs. W. P. Griffin, _Secretary_. +Mrs. J. A. Swett. +Mrs. C. Abernethy. +E. Harris, M.D. + +FINANCE COMMITTEE. + +Howard Potter, Esq. +John D. Wolfe, Esq. +William Hague, D.D. +J. H. Markoe, M.D. +Mrs. Hamilton Fish. +Mrs. C. M. Kirkland. +Mrs. C. W. Field. +Asa D. Smith, D.D. + +[Footnote K: This lady's place was filled by her daughter from the +beginning.] + +While in Washington, Dr. Bellows originated the "United States Sanitary +Commission," and on the 24th of June, 1864, the Woman's Central +voluntarily offered to become subordinate as one of its branches of +supply. The following September this offer was accepted in a formal +resolution, establishing also a semi-weekly correspondence between the +two boards, by which the wants of the army were made known to the +Woman's Central. + +Prominent and onerous were the duties of the Registration Committee. Its +members met daily, to select from numberless applicants, women fitted to +receive special training in our city hospitals for the position of +nurses. So much of moral as well as mental excellence was indispensable, +that the committee found its labors incessant. Then followed the +supervision while in hospital, and while awaiting a summons, then the +outfit and forwarding, often suddenly and in bands, and lastly, the +acceptance by the War Department and Medical Bureau. + +The chairman of the committee, Miss E. Blackwell, accompanied by its +secretary, Mrs. Griffin, went to Washington in this service. Miss +Blackwell's admirable report "on the selection and preparation of nurses +for the army," will always be a source of pride to the Woman's Central. + +In the meantime, the Finance and Executive Committees were struggling +for a strong foothold. The chairman of the former, Mrs. Hamilton Fish, +raised over five thousand dollars by personal effort. The latter +committee had the liveliest contests, for the Government declared itself +through the Army Regulation, equal to any demands, and the people were +disposed to cry amen. Rumors of "a ninety days' war," and "already more +lint than would be needed for years," stirred the committee to open at +once a correspondence with sewing-societies, churches, and communities +in New York and elsewhere. Simultaneously, the Sanitary Commission +issued an explanatory circular, urgent and minute, "To the loyal women +of America." + +Then began that slow yet sure stream of supplies which flowed on to the +close of the war, so slow, indeed, at first, and so impatiently hoped +for, that the members of the committee could not wait, but must rush to +the street to see the actual arrival of boxes and bales. Soon, however, +that good old office, No. 10, Cooper Union, became rich in everything +needed; rich, too, in young women to unpack, mark and repack, in old +women to report forthcoming contributions from grocers, merchants and +tradesmen, and richer than all, in those wondrous boxes of sacrifices +from the country, the last blanket, the inherited quilt, curtains torn +from windows, and the coarse yet ancestral linen. In this personal +self-denial the city had no part. What wonder that the whole corps of +the Woman's Central felt their time and physical fatigue as nothing in +comparison to these heart trials. Out of this responsive earnestness +grew the carefully prepared reports and circulars, the filing of +letters, thousands in number, contained in twenty-five volumes, their +punctilious and grateful acknowledgement, and the thorough plan of +books, three in number, by which the whole story of the Woman's Central +may be learnt, and well would it repay the study. + +First, The receiving book recorded the receipt and acknowledgement of +box. + +Second, In the day book, each page was divided into columns, in which +was recorded, the letter painted on the cover of each box to designate +it, and the kind and amount of supplies which each contained after +repacking, only one description of supplies being placed in any one box. +So many cases were received during the four years, that the alphabet was +repeated seven hundred and twenty-seven times. + +Third, The ledger with its headings of "shirts," "drawers," "socks," +etc., so arranged, that on sudden demand, the exact number of any +article on hand could be ascertained at a glance. + +Thus early began through these minute details, the effectiveness of the +Woman's Central. Every woman engaged in it learnt the value of +precision. + +A sub-committee for New York and Brooklyn was formed, consisting of Mrs. +W. M. Fellows, and Mrs. Robert Colby, to solicit from citizens, +donations of clothing, and supplies of all kinds. These ladies were +active, successful and clerkly withal, giving receipts for every article +received. + +Those present at Dr. Bellows' Church in May, will never forget the first +thrilling call for nurses on board the hospital transports. The duty was +imperative, was untried and therefore startling. It was like a sudden +plunge into unknown waters, yet many brave women enrolled their names. +From the Woman's Central went forth Mrs. Griffin accompanied by Mrs. +David Lane. They left at once in the "Wilson Small," and went up the +York and Pamunkey rivers, and to White House, thus tasting the first +horrors of war. This experience would form a brilliant chapter in the +history of the Woman's Central. + +In June, 1861, the association met with a great loss in the departure +of Mrs. d'Orémieulx, for Europe. Of her Dr. Bellows said: "It would be +ungrateful not to acknowledge the zeal, devotion and ability of one of +the ladies of this committee, Mrs. d'Orémieulx, now absent from the +country, who labored incessantly in the earlier months of the +organization, and gave a most vital start to the life of this +committee." This lady resumed her duties after a year's absence, and +continued her characteristic force and persistency up to the close. + +At this time, Mr. S. W. Bridgham put his broad shoulders to the wheel. +He had been a member of the board from the beginning, but not a +"day-laborer" until now. And not this alone, for he was a night-laborer +also. At midnight, and in the still "darker hours which precede the +dawn," Mr. Bridgham and his faithful ally, Roberts, often left their +beds to meet sudden emergencies, and to ship comforts to distant points. +On Sundays too, he and his patriotic wife might be easily detected +creeping under the half-opened door of Number 10, to gather up for a +sudden requisition, and then to beg of the small city expresses, +transportation to ship or railroad. This was often his Sunday worship. +His heart and soul were given to the work. + +In November, 1862, a council of representatives from the principal +aid-societies, now numbering fourteen hundred and sixty-two, was held in +Washington. The chief object was to obtain supplies more steadily. +Immediately after a battle, but too late for the exigency, there was an +influx, then a lull. The Woman's Central therefore urged its auxiliaries +to send a monthly box. It also urged the _Federal principle_, that is, +the bestowment of all supplies on United States troops, and not on +individuals or regiments, and explained to the public that the Sanitary +Commission acted in aid of, and not in opposition to the government. + +In January, 1863, all supplies had been exhausted by the battles of +Antietam and Fredericksburg. Everything was again needed. An able letter +of inquiry to secretaries of the auxiliary societies with a preliminary +statement of important facts, was drawn up by Miss Louisa L. Schuyler, +and issued in pamphlet form. Two hundred and thirty-five replies were +received, (all to be read)! which were for the most part favorable to +the Sanitary Commission with its Federal principle as a medium, and all +breathed the purest patriotism. + +In February, the plan of "Associate Managers" borrowed from the Boston +branch was adopted. Miss Schuyler assumed the whole labor. It was a +division of the tributary states into sections, an associate manager to +each, who should supervise, control and stimulate every aid-society in +her section, going from village to village, and organizing, if need be, +as she went. She should hold a friendly correspondence monthly, with the +committee on correspondence (now separated from that on supplies) +besides sending an official monthly report. To ascertain the right +woman, one who should combine the talent, energy, tact and social +influence for this severe field, was the difficult preliminary step. +Then, to gain her consent, to instruct, and to place her in relations +with the auxiliaries, involved an amount of correspondence truly +frightful. It was done. Yet, in one sense, it was never done; for up to +the close, innumerable little rills from "pastures new" were guided on +to the great stream. The experience of every associate manager, endeared +to the Woman's Central through the closest sympathy would be a rare +record. + +An elaborate and useful set of books was arranged by Miss Schuyler in +furtherance of the work of the committee "on correspondence, and +diffusion of information." Lecturers were also to be obtained by this +committee, and this involved much forethought and preparation of the +field. Three hundred and sixty-nine lectures were delivered upon the +work of the Sanitary Commission, by nine gentlemen. + +State agencies made great confusion in the hospitals. The Sanitary +Commission was censured for employing paid agents, and its board of +officers even, was accused of receiving salaries. Its agents were abused +for wastefulness, as if the frugality so proper in health, were not +improper in sickness. Reports were in circulation injurious to the honor +of the Commission. Explanations had become necessary. The Woman's +Central, therefore, published a pamphlet written by Mr. George T. +Strong, entitled: "How can we best help our Camps and Hospitals?" In +this the absolute necessity of paid agents was conclusively vindicated; +the false report of salaries to the board of officers was denied, and +the true position of the Sanitary Commission with reference to the +National Government and its medical bureau was again patiently +explained. A series of letters from assistant-surgeons of the army and +of volunteers, recommending the Commission to the confidence of the +people, was also inserted. + +About this time a Hospital Directory was opened at Number 10, Cooper +Union. + +In the spring of 1863, the Woman's Central continued to be harassed, not +by want of money, for that was always promised by its undaunted +treasurer, but by lack of clothing and edibles. The price of all +materials had greatly advanced, the reserved treasures of every +household were exhausted, the early days of havelocks and Sunday +industry had gone forever, and the Sanitary Commission was frequently +circumvented and calumniated by rival organizations. The members of the +Woman's Central worked incessantly. Miss Collins was always at her post. +She had never left it. Her hand held the reins taut from the beginning +to the end. She alone went to the office daily, remaining after office +hours, which were from nine to six, and taking home to be perfected in +the still hours of night those elaborate tables of supplies and their +disbursement, which formed her monthly Report to the Board of the +Woman's Central. These tables are a marvel of method and clearness. + +To encourage its struggling Aid-Societies, who were without means, but +earnest in their offers of time and labor, the Woman's Central offered +to purchase for them materials at wholesale prices. This was eagerly +accepted by many. A purchasing Committee was organized, consisting of +Mrs. J. H. Swett, Mrs. H. Fish, Mrs. S. Weir Roosevelt. + +Miss Schuyler's wise "Plan of organization for country Societies," and +the founding of "Alert-clubs," as originated in Norwalk (Ohio), also +infused new life into the tributaries. Her master-mind smoothed all +difficulties, and her admirable Reports so full of power and pathos, +probed the patriotism of all. Societies were urged to work as if the war +had just begun. From these united efforts, supplies came in steadily, so +that in the summer of 1863, the Woman's Central, was able to contribute +largely to the Stations at Beaufort and Morris Island. The blessings +thus poured in were dispensed by Dr. and Mrs. Marsh, with their usual +good judgment, and it is grateful to remember that the sufferers from +that thrilling onslaught at Fort Wagner, were among the recipients. + +In the summer of 1863, the Association lost its faithful Secretary, Mr. +George F. Allen. Mr. S. W. Bridgham was elected in his place. + +During this eventful summer, Miss Collins and Mrs. Griffin, had sole +charge of the office, through the terrible New York riots. These ladies +usually alternated in the summer months, never allowing the desk of the +Supply Committee to be without a responsible head. Mrs. Griffin also +became Chairman of the Special Relief Committee organized in 1863, all +of whom made personal visits to the sick, and relieved many cases of +extreme suffering. + +Early in January, 1864, a Council of women was summoned to Washington. +Thirty-one delegates were present from the Eastern and Western branches. +Miss Collins and Miss Schuyler were sent by the Woman's Central. This +meeting gave a new impulse to the work. These toilers in the war met +face to face, compared their various experiences, and suggested future +expedients. Miss Schuyler took special pains to encourage personal +intercourse between the different branches. Her telescopic eye swept +the whole field. The only novelty proposed, was County Councils every +three or six months, composed of delegates from the Aid-Societies. This +would naturally quicken emulation, and prove a wholesome stimulus. +Westchester County led immediately in this movement. + +About this time supplies were checked by the whirlwind of "Fairs." The +Woman's Central, issued a Circular urging its Auxiliaries to continue +their regular contributions, and to make their working for Fairs a +pastime only. In no other way could it meet the increased demands upon +its resources, for the sphere of the Sanitary Commission's usefulness +had now extended to remotest States, and its vast machinery for +distribution had become more and more expensive. + +Letters poured in from the country, unflinching letters, but crying out, +"we are poor." What was to be done? How encourage these devoted +sewing-circles and aid-societies? Every article had advanced still more +in price. A plan was devised to double the amount of any sum raised by +the feeble Aid-Societies, not exceeding thirty dollars per month. Thus, +any Society sending twenty dollars, received in return, goods to the +value of forty. This scheme proved successful. It grew into a large +business, increasing greatly the labors of the Purchasing Committee, +involving a new set of account books and a salaried accountant. Duly the +smaller Societies availed themselves of this offer. The Sanitary +Commission, agreed to meet this additional expense of the Woman's +Central, amounting to over five thousand dollars per month. Thus an +accumulation was gathered for the coming campaign. + +In November, 1864, The Woman's Central convened, and defrayed the +expenses of a Soldiers' Aid Society Council, at which two hundred and +fifteen delegates were present. + +The Military Hospitals near the city had, from time to time, received +assistance, though not often needed from the Association. The Navy too, +received occasional aid. + +In the spring of 1865, The Woman's Central lost its President, Dr. Mott, +whose fame gave weight to its early organization. From respect to his +memory, it was resolved that no other should fill his place. + +At last, in April, 1865, came the glad tidings of great joy. Lee had +surrendered. In May, Miss Collins wrote a congratulatory letter to the +Aid-Societies, naming the 4th of July, as the closing day of the Woman's +Central, and urging active work up to that time, as hospital and field +supplies would still be needed. With tender forethought, she also begged +them to keep alive their organizations, for "the privilege of cherishing +the maimed and disabled veterans who are returning to us." + +The receipts and disbursements of the Woman's Central are as astounding +to itself as to the public. So much love and patriotism, so little +money! As early as May, 1863, the Treasurer in his Report, remarks: + +"That so small a sum should cover all the general amount of expenses of +the Association in the transaction of a business which, during the year, +has involved the receipt or purchase, assorting, cataloguing, marking, +packing, storing and final distribution of nearly half a million of +articles, will be no less satisfactory to the donors of the funds so +largely economized for the direct benefit of the soldier, than to those +friends of the Association from whose self-denying, patriotic and +indefatigable personal labors, this economy has resulted." + +In the Table of supplies received and distributed from May 1st, 1861, to +July 7th, 1865, prepared by Miss Collins, the item of shirts alone +amounts to two hundred and ninety-one thousand four hundred and +seventy-five. + +For four years' distribution, purchase of hospital delicacies, and all +office expenses, except those of the committee which purchased material +for the aid-societies amounting to seventy-nine thousand three hundred +and ninety dollars and fifty-seven cents, the sum expended was only +sixty-one thousand three hundred and eighty-six dollars and fifty-seven +cents.[L] + +[Footnote L: This does not include, of course, the value of the supplies +sent to the distributing depôts of the Sanitary Commission, to +Hospitals, or to the field. These amounted to some millions of dollars.] + +[Illustration: MRS. MARIANNE F. STRANAHAN. + Eng^d. by A.H. Ritchie.] + +How was this accomplished by the Woman's Central except through its band +of daily volunteers (the great unnamed) its devoted associate managers +through whom came an increase of one hundred and thirty-eight new +societies, the generosity of Express companies, the tender +self-sacrifice of country-homes, and the indefatigable labors of the +several committees, all of whom felt it a privilege to work in so sacred +a cause. Neither love nor money, nothing less than sentiment and +principle, could have produced these results. + +To the Brooklyn Relief Association the Woman's Central always felt +deeply indebted for supplies. Its admirable President, Mrs. Stranahan, +was in close sympathy with the association, often pouring in nearly half +of the woollen garments it received. + +The careful dissemination of printed matter tended to sustain the +interest of country societies. The voluminous reports of the Association +arranged monthly by Miss Schuyler, who also contributed a series of +twelve articles to the Sanitary Commission Bulletin, published +semi-monthly by that board, the "Soldiers' Friend," "Nelly's Hospital," +and other documents amounting in sixteen months to ninety-eight thousand +nine hundred and eighty-four copies were issued by the committee "On +Correspondence," etc. For the last two years that committee consisted of +Miss L. L. Schuyler, chairman; Mrs. George Curtis, Mrs. David Lane, Miss +A. Post, Miss C. Nash, H. W. Bellows, D.D. + +For the last three years, to the first members of the committee on +"Supplies," etc., were added Miss Gertrude Stevens, the Misses Shaw in +succession, Miss Z. T. Detmold, Mr. Isaac Bronson. George Roberts +remained the faithful porter through the whole four years. + +The territory from which the Woman's Central received its supplies after +the various branches of the Sanitary Commission were in full working +condition, was eastern and central New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, +and partially from northern New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont and +Canada. Generous contributions were also received from European +auxiliaries. + +On the 7th of July, 1865, the final meeting of the board of the Woman's +Central took place. Its members, though scattered by midsummer-heat, did +not fail to appear. It was a solemn and touching occasion. The following +resolutions, deeply felt and still read with emotion by its members, +were then unanimously adopted: + + _Resolved_, That the Woman's Central Association of Relief cannot + dissolve without expressing its sense of the value and satisfaction + of its connection with the United States Sanitary Commission, whose + confidence, guidance and support it has enjoyed for four years + past. In now breaking the formal tie that has bound us together, we + leave unbroken the bond of perfect sympathy, gratitude and + affection, which has grown up between us. + + _Resolved_, That we owe a deep debt of gratitude to our Associate + Managers, who have so ably represented our interests in the + different sections of our field of duty, and, that to their + earnest, unflagging and patriotic exertions, much of the success + which has followed our labors is due. + + _Resolved_, That to the Soldiers' Aid Societies, which form the + working constituency of this Association, we offer the tribute of + our profound respect and admiration for their zeal, constancy and + patience to the end. Their boxes and their letters have been alike + our support and our inspiration. They have kept our hearts hopeful, + and our confidence in our cause always firm. Henceforth the women + of America are banded in town and country, as the men are from city + and field. We have wrought, and thought, and prayed together, as + our soldiers have fought, and bled, and conquered, shoulder to + shoulder, and from this hour the womanhood of our country is knit + in a common bond, which the softening influences of Peace must not, + and shall not weaken or dissolve. May God's blessing rest upon + every Soldiers' Aid Society in the list of our contributors, and on + every individual worker in their ranks. + + _Resolved_, That to our band of Volunteer Aids, the ladies who, in + turn, have so long and usefully labored in the details of our work + at these rooms, we give our hearty and affectionate thanks, feeling + that their unflagging devotion and cheerful presence have added + largely to the efficiency and pleasure of our labors. Their + record, however hidden, is on high, and they have in their own + hearts the joyful testimony, that in their country's peril and need + they were not found wanting. + + _Resolved_, That the thanks of this Association are due to the + ladies who have, at different times, served upon the Board, but are + no longer members of it; and that we recall in this hour of parting + the memory of each and all who have lent us the light of their + countenance, and the help of their hands. Especially do we + recognize the valuable aid rendered by the members of our + Registration Committee, who, in the early days of this Association, + superintended the training of a band of one hundred women nurses + for our army hospitals. The successful introduction of this system + is chiefly due to the zeal and capacity of these ladies. + + _Resolved_, That in dissolving this Association, we desire to + express the gratitude we owe to Divine Providence for permitting + the members of this Board to work together in so great and so + glorious a cause, and upon so large and successful a scale, to + maintain for so long a period, relations of such affection and + respect, and now to part with such deep and grateful memories of + our work and of each other. + + _Resolved_, That, the close of the war having enabled this + Association to finish the work for which it was organized, the + Woman's Central Association of Relief for the Army and Navy of the + United States, is hereby dissolved. + + The meeting then adjourned _sine die_. + + SAMUEL W. BRIDGHAM, _Secretary_. + +For further and better knowledge of the Woman's Central, is it not +written in the book of the Chronicles of the Board of the United States +Sanitary Commission? + + + + +SOLDIER'S AID SOCIETY OF NORTHERN OHIO + + +Among the branches or centres of supply and distribution of the United +States Sanitary Commission, though some with a wider field and a more +wealthy population in that field have raised a larger amount of money or +supplies, there was none which in so small and seemingly barren a +district proved so efficient or accomplished so much as the "Soldiers' +Aid Society of Northern Ohio." + +This extraordinary efficiency was due almost wholly to the wonderful +energy and business ability of its officers. The society which at first +bore the name of The Soldiers' Aid Society of Cleveland, was composed +wholly of ladies, and was organized on the 20th day of April, 1861, five +days after the President's proclamation calling for troops. Its officers +were (exclusive of vice-presidents who were changed once or twice and +who were not specially active) Mrs. B. Rouse, President, Miss Mary Clark +Brayton, Secretary, Miss Ellen F. Terry, Treasurer. These ladies +continued their devotion to their work not only through the war, but +with a slight change in their organization, to enable them to do more +for the crippled and disabled soldier, and to collect without fee or +reward the bounties, back pay and pensions coming to the defenders of +the country, has remained in existence and actively employed up to the +present time. + +No constitution or by-laws were ever adopted, and beyond a verbal +pledge to work for the soldiers while the war should last, and a fee of +twenty-five cents monthly, no form of membership was prescribed and no +written word held the society together to its latest day. Its sole +cohesive power was the bond of a common and undying patriotism. + +In October, 1861, it was offered to the United States Sanitary +Commission, as one of its receiving and disbursing branches, and the +following month its name was changed to The Soldiers' Aid Society of +Northern Ohio. Its territory was very small and not remarkable for +wealth. It had auxiliaries in eighteen counties of Northeastern Ohio, +(Toledo and its vicinity being connected with the Cincinnati Branch, and +the counties farther west with Chicago), and a few tributaries in the +counties of Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania, which bordered on +Ohio, of which that at Meadville, Pennsylvania, was the only +considerable one. + +In this region, Cleveland was the only considerable city, and the +population of the territory though largely agricultural was not +possessed of any considerable wealth, nor was the soil remarkably +fertile. + +In November, 1861, the society had one hundred and twenty auxiliaries. A +year later the number of these had increased to four hundred and fifty, +and subsequently an aggregate of five hundred and twenty was attained. +None of these ever seceded or became disaffected, but throughout the war +the utmost cordiality prevailed between them and the central office. + +In the five years from its organization to April, 1866, this society had +collected and disbursed one hundred and thirty thousand four hundred and +five dollars and nine cents in cash, and one million and three thousand +dollars in stores, making a grand total of one million one hundred and +thirty-three thousand four hundred and five dollars and nine cents. This +amount was received mainly from contributions, though the excess over +one million dollars, was mostly received from the proceeds of +exhibitions, concerts, and the Northern Ohio Sanitary Fair held in +February and March, 1864. The net proceeds of this fair were about +seventy-nine thousand dollars. + +The supplies thus contributed, as well as so much of the money as was +not required for the other objects of the society, of which we shall say +more presently, were forwarded to the Western Depôt of the Sanitary +Commission at Louisville, except in a few instances where they were +required for the Eastern armies. The reception, re-packing and +forwarding of this vast quantity of stores, as well as all the +correspondence required with the auxiliaries and with the Western office +of the Sanitary Commission, and the book-keeping which was necessary in +consequence, involved a great amount of labor, but was performed with +the utmost cheerfulness by the ladies whom we have named as the active +officers of the society. + +Among the additional institutions or operations of this society +connected with, yet outside of its general work of receiving and +disbursing supplies, the most important was the "Soldiers' Home," +established first on the 17th of April, 1861, as a lodging-room for +disabled soldiers in transit, and having connected with it a system of +meal tickets, which were given to deserving soldiers of this class, +entitling the holder to a meal at the depôt dining hall, the tickets +being redeemed monthly by the society. In October, 1863, the "Soldiers' +Home," a building two hundred and thirty-five feet long and twenty-five +feet wide, erected and furnished by funds contributed by citizens of +Cleveland at the personal solicitation of the ladies, was opened, and +was maintained until June 1, 1866, affording special relief to fifty-six +thousand five hundred and twenty registered inmates, to whom were given +one hundred and eleven thousand seven hundred and seven meals, and +twenty-nine thousand nine hundred and seventy-three lodgings, at an +entire cost of twenty-seven thousand four hundred and eight dollars and +three cents. No government support was received for this home, and no +rations drawn from the commissary as in most institutions of this kind. + +The officers of the society gave daily personal attention to the Home, +directing its management minutely, and the superintendent, matron and +other officials were employed by them. + +The society also established a hospital directory for the soldiers of +its territory, and recorded promptly the location and condition of the +sick or wounded men from returns received from all the hospitals in +which they were found; a measure which though involving great labor, was +the means of relieving the anxiety of many thousands of the friends of +these men. + +In May, 1865, an Employment Agency was opened, and continued for six +months. Two hundred and six discharged soldiers, mostly disabled, were +put into business situations by the personal efforts of the officers of +the society. The families of the disabled men were cared for again and +again, many of them being regular pensioners of the society. + +The surplus funds of the society, amounting June 1st, 1866, to about +nine thousand dollars, were used in the settlement of all war claims of +soldiers, bounties, back pay, pensions, etc., gratuitously to the +claimant. For this purpose, an agent thoroughly familiar with the whole +business of the Pension Office, and the bureaus before which claims +could come, was employed, and Miss Brayton and Miss Terry were daily in +attendance as clerks at the office. Up to August 1st, 1866, about four +hundred claims had been adjusted. + +The entire time of the officers of the society daily from eight o'clock +in the morning to six and often later in the evening, was given to this +work through the whole period of the war, and indeed until the close of +the summer of 1866. The ladies being all in circumstances of wealth, or +at least of independence, no salary was asked or received, and no +traveling expenses were ever charged to the Society, though the +president visited repeatedly every part of their territory, organizing +and encouraging the auxiliary societies, and both secretary and +treasurer went more than once to the front of the army, and to the large +general hospitals at Louisville, Nashville, Chattanooga, etc., with a +view to obtaining knowledge which might benefit their cause. + +In August, 1864, a small printing office, with a hand-press, was +attached to the rooms; the ladies learned how to set type and work the +press, and issued weekly bulletins to their auxiliaries to encourage and +stimulate their efforts. For two years from October, 1862, two columns +were contributed to a weekly city paper by these indefatigable ladies +for the benefit of their auxiliaries. These local auxiliary societies +were active and loyal, but they needed constant encouragement, and +incentives to action, to bring and keep them up to their highest +condition of patriotic effort. + +The Sanitary Fair at Cleveland was not, as in many other cases, +originated and organized by outside effort, for the benefit of the +Branch of the Sanitary Commission, but had its origin, its organization +and its whole management directly from the Soldiers' Aid Society itself. + +In November, 1865, the Ohio State Soldiers' Home was opened, and the +Legislature having made no preparation for its immediate wants, the +Soldiers' Aid Society made a donation of five thousand dollars for the +support of its members. + +With a brief sketch of each of these ladies, we close our history of the +Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern Ohio. + +Mrs. Rouse is a lady somewhat advanced in life, small and delicately +organized, and infirm in health, but of tireless energy and exhaustless +sympathy for every form of human suffering. For forty years past she has +been foremost in all benevolent movements among the ladies of Cleveland, +spending most of her time and income in the relief of the unfortunate +and suffering; yet it is the testimony of all who knew her, that she is +entirely free from all personal ambition, and all love of power or +notoriety. Though earnestly patriotic, and ready to do all in her power +for her country, there is nothing masculine, or as the phrase goes, +"strong-minded" in her demeanor. She is a descendant of Oliver Cromwell, +and has much of his energy and power of endurance, but none of his +coarseness, being remarkably unselfish, and lady-like in her manners. +During the earlier years of the war, she spent much of her time in +visiting the towns of the territory assigned to the society, and +promoting the formation of local Soldiers' Aid Societies, and it was due +to her efforts that there was not a town of any size in the region to +which the society looked for its contributions which had not its aid +society, or its Alert Club, or both. Though plain and _petite_ in +person, she possessed a rare power of influencing those whom she +addressed, and never failed to inspire them with the resolution to do +all in their power for the country. At a later period the laborious +duties of the home office of the society required her constant +attention. + +Miss Mary Clark Brayton, the secretary of the society, is a young lady +of wealth, high social position and accomplished education, but of +gentle and modest disposition. Since the spring of 1861, she has +isolated herself from society, and the pleasures of intellectual +pursuits, and has given her whole time and thoughts to the one work of +caring for the welfare of the soldiers. From early morning till evening, +and sometimes far into the night, she has toiled in the rooms of the +society, or elsewhere, superintending the receiving or despatch of +supplies, conducting the immense correspondence of the society, +preparing, setting up and printing its weekly bulletins, or writing the +two columns weekly of matter for the Cleveland papers, on topics +connected with the society's work, now in her turn superintending and +purchasing supplies for the Soldiers' Home, looking out a place for some +partially disabled soldier, or supplying the wants of his family; +occasionally, though at rare intervals, varying her labors by a journey +to the front, or a temporary distribution of supplies at some general +hospital at Nashville, Huntsville, Bridgeport or Chattanooga, and then, +having ascertained by personal inspection what was most necessary for +the comfort and health of the army, returning to her work, and by +eloquent and admirable appeals to the auxiliaries, and to her personal +friends in Cleveland, securing and forwarding the necessary supplies so +promptly, that as the officers of the Commission at Louisville said, it +seemed as if she could hardly have reached Cleveland, before the +supplies began to flow in at the Commission's warehouses at Louisville. +Miss Brayton possesses business ability sufficient to have conducted the +enterprises of a large mercantile establishment, and the complete system +and order displayed in her transaction of business would have done honor +to any mercantile house in the world. Her untiring energy repeatedly +impaired her health, but she has never laid down her work, and has no +disposition to do so, while there is an opportunity of serving the +defenders of her country. + +Miss Ellen F. Terry, the treasurer of the society, is a daughter of Dr. +Charles Terry, a professor in the Cleveland Medical College. Her social +position, like that of Miss Brayton, is the highest in that city. She is +highly educated, familiar, like her friend Miss Brayton, with most of +the modern languages of Europe, but especially proficient in +mathematics. During the whole period of the war, she devoted herself as +assiduously to the work of the society as did Mrs. Rouse and Miss +Brayton. She kept the books of the society (in itself a great labor), +made all its disbursements of cash, and did her whole work with a +neatness, accuracy and despatch which would have done honor to any +business man in the country. No monthly statements of accounts from any +of the branches of the Sanitary Commission reporting to its Western +Office at Louisville were drawn up with such careful accuracy and +completeness as those from the Cleveland branch, although in most of the +others experienced and skilful male accountants were employed to make +them up. Miss Terry also superintended the building of the Soldiers' +Home, and took her turn with Miss Brayton in its management. She also +assisted in the other labors of the society, and made occasional visits +to the front and the hospitals. Since the close of the war she and Miss +Brayton have acted as clerks of the Free Claim Agency for recovering the +dues of the soldiers, from the Government offices. + +We depart from our usual practice of excluding the writings of those who +are the subjects of our narratives, to give the following sprightly +description of one of the hospital trains of the Sanitary Commission, +communicated by Miss Brayton to the _Cleveland Herald_, not so much to +give our readers a specimen of her abilities as a writer, as to +illustrate the thorough devotion to their patriotic work which has +characterized her and her associates. + + + ON A HOSPITAL TRAIN. + +"Riding on a rail in the 'Sunny South,' is not the most agreeable +pastime in the world. Don't understand me to refer to that favorite +_argumentum ad hominem_ which a true Southerner applies to all who have +the misfortune to differ from him, especially to Northern abolitionists; +I simply mean that mode of traveling that Saxe in his funny little poem, +calls so 'pleasant.' And no wonder! To be whirled along at the rate of +forty miles an hour, over a smooth road, reposing on velvet-cushioned +seats, with backs just at the proper angle to rest a tired +head,--ice-water,--the last novel or periodical--all that can tempt your +fastidious taste, or help to while away the time, offered at your elbow, +is indeed pleasant; but wo to the fond imagination that pictures to +itself such luxuries on a United States Military Railroad. Be thankful +if in the crowd of tobacco-chewing soldiers you are able to get a seat, +and grumble not if the pine boards are hard and narrow. Lay in a good +stock of patience, for six miles an hour is probably the highest rate of +speed you will attain, and even then you shudder to see on either hand +strewn along the road, wrecks of cars and locomotives smashed in every +conceivable manner, telling of some fearful accident or some guerrilla +fight. These are discomforts hard to bear even when one is well and +strong; how much worse for a sick or wounded man. But thanks to the +United States Sanitary Commission and to those gentlemen belonging to +it, whose genius and benevolence originated, planned, and carried it +out, a hospital-train is now running on almost all the roads over which +it is necessary to transport sick or wounded men. These trains are now +under the control of Government, but the Sanitary Commission continues +to furnish a great part of the stores that are used in them. My first +experience of them was a sad one. A week before, the army had moved +forward and concentrated near Tunnel Hill. The dull, monotonous rumble +of army wagons as they rolled in long trains through the dusty street; +the measured tramp of thousands of bronzed and war-worn veterans; the +rattle and roar of the guns and caissons as they thundered on their +mission of death; the glittering sheen reflected from a thousand sabres, +had all passed by and left us in the desolated town. We lived, as it +were, with bated breath and eager ears, our nerves tensely strung with +anxiety and suspense waiting to catch the first sound of that coming +strife, where we knew so many of our bravest and best must fall. At last +came the news of that terrible fight at Buzzard's Roost or Rocky Face +Ridge, and the evening after, in came Dr. S. ---- straight from the +front, and said, 'The hospital-train is at the depôt, wouldn't you like +to see it?' 'Of course we would,' chorused Mrs. Dr. S. ---- and myself, +and forthwith we rushed for our hats and cloaks, filled two large +baskets with soft crackers and oranges, and started off. A walk of a +mile brought us to the depôt, and down in the further corner of the +depôt-yard we saw a train of seven or eight cars standing, apparently +unoccupied. 'There it is,' said Dr. S. ----. 'Why, it looks like any +ordinary train,' I innocently remarked, but I was soon to find out the +difference. We chanced to see Dr. Meyers, the Surgeon-in-charge, on the +first car into which we went, and he made us welcome to do and to give +whatever we had for the men, and so, armed with authority from the +'powers that be,' we went forward with confidence. + +"Imagine a car a little wider than the ordinary one, placed on springs, +and having on each side three tiers of berths or cots, suspended by +rubber bands. These cots are so arranged as to yield to the motion of +the car, thereby avoiding that jolting experienced even on the smoothest +and best kept road. I didn't stop to investigate the plan of the car +then, for I saw before me, on either hand, a long line of soldiers, shot +in almost every conceivable manner, their wounds fresh from the +battle-field, and all were patient and quiet; not a groan or complaint +escaped them, though I saw some faces twisted into strange contortions +with the agony of their wounds. I commenced distributing my oranges +right and left, but soon realized the smallness of my basket and the +largeness of the demand, and sadly passed by all but the worst cases. In +the third car that we entered we found the Colonel, Lieutenant-Colonel, +and Adjutant of the Twenty-ninth Ohio, all severely wounded. We stopped +and talked awhile. Mindful of the motto of my Commission, to give 'aid +and comfort,' I trickled a little sympathy on them. 'Poor fellows!' said +I. 'No, indeed,' said they. 'We _did_ suffer riding twenty miles'--it +couldn't have been more than fourteen or fifteen, but a shattered limb +or a ball in one's side lengthens the miles astonishingly--in those +horrid ambulances to the cars. 'We cried last night like children, some +of us,' said a Lieutenant,'but we're all right now. This Hospital Train +is a jolly thing. It goes like a cradle.' Seeing my sympathy wasted, I +tried another tack. 'Did you know that Sherman was in Dalton?' 'No!' +cried the Colonel and all the men who could, raised themselves up and +stared at me with eager, questioning eyes. 'Is that so?' 'Yes,' I +replied, 'It is true.' 'Then, I don't care for this little wound,' said +one fellow, slapping his right leg, which was pierced and torn by a +minie ball. Brave men! How I longed to take our whole North, and pour +out its wealth and luxury at their feet. + +"A little farther on in the car, I chanced to look down, and there at my +feet lay a young man, not more than eighteen or nineteen years old; hair +tossed back from his noble white brow; long brown lashes lying on his +cheek; face as delicate and refined as a girl's. I spoke to him and he +opened his eyes, but could not answer me. I held an orange before him, +and he looked a Yes; so I cut a hole in it and squeezed some of the +juice into his mouth. It seemed to revive him a little, and after +sitting a short time I left him. Soon after, they carried him out on a +stretcher--poor fellow! He was dying when I saw him, and I could but +think of his mother and sisters who would have given worlds to stand +beside him as I did. By this time it was growing dark, my oranges had +given out, and we were sadly in the way; so we left, to be haunted for +many a day by the terrible pictures we had seen on our first visit to a +Hospital Train. + +"My next experience was much pleasanter. I had the privilege of a ride +on one from Chattanooga to Nashville, and an opportunity of seeing the +plan of arrangement of the train. There were three hundred and fourteen +sick and wounded men on board, occupying nine or ten cars, with the +surgeon's car in the middle of the train. This car is divided into three +compartments; at one end is the store-room where are kept the eatables +and bedding, at the other, the kitchen; and between the two the +surgeon's room, containing his bed, secretary, and shelves and pigeon +holes for instruments, medicines, etc. A narrow hall connects the +store-room and kitchen, and great windows or openings in the opposite +sides of the car give a pleasant draft of air. Sitting in a comfortable +arm-chair, one would not wish a pleasanter mode of traveling, especially +through the glorious mountains of East Tennessee, and further on, over +the fragrant, fertile meadows, and the rolling hills and plains of +Northern Alabama and middle Tennessee, clothed in their fresh green +garments of new cotton and corn. This is all charming for a passenger, +but a hospital train is a busy place for the surgeons and nurses. + +"The men come on at evening, selected from the different hospitals, +according to their ability to be moved, and after having had their tea, +the wounds have to be freshly dressed. This takes till midnight, perhaps +longer, and the surgeon must be on the watch continually, for on him +falls the responsibility, not only of the welfare of the men, but of the +safety of the train. There is a conductor and brakeman, and for them, +too, there is no rest. Each finds enough to do as nurse or assistant. In +the morning, after a breakfast of delicious coffee or tea, dried beef, +dried peaches, soft bread, cheese, etc., the wounds have to be dressed a +second time, and again in the afternoon, a third. + +"In the intervals the surgeon finds time to examine individual cases, +and prescribe especially for them, and perhaps to take a little rest. To +fulfil the duties of surgeon in charge of such a train, or endure the +terrible strain on brain and nerves and muscles, requires great skill, +an iron will, and a mind undaunted by the shadow of any responsibility +or danger. All this and more has Dr. J. P. Barnum, who has charge of the +train formerly running between Louisville and Nashville, but now +transferred to the road between Nashville and Chattanooga. With a touch +gentle as a woman, yet with manly strength and firmness, and untiring +watchfulness and thoughtful care, he seems wholly devoted to the work of +benefiting our sick and wounded soldiers. All on board the train gave +him the warmest thanks. As I walked through the car, I heard the men +say, 'we hav'n't lived so well since we joined the army. We are better +treated than we ever were before. This is the nicest place we were ever +in,' etc. Should the Doctor chance to see this, he will be shocked, for +modesty, I notice, goes hand in hand with true nobility and generosity; +but I risk his wrath for the selfish pleasure that one has in doing +justice to a good man. + +"After breakfast, in the morning, when the wounds were all dressed, I +had the pleasure of carrying into one car a pitcher of delicious +blackberry wine that came from the Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern +Ohio, and with the advice of Dr. Yates, the assistant surgeon, giving it +to the men. The car into which I went had only one tier of berths, +supported like the others on rubber bands. Several times during the day +I had an opportunity of giving some little assistance in taking care of +wounded men, and it was very pleasant. My journey lasted a night and a +day, and I think I can never again pass another twenty-four hours so +fraught with sweet and sad memories as are connected with my second and +last experience on a hospital train." + + + + +NEW ENGLAND WOMEN'S AUXILIARY ASSOCIATION. + + +Among the branches of the United States Sanitary Commission, the +Association which is named above, was one of the most efficient and +untiring in its labors. It had gathered into its management, a large +body of the most gifted and intellectual women of Boston, and its +vicinity, women who knew how to work as well as to plan, direct and +think. These were seconded in their efforts by a still larger number of +intelligent and accomplished women in every part of New England, who, as +managers and directors of the auxiliaries of the Association, roused and +stimulated by their own example and their eloquent appeals, the hearts +of their countrywomen to earnest and constant endeavour to benefit the +soldiers of our National armies. The geographical peculiarities and +connections of the New England States, were such that after the first +year Connecticut and Rhode Island could send their supplies more readily +to the field through New York than through Boston, and hence the +Association from that time, had for its field of operations, only Maine, +New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. In these four States, +however, it had one thousand and fifty auxiliaries, and during its +existence, collected nearly three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars +in money, and fully one million, two hundred thousand dollars in stores +and supplies for the work of the Sanitary Commission. In December, 1863, +it held a Sanitary Fair in Boston, the net proceeds of which were +nearly one hundred and forty-six thousand dollars. + +The first Chairman of the Executive Committee, was Mrs. D. Buck, and on +her resignation early in 1864, Miss Abby W. May, an active and efficient +member of the Executive Committee from the first was chosen Chairman. +The rare executive ability displayed by Miss May in this position, and +her extraordinary gifts and influence render a brief sketch of her +desirable, though her own modest and retiring disposition would lead her +to depreciate her own merits, and to declare that she had done no more +than the other members of the Association. In that coterie of gifted +women, it is not impossible that there may have been others who could +have done as well, but none could have done better than Miss May; just +as in our great armies, it is not impossible that there may have been +Major-Generals, and perhaps even Brigadier-Generals, who, had they been +placed in command of the armies, might have accomplished as much as +those who did lead them to victory. The possibilities of success, in an +untried leader, may or may not be great; but those who actually occupy a +prominent position, must pay the penalty of their prominence, in the +publicity which follows it. + +Miss May is a native of Boston, born in 1829, and educated in the best +schools of her natal city. She early gave indications of the possession +of a vigorous intellect, which was thoroughly trained and cultivated. +Her clear and quick understanding, her strong good sense, active +benevolence, and fearlessness in avowing and advocating whatever she +believed to be true and right, have given her a powerful influence in +the wide circle of her acquaintance. She embarked heart and soul in the +Anti-slavery movement while yet quite young, and has rendered valuable +services to that cause. + +At the very commencement of the war, she gave herself most heartily to +the work of relieving the sufferings of the soldiers from sickness or +wounds; laboring with great efficiency in the organization and +extension of the New England Women's Auxiliary Association, and in the +spring and summer of 1862, going into the Hospital Transport Service of +the Sanitary Commission, where her labors were arduous, but accomplished +great good. After her return, she was prevailed upon to take the +Chairmanship of the Executive Committee of the Association, and +represented it at Washington, at the meeting of the delegates from the +Branches of the Sanitary Commission. Her executive ability was signally +manifested in her management of the affairs of the Association, in her +rapid and accurate dispatch of business, her prompt and unerring +judgment on all difficult questions, her great practical talent, and her +earnest and eloquent appeals to the auxiliaries. Yet fearless and daring +as she has ever been in her denunciation of wrong, and her advocacy of +right, and extraordinary as are the abilities she has displayed in the +management of an enterprise for which few men would have been competent, +the greatest charm of her character is her unaffected modesty, and +disposition to esteem others better than herself. To her friends she +declared that she had made no sacrifices in the work, none really worthy +of the name--while there were abundance of women who had, but who were +and must remain nameless and unknown. What she had done had been done +from inclination and a desire to serve and be useful in her day, and in +the great struggle, and had been a recreation and enjoyment. + +To a lady friend who sought to win from her some incidents of her labors +for publication, she wrote: + +"The work in New England has been conducted with so much simplicity, and +universal co-operation, that there have been no persons especially +prominent in it. Rich and poor, wise and simple, cultivated and +ignorant, all--people of all descriptions, all orders of taste, every +variety of habit, condition, and circumstances, joined hands heartily in +the beginning, and have worked together as equals in every respect. +There has been no chance for individual prominence. Each one had some +power or quality desirable in the great work; and she gave what she +could. In one instance, it was talent, in another, money,--in another, +judgment,--in another, time,--and so on. Where all gifts were needed, it +would be impossible to say what would make any person prominent, with +this one exception. It was necessary that some one should be at the head +of the work: and this place it was my blessed privilege to fill. But it +was only an accidental prominence; and I should regret more than I can +express to you, to have this accident of position single me out in any +such manner as you propose; from the able, devoted, glorious women all +about me, whose sacrifices, and faithfulness, and nobleness, I can +hardly conceive of, much less speak of and never approach to. + +"As far as I personally am concerned, I would rather your notice of our +part of the work should be of 'New England women.' We shared the +privileges of the work,--not always equally, that would be impossible. +But we stood side by side--through it all, as New England women; and if +we are to be remembered hereafter, it ought to be under that same good +old title, and in one goodly company. + +"When I begin to think of individual cases, I grow full of admiration, +and wish I could tell you of many a special woman; but the number soon +becomes appalling,--your book would be overrun, and all, or most of +those who would have been omitted, might well have been there too." + +In the same tone of generous appreciation of the labors of others, and +desire that due honor should be bestowed upon all, Miss May, in her +final Report of the New England Women's Auxiliary Association, gives +utterance to the thanks of the Executive Committee to its +fellow-workers: + +"We wish we could speak of all the elements that have conspired to our +success in New England; but they are too numerous. From the +representatives of the United States Government here, who remitted the +duties upon soldiers' garments sent to us from Nova Scotia, down to the +little child, diligently sewing with tiny fingers upon the soldier's +comfort-bag, the co-operation has been almost universal. Churches, of +all denominations, have exerted their influence for us; many schools +have made special efforts in our behalf; the directors of railroads, +express companies, telegraphs, and newspapers, and gentlemen of the +business firms with whom we have dealt, have befriended us most +liberally; and private individuals, of all ages, sexes, colors, and +conditions, have aided us in ways that we cannot enumerate, that no one +really knows but themselves. They do not seek our thanks, but we would +like to offer them. Their service has been for the soldiers' sake; but +the way in which they have rendered it has made us personally their +debtors, beyond the power of words to express." + +One of the most efficient auxiliaries of the New England Women's +Auxiliary Association, from the thoroughly loyal spirit it manifested, +and the persistent and patient labor which characterized its course was +the _Boston Sewing Circle_, an organization started in November, 1862, +and which numbered thenceforward to the end of the war from one hundred +and fifty to two hundred workers. This Sewing Circle raised twenty-one +thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight dollars in money, (about four +thousand dollars of it for the Refugees in Western Tennessee), and made +up twenty-one thousand five hundred and ninety-two articles of clothing, +a large part of them of flannel, but including also shirts, drawers, +etc., of cotton. + +Its officers from first to last were Mrs. George Ticknor, President; +Miss Ira E. Loring, Vice-President; Mrs. G. H. Shaw, Secretary; Mrs. +Martin Brimmer, Treasurer. A part of these ladies, together with some +others had for more than a year previous been engaged in similar labors, +at first in behalf of the Second Regiment of Massachusetts Infantry, and +afterward for other soldiers. This organization of which Mrs. George +Ticknor was President, Miss Ticknor, Secretary, and Mrs. W. B. Rogers, +Treasurer, raised three thousand five hundred and forty-four dollars in +money, and sent to the army four thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine +articles of clothing of which one-third were of flannel. + +Another "Boston notion," and a very excellent notion it was, was the +organization of the _Ladies' Industrial Aid Association_, which we +believe, but are not certain, was in some sort an auxiliary of the New +England Women's Auxiliary Association. This society was formed in the +beginning of the war and proposed first to furnish well made clothing to +the soldiers, and second to give employment to their families, though it +was not confined to these, but furnished work also to some extent to +poor widows with young children, who had no near relatives in the army. +In this enterprise were enlisted a large number of ladies of education, +refinement, and high social position. During four successive winters, +they carried on their philanthropic work, from fifteen to twenty of them +being employed during most of the forenoons of each week, in preparing +the garments for the sewing women, or in the thorough and careful +inspection of those which were finished. From nine hundred to one +thousand women were constantly supplied with work, and received in +addition to the contract prices, (the ladies performing their labor +without compensation) additional payment, derived from donations for +increasing their remuneration. The number of garments (mostly shirts and +drawers) made by the employés of this association in the four years, was +three hundred and forty-six thousand seven hundred and fifteen, and the +sum, of twenty thousand thirty-three dollars and seventy-eight cents +raised by donation, was paid as additional wages to the workwomen. The +association of these poor women for so long a period with ladies of +cultivation and refinement, under circumstances in which they could +return a fair equivalent for the money received, and hence were not in +the position of applicants for charity, could not fail to be elevating +and improving, while the ladies themselves learned the lesson that as +pure and holy a patriotism inspired the hearts of the humble and lowly, +as was to be found among the gifted and cultivated. We regret that we +cannot give the names of the ladies who initiated and sustained this +movement. Many of them were conspicuous in other works of patriotism and +benevolence during the war, and some found scope for their earnest +devotion to the cause in camp and hospital, and some gave vent to their +patriotic emotion in battle hymns which will live through all coming +time. Of these as of thousands of others in all the departments of +philanthropy connected with the great struggle, it shall be said, "They +have done what they could." + + + + +NORTHWESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION. + + +When the United States Sanitary Commission was first organized, though +its members and officers had but little idea of the vast influence it +was destined to exert on the labors which were before it, they wisely +resolved to make it a National affair, and accordingly selected some of +their corporate members from the large cities of the West. The Honorable +Mark Skinner, and subsequently E. B. McCagg, Esq., and E. W. Blatchford, +were chosen as the associate members of the Commission for Chicago. The +Commission expected much from the Northwest, both from its earnest +patriotism, and its large-handed liberality. Its selection of associates +was eminently judicious, and these very soon after their election, +undertook the establishment of a branch Commission for collecting and +forwarding supplies, and more effectively organizing the liberality of +the Northwest, that its rills and streams of beneficence, concentrated +in the great city of the Lakes, might flow thence in a mighty stream to +the armies of the West. Public meetings were held, a branch of the +United States Sanitary Commission with its rooms, its auxiliaries and +its machinery of collection and distribution put in operation, and the +office management at first entrusted to that devoted and faithful worker +in the Sanitary cause, Mrs. Eliza Porter. The work grew in extent as +active operations were undertaken in our armies, and early in 1862, the +associates finding Mrs. Porter desirous of joining her husband in +ministrations of mercy at the front, entrusted the charge of the active +labors of the Commission, its correspondence, the organization of +auxiliary aid societies, the issuing of appeals for money and supplies, +the forwarding of stores, the employment and location of women nurses, +and the other multifarious duties of so extensive an institution, to two +ladies of Chicago, ladies who had both given practical evidence of their +patriotism and activity in the cause,--Mrs. A. H. Hoge and Mrs. M. A. +Livermore. The selection was wisely made. No more earnest workers were +found in any department of the Sanitary Commission's field, and their +eloquence of pen and voice, the magnetism of their personal presence, +their terse and vigorously written circulars appealing for general or +special supplies, their projection and management of two great sanitary +fairs, and their unwearied efforts to save the western armies from the +fearful perils of scurvy, entitle them to especial prominence in our +record of noble and patriotic women. The amount of money and supplies +sent from this branch, collected from its thousand auxiliaries and its +two great fairs, has not been up to this time, definitively estimated, +but it is known to have exceeded one million of dollars. + +This record of the labors of these ladies during the war would be +incomplete without allusion to the fact that they were the prime movers +in the establishment of a Soldiers' Home, in Chicago, and were, until +after the war ended, actively identified with it. They early foresaw +that this temporary resting-place, which became like "the shadow of a +great rock in a weary land" to tens of thousands of soldiers, going to +and returning from the camp, and hospital, and battle-field, would +eventually crystallize into a permanent home for the disabled and +indigent of Illinois' brave men--and in all their calculations for it, +they took its grand future into account. That future which they foresaw, +has become a verity, and nowhere in the United States is there a +pleasanter, or more convenient, or more generously supported Soldiers' +Home than in Chicago, standing on the shores of Lake Michigan. + + + + +MRS. A. H. HOGE. + + +Perhaps among all who have labored for the soldier, during the late war, +among the women of our country, no name is better known that of Mrs. A. +H. Hoge, the subject of this sketch. From the beginning until the +successful close of the war, alike cheerful, ardent, and reliant, in its +darkest, as in its brightest days, Mrs. Hoge dedicated to the service of +her country and its defenders, all that she had to bestow, and became +widely known all over the vast sphere of her operations, as one of the +most faithful and tireless of workers; wise in council, strong in +judgment, earnest in action. + +Mrs. Hoge is a native of the city of Philadelphia, and was the daughter +of George D. Blaikie, Esq., an East India shipping merchant--"a man of +spotless character, and exalted reputation, whose name is held in +reverence by many still living there." + +Mrs. Hoge was educated at the celebrated seminary of John Brewer, A. M., +(a graduate of Harvard University) who founded the first classical +school for young ladies in Philadelphia, and which was distinguished +from all others, by the name of the Young Ladies' College. She graduated +with the first rank in her class, and afterward devoting much attention, +with the advantage of the best instruction, to music, and other +accomplishments, she soon excelled in the former. At an early age she +became a member of the Old School Presbyterian Church, with which she +still retains her connection, her husband being a ruling elder in the +same church. + +In her twentieth year she was married to Mr. A. H. Hoge, a merchant of +Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where she resided fourteen years. At the end of +that period she removed to Chicago, Illinois, where she has since dwelt. + +Mrs. Hoge has been the mother of thirteen children, five of whom have +passed away before her. One of these, the Rev. Thomas Hoge, was a young +man of rare endowments and promise. + +As before stated, from the very beginning of the war, Mrs. Hoge +identified herself with the interests of her country. Two of her sons +immediately entered the army, and she at once commenced her unwearied +personal services for the sick and wounded soldiers. + +At first she entered only into that work of supply in which so large a +portion of the loyal women of the North labored more or less +continuously all through the war. But the first public act of her life +as a Sanitary Agent, was to visit, at the request of the Chicago branch +of the United States Sanitary Commission, the hospitals at Cairo, Mound +City and St. Louis. + +Of her visit to one of these hospitals she subsequently related the +following incidents: + +"The first great hospital I visited was Mound City, twelve miles from +Cairo. It contained twelve hundred beds, furnished with dainty sheets, +and pillows and shirts, from the Sanitary Commission, and ornamented +with boughs of fresh apple blossoms, placed there by tender female +nurses to refresh the languid frames of their mangled inmates. As I took +my slow and solemn walk through this congregation of suffering humanity, +I was arrested by the bright blue eyes, and pale but dimpled cheek, of a +boy of nineteen summers. I perceived he was bandaged like a mummy, and +could not move a limb; but still he smiled. The nurse who accompanied me +said, 'We call this boy our miracle. Five weeks ago, he was shot down at +Donelson; both legs and arms shattered. To-day, with great care, he has +been turned for the first time, and never a murmur has escaped his +lips, but grateful words and pleasant looks have cheered us.' Said I to +the smiling boy, some absent mother's pride, 'How long did you lie on +the field after being shot?' 'From Saturday morning till Sunday +evening,' he replied, 'and then I was chopped out, for I had frozen +feet.' 'How did it happen that you were left so long?' 'Why, you see,' +said he, 'they couldn't stop to bother with us, _because they had to +take the fort_.' 'But,' said I, 'did you not feel 'twas cruel to leave +you to suffer so long?' 'Of course not! how could they help it? _They +had to take the fort_, and when they did, we forgot our sufferings, and +all over the battle-field went up cheers from the wounded, even from the +dying. Men that had but one arm raised that, and voices so weak that +they sounded like children's, helped to swell the sound.' 'Did you +suffer much?' His brow contracted, as he said, 'I don't like to think of +that; but never mind, the doctor tells me I won't lose an arm or a leg, +and I'm going back to have another chance at them. There's one thing I +can't forget though," said he, as his sunny brow grew dark, 'Jem and I +(nodding at the boy in the adjoining cot) lived on our father's +neighboring farms in Illinois; we stood beside each other and fell +together. As he knows, we saw fearful sights that day. We saw poor +wounded boys stripped of their clothing. They cut our's off, when every +movement was torture. When some resisted, they were pinned to the earth +with bayonets, and left writhing like worms, to die by inches. I can't +forgive the devils for that.' 'I fear you've got more than you bargained +for.' 'Not a bit of it; we went in for better or worse, and if we got +worse, we must not complain.' Thus talked the beardless boy, nine months +only from his mother's wing. As I spoke, a moan, a rare sound in a +hospital, fell on my ear. I turned, and saw a French boy quivering with +agony and crying for help. Alas! he had been wounded, driven several +miles in an ambulance, with his feet projecting, had them frightfully +frozen, and the surgeon had just decided the discolored, useless members +must be amputated, and the poor boy was begging for the operation. +Beside him, lay a stalwart man, with fine face, the fresh blood staining +his bandages, his dark, damp hair clustering round his marble forehead. +He extended his hand feebly and essayed to speak, as I bent over him, +but speech had failed him. He was just brought in from a gunboat, where +he had been struck with a piece of shell, and was slipping silently but +surely into eternity. Two days afterward I visited Jefferson Barracks +Hospital. In passing through the wards, I noticed a woman seated beside +the cot of a youth, apparently dying. He was insensible to all around; +she seemed no less so. Her face was bronzed and deeply lined with care +and suffering. Her eyes were bent on the ground, her arms folded, her +features rigid as marble. I stood beside her, but she did not notice me. +I laid my hand upon her shoulder, but she heeded me not. I said 'Is this +young man a relative of yours?' No answer came. 'Can't I help you?' With +a sudden start that electrified me, her dry eyes almost starting from +the sockets and her voice husky with agony, she said, pointing her +attenuated finger at the senseless boy, 'He is the last of seven +sons--six have died in the army, and the doctor says he must die +to-night.' The flash of life passed from her face as suddenly as it +came, her arms folded over her breast, she sank in her chair, and became +as before, the rigid impersonation of agony. As I passed through another +hospital ward, I noticed a man whose dejected figure said plainly, 'he +had turned his face to the wall to die.' His limb had been amputated, +and he had just been told his doom. Human nature rebelled. He cried out, +'I am willing to die, if I could but see my wife and children once +more.' In the silence that followed this burst of agony, the low voice +of a noble woman, who gave her time and abundant means to the sick and +wounded soldiers, was heard in prayer for him. The divine influence +overcame his struggling heart, and as she concluded, he said, 'Thy will, +O God, be done!' ''Tis a privilege, even thus, to die for one's +country.' Before the midnight hour he was at rest. The vacant bed told +the story next morning." + +The object of these visits was to examine those hospitals which were +under the immediate supervision of the Branch, and report their +condition, also to investigate the excellent mode of working of the +finely conducted, and at that time numerous hospitals in St. Louis. This +report was made and acted upon, and was the means of introducing decided +and much needed reforms into similar institutions. + +The value of Mrs. Hoge's counsel, and the fruits of her great experience +of life were generally acknowledged. In the several councils of women +held in Washington, she took a prominent part, and was always listened +to with the greatest respect and attention--not by any means lessened +after her wide relations with the Sanitary Commission, and her special +experience of its work, had become known in the following years. + +Mrs. Hoge was accompanied to Washington, when attending the Women's +Council in 1862, by her friend and fellow-laborer, Mrs. M. A. Livermore, +of Chicago. After the return of these ladies they immediately commenced +the organization of the Northwest for sanitary labor, being appointed +agents of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission, and devoting their +entire time to this work. + +They opened a correspondence with leading women in all the cities and +prominent towns of the Northwest. They prepared and circulated great +numbers of circulars, relating to the mode and necessity of the +concentrated efforts of the Aid Societies, and they visited in person +very many towns and large villages, calling together audiences of women, +and telling them of the hardships, sufferings and heroism of the +soldiers, which they had themselves witnessed, and the pressing needs of +these men, which were to be met by the supplies contributed by, and the +work of loyal women of the North. They thus stimulated the enthusiasm of +the women to the highest point, greatly increased the number of Aid +Societies, and taught them how, by systematizing their efforts, they +could render the largest amount of assistance, as well as the most +important, to the objects of the Sanitary Commission. + +The eloquence and pathos of these appeals has never been surpassed; and +it is no matter of wonder that they should have opened the hearts and +purses of so many thousands of the listeners. "But for these noble +warriors," Mrs. Hoge would say, "who have stood a living wall between us +and destruction, where would have been our schools, our colleges, our +churches, our property, our government, our lives? Southern soil has +been watered with their blood, the Mississippi fringed with their +graves, measured by acres instead of numbers. The shadow of death has +passed over almost every household, and left desolate hearth-stones and +vacant chairs. Thousands of mothers, wives and sisters at home have died +and made no sign, while their loved ones have been hidden in Southern +hospitals, prisons and graves--the separation, thank God, is short, the +union eternal. I have only a simple story of these martyred heroes to +tell you. I have been privileged to visit a hundred thousand of them in +hospitals; meekly and cheerfully lying _there_, that you and I may be +enabled to meet _here_, in peace and comfort to-day. + +"Could I, by the touch of a magician's wand, pass before you in solemn +review, this army of sufferers, you would say a tithe cannot be told." + +And then with simple and effective pathos she would proceed to tell of +incidents which she had witnessed, so touching, that long ere she had +concluded her entire audience would be in tears. + +By two years of earnest and constant labor in this field, these ladies +succeeded in adding to the packages sent to the Sanitary Commission, +fifty thousand, mostly gifts directly from the Aid Societies, but in +part purchased with money given. In addition to this, over four hundred +thousand dollars came into the treasury through their efforts. + +Early in 1863, Mrs. Hoge, in company with Mrs. Colt of Milwaukee, at the +request of the Sanitary Commission, left Chicago for Vicksburg, with a +large quantity of sanitary stores. The defeat of Sherman in his assault +upon that city, had just taken place, and there was great want and +suffering in the army. The boat upon which these ladies were traveling, +was however seized as a military transport at Columbus, and pressed into +the fleet of General Gorman, which was just starting for the forts at +the mouth of the White River. + +General Fisk, whose headquarters were upon the same boat, accorded to +these ladies the best accommodations, and every facility for carrying +out their work, which proved to be greatly needed. Their stores were +found to be almost the only ones in the fleet, composed of thirty +steamers filled with fresh troops, whose ranks were soon thinned by +sickness, consequent upon the exposures and fatigues of the campaign. + +Their boat became a refuge for the sick of General Fisk's brigade, to +his honor be it said, and these ladies had the privilege of nursing +hundreds of men during this expedition, and undoubtedly saved many +valuable lives. + +Early in the following spring, and only ten days after her return to +Chicago, from the expedition mentioned above, Mrs. Hoge was again +summoned to Vicksburg, opposite which, at Young's Point, the army under +General Grant was lying and engaged, among other operations against this +celebrated stronghold, in the attempt to turn the course of the river +into a canal dug across the point. Scurvy was prevailing to a very +considerable extent among the men, who were greatly in need of the +supplies which accompanied her. Here she remained two weeks, and had the +pleasure of distributing these supplies, and witnessing much benefit +from their use. Her headquarters were upon the sanitary boat, Silver +Wave, and she received constant support and aid from Generals Grant and +Sherman, and from Admiral Porter, who placed a tug boat at her disposal, +in order that she might visit the camps and hospitals which were +totally inaccessible in any other way, owing to the impassable character +of the roads during the rainy season. Having made a tour of all the +hospitals, and ascertained the condition of the sick, and of the army +generally, she returned to the North, and reported to the Sanitary +Commission the extent of that insidious army foe, the scurvy. They +determined to act promptly and vigorously. Mrs. Hoge and Mrs. Livermore, +as representatives of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission, by +unremitting exertions, through the press and by circulars, and aided by +members of the Commission, and by the noble Board of Trade of Chicago, +succeeded in collecting, and in sending to the army, in the course of +three weeks, over one thousand bushels of potatoes and onions, which +reached them, were apportioned to them, and proved, as was anticipated, +and has been universally acknowledged, the salvation of the troops. + +Again, in the following June, on the invitation of General Fuller, +Adjutant-General of the State of Illinois, Mrs. Hoge visited Vicksburg, +on the Steamer City of Alton, which was despatched by Governor Yates, to +bring home the sick and wounded Illinois soldiers. She remained till +shortly before the surrender, which took place on the fourth of July, +and during this time visited the entire circle of Hospitals, as well as +the rifle-pits, where she witnessed scenes of thrilling interest, and +instances of endurance and heroism beyond the power of pen to describe. + +She thus describes some of the incidents of this visit: + +"The long and weary siege of Vicksburg, had continued many months +previous to the terrific assaults of our brave army on the +fortifications in the rear of that rebel stronghold. On the 19th and 22d +of May, were made those furious attacks, up steep acclivities, in the +teeth of bristling fortifications, long lines of rifle-pits, and +sharp-shooters who fringed the hill-tops, and poured their murderous +fire into our advancing ranks. It would seem impossible that men could +stand, much less advance, under such a galling fire. They were mowed +down as wheat before the sickle, but they faltered not. The vacant +places of the fallen were instantly filled, and inch by inch they gained +the heights of Vicksburg. When the precipice was too steep for the +horses to draw up the artillery, our brave boys did the work themselves, +and then fought and conquered. When they had gained the topmost line of +rifle-pits, they entered in and took possession; and when I made my last +visit to the Army of the Mississippi, there they were ensconced as +conies in the rock, enduring the heat of a vertical sun, and crouching, +like beasts of prey, to escape the rebel bullets from the earthworks, +almost within touching distance. The fierce and bloody struggle had +filled long lines of field-hospitals with mangled victims, whose +sufferings were soothed and relieved beyond what I could have conceived +possible, and it rejoiced my heart to see there the comforts and +luxuries of the Sanitary Commission. The main body of the army lay +encamped in the valleys, at the foot of the rifle-pits, and spread its +lines in a semi-circle to a distance of fourteen miles. The health of +the army was perfect, its spirit jubilant. They talked of the rebels as +prisoners, as though they were guarding them, and answered questions +implying doubt of success, with a scornful laugh, saying, 'Why, the boys +in the rear could whip Johnston, and we not know it; and we could take +Vicksburg if we chose, and not disturb them.' Each regiment, if not each +man, felt competent for the work. One glorious day in June, accompanied +by an officer of the 8th Missouri, I set out for the rifle-pits. When I +reached them, I found the heat stifling; and as I bent to avoid the +whizzing minies, and the falling branches of the trees, cut off by an +occasional shell, I felt that war was a terrible reality. The intense +excitement of the scene, the manly, cheerful bearing of the veterans, +the booming of the cannon from the battlements, and the heavy mortars +that were ever and anon throwing their huge iron balls into Vicksburg, +and the picturesque panorama of the army encamped below, obliterated all +sense of personal danger or fatigue. After a friendly talk with the men +in the extreme front, and a peep again and again through the +loop-holes, watched and fired upon continually, by the wary foe, I +descended to the second ledge, where the sound of music reached us. We +followed it quickly, and in a few moments stood behind a rude litter of +boughs, on which lay a gray-haired soldier, face downward, with a +comrade on either side. They did not perceive us, but sang on the +closing line of the verse: + + 'Come humble sinner in whose breast + A thousand thoughts revolve; + Come with thy sins and fears oppressed, + And make this last resolve,' + +I joined in the second verse; + + 'I'll go to Jesus, though my sins + Have like a mountain rose, + I know His courts, I'll enter in, + Whatever may oppose.' + +In an instant, each man turned and would have stopped, but I sang on +with moistened eyes, and they continued. At the close, one burst out, +'Why, ma'am, where did you come from? Did you drop from heaven into +these rifle-pits? You are the first lady we have seen here,' and then +the voice was choked with tears. I said, 'I have come from your friends +at home to see you, and bring messages of love and honor. I have come to +bring you the comforts that we owe you, and love to give. I've come to +see if you receive what they send you.' 'Do they think so much of us as +that? Why, boys, we can fight another year on that, can't we?' 'Yes! +yes!' they cried, and almost every hand was raised to brush away the +tears. 'Why, boys,' said I, 'the women at home don't think of much else +but the soldiers. If they meet to sew, 'tis for you; if they have a good +time, 'tis to gather money for the Sanitary Commission; if they meet to +pray, 'tis for the soldiers; and even the little children, as they kneel +at their mother's knees to lisp their good-night prayers, say, God +bless the soldiers.' A crowd of eager listeners had gathered from their +hiding-places, as birds from the rocks. Instead of cheers as usual, I +could only hear an occasional sob and feel solemn silence. The +gray-haired veteran drew from his breast-pocket a daguerreotype, and +said, 'Here are my wife and daughters. I think any man might be proud of +them, and they all work for the soldiers.' And then each man drew forth +the inevitable daguerreotype, and held it for me to look at, with pride +and affection. There were aged mothers and sober matrons, bright-eyed +maidens and laughing cherubs, all carried next these brave hearts, and +cherished as life itself. Blessed art! It seems as though it were part +of God's preparation work, for this long, cruel war. These mute +memorials of home and its loved ones have proved the talisman of many a +tempted heart, and the solace of thousands of suffering, weary veterans. +I had much to do, and prepared to leave. I said, 'Brave men, farewell! +When I go home, I'll tell them that men that never flinch before a foe, +sing hymns of praise in the rifle-pits of Vicksburg. I'll tell them that +eyes that never weep for their own suffering, overflow at the name of +home and the sight of the pictures of their wives and children. They'll +feel more than ever that such men cannot be conquered, and that enough +cannot be done for them.' Three cheers for the women at home, and a +grasp of multitudes of hard, honest hands, and I turned away to visit +other regiments. The officer who was with me, grasped my hand; 'Madam,' +said he, 'promise me you'll visit my regiment to-morrow--'twould be +worth a victory to them. You don't know what good a lady's visit to the +army does. These men whom you have seen to-day, will talk of your visit +for six months to come. Around the camp fires, in the rifle-pits, in the +dark nights or on the march, they will repeat your words, describe your +looks, your voice, your size, your dress, and all agree in one respect, +that you look like an angel, and exactly like each man's wife or mother. +Such reverence have our soldiers for upright, tender-hearted women. In +the valley beneath, just having exchanged the front line of rifle-pits, +with the regiment now occupying it, encamped my son's regiment. Its +ranks had been fearfully thinned by the terrible assaults of the 19th +and 21st of May, as they had formed the right wing of the line of battle +on that fearful day. I knew most of them personally, and as they +gathered round me and inquired after home and friends, I could but look +in sadness for many familiar faces, to be seen no more on earth. I said, +'Boys, I was present when your colors were presented to you by the Board +of Trade. I heard your colonel pledge himself that you would bring those +colors home or cover them with your blood, as well as glory. I want to +see them, if you have them still, after your many battles.' With great +alacrity, the man in charge of them ran into an adjoining tent, and +brought them forth, carefully wrapped in an oil-silk covering. He drew +it off and flung the folds to the breeze. 'What does this mean?' I said. +'How soiled and tattered, and rent and faded they look--I should not +know them.' The man who held them said, 'Why, ma'am, 'twas the smoke and +balls did that.' 'Ah! so it must have been,' I said. 'Well, you have +covered them with glory, but how about the blood!' A silence of a minute +followed, and then a low voice said, 'Four were shot down holding +them--two are dead, and two in the hospital.' 'Verily, you have redeemed +your pledge,' I said solemnly. 'Now, boys, sing Rally round the Flag, +Boys!'--and they did sing it. As it echoed through the valley, as we +stood within sight of the green sward that had been reddened with the +blood of those that had fought for and upheld it, methought the angels +might pause to hear it, for it was a sacred song--the song of freedom to +the captive, of hope to the oppressed of all nations. Since then, it +seems almost profane to sing it with thoughtlessness or frivolity. After +a touching farewell, I stepped into the ambulance, surrounded by a crowd +of the brave fellows. The last sound that reached my ears was cheers for +the Sanitary Commission, and the women at home. I soon reached the +regimental hospital, where lay the wounded color-bearers. As I entered +the tent, the surgeon met me and said, 'I'm so glad you've come, for +R---- has been calling for you all day,' As I took his parched, feverish +hand, he said, 'Oh! take me home to my wife and little ones to die,' +There he lay, as noble a specimen of vigorous manhood as I had ever +looked upon. His great, broad chest heaved with emotion, his dark eyes +were brilliant with fever, his cheeks flushed with almost the hue of +health, his rich brown hair clustering in soft curls over his massive +forehead, it was difficult to realize that he was entering the portals +of eternity. I walked across the tent to the doctor, and asked if he +could go with me. He shook his head, and said before midnight he would +be at rest. I shrank from his eager gaze as I approached him. 'What does +he say?' he asked quickly. 'You can't be moved.' The broad chest rose +and fell, his whole frame quivered. There was a pause of a few minutes. +He spoke first, and said, 'Will you take my message to her?' 'I will,' I +said, 'if I go five hundred miles to do it,' 'Take her picture from +under my pillow, and my children's also. Let me see it once more.' As I +held them for him, he looked earnestly, and then said, 'Tell her not to +fret about me, for we shall meet in heaven. Tell her 'twas all right +that I came. I don't regret it, and she must not. Tell her to train +these two little boys, that we loved so well, to go to heaven to us, and +tell her to bear my loss like a soldier's wife and a Christian.' He was +exhausted by the effort. I sat beside him till his consciousness was +gone, repeating God's precious promises. As the sun went to rest that +night, he slept in his Father's bosom." + +Early in January, 1864, another Council of women connected with the +Branch Commissions, Aid Societies, and general work of Supply, assembled +in Washington, and was in session three days. Mrs. Hoge, was again a +Delegate, and in relating the results of her now very large experience, +helped greatly the beneficial results of the Council, and harmonized all +the views and action of the various branches. As before, she was +listened to with deference and attention, and we find her name mentioned +in the most appreciative manner in the Reports of the meeting. Her +remarks in regard to the value of free use of the Press, and of +advertising, in the collection of supplies for the Army, stimulated the +Commission to renewed effort in this direction, which they had partially +abandoned under the censorious criticism of some portion of the public, +who believed the money thus expended to be literally thrown away. The +result was, instead, a very large increase of supplies. + +In the two great Sanitary Fairs, which were held in Chicago, the efforts +of Mrs. Hoge were unwearied from the inception of the idea until the +close of the successful realization. Much of this success may be +directly traced to her--her practical talent, great experience in +influencing the minds and action of others, and sound judgment, as well +as good taste, producing thus their natural results. The admirable +conduct of these fairs, and the large amounts raised by them, are +matters of history. + +In an address delivered at a meeting of ladies in Brooklyn, New York, in +March, 1865, Mrs. Hoge thus spoke of her work and that of the women, who +like her, had given themselves to the duty of endeavoring to provide for +the sick and suffering soldier: + +"The women of the land, with swelling hearts and uplifted eyes asked +'Lord, what wilt thou have us to do?' The marvellous organization of the +United States Sanitary Commission, with its various modes of heavenly +activity, pointed out the way, saying 'The men must fight, the women +must work, this is the way, follow me.' In accepting this call, there +has been no reservation. Duty has been taken up, in whatever shape +presented, nothing refused that would soothe a sorrow, staunch a wound, +or heal the sickness of the humblest soldier in the ranks. Some have +drifted into positions entirely new and heretofore avoided. They have +gone forth from the bosom of their families, to visit hospitals, camps, +and battle-fields; some even to appear as we do before you to-day, to +plead for aid for our sick and wounded soldiers suffering and dying that +we may live. The memory of their heroism is inspiring--the recollection +of their patience and long-suffering is overwhelming. They form the most +striking human exemplification of divine meekness and submission, the +world has ever seen, and bring to mind continually the passage, 'He is +brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers +is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.'" + +During the continuance of her labors, Mrs. Hoge was frequently the +recipient of costly and elegant gifts, as testimonials of the respect +and gratitude with which her exertions were viewed. + +After a visit to the Ladies' Aid Society, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, +she was presented by them with a testimonial, beautifully engrossed upon +parchment, surmounted by an exquisitely painted Union flag. + +The managers of the Philadelphia Fair, believing Mrs. Hoge to have had +an important connection with that fair, presented to her a beautiful +gift, in token of their appreciation of her services. + +The Women's Relief Association, of Brooklyn, New York, presented her an +elegant silver vase. + +During the second Sanitary Fair in Chicago, a few friends presented her +with a beautiful silver cup, bearing a suitable inscription in Latin, +and during the same fair, she received as a gift a Roman bell of green +bronze, or verd antique, of rare workmanship, and value, as an object of +art. + +Mrs. Hoge made three expeditions to the Army of the Southwest, and +personally visited and ministered to more than one hundred thousand men +in hospitals. Few among the many efficient workers, which the war called +from the ease and retirement of home, can submit to the public a record +of labors as efficient, varied, and long-continued, as hers. + + + + +[Illustration: MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE + Eng^d. by A.H. Ritchie.] + + +MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE. + + +Few of the busy and active laborers in the broad field of woman's effort +during the war, have been more widely or favorably known than Mrs. +Livermore. Her labors, with her pen, commenced with the commencement of +the war; and in various spheres of effort, were faithfully and +energetically given to the cause of the soldier and humanity, until a +hard-won peace had once more "perched upon our banners," and the need of +them, at least in that specific direction, no longer existed. + +Mrs. Livermore is a native of Boston, where her childhood and girlhood +were passed. At fourteen years of age she was a medal scholar of the +"Hancock School," of that city, and three years later, she graduated +from the "Charlestown (Mass.), Female Seminary," when she became +connected with its Board of Instruction, as Teacher of Latin, French and +Italian. With the exception of two years spent in the south of +Virginia,--whence she returned an uncompromising anti-slavery woman--her +home was in Boston until her marriage, to Rev. D. P. Livermore, after +which she resided in its near vicinity, until twelve years ago, when +with her husband and children she removed West. For the last ten years +she has been a resident of Chicago. Her husband is now editor of the +_New Covenant_, a paper published in Chicago, Illinois, in advocacy of +Universalist sentiments, and, at the same time, of those measures of +reform, which tend to elevate and purify erring and sinful human +nature. Of this paper Mrs. Livermore is associate editor. + +Mrs. Livermore is a woman of remarkable talent, and in certain +directions even of genius, as the history of her labors in connection +with the war amply evinces. Her energy is great, and her executive +ability far beyond the average. She is an able writer, striking and +picturesque in description, and strong and touching in appeal. She has a +fine command of language, and in her conversation or her addresses to +assemblies of ladies, one may at once detect the tone and ease of manner +of a woman trained to pencraft. She is the author of several books, +mostly poems, essays or stories, and is recognized as a member of the +literary guild. The columns of her husband's paper furnished her the +opportunity she desired of addressing her patriotic appeals to the +community, and her vigorous pen was ever at work both in its columns, +and those of the other papers that were open to her. During the whole +war, even in the busiest times, not a week was passed that she did not +publish _somewhere_ two or three columns at the least. Letters, +incidents, appeals, editorial correspondence,--always something useful, +interesting--head and hands were always busy, and the small implement, +"mightier than the sword" was never allowed to rust unused in the +ink-stand. + +Before us, as we write, lies an article published in the New Covenant of +May 18th, 1861, and as we see written scarcely a month after the +downfall of Fort Sumter. It is entitled "Woman and the War," and shows +how, even at that early day, the patriotism of American women was +bearing fruit, and how keenly and sensitively the writer appreciated our +peril. + +"But no less have we been surprised and moved to admiration by the +regeneration of the women of our land. A month ago, and we saw a large +class, aspiring only to be 'leaders of fashion,' and belles of the +ball-room, their deepest anxiety clustering about the fear that the +gored skirts, and bell-shaped hoops of the spring mode might not be +becoming, and their highest happiness being found in shopping, polking, +and the schottisch--pretty, petted, useless, expensive butterflies, +whose future husbands and children were to be pitied and prayed for. But +to-day, we find them lopping off superfluities, retrenching +expenditures, deaf to the calls of pleasure, or the mandates of fashion, +swept by the incoming patriotism of the time to the loftiest height of +womanhood, willing to do, to bear, or to suffer for the beloved country. +The riven fetters of caste and conventionality have dropped at their +feet, and they sit together, patrician and plebeian, Catholic and +Protestant, and make garments for the poorly-clad soldiery. An order +came to Boston for five thousand shirts for the Massachusetts troops at +the South. Every church in the city sent a delegation of needle-women to +'Union Hall,' a former aristocratic ball-room of Boston; the Catholic +priest detailed five hundred sewing-girls to the pious work; suburban +towns rang the bell to muster the seamstresses; the patrician Protestant +of Beacon Street ran the sewing-machine, while the plebeian Irish +Catholic of Broad Street basted--and the shirts were done at the rate of +a thousand a day. On Thursday, Miss Dix sent an order for five hundred +shirts for the hospital at Washington--on Friday they were ready. And +this is but one instance, in one city, similar events transpiring in +every other large city. + +"But the patriotism of the Northern women has been developed in a nobler +and more touching manner. We can easily understand how men, catching the +contagion of war, fired with enthusiasm, led on by the inspiriting +trains of martial music, and feeling their quarrel to be just, can march +to the cannon's mouth, where the iron hail rains thickest, and the ranks +are mowed down like grain in harvest. But for women to send forth their +husbands, sons and brothers to the horrid chances of war, bidding them +go with many a tearful 'good-by' and 'God bless you,' to see them, +perhaps, no more--this calls for another sort of heroism. Only women can +understand the fierce struggle, and exquisite suffering this sacrifice +involves--and which has already been made by thousands." + +The inception of that noble work, and noble monument of American +patriotism, the United States Sanitary Commission, had its date in the +early days of the war. We find in all the editorial writings of Mrs. +Livermore, for the year 1861, constant warm allusions to this +organization and its work, which show how strongly it commended itself +to her judgment, how deeply she was interested in its workings, and how +her heart was stirred by an almost uncontrollable impulse to become +actively engaged with all her powers in the work. + +In the New Covenant for December 18, 1861, we find over the signature of +Mrs. Livermore, an earnest appeal to the women of the Northwest for aid, +in furnishing Hospital supplies for the army. A "Sanitary Committee," +had been formed in Chicago, to co-operate with the United States +Sanitary Commission, which had opened an office, and was prepared to +receive and forward supplies. These were designed to be sent, almost +exclusively, to Western hospitals, and a Soldiers' Festival was at that +time being held for the purpose of collecting aid, and raising funds for +this Committee, to use in its charitable work. + +This Committee did not long preserve a separate existence. About the +beginning of the year 1862, the Northwestern branch of the United States +Sanitary Commission was organized at Chicago, composed of some of the +leading and most influential citizens of that city, and others in the +Northwestern States. It at once became a power in the land, an +instrument of almost incalculable good. + +Soon afterward, Mrs. Livermore, and Mrs. A. H. Hoge, one of the most +earnest, able and indefatigable of the women working in connection with +the Sanitary Commission, and a resident of Chicago, were appointed +agents of the Northwestern Commission, and immediately commenced their +labors. + +The writer is not aware that a complete and separate sketch of either +the joint or individual labors of these ladies exists. For the outline +of those of Mrs. Livermore, dependence is mostly made upon her +communications to the New Covenant, and other Journals--upon articles +not written with the design of furnishing information of personal +effort, so much, as to give such statements of the soldier's need, and +of the various efforts in that direction, as together with appeals, and +exhortations to renewed benevolence and sacrifice, might best keep the +public mind constantly stimulated and excited to fresh endeavor. + +Running through these papers, we find everywhere evidences of the +intense loyalty of this gifted woman, and also of the deep and equally +outspoken scorn with which she regarded every evidence of treasonable +opinion, or of sympathy with secession, on the part of army leaders, or +the civil authorities. The reader will remember the repulse experienced +in the winter of 1861-2, by the Hutchinsons, those sweet singers, whose +"voices have ever been heard chanting the songs of Freedom--always +lifted in harmonious accord in support of every good and noble cause." +Mrs. Livermore's spirit was stirred by the story of their wrongs, and +thus in keenest sarcasm, she gave utterance to her scorn of this weak +and foolish deed of military tyrants encamping a winter through, before +empty forts and Quaker guns, while they ventured only to make war upon +girls: "While the whole country has been waiting in breathless suspense +for six months, each one of which has seemed an eternity to the loyal +people of the North, for the 'grand forward movement' of the army, which +is to cut the Gordian knot of the rebellion, and perform unspeakable +prodigies, not lawful for man to utter, a backward movement has been +executed on the banks of the Potomac, by the valiant commanders there +stationed, for which none of us were prepared. No person, even though +his imagination possessed a seven-leagued-boot-power of travel, could +have anticipated the last great exploit of our generals, whose energies +thus far, have been devoted to the achieving of a 'masterly inactivity.' +The 'forward movement' has receded and receded, like the cup of +Tantalus, but the backward movement came suddenly upon us, like a thief +in the night." + +"The Hutchinson family, than whom no sweeter songsters gladden this +sorrow-darkened world, have been singing in Washington, to the +President, and to immense audiences, everywhere giving unmixed delight. +Week before last they obtained a pass to the camps the other side of the +Potomac, with the laudable purpose of spending a month among them, +cheering the hearts of the soldiers, and enlivening the monotonous and +barren camp life with their sweet melody. But they ventured to sing a +patriotic song--a beautiful song of Whittier's, which gave offense to a +few semi-secessionists among the officers of the army, for which they +were severely reprimanded by Generals Franklin and Kearny, their pass +revoked by General McClellan, and they driven back to Washington. A +backward movement was ordered instanter, and no sooner ordered, than +executed. Brave Franklin! heroic Kearny! victorious McClellan! why did +ye not order a Te Deum on the occasion of this great victory over a band +of Vermont minstrels, half of whom were--girls! How must the hearts of +the illustrious West-Pointers have pit-a-patted with joy, and dilated +with triumph, as they saw the Hutchinson troupe--Asa B., and Lizzie C., +little Dennett and Freddy, _naive_ Viola, melodeon and all--scampering +back through the mud, bowed beneath the weight of their military +displeasure! Per contra to this expulsion, be it remembered that it +occurred within sight of the residence of a family, in which there are +some five or six young ladies, who, it is alleged, have been promised +"passes" to go South whenever they are disposed to do so,--carrying, of +course, all the information they can for the enemy. The bands of the +regiments are also sent to serenade them, and on these occasions orders +are given _to suppress the national airs_, as being offensive to these +traitors in crinoline." + +During the year 1862, Mrs. Livermore, besides the constant flow of +communications from her pen, visited the army at various points, and in +company with her friend, Mrs. Hoge, travelled over the Northwestern +states, organizing numerous Aid Societies among the women of those +states, who were found everywhere anxious for the privilege of working +for the soldiers, and only desirous of knowing how best to accomplish +this purpose, and through what channel they might best forward their +benefactions. + +In December of that year, the Sanitary Commission called a council, or +convention of its members and branches at Washington, desiring that +every Branch Commission in the North should be represented by at least +two ladies thoroughly acquainted with its workings, who had been +connected with it from the first. Mrs. Hoge and Mrs. Livermore were +appointed by the Chicago Branch. + +They accordingly proceeded to Washington--a long and arduous journey in +mid winter, but these were not women to grudge toil or sacrifice, nor to +shrink from duty. + +Both these ladies had laid their talents upon the altar of the cause in +which they were engaged, and both felt the pressing necessity at that +time of a determined effort to relieve the frightful existing need. +Sanitary supplies were decidedly on the decrease, while the demand for +their increase was most piteously pressing. There was a strong call for +the coming "council" of friends. + +There were hindrances and delays. Delay at starting, in taking a +regiment on board the cars, necessitating other delays, and waiting for +trains on time through the whole distance. + +The days spent in Washington were filled with good deeds, and a thousand +incidents all connected in some way with the great work. Of the results +of that council, the public was long since informed, and few who were +interested in the work, did not learn to appreciate the more earnest +labor, the greater sacrifice and self-devotion which soon spread from it +through the country. Spirits, self-consecrated to so holy a work, could +scarcely meet without the kindling of a flame that should spread all +over the country, till every tender woman's heart, in all the land, had +been touched by it, to the accomplishment of greater and brighter deeds. + +While in Washington, Mrs. Livermore spent a day at the camp near +Alexandria, set apart for convalescents from the hospitals, and known as +"Camp Misery." The suffering there, as we have already stated in the +sketch of Miss Amy M. Bradley's labors, was terrible from insufficient +food, clothing and fuel, from want of drainage, and many other causes, +any one of which might well have proved fatal to the feeble sufferers +there crowded together. The pen of Mrs. Livermore carried the story of +these wrongs all around the land. While she was in Washington, eighteen +half sick soldiers died at the camp in one night, from cold and +starvation. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," and +the blood of these soaking into the soil where dwelt patriotic, +warm-souled men and women, presently produced a noble growth and +fruitage of charity, and sacrifice, and blessed deeds. + +Mrs. Livermore has given her impressions of the President, gained from a +visit made to the White House during this stay. She was one capable +fully of appreciating the noble, simple, yet lofty nature of Abraham +Lincoln. + +Early in this year, Mrs. Livermore made a tour of the hospitals and +military posts scattered along the Mississippi river. She was everywhere +a messenger of good tidings. Sanitary supplies and cheering words seem +to have been always about equally appreciated among the troops. +Volunteers, fresh from home, and the quiet comfort of domestic life, +willing to fight, and if need be die for the glorious idea of freedom, +they yet had no thought of war as a profession. It was a sad, stern +incident in their lives, but not the life they longed for, or meant to +follow. Anything that was like home, the sight of a woman's face, or the +sound of her voice, and all the sordid hardness of their present lives, +all the martial pageantry faded away, and they remembered only that they +were sons, brothers, husbands and fathers. Everywhere her reception was +a kind, a respectful, and even a grateful one. + +There was much sickness among the troops, and the fearful ravages of +scurvy and the deadly malaria of the swamps and bottom-lands along the +great river were enemies far more to be dreaded than the thunder of +artillery, or the hurtling shells. + +During this trip she found in the hospitals, at St. Louis, and +elsewhere, large numbers of female nurses, and ladies who had +volunteered to perform these services temporarily. The surgeons were at +that time, almost without exception, opposed to their being employed in +the hospitals, though their services were afterwards, as the need +increased, greatly desired and warmly welcomed. For these she soon +succeeded in finding opportunities for rendering the service which they +desired to the sick and wounded. + +Were it possible in the space allowed for this sketch, to give a tithe +of the incidents which came under the eyes of Mrs. Livermore, or even a +small portion of her observations in steamer, train, or hospital, some +idea of the magnitude and importance of her work might be gained. But +this we cannot do, and must content ourselves with this partial allusion +to her constant and indefatigable labors. + +The premonitory symptoms of scurvy in the camps around Vicksburg, and +its actual existence in many cases in the hospitals, so aroused the +sympathies of Mrs. Livermore and Mrs. Hoge, on a second visit to these +camps, that after warning General Grant of the danger which his medical +directors had previously concealed from him, these two ladies hastened +up the river, and by their earnest appeals and their stirring and +eloquent circulars asking for onions, potatoes, and other vegetables, +they soon awakened such an interest, that within three weeks, over a +thousand bushels of potatoes and onions were forwarded to the army, and +by their timely distribution saved it from imminent peril. + +In the autumn of 1863, the great Northwestern Sanitary Fair, the first +of that series of similar fairs which united the North in a bond of +large and wide-spread charity, occurred. It was Mrs. Livermore who +suggested and planned the first fair, which netted almost one hundred +thousand dollars to the Sanitary Commission. Mrs. Hoge, had at first, no +confidence in the project, but she afterward joined it, and giving it +her earnest aid, helped to carry it to a successful conclusion. It was +indeed a giant plan, and it may be chiefly credited, from its inception +to its fortunate close, to these indefatigable and skilful workers. The +writer of this sketch was present at the convention of women of the +Northwest called to meet at Chicago, and consider the feasibility of the +project, and was forcibly impressed with the great and real power, the +concentrated moral force, contained in that meeting, and left its doors +without one doubt of the complete and ultimate success of the plan +discussed. Mrs. Livermore held there a commanding position. A brilliant +and earnest speaker, her words seemed to sway the attentive throng. Her +commanding person, added to the power of her words. Gathered upon the +platform of Bryan Hall, were Mrs. Hoge, Mrs. Colt, of Milwaukee, and +many more, perhaps less widely known, but bearing upon their faces and +in their attitudes, the impress of cultured minds, and an earnest active +resolve to do, which seemed to insure success. Mrs. Livermore, seated +below the platform, from time to time passed among the crowd, and her +suggestions whether quietly made to individuals, or given in her clear +ringing voice, and well selected language to the convention, were +everywhere received with respect and deference. As all know, this fair +which was about three months in course of preparation, was on a mammoth +scale, and was a great success, and this result was no doubt greatly +owing to the presence of that quality, which like every born leader, +Mrs. Livermore evidently possesses--that of knowing how to select +judiciously, the subordinates and instruments to be employed to carry +out the plans which have originated in her mind. + +When this fair had been brought to a successful close, Mrs. Livermore +returned to the particular work of her agency. When not traveling on the +business connected with it, she spent many busy days at the rooms of the +Commission in Chicago. The history of some of those days she has +written--a history full of pathos and illuminated with scores of +examples of noble and worthy deeds--of the sacrifices of hard-worked +busy women for the soldiers--of tender self-sacrificing wives concealing +poverty and sorrow, and swallowing bitter tears, and whispering no word +of sorrows hard to bear, that the husband, far away fighting for his +country, might never know of their sufferings; of the small but +fervently offered alms of little children, of the anguish of parents +waiting the arrival through this channel of tidings of their wounded or +their dead; of heroic nurses going forth to their sad labors in the +hospitals, with their lives in their hands, or returning in their +coffins, or with broken health, the sole reward, beside the soldiers' +thanks, for all their devotion. + +Journey after journey Mrs. Livermore made, during the next two years, in +pursuance of her mission, till her name and person were familiar not +only in the camps and hospitals of the great West, but in the assemblies +of patriotic women in the Eastern and Middle States. And all the time +the tireless pen paused not in its blessed work. + +In the spring of 1865, another fair was in contemplation. As before, +Mrs. Livermore visited the Eastern cities, for the purpose of obtaining +aid in her project, and as before was most successful. + +In pursuance of this object, she made a flying visit to Washington, her +chief purpose being to induce the President to attend the fair, and add +the éclat of his presence and that of Mrs. Lincoln, to the brilliant +occasion. An account of her interview with him whom she was never again +to see in life, which, with her impressions of his character, we gain +from her correspondence with the New Covenant, is appended. + +"Our first effort was to obtain an interview with the President and +Mrs. Lincoln--and this, by the way, is usually the first effort of all +new comers. We were deputized to invite our Chief Magistrate to attend +the great Northwestern Fair, to be held in May--and this was our errand. +With the escort of a Senator, who takes precedence of all other +visitors, it is very easy to obtain an interview with the President, and +as we were favored in this respect, we were ushered into the audience +chamber without much delay. The President received us kindly, as he does +all who approach him. He was already apprised of the fair, and spoke of +it with much interest, and with a desire to attend it. He gave us a most +laughable account of his visit to the Philadelphia Fair, when, as he +expressed it, 'for two miles it was all people, where it wasn't houses,' +and where 'he actually feared he should be pulled from the carriage +windows.' We notified him that he must be prepared for a still greater +crowd in Chicago, as the whole Northwest would come out to shake hands +with him, and told him that a petition for his attendance at the fair, +was in circulation, that would be signed by ten thousand women of +Chicago. 'But,' said he, 'what do you suppose my wife will say, at ten +thousand ladies coming after me in that style?' We assured him that the +invitation included Mrs. Lincoln also, when he laughed heartily, and +promised attendance, if State duties did not absolutely forbid. 'It +would be wearisome,' he said, 'but it would gratify the people of the +Northwest, and so he would try to come--and he thought by that time, +circumstances would permit his undertaking a short tour West.' This was +all that we could ask, or expect. + +"We remained for some time, watching the crowds that surged through the +spacious apartments, and the President's reception of them. Where they +entered the room indifferently, and gazed at him as if he were a part of +the furniture, or gave him simply a mechanical nod of the head, he +allowed them to pass on, as they elected. But where he was met by a warm +grasp of the hand, a look of genuine friendliness, of grateful +recognition or of tearful tenderness, the President's look and manner +answered the expression entirely. To the lowly and the humble he was +especially kind; his worn face took on a look of exquisite tenderness, +as he shook hands with soldiers who carried an empty coat sleeve, or +swung themselves on crutches; and not a child was allowed to pass him by +without a kind word from him. A bright boy, about the size and age of +the son he had buried, was going directly by, without appearing even to +see the President. 'Stop, my little man,' said Mr. Lincoln, laying his +hand on his shoulder, 'aren't you going to speak to me?' And stooping +down, he took the child's hands in his own, and looked lovingly in his +face, chatting with him for some moments." + +The plans of Mrs. Livermore in regard to the fair were carried out--with +one sad exception. It was a much greater success pecuniarily than the +first. And the war was over, and it was the last time that wounded +soldiers would call for aid. But alas! the great and good man whose +presence she had coveted lay cold in death! She had promised him "days +of rest" when he should come, and long ere then, he had entered his +eternal rest, and all that remained of him had been carried through +those streets, decked in mourning. + +Like her friend, Mrs. Hoge, Mrs. Livermore was cheered during her labors +by testimonials of appreciation from her co-laborers, and of gratitude +from the brave men for whom she toiled. An exquisite silver vase was +sent her by the Women's Relief Association, of Brooklyn, the counterpart +of that sent Mrs. Hoge at the same time. From her co-workers in the last +Sanitary Fair, she also received a gold-lined silver goblet, and a +verd-antique Roman bell--the former bearing this complimentary +inscription, "_Poculum qui meruit fuit_." But the gifts most prized by +her are the comparatively inexpensive testimonials made by the soldiers +to whom she ministered. At one time she rejoiced in the possession of +fourteen photograph albums, in every style of binding, each one +emblazoned with a frontispiece of the maimed or emaciated soldier who +gave it. + + + + +GENERAL AID SOCIETY FOR THE ARMY, BUFFALO. + + +This Society, a Branch of the Sanitary Commission, was organized in the +summer of 1862, and became one of the Branches of the Commission in the +autumn of 1862, had eventually for its field of operations, the Western +Counties of New York, a few counties in Pennsylvania and Michigan, and +received also occasional supplies from one or two of the border counties +in Ohio, and from individuals in Canada West. + +Its first President was Mrs. Joseph E. Follett, a lady of great tact and +executive ability, who in 1862, resigned, in consequence of the removal +of her husband to Minnesota. Mrs. Horatio Seymour, the wife of a +prominent business man of Buffalo, was chosen to succeed Mrs. Follett, +and developed in the performance of her duties, abilities as a manager, +of the highest order. Through her efforts, ably seconded as they were by +Miss Babcock and Miss Bird, the Secretaries of the Society, the whole +field was thoroughly organized, and brought up to its highest condition +of efficiency, and kept there through the whole period of the war. + +A friendly rivalry was maintained between this branch and the Soldiers' +Aid Society of Northern Ohio, and the perfect system and order with +which both were conducted, the eloquent appeals and the stirring +addresses by which both kept their auxiliaries up to their work, and +the grand and noble results accomplished by each, are worthy of all +praise. In this, as in the Cleveland Society, the only paid officer was +the porter. All the rest served, the President and Secretaries daily, +the cutters, packers, and others, on alternate days, or at times +semi-weekly, without fee or compensation. Arduous as their duties were, +and far as they were from any romantic idea of heroism, or of notable +personal service to the cause, these noble, patient, and really heroic +women, rejoiced in the thought that by their labors they were indirectly +accomplishing a good work in furnishing the means of comfort and healing +to thousands of the soldiers, who, but for their labors would have +perished from sickness or wounds, but through their care and the +supplies they provided, were restored again to the ranks, and enabled to +render excellent service in putting down the Rebellion. + +In her closing report, Mrs. Seymour says: + +"We have sent nearly three thousand packages to Louisville, and six +hundred and twenty-five to New York. We have cut and provided materials +at our rooms, for over twenty thousand suits, and other articles for the +army, amounting in all to more than two hundred thousand pieces. Little +children, mostly girls under twelve years of age, have given us over +twenty-five hundred dollars." + +Like all the earnest workers of this class, Mrs. Seymour expresses the +highest admiration for what was done by those nameless heroines, "the +patriot workers in quiet country homes, who with self-sacrifice rarely +equalled, gave their best spare-room linen and blankets, their choicest +dried fruits, wines and pickles,--and in all seasons met to sew for the +soldiers, or went about from house to house to collect the supplies to +fill the box which came regularly once a month." Almost every woman who +toiled thus, had a family whose sole care depended upon her, and many of +them had dairies or other farm-work to occupy their attention, yet they +rarely or never failed to have the monthly box filled and forwarded +promptly. We agree with Mrs. Seymour in our estimate of the nobleness +and self-sacrificing spirit manifested by these women; but the patriotic +and self-denying heroines of the war were not in country villages, rural +hamlets, and isolated farms alone; those ladies who for their love to +the national cause, left their homes daily and toiled steadily and +patiently through the long years of the war, in summer's heat and +winter's cold, voluntarily secluding themselves from the society and +social position they were so well fitted to adorn, and in which they had +been the bright particular stars, these too, for the great love they +bore to their country should receive its honors and its heartfelt +thanks. + + + + +MICHIGAN SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY + + +Few of the States of the Northwest, patriotic as they all were, present +as noble a record as Michigan. Isolated by its position from any +immediate peril from the rebel forces, (unless we reckon their +threatened raids from Canada, in the last year of the War), its loyal +and Union-loving citizens volunteered with a promptness, and fought with +a courage surpassed by no troops in the Armies of the Republic. They +were sustained in their patriotic sacrifices by an admirable home +influence. The successive Governors of the State, during the war, its +Senators and Representatives in Congress, and its prominent citizens at +home, all contributed their full share toward keeping up the fervor of +the brave soldiers in the field. Nor were the women of the State +inferior to the other sex in zeal and self-sacrifice. The services of +Mrs. Annie Etheridge, and of Bridget Divers, as nurses in the +field-hospitals, and under fire are elsewhere recorded in this volume. +Others were equally faithful and zealous, who will permit no account of +their labors of love to be given to the public. There were from an early +period of the war two organizations in the State, which together with +the Northwestern Sanitary Commission, received and forwarded the +supplies contributed throughout the State for the soldiers to the great +depôts of distribution at Louisville, St. Louis, and New York. These +were "The Soldiers' Relief Committee," and the Soldiers' Aid Society of +Detroit. There were also State agencies at Washington and New York, well +managed, and which rendered early in the war great services to the +Michigan troops. The Soldiers' Aid Society of Detroit, though acting +informally previously, was formally organized in November, 1862, with +Mrs. John Palmer, as President, and Miss Valeria Campbell, as +Corresponding Secretary. In the summer of 1863, the Society changed its +name to "The Michigan Soldiers' Aid Society," and the Soldiers' Relief +Committee, having been merged in it, became the Michigan Branch of the +Sanitary Commission, and addressed itself earnestly to the work of +collecting and increasing the supplies gathered in all parts of the +State, and sending them to the depôts of the Commission at Louisville +and New York, or directly to the front when necessary. At the time of +this change, Hon. John Owen, one of the Associate members of the +Sanitary Commission, was chosen President, B. Vernor, Esq., Hon. James +V. Campbell, and P. E. Demill, Esq., also Associates of the Commission, +Miss S. A. Sibley, Mrs. H. L. Chipman, and Mrs. N. Adams, were elected +Vice Presidents, and Miss Valeria Campbell, continued in the position of +Recording Secretary, while the venerable Dr. Zina Pitcher, one of the +constituent members of the Sanitary Commission was their counsellor and +adviser. + +Of this organization, Miss Campbell was the soul. Untiring in her +efforts, systematic and methodical in her work, a writer of great power +and eloquence, and as patriotic and devoted as any of those who served +in the hospitals, or among the wounded men on the battle-field, she +accomplished an amount of labor which few could have undertaken with +success. The correspondence with all the auxiliaries, the formation of +new Societies, and Alert clubs in the towns and villages of the State, +the constant preparation and distribution of circulars and bulletins to +stimulate the small societies to steady and persistent effort, the +correspondence with the Western Office at Louisville, and the sending +thither invoices of the goods shipped, and of the monthly accounts of +the branch, these together, formed an amount of work which would have +appalled any but the most energetic and systematic of women. In her +labors, Miss Campbell received great and valuable assistance from Mrs. +N. Adams, one of the Vice Presidents, Mrs. Brent, Mrs. Sabine, Mrs. +Luther B. Willard, and Mrs. C. E. Russell. The two last named ladies, +not satisfied with working for the soldiers at home, went to the army +and distributed their supplies in person, and won the regard of the +soldiers by their faithfulness and zeal. + +In the year ending November 1st, 1864, one thousand two hundred and +thirty-five boxes, barrels, etc., were sent from this branch to the +Army, besides a large amount supplied to the Military Hospitals in +Detroit, nearly six thousand dollars in money was raised, besides nearly +two thousand dollars toward a Soldiers' Home, which was established +during the year, and furnished forty-two thousand seven hundred and +eighty-five meals, and fourteen thousand three hundred and ninety-nine +lodgings to five thousand five hundred and ninety-nine soldiers from +eight different States. In the organization of this Home, as well as in +providing for the families of the soldiers, Miss Campbell was, as usual, +the leading spirit. In both the Fairs held at Chicago, September, 1863, +and June, 1865, the Michigan Branch of the Sanitary Commission, rendered +essential service. Their receipts from the second Fair, were thirteen +thousand three hundred and eighty-four dollars and fifty-eight cents +less three thousand one hundred and thirty-seven dollars and sixty-five +cents expenses, and this balance was expended in the maintenance of the +Soldiers' Home, and caring for such of the sick and disabled men as were +not provided for in the Hospitals. Of the aggregate amount contributed +by this branch to the relief of the soldiers in money and supplies, we +cannot as yet obtain a detailed estimate. We only know that it exceeded +three hundred thousand dollars. + + + + +WOMEN'S PENNSYLVANIA BRANCH OF U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION. + + +Philadelphia was distinguished throughout the war by the intense and +earnest loyalty and patriotism of its citizens, and especially of its +women. No other city furnished so many faithful workers in the +hospitals, the Refreshment Saloons, the Soldiers' Homes and +Reading-rooms, and no other was half so well represented in the field, +camp, and general hospitals at the "front." Sick and wounded soldiers +began to arrive in Philadelphia very early in the war, and hospital +after hospital was opened for their reception until in 1863-4, there +were in the city and county twenty-six military hospitals, many of them +of great extent. To all of these, the women of Philadelphia ministered +most generously and devotedly, so arranging their labors that to each +hospital there was a committee, some of whose members visited its wards +daily, and prepared and distributed the special diet and such delicacies +as the surgeons allowed. But as the war progressed, these patriotic +women felt that they ought to do more for the soldiers, than simply to +minister to those of them who were in the hospitals of the city. They +were sending to the active agents in the field, Mrs. Harris, Mrs. +Husband, Mrs. Lee, and others large quantities of stores; the "Ladies' +Aid Association," organized in April, 1861, enlisted the energies of one +class, the Penn Relief Association, quietly established by the Friends, +had not long after, furnished an outlet for the overflowing sympathies +and kindness of the followers of George Fox and William Penn; and "the +Soldiers' Aid Association," whose president, Mrs. Mary A. Brady, +represented it so ably in the field, until her incessant labors and +hardships brought on disease of the heart, and in May, 1864, ended her +active and useful life, had rallied around it a corps of noble and +faithful workers. But there were yet hundreds, aye, thousands, who felt +that they must do more than they were doing for the soldiers. The +organizations we have named, though having a considerable number of +auxiliaries in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, did not by any +means cover the whole ground, and none of them were acting to any +considerable extent through the Sanitary Commission which had been +rapidly approving itself as the most efficient and satisfactory agency +for the distribution of supplies to the army. In the winter of 1862-3 +those friends of the soldier, not as yet actively connected with either +of the three associations we have named, assembled at the Academy of +Music, and after an address from Rev. Dr. Bellows, organized themselves +as the Women's Pennsylvania Branch of the Sanitary Commission, and with +great unanimity elected Mrs. Maria C. Grier as their President, and Mrs. +Clara J. Moore, Corresponding Secretary. Wiser or more appropriate +selections could not have been made. They were unquestionably, "the +right women in the right place." Our readers will pardon us for +sketching briefly the previous experiences and labors of these two +ladies who proved so wonderfully efficient in this new sphere of action. + +Mrs. Maria C. Grier is a daughter of the late Rev. Dr. Cornelius C. +Cuyler, a clergyman, formerly pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church in +Poughkeepsie, and afterward of the Second Presbyterian Church, +Philadelphia, and married Rev. M. B. Grier, D.D., now editor of the +"Presbyterian," one of the leading papers of the Old School Presbyterian +Church. Dr. Grier had been for some years before the commencement of the +war pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, North Carolina. +Wilmington, at the outbreak of the war, shared with Charleston and +Mobile the bad reputation of being the most intensely disloyal of all +the towns of the South. Dr. and Mrs. Grier were openly and decidedly +loyal, known everywhere throughout that region as among the very few who +had the moral courage to avow their attachment to the Union. They knew +very well, that their bold avowals might cost them their lives, but they +determined for the sake of those who loved the Union, but had not their +courage, to remain and advocate the cause, until it should become +impossible to do so longer, bearing in mind that if they escaped, their +departure, to be safe, must be sudden. + +Early in the morning of the 1st of June word was brought them that there +was no time to lose. Dr. Grier's life was threatened. A vessel was ready +to sail and they must go. Hurriedly they left a home endeared to them by +long years of residence; Dr. Grier's valuable library, a choice +collection of paintings and other treasures of art and affection were +all abandoned to the ruthless mob, and were stolen or destroyed. Leaving +their breakfast untouched upon the table, they hastened to the vessel, +and by a circuitous route, at last reached Philadelphia in safety, and +were welcomed by kind and sympathizing friends. Mrs. Grier's patriotism +was of the active kind, and she was very soon employed among the sick +and wounded soldiers who reached Philadelphia after Bull Run and Ball's +Bluff, or who were left by the regiments hurrying to the front at the +hospitals of the Volunteer and Cooper Shop Refreshment Saloons. With the +establishment of the larger hospitals in January, 1862, Mrs. Grier +commenced her labors in them also, and remained busy in this work till +June, 1862, when at the request of the surgeon in charge of one of the +Hospital Transports, she went to White House, Virginia, was there when +McClellan made his "change of base," and when the wounded were sent on +board the transport cared for them and came on to Philadelphia with +them, and resumed her work at once in the hospitals. The battles of +Pope's campaign and those of South Mountain and Antietam, filled the +land with desolate homes, and crowded not only the hospitals, but the +churches of Philadelphia with suffering, wounded and dying men, and Mrs. +Grier like most of the philanthropic ladies of Philadelphia found +abundant employment for heart and hands. Her zeal and faithfulness in +this work had so favorably impressed the ladies who met at the Academy +of Music to organize the Women's Branch of the Commission that she was +unanimously chosen its President. + +Mrs. Clara J. Moore, formerly a Miss Jessup, of Boston, is the wife of +Mr. Bloomfield H. Moore, a large manufacturer of Philadelphia. She is a +woman of high culture, a poetess of rare sweetness, and eminent as a +magazine writer. She possessed great energy, and a rare facility of +correspondence. In her days of Hospital work, she wrote hundreds of +letters for the soldiers, and in the organization of the Women's Branch, +of which she was one of the most active promoters, she took upon herself +the burden of such a correspondence with the Auxiliaries, and the +persons whom she desired to interest in the establishment of local Aid +Societies, that when she was compelled by ill health to resign her +position, a Committee of nine young ladies was appointed to conduct the +correspondence in her place, and all the nine found ample employment. +Her daughter married a Swedish Count, and returned with him to Europe, +and the mother soon after sought rest and recovery in her daughter's +Scandinavian home. + +Of the other ladies connected with this Pennsylvania Branch, all were +active, but the following, perhaps in part from temperament, and in part +from being able to devote their time more fully than others to the work, +were peculiarly efficient and faithful. Mrs. W. H. Furness, Mrs. +Lathrop, Mrs. C. J. Stillé, Mrs. J. Tevis, Mrs. E. D. Gillespie, Mrs. +A. D. Jessup, Mrs. Samuel H. Clapp, Mrs. J. Warner Johnson, Mrs. Samuel +Field, Mrs. Aubrey H. Smith, Mrs. M. L. Frederick, Mrs. C. Graff, Mrs. +Joseph Parrish, Miss M. M. Duane, Miss S. B. Dunlap, Miss Rachel W. +Morris, Miss H. and Miss Anna Blanchard, Miss E. P. Hawley, and Miss M. +J. Moss. + +Of Mrs. Grier's labors in this position, one of the Associates of the +Sanitary Commission, a gentleman who had more opportunity than most +others of knowing her faithful and persistent work, writes: + +"When the Women's Branch was organized, Mrs. Grier reluctantly consented +to take the head of the Supply Department. In this position she +continued, working most devotedly, until the work was done. To her +labors the success of this undertaking is largely due. To every quality +which makes woman admired and loved, this lady added many which +peculiarly qualified her for this post; a rare judgment, a wonderful +power of organization, and a rare facility for drawing around her the +most efficient helpers, and making their labors most useful. During the +whole period of the existence of the Association, the greatest good +feeling reigned, and if ever differences of opinion threatened to +interrupt perfect harmony, a word from Mrs. Grier was sufficient. Her +energy in carrying out new plans for the increase of the supplies was +most remarkable. When the Women's Pennsylvania Branch disbanded, every +person conected with it, regretted most of all the separation from Mrs. +Grier. I have never heard but one opinion expressed of her as President +of the Association." + +A lady, who, from her own labors in the field, and in the promotion of +the benevolent plans of the Sanitary Commission, was brought into close +and continued intercourse with her, says of her: + +"She gave to the work of the Sanitary Commission, all the energies of +her mind,--never faltering, or for a moment deterred by the many +unforeseen annoyances and trials incident to the position. The great +Sanitary Fair added to the cares by which she was surrounded; but that +was carried through so successfully and triumphantly, that all else was +forgotten in the joy of knowing how largely the means of usefulness was +now increased. Her labors ceased not until the war was ended, and the +Sanitary Commission was no longer required. Those only who have known +her in the work, can form an idea of the vast amount of labor it +involved. + +"With an extract from the final report of the Women's Pennsylvania +Branch, made in the spring of 1866, which shows the character and extent +of the work accomplished, we close our account of this very efficient +organization. + +"On the 26th of March, 1863, the supply department of the Philadelphia +agency was transferred to the Executive Committee of the Women's +Pennsylvania Branch. A large and commodious building, Number 1307 +Chestnut Street, was rented, and the new organization commenced its +work. How rapidly the work grew, and how greatly its results exceeded +our anticipations are now matters of pleasant memory with us all. The +number of contributing Aid Societies was largely increased in a few +weeks, and this was accompanied by a corresponding augmentation of the +supplies received. The summer came, and with it sanguinary Gettysburg, +with its heaps of slain and wounded, giving the most powerful impulse to +every loving, patriotic heart. Supplies flowed in largely, and from +every quarter; and we found that our work was destined to be no mere +holiday pastime, no matter of sudden impulse, but that it would require +all the thought, all the time, all the energy we could possibly bring to +bear upon it. We had indeed put on the armor, to take it off only when +soldiers were no more needed on our country's battle-fields, because the +flag of the Union was waving again from every one of her cities and +fortresses. Then came the bloody battles and glorious victories, with +their depressing and their exhilarating effects. But, through the clouds +and through the sunshine alike, our armies marched on, fought on, +steadily and persistently advancing towards their final triumph. And so +in the cities, in the villages, in the quiet country homes, in the +luxurious parlor, in the rustic kitchen, everywhere, always, the women +of the country too pursued their patriotic, loving work, content if the +toil of their busy fingers might carry comfort to even a few of our +bleeding, heroic soldiers. And as they labored in their various spheres, +the results of their work poured into the great centres where supplies +were collected for the Sanitary Commission. Our Department came to +number over three hundred and fifty contributing Societies, besides a +large number of individuals contributing with almost the regularity of +our auxiliaries. Associate Managers, whose business it was to supervise +the work in their own neighborhoods, had been appointed in nearly every +county of the entire Department, fifty-six Associate Managers in all. +The time came when the work of corresponding with these was too vast to +be attended to by only one Corresponding Secretary. The lady who had +filled that office with great ability, and to whose energetic zeal our +organization owed its first impulse, was compelled by ill health to +resign. Her place was filled by a Committee of nine, among whom the duty +of correspondence was systematically divided. The work of our Associate +Managers deserves more than the passing tribute which this report can +give. They were nearly all of them women whose home duties gave them +little leisure, and yet the existence of most of our Aid Societies is +due to their efforts. In one of the least wealthy and populous counties +of Pennsylvania, one faithful, earnest woman succeeded in establishing +thirty Aid Societies. When the Great Central Fair was projected their +services were found most valuable in the counties under their several +superintendence, and they deserve a share of the credit for the +magnificent success of that splendid undertaking. + +"The total cash value of supplies received is three hundred and six +thousand and eighty-eight dollars and one cent. Of this amount, +twenty-six thousand three hundred and fifty-nine dollars were +contributed to the Philadelphia Agency before the formation of the +Women's Branch. The whole number of boxes, barrels, etc., received since +the 1st of April, 1863, is fifty-three hundred and twenty-nine. Of these +packages, twenty-one hundred and three were received, from April 1st, +1863, until the close of the year; twenty-one hundred and ninety-nine +were received in 1864; and one thousand and twenty-seven have been +received since January 1st, 1865. During the present year, three hundred +and ninety-six boxes have been shipped to various points where they were +needed for the Army, and sixteen hundred and ninety-nine were sent to +the central office at Washington City. The last item includes the +transfer of stock upon closing the depôt of this Agency. The total +number of boxes shipped from the Women's Pennsylvania Branch, since +April 1st, 1863, is two thousand and ninety-five. This means, of course, +the articles contributed by Societies, and does not include those +purchased by the Commission, excepting the garments made by the Special +Relief Committee. + +"At length our work is done. Our army is disbanding, and we too must +follow their lead. No more need of our daily Committee and their +pleasant aids, to unpack and assort supplies for our sick and wounded. +God has given us peace at last. Shall we ever sufficiently thank him for +this crowning happiness? Rather shall we not thank him, by refusing ever +again to be idle spectators when he has work to be done for any form of +suffering humanity? And if our country shall, after its baptism of blood +and of fire, be found to possess a race of better, nobler American +women, with quickened impulses, high thoughts, and capable of heroic +deeds, shall not the praise be chiefly due to the better, nobler aims +set before them by the United States Sanitary Commission? + +"The following is a list of the expenses of the Supply Department, from +the time of its organization to January 1st, 1866. These charges were +incurred upon goods purchased in this city, as well as upon those +contributed to the Women's Pennsylvania Branch. Their total value is +five hundred and ninety-six thousand four hundred and sixty-eight +dollars and ninety-seven cents." + +Rent of Depository $2,876 66 +Wm. Platt, Jr., Superintendent, for expenses incurred by him on + supplies contributed 2,159 73 +Salary of Storekeeper and Porter 3,093 50 +Freight, express charges, cartage 7,115 22 +Boxes and material for packing 261 78 +Labor, extra 352 96 +Printing and Stationery 928 49 +Advertising 2,310 59 +Fuel and Lights 344 03 +Fitting up Depository, including repairs 619 13 +Insurance on Stock 244 00 +Postages 940 66 +Miscellaneous 668 11 + --------- +Total $21,914 86 + --------- + +RELIEF COMMITTEE.--This Committee was organized in April, 1863, and had +for its object, during the first months of its existence, the relief of +the wants of soldiers; but finding a Committee of women unequal to the +proper performance of this duty, and at the same time having had brought +before them the great necessities of the families of our volunteers, +they resigned to other hands the care of the soldiers, and determined to +devote themselves to the mothers, wives, and children, of those who had +gone forth to battle for the welfare of all. + +The rooms in which this work has been carried on, are at the South-east +corner of Thirteenth and Chestnut streets. + +Two Committees have been in attendance daily to receive applications for +relief, work, fuel, etc. Persons thus applying for aid are required to +furnish proof that their sons or husbands were actually soldiers, and +are also obliged to bring from some responsible party a certificate of +their own honesty and sobriety. It then becomes the duty of the +Committee in charge to visit the applicant, and to afford such aid as +may be needed. + +The means for supplying this aid have been furnished principally through +generous monthly subscriptions from a few citizens, through the hands +of Mr. A. D. Jessup. Donations and subscriptions, through the ladies of +the Committee, have also been received, and from time to time, +acknowledged in the printed reports of the Committee. + +It has been the aim of the Committee to provide employment for the +women, for which adequate compensation has been given. The Sanitary +Commission furnished material, which the Relief Committee had cut and +converted into articles required for the use of the soldiers by the +Sanitary Commission. Thirty-seven thousand nine hundred and fifteen +articles have been made and returned to the Commission, free of charge. +Finding the supply of work from this source inadequate to the demands +for it, the Committee decided to obtain work from Government +contractors, and to pay the women double the price paid by the +contractors. Twenty thousand one hundred and seventy-four articles were +made in this way, and returned to the contractors who were kind enough +to furnish the work. Eleven hundred and twenty-nine articles have been +made for the freedmen, and five hundred and five for other charities; +making in all, fifty-nine thousand seven hundred and twenty-three +articles. + +Eight hundred and thirty women have been employed in the two years +during which the labors of the Committee have been carried on; and it is +due to the women thus employed to state, that of the number of garments +made, but two have been missing through dishonesty. + +The sources from which work has hitherto been obtained having failed, +through the blessed return of peace, and the destitution being great +among those near and dear to the men whose lives have been given to +purchase that peace, the Committee have determined not to cease their +labors during the present winter. + +Two hundred women, principally widows, are now employed in making +garments from materials furnished by the Committee. These garments are +distributed to the most needy among the applicants for relief. + +More than four hundred tons of coal have been given out to the needy +families of soldiers during the past two years, the coal being the gift +of a few coal merchants. + +The receipts of the Committee have been as follows: + +From Subscriptions and donations $28,300 00 +From Entertainment given for the benefit of the Committee 1,444 00 +From Contractors in payment for work done 1,681 31 +From the Sanitary Commission 2,551 50 + ---------- +Total $33,976 81 + ---------- + +This amount has all been expended, with the exception of two hundred and +forty-eight dollars and forty-seven cents, which balance remained in the +hands of the Treasurer on the 31st of December, 1865. + + + + +WISCONSIN SOLDIER'S AID SOCIETY. + + +Early in the summer of 1861, Mrs. Margaret A. Jackson, widow of the late +Rev. William Jackson, of Louisville, Kentucky, in connection with Mrs. +Louisa M. Delafield and others, engaged in awakening an interest among +the ladies of Milwaukee, in regard to the sanitary wants of the +soldiers, which soon resulted in the formation of a "Milwaukee Ladies' +Soldiers' Aid Society," composed of many of the benevolent ladies of +this city. The society was very zealous in soliciting aid for the +soldiers, and in making garments for their use in the service. + +Very soon other Aid Societies in various parts of the State desired to +become auxiliaries to this organization, and soon after the battle of +Bull Run it became evident that their efficiency could be greatly +promoted by the Milwaukee Society becoming a branch of the United States +Sanitary Commission, and that relation was effected. The name of the +society was at this time changed to "Wisconsin Soldiers' Aid Society." +Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Delafield continued to be efficient as leaders in +all the work of this society, but in its reorganization, Mrs. Henrietta +L. Colt was chosen Corresponding Secretary, and commenced her work with +great zeal and energy. She visited the Wisconsin soldiers in various +localities at the front, and thus brought the wants of the brave men to +the particular knowledge of the society, and in this way largely +promoted the interest, zeal and efficiency of the ladies connected with +it. She described the sufferings, fortitude and heroism of the soldiers +with such simple pathos, that thousands of hearts were melted, and +contributions poured into the treasury of the society in great +abundance. + +The number of auxiliaries in the State was two hundred and twenty-nine. +The central organization at Milwaukee, beside forwarding supplies, had +one bureau to assist soldiers' families in getting payments from the +State, one to secure employment for soldiers' wives and mothers through +contracts with the Government, under the charge of Mrs. Jackson, one to +secure employment for the partially disabled soldiers, and one to +provide for widows and orphans. The channels of benevolence through the +State were various; the people generally sought the most direct route to +the soldiers in the field; but the gifts to the army sent by the +Wisconsin Soldiers' Aid Society (their report says without any "Fair"), +alone amounted--the packages, to nearly six thousand in number, the +value to nearly two hundred thousand dollars. + +The Wisconsin Aid Society and its officers also rendered large and +valuable aid to the two Sanitary Fairs held in Chicago in September, +1863, and June, 1865. + +The Wisconsin Soldiers' Home, at Milwaukee, connected with the Wisconsin +Aid Society, was an institution of great importance during the war. Its +necessity has not passed away, and will not for many years. The ladies +who originated and sustained it were indefatigable in their labors, and +the benevolent public gave them their heartiest sanction. It gave +thousands of soldiers a place of entertainment as they passed through +the city to and from the army, and thus promoted their comfort and good +morals. The sick and wounded were there tenderly nursed; the dying +stranger there had friends. + +During the year ending April 15, 1865, four thousand eight hundred and +forty-two soldiers there received free entertainment, and the total +number of meals served in the year was seventeen thousand four hundred +and fifty-six, an average of forty-eight daily. These soldiers +represented twenty different States, two thousand and ninety belonging +in Wisconsin. A fair in 1865 realized upwards of one hundred thousand +dollars, which is to be expended on a permanent Soldiers' Home, one of +the three National Soldiers' Homes having been located at Milwaukee, and +the Wisconsin Soldiers' Home being the nucleus of it. + +[Illustration: MRS. HENRIETTA L. COLT. + Eng^d. by A.H. Ritchie.] + +Mrs. Colt was so efficient a worker for the soldiers, that a brief +sketch of her labors, prepared by a personal friend, will be appropriate +in this connection. + +MRS. HENRIETTA L. COLT, was born March 16th, 1812, in Rensselaerville, +Albany County, New York. Her maiden name was Peckham. She was educated +in a seminary at Albany, and was married in 1830, to Joseph S. Colt, +Esq., a man well known throughout the State, as an accomplished +Christian gentleman. Mr. Colt was a member of the Albany bar, and +practiced his profession there until 1853, when he removed to Milwaukee. +After three years' residence there he returned to New York, where he +died, leaving an honored name and a precious memory among men. + +The death of Mr. Colt brought to his widow a sad experience. In a letter +to the writer, she expresses the deep sense of her loss, and the effect +it had in preparing her for that devotion to the cause of her country, +which, during the late rebellion, has led her to leave the comforts and +refinements of her home to minister to the soldiers of the Union, in +hospitals, to labor in the work of the Wisconsin Soldiers' Aid Society, +to go on hospital steamers as far as Vicksburg to care for the sick and +wounded, as they were brought up the river, where they could be better +provided for, to visit the camps and regimental hospitals around the +beleaguered city, and to return with renewed devotion to the work of +sending sanitary supplies to the sick and wounded of the Union army, +until the close of the war. After portraying the character of her +lamented husband, his chivalric tenderness, his thoughtful affection, +his nobility of soul, his high sense of justice, which had made him a +representative of the best type of humanity, she goes on to say: "The +sun seemed to me to go out in darkness when he went to the skies. +Shielding me from every want, from all care, causing me to breathe a +continual atmosphere of refinement, and love, and happiness, when he +went, life lost its beauty and its charm. In this state of things it was +to me as a divine gift--a real godsend--to have a chance for earnest +absorbing work. The very first opportunity was seized to throw myself +into the work for my country, which had called its stalwart sons to arms +to defend its integrity, its liberty, its very existence, from the most +gigantic and wicked rebellion known in history." + +It is among the grateful memories of the writer of this sketch, that +during the winter of 1863, while stationed at Helena, he went on board a +steamer passing towards Vicksburg, and met there Mrs. Colt, in company +with Mrs. Livermore, and Mrs. Hoge, of Chicago, on their way to carry +sanitary stores, and minister to the sick and wounded, then being +brought up the river from the first fatal attack on Vicksburg, in which +our army was repulsed, and from the battle of Arkansas Post, on the +Arkansas river, in which we were successful, and from an expedition up +the White river, under General Gorman. He was greatly impressed with her +intelligence, her purity of character, the beautiful blending of her +religious and patriotic tendencies, the gentleness and tenderness with +which she ministered encouragement and sympathy to the sick soldier, and +the spirit of humanity and womanly dignity that marked her manners and +conversation. The same qualities were characteristic of her companions +from Chicago, in varied combination, each having her own individuality, +and it was beautiful to see with what judgment and discretion, and union +of purpose they went on their mission of love. + +On their first visit, she and Mrs. Hoge, improvised a hospital of the +steamer on which they went, which came up from Vicksburg loaded with +wounded men, under the care of the surgeons. The dressing of their +wounds and the amputation of limbs going on during the passage, made the +air exceedingly impure, and yet these noble women did not flinch from +their duty, nor neglect their gentle ministrations, which were as balm +to the wounded heroes who lay stretched on the cabin floors from one end +of the boat to the other. + +On the renewal of the siege of Vicksburg, by General Grant, and while +our army lay encamped for miles around, Mrs. Colt made a second visit to +the scene of so much suffering and conflict, and visited the camps and +regimental hospitals, where the very air seemed loaded with disease. Men +with every variety of complaint were brought to the steamer, where it +was known there were ladies on board, from the Sanitary Commissions, in +the hope of kinder care and better sustenance. It was amidst dying +soldiers, helpless refugees, manacled slaves, and even five hundred worn +out and rejected mules, that their path up the Mississippi had to be +pursued with patience, and fortitude, and hope. + +In a note recently received from Mrs. Colt, she thus speaks of her +visits to the hospitals, and of the brave and noble bearing of the +wounded soldiers: + +"I visited the Southwestern hospitals, in order to see the benefits +really conferred by the Sanitary Commission, in order to stimulate +supplies at home. Such was my story or the effect of it, that Wisconsin +became the most powerful Auxiliary of the Northwestern Branch of the +United States Sanitary Commission. I have visited seventy-two hospitals, +and would find it difficult to choose the most remarkable among the many +heroisms I every day witnessed. + +"I was more impressed by the gentleness and refinement that seemed to +grow up and in, the men when suffering from horrible wounds than from +anything else. It seemed always to me that the sacredness of the cause +for which they offered up their lives gave to them a heroism almost +super-human--and the sufferings caused an almost womanly refinement +among the coarsest men. I have never heard a word nor seen a look that +was not respectful and grateful. + +"At one time, when in the Adams' Hospital in Memphis, filled with six +hundred wounded men with gaping, horrible, head and hip gunshot wounds, +I could have imagined myself among men gathered on cots for some joyous +occasion, and except one man, utterly disabled for life, not a +regret--and even he thanked God devoutly that if his life must be given +up then, it should be given for his country. + +"After a little, as the thought of his wife and babies came to him, I +saw a terrible struggle; the great beads of sweat and the furrowed brow +were more painful than the bodily suffering. But when he saw the look of +pity, and heard the passage, 'He doeth all things well,' whispered to +him, he became calm, and said, 'He knows best, my wife and children will +be His care, and I am content.' + +"Among the beardless boys, it was all heroism. 'They gained the victory, +they lost a leg there, they lost an arm, and Arkansas Post was taken; +they were proud to have helped on the cause.' It enabled them apparently +with little effort to remember the great, the holy cause, and give leg, +arm, or even life cheerfully for its defense. + +"I know now that love of country is the strongest love, next to the love +of God, given to man." + +Besides the good done to the sick and wounded of our army by these +visits, an equal benefit resulted in their effect upon the people at +home, in inspiring them to new zeal and energy, and increasing +generosity on behalf of the country and its brave defenders. + +Another service of great value to the soldiers, was rendered by Mrs. +Colt, under an appointment from the Governor of Wisconsin, to visit the +Army of the Cumberland, and see personally all sick Wisconsin men. She +went under the escort of Rev. J. P. T. Ingraham, and saw every sick +soldier of the Wisconsin troops in hospital. Their heroic endurance and +its recital after her return, stimulated immensely the generosity of the +people. + +In such services as these Mrs. Colt passed the four years of the war, +and by her self-sacrifice and devotion to the cause, in which her heart +and mind were warmly enlisted, by the courage and fortitude with which +she braved danger and death, in visiting distant battle-fields, and +camps and hospitals, and ministering at the couch of sickness, and pain, +and death, that she might revive the spirit, and save the lives of those +who were battling for Union and Liberty, she has won the gratitude of +her country, and deserves the place accorded to her among the heroines +of the age. + +MRS. ELIZA SALOMON, the accomplished and philanthropic wife of Governor +Salomon, of Wisconsin, was at the outbreak of the war living quietly at +Milwaukee, and amid the patriotic fervor which then reigned in +Wisconsin, she sought no prominence or official position, but like the +other ladies of the circle in which she moved, contented herself with +working diligently for the soldiers, and contributing for the supply of +their needs. In the autumn of 1861, her husband was elected Lieutenant +Governor of the State, on the same ticket which bore the name of the +lamented Louis Harvey, for Governor. On the death of Governor Harvey, in +April, 1862, at Pittsburg Landing, Lieutenant Governor Salomon was at +once advanced by the Constitution of Wisconsin, to his place for the +remainder of his term, about twenty-one months. Both Governor and Mrs. +Salomon, were of German extraction, and it was natural that the German +soldiers, sick, wounded or suffering from privation, should look to the +Governor's wife as their State-mother, and should expect sympathy and +aid from her. She resolved not to disappoint their expectation, but to +prove as far as lay in her power a mother not only to them, but to all +the brave Wisconsin boys of whatever nationality, who needed aid and +assistance. + +At home and abroad, her time was almost entirely occupied with this +noble and charitable work. She accompanied her husband wherever his duty +and his heart called him to look after the soldiers. She visited the +hospitals East and West, in Indiana, Illinois, St. Louis, and the +interior of Missouri, and all along the Mississippi, as far South as +Vicksburg, stopping at every place where Wisconsin troops were +stationed. + +Her voyage to Vicksburg in May, 1863, was one of considerable peril, +from the swarms of guerrillas all along the river, who on several +occasions fired at the boat, but fortunately did no harm. + +She found at Vicksburg, a vast amount of suffering to be relieved, and +abundant work to do, and possessing firm health and a vigorous +constitution, she was able to accomplish much without impairing her +health. At the first Sanitary Fair at Chicago, Mrs. Salomon organized a +German Department, in which she sold needle and handiwork contributed by +German ladies of Wisconsin and Chicago, to the amount of six thousand +dollars. When, in January 1864, Governor Salomon returned to private +life, Mrs. Salomon did not intermit her efforts for the good of the +soldiers; her duty had become a privilege, and she continued her efforts +for their relief and assistance, according to her opportunity till the +end of the war. + + + + +PITTSBURG BRANCH, U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION. + + +Pittsburg, as the Capital of Western Pennsylvania, and the center of a +large district of thoroughly loyal citizens, early took an active part +in furnishing supplies for the sick and wounded of our armies. As its +commercial relations and its readiest communications were with the West, +most of its supplies were sent to the Western Armies, and after the +battle of Belmont, the capture of Fort Donelson, and the terrible +slaughter at Shiloh, the Pittsburg Subsistence Committee, and the +Pittsburg Sanitary Committee, sent ample supplies and stores to the +sufferers. The same noble generosity was displayed after the battles of +Perryville, Chickasaw Bluffs, Murfreesboro' and Arkansas Post. In the +winter of 1863, it was deemed best to make the Pittsburg Sanitary +Committee, which had been reorganized for the purpose, an auxiliary of +the United States Sanitary Commission, and measures were taken for that +purpose by Mr. Thomas Bakewell, the President, and the other officers of +the Committee. The Committee still retained its name, but in the summer +of 1863, a consolidation was effected of the Sanitary and Subsistence +Committees, and the Pittsburg Branch of the Commission was organized. +Auxiliaries had previously been formed in the circumjacent country, +acknowledging one or the other of these Committees as their head, and +sending their contributions and supplies to it. The number of these was +now greatly increased, and though latest in the order of time of all +the daughters of the Commission, it was surpassed by few of the others +in efficiency. The Corresponding Secretary and active manager of this +new organization was Miss Rachael W. McFadden, a lady of rare executive +ability, ardent patriotism, untiring industry, and great tact and +discernment. Miss McFadden was ably seconded in her labors by Miss Mary +Bissell, Miss Bakewell, and Miss Annie Bell, and Miss Ellen E. Murdoch, +the daughter of the patriotic actor and elocutionist, gave her services +with great earnestness to the work. In the spring of 1864, the people of +Pittsburg, infected by the example of other cities, determined to hold a +Sanitary Fair in their enterprising though smoke-crowned city. In its +inception, development and completion, Miss McFadden was the prime mover +in this Fair. She was at the head of the Executive Committee, and Miss +Bakewell, Miss Ella Steward, and Mrs. McMillan, were its active and +indefatigable Secretaries. The appeals made to all classes in city and +country for contributions in money and goods were promptly responded to, +and on the first of June, 1864, the Fair opened in buildings expressly +erected for it in Alleghany, Diamond Square. The display in all +particulars, was admirable, but that of the Mechanical and Floral Halls +was extraordinary in its beauty, its tasteful arrangement and its great +extent. The net results of the Fair, were three hundred and thirty +thousand four hundred and ninety dollars, and eighty cents, and while it +was in progress, fifty thousand dollars were also raised in Pittsburg, +for the Christian Commission. The great Central Fair in Philadelphia, +was at the same time in progress, so that the bulk of the contributions +were drawn from the immediate vicinage of Pittsburg. + +The Pittsburg Branch continued its labors to the close of the war. + +After the fair, a special diet kitchen on a grand scale was established +and supplied with all necessary appliances by the Pittsburg Branch. Miss +Murdoch gave it her personal supervision for three months, and in +August, 1864, prepared sixty-two thousand dishes. + + + + +MRS. ELIZABETH S. MENDENHALL. + + +This lady and Mrs. George Hoadley, were the active and efficient +managers of the Soldiers' Aid Society, of Cincinnati, which bore the +same relations to the branch of the United States Sanitary Commission, +at Cincinnati, which the Woman's Central Association of Relief did to +the Sanitary Commission itself. Mrs. Mendenhall is the wife of Dr. +George Mendenhall, an eminent and public-spirited citizen of Cincinnati. +Mrs. Mendenhall was born in Philadelphia, in 1819, but her childhood and +youth were passed in Richmond, Virginia, where a sister, her only near +relative, still resides. Her relatives belonged to the society of +Friends, and though living in a slaveholding community, she grew up with +an abhorrence of slavery. On her marriage, in 1838, she removed with her +husband to Cleveland, Ohio, and subsequently to Cincinnati, where she +has since resided, and where her hatred of oppression increased in +intensity. + +When the first call for troops was made in April, 1861, and +thenceforward throughout the summer and autumn of that year, and the +winter of 1861-2, she was active in organizing sewing circles and aid +societies to make the necessary clothing and comforts which the soldiers +so much needed when suddenly called to the field. She set the example of +untiring industry in these pursuits, and by her skill in organizing and +systematizing their labor, rendered them highly efficient. In February, +1862, the sick and wounded began to pour into the government hospitals +of Cincinnati, from the siege of Fort Donelson, and ere these were +fairly convalescent, still greater numbers came from Shiloh; and from +that time forward, till the close of the war, the hospitals were almost +constantly filled with sick or wounded soldiers. To these suffering +heroes Mrs. Mendenhall devoted herself with the utmost assiduity. For +two and a half years from the reception of the first wounded from Fort +Donelson, she spent half of every day, and frequently the whole day, in +personal ministrations to the sick and wounded in any capacity that +could add to their comfort. She procured necessaries and luxuries for +the sick, waited upon them, wrote letters for them, consoled the dying, +gave information to their friends of their condition, and attended to +the necessary preparations for the burial of the dead. During the four +years of the war she was not absent from the city for pleasure but six +days, and during the whole period there were not more than ten days in +which she did not perform some labor for the soldiers' comfort. + +Her field of labor was in the four general hospitals in the city, but +principally in the Washington Park Hospital, over which Dr. J. B. Smith, +who subsequently fell a martyr to his devotion to the soldiers, +presided, who gave her ample opportunities for doing all for the +patients which her philanthropic spirit prompted. During all this time +she was actively engaged in the promotion of the objects of the Women's +Soldiers' Aid Society, of which, she was at this time, president, having +been from the first an officer. The enthusiasm manifested in the +northwest in behalf of the Sanitary Fair at Chicago, led Mrs. Mendenhall +to believe that a similar enterprise would be feasible in Cincinnati, +which should draw its supplies and patrons from all portions of the Ohio +valley. With her a generous and noble thought was sure to be followed by +action equally generous and praiseworthy. She commenced at once the +agitation of the subject in the daily papers of the city, her first +article appearing in the _Times_, of October 31, 1863, and being +followed by others from her pen in the other loyal papers of the city. +The idea was received with favor, and on the 7th of November an +editorial appeared in the _Cincinnati Gazette_, entitled "Who speaks for +Cincinnati?" This resulted in a call the next day for a meeting of +gentlemen to consider the subject. Committees were appointed, an +organization effected and circulars issued on the 13th of November. On +the 19th, the ladies met, and Mrs. Mendenhall was unanimously chosen +President of the ladies' committee, and subsequently second +Vice-President of the General Fair organization, General Rosecrans being +President, and the Mayor of the city, first Vice-President. To the +furtherance of this work, Mrs. Mendenhall devoted all her energies. +Eloquent appeals from her facile pen were addressed to loyal and +patriotic men and women all over the country, and a special circular and +appeal to the patriotic young ladies of Cincinnati and the Ohio valley +for their hearty co-operation in the good work. The correspondence and +supervision of that portion of the fair which necessarily came under the +direction of the ladies, required all her time and strength, but the +results were highly satisfactory. Of the two hundred and thirty-five +thousand dollars which was the net product of this Sanitary Fair, a very +liberal proportion was called forth by her indefatigable exertions and +her extraordinary executive ability. + +The aggregate results of the labors of the Women's Aid Society, before +and after the fair, are known to have realized about four hundred +thousand dollars in money, and nearly one million five hundred thousand +in hospital stores and supplies. + +The fair closed, she resumed her hospital work and her duties as +President of the Women's Soldiers' Aid Society, and continued to perform +them to the close of the war. Near the close of 1864, she exerted her +energies in behalf of a Fair for soldiers' families, in which fifty +thousand dollars were raised for this deserving object. The testimonies +of her associates to the admirable manner in which her hospital work was +performed are emphatic, and the thousands of soldiers who were the +recipients of her gentle ministries, give equally earnest testimonies to +her kindness and tenderness of heart. + +The freedmen and refugees have also shared her kindly ministrations and +her open-handed liberality, and since the close of the war her +self-sacrificing spirit has found ample employment in endeavoring to +lift the fallen of her own sex out of the depths of degradation, to the +sure and safe paths of virtue and rectitude. + +With the modesty characteristic of a patriotic spirit, Mrs. Mendenhall +depreciates her own labors and sacrifices. "What," she says in a letter +to a friend, "are my humble efforts for the soldiers, compared with the +sacrifice made by the wife or mother of the humblest private who ever +shouldered a musket?" + + + + +DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH. + + +Dr. M. M. Marsh was Medical Inspector of the Department of the Gulf and +South, his charge comprising the States of Georgia, South Carolina, and +Florida. He held his appointment in the capacity mentioned from the +Sanitary Commission, and from Government, the latter conferring upon him +great authority over hospitals and health matters in general throughout +his district. + +It was in the early part of the year 1863 that Mrs. Marsh left her home +in Vermont and joined her husband at Beaufort. + +The object of Mrs. Marsh in going thither, was to establish a home with +its comforts amidst the unfamiliar scenes and habitudes of the South. + +Everything was strange, unnatural, unreal. Beaufort was in conquered +territory occupied by its conquerors. The former inhabitants had fled, +leaving lands, houses and negroes--all that refused to go with them, or +could not be removed. Military rule prevailed, and the new population +were Northern soldiers, and a few adventurous women. Besides these were +blacks, men, women and children, many of them far from the homes they +had known, and strange alike to freedom and a life made independent by +their own efforts. From order to chaos, that was the transition a +Northern woman underwent in coming to this place and state of society. + +Mrs. Marsh had no sooner arrived than she found there was work to do and +duties to perform in her new home on which she had not calculated. Her +husband was frequently absent, sometimes for long periods. To his charge +came the immense stores of supplies constantly forwarded by the Sanitary +Commission, which were to be received, accounted for, unpacked, dealt +out to the parties for whom they were intended. All this must be done by +an intelligent person or persons, and by the same, reports of the +condition of the hospitals must be made, together with the needful +requisitions. + +Here was business enough to employ the time, exhaust the strength, and +occupy the thoughts of any single individual. It was a "man's work," as +Mrs. Marsh often declares. Be that as it may, it was accomplished by a +woman, and in the most admirable manner. The Sanitary Commission feels +both proud and grateful, whenever the name of Mrs. Marsh is mentioned. + +Her services were not of a nature to elicit great applause, or to +attract much attention. They were quietly performed, and at a point +quite aside from battle-fields, or any great center where thousands of +spectators had the opportunity to become cognizant of them. But they +were not, on account of these facts, less beneficent or useful. + +Mrs. Marsh often visited the hospitals and made the acquaintance of the +sick and wounded, becoming frequently, deeply interested in individuals. +This was a feeling entirely different from that general interest in the +welfare of every Union soldier which arose as much from the instincts of +a patriotic heart, as from philanthropy. + +She never became a hospital nurse, however, for she was fully occupied +in other ways, and her husband, Dr. Marsh did not cordially approve, +save in a few particular instances, of the introduction of women to the +hospitals in that capacity. But living in the immediate vicinity of the +hospitals, her benevolent face was often seen there, and welcomed with +grateful smiles from many a bed of suffering. + +A young officer from one of the Northern States and regiments, wounded +at the battle of Olustee, was brought to Beaufort Hospital for treatment +and care. Long previously there had been a compact between him and a +comrade that the one first wounded should be cared for by the other if +possible. The exigencies of the service were at that time such that this +comrade could not without much difficulty obtain leave of absence. He +finally, however, triumphed over all obstacles, and took his place +beside his friend. Mrs. Marsh often saw them together, and listened, at +one time, to a discussion or comparison of views which revealed the +character and motives of both. + +The unwounded one was rejoicing that his term of service was nearly +expired. It was at a time when many were re-enlisting, but he +emphatically declared he would not. "I would, then," replied the wounded +man, "if I had the strength to enter upon another term of service, I +would do so. When I did enlist it was because of my country's need, and +that need is not less imminent now. Yes," he added, with a sigh, "if God +would restore me to health, I would remain in the service till the end +of the war. The surgeon tells me I shall not recover, that the next +hemorrhage will probably be the last. But I am not sorry, _I am glad_, +that I have done what I have done, and would do it again, if possible." + +That this was the spirit of many of the wounded men, Mrs. Marsh delights +to testify. This man was God's soldier, as well as the Union's. He had +learned to think amid the awful scenes of Fort Wagner, and when wounded +at Olustee was prepared to live or die, whichever was God's will. Mrs. +Marsh was sitting beside his bed, in quiet conversation with him, when +without warning, the hemorrhage commenced. The plash of blood was heard, +as the life-current burst from his wound, and, "Go now," he said in his +low calm voice. "This is the end, and I would not have you witness it." + +The hemorrhage was, however, checked, but he died soon after. Meantime +the Sanitary Commission stores were constantly arriving, and Mrs. Marsh +continued to take the entire charge of them. A portion of her house was +used for store-rooms, and there were received thousands of dollars' +worth of comforts of all kinds from the North--a constant, never-failing +flood of beneficence. + +The first prisoners seen by Mrs. Marsh had come from Charleston. There +were nine privates and three or four officers. Their rags scarcely +covered them decently. They were filthy, squalid, emaciated. They halted +at a point several miles from Beaufort, and a requisition was sent by +the officers at this outpost, for clothing and other necessaries for the +officers of the party. These were sent, but Mrs. Marsh thought there +must be others--private soldiers, perhaps, for whom no provision had +been made. She accordingly dispatched her nephew, who was a member of +her family, to make inquiries and see that the wants of such were +provided for. + +In a short time she saw him returning at the head of his ragged brigade. +The poor fellows were indeed a loathsome sight, worn, feeble, clad only +in the unsightly rags which had been their prison wear. They were not +shown into the office, but to a vestibule without, and their first +desire was for water, soap--the materials for cleanliness. Mrs. Marsh +examined her stores for clothing. That which was on hand was mainly +designed for hospital use. She would have given each an entire suit, but +could find only two or three pairs of coarse blue overalls, such as are +worn by laborers at the North. As she stepped to the door to give them +this clothing, she remarked upon the scarcity, and said the overalls +must be given to the men that most needed them, but at once saw that +where all were in filthy rags, there seemed no choice. The one who stood +nearest her had taken a pair of the overalls, and was surveying them +with delight, but he at once turned to another, "I guess he needs 'em +most, I can get along with the old ones, a while," he said, in a +cheerful tone, and smothering a little sigh he turned away. + +This spirit of self-sacrifice was almost universal among the men of our +army, and was shown to all who had any care over them. How much every +man needed an entire change of clean, comfortable garments, was shown +the instant they left, when the nephew of Mrs. Marsh commenced sweeping +the vestibule where they had stood, with great vigor, replying to the +remonstrances of his aunt, only "I must," and adding, in a lower tone, +"They can't help it, poor fellows," as he made the place too hot to hold +anything with life. + +It was in the summer of 1864, that communication was first obtained with +the prisoners in Charleston, a communication afterwards extended to all +the loathsome prison-pens of the South, where our men languished in +filth, disease, and starvation. + +At this time Dr. Marsh's duties kept him almost entirely at Folly +Island, and there he received a letter from General Seymour who was +confined, with other Union officers, in Charleston, a part of the time +under fire, asking that if possible certain needful articles might be +sent to him. This letter was immediately sent to Mrs. Marsh, who at once +prepared a box containing more than twice the amount of articles asked +for, and forwarded them to the confederate authorities at Charleston, +for General Seymour. Almost contrary to all expectations, this box +reached the General, and but a short time elapsed before its receipt was +acknowledged. The General wrote touchingly of their privations, and +while thanking Mrs. Marsh warmly for the articles already sent, +represented the wants of some of the other gentlemen, his companions. +Supplies were sent them, received and acknowledged, and thus a regular +channel of communication was opened. + +One noticeable fact attended this correspondence--namely, the extreme +modesty of the demands made; no one ever asking for more than he needed +at the time, as a pair of stockings, or a single shirt, and always +expressing a fear lest others might need these favors more than himself. + +When, soon after, by means of this entering wedge, the way to the +prisons of Andersonville, Florence, and Salisbury, was opened, the same +fact was observed. In the midst of all their dreadful suffering and +misery, the prisoners there made no large demands. They asked for but +little--the smallest possible amount, and were always fearful lest they +might absorb the bounty to which others had a better claim. + +After this communication was opened, Mrs. Marsh found a delightful task +in preparing the boxes which in great numbers were constantly being sent +forward to the prisons. It was a part of her duty, also, to inspect the +letters which went and came between the prisons and the outside world. + +The pathos of many of these was far beyond description. Touching appeals +constantly came to her from distant Northern homes for some tidings of +the sons, brothers, fathers of whose captivity they had heard, but whose +further existence had been a blank. Where are they? and how are they? +were constantly recurring questions, which alas! it was far too often +her sad duty to answer in a way to destroy all hope. + +And the letters of the prisoners, filled to the uttermost, not with +complaints, but with the pervading sadness that could not for one moment +be banished from their horrible lives! No words can describe them, they +were simply heart-breaking! Just as the horror of the prison-pens is +beyond the power of words to fitly tell, so are the griefs which grew +out of them. + +Mrs. Marsh continued busily employed in this work of mercy until it was +suddenly suspended. Some formality had not been complied with, and the +privilege of communication was discontinued; and all their friends +disappointed and disheartened. This we can easily imagine, but not what +the suspension was to the suffering prisoners who had for a short season +enjoyed this one gleam of light from the outer world, and were now +plunged into a rayless hopeless night. When the time of deliverance +came, as we all know, many of them were past the power of rejoicing in +it. + +Dr. Marsh was for a long time detained at Folly and Morris Islands. The +force at Beaufort was quite inadequate, and exceedingly onerous and +absorbing duties fell to the share of Mrs. Marsh. Communication was +difficult. Dr. Marsh at times could not reach his home. Vessels which +had been running between New York and Port Royal and Hilton Head were +detained at the North. The receipt and transmission of sanitary stores, +and the immense correspondence growing out of it; the general oversight +of the needs of the hospitals, and the monthly reports of the same all +fell heavily upon one brain and one pair of hands. + +It was at just such an emergency that the army of Sherman, the "Great +March" to the sea nearly completed, arrived upon the scene. The sick and +disabled arrived by hundreds, the hospitals were filled up directly, and +even thronged; while so numerous were the cases of small-pox, which had +appeared in the army, that a large separate hospital had to be provided +for them. + +We may perhaps imagine how busy was the brave woman, left with such an +immense responsibility on her hands. + +Early in 1865, Dr. Marsh received notice that it had been determined to +send him to Newbern, North Carolina, but he never went, being attacked +soon after by a long and dangerous illness which for a time rendered it +improbable that he would ever see his Northern home again. + +It was at this time that a cargo of sanitary supplies arrived from New +York. A part of these were a contribution from Montreal. Montreal had +before sent goods to the Commission, but these were forwarded to Mrs. +Marsh herself. A letter of hers written not long previous to a friend in +New York, had been forwarded to Montreal, and had aroused a strong +desire there to help her in her peculiar work. A large portion of this +gift was from an M. P., who, though he might, like others, lift his +voice against the American war, had yet enough of the milk of human +kindness in his heart to lead him to desire to do something for her +suffering soldiers and prisoners. + +This gift Mrs. Marsh never saw, it being sent with the rest of the +unbroken cargo back to Newbern in view of the expected arrival of her +family there. + +The surrender of Lee virtually closed the war, and the necessity of Dr. +Marsh's stay in the South was no longer an important one. Besides this, +his health would not permit it, and he returned to New York where he had +long been wanted to take charge of the "Lincoln Home" in Grove Street, a +hospital opened by the Sanitary Commission for lingering cases of wounds +and sickness among homeless and destitute soldiers. + +Of this hospital and home Dr. Marsh was surgeon, and Mrs. Marsh matron. +Dr. Hoadly who had been with Dr. Marsh at the South, still retained the +position of assistant. The health of Dr. Marsh improved, but he has +never entirely recovered. + +They entered the Lincoln Home on the 1st of May, 1865, and the house was +immediately filled with patients. They remained there until June of the +following year, 1866. During their stay between three and four hundred +patients were admitted, and of those who were regular patients none +died. One soldier, a Swede, was found in the street in the last stages +of exhaustion and suffering, and died before the morning following his +admission. He bore about him evidences of education and gentle birth, +but he could not speak English, and carried with him into another world +the secret of his name and identity. He had no disease, but the +foundations of his life had been sapped by the irritation caused by +filth and vermin. + +As at the South, in the services of Mrs. Marsh here, there was a great +disproportion between their showiness and their usefulness. She pursued +her quiet round of labors, the results of which will be seen and felt +for years, as much as in the present. Her kind voice, and pleasant smile +will be an ever living and delightful memory in the hearts of all to +whom she ministered during those long hours of the nation's peril, in +which the best blood of her sons was poured out a red libation to +Liberty. + +After the close of the Lincoln Home, Mrs. Marsh continued to devote +herself to suffering soldiers and their families, making herself notably +useful in this important department of the nation's work. + + + + +SAINT LOUIS LADIES' UNION AID SOCIETY. + + +This Society, the principal Auxiliary of the Western Sanitary +Commission, and holding the same relation to it that the Women's Central +Association of Relief in New York, did to the United States Sanitary +Commission had its origin in the summer of 1861. On the 26th of July, of +that year, a few ladies met at the house of Mrs. F. Holy, in St. Louis, +to consider the propriety of combining the efforts of the loyal ladies +of that city into a single organization in anticipation of the conflict +then impending within the State. At an adjourned meeting held a week +later, twenty-five ladies registered themselves, as members of the +"Ladies' Union Aid Society," and elected a full board of officers. Most +of these resigned in the following autumn, and in November, 1861, the +following list was chosen, most of whom served through the war. + +President: Mrs. Alfred Clapp; Vice Presidents, Mrs. Samuel C. Davis, +Mrs. T. M. Post, Mrs. Robert Anderson; Recording Secretary, Miss H. A. +Adams; Treasurer, Mrs. S. B. Kellogg; Corresponding Secretary, Miss +Belle Holmes; afterwards, Miss Anna M. Debenham. An Executive Committee +was also appointed, several of the members of which, and among the +number, Mrs. C. R. Springer, Mrs. S. Palmer, Mrs. Joseph Crawshaw, Mrs. +Washington King, Mrs. Charles L. Ely, Mrs. F. F. Maltby, Mrs. C. N. +Barker, Miss Susan J. Bell, Miss Eliza S. Glover, and Miss Eliza Page, +were indefatigable in their labors for the soldiers. + +This Society was from the beginning, active and efficient. It conducted +its business with great ability and system, and in every direction made +itself felt as a power for good throughout the Mississippi Valley. Its +officers visited for a considerable period, fourteen hospitals in the +city and vicinity, and were known in the streets by the baskets they +carried. Of one of these baskets the recording Secretary, Miss Adams, +gives us an interesting inventory in one of her reports: "Within was a +bottle of cream, a home-made loaf, fresh eggs, fruit and oysters; stowed +away in a corner was a flannel shirt, a sling, a pair of spectacles, a +flask of cologne; a convalescent had asked for a lively book, and the +lively book was in the basket; there was a dressing-gown for one, and a +white muslin handkerchief for another; and paper, envelopes and stamps +for all." + +The Christian Commission made the ladies of the Society their agents for +the distribution of religious reading, and they scattered among the men +one hundred and twenty-five thousand pages of tracts, and twenty +thousand books and papers. + +The Ladies' Union Aid Society, sent delegates to all the earlier +battle-fields, as well as to the camps and trenches about Vicksburg, and +these ladies returned upon the hospital steamers, pursuing their heroic +work, toiling early and late, imperilling in many cases their health, +and even their lives, in the midst of the trying and terrible scenes +which surrounded them. During the fall and winter of 1862-3, the +Society's rooms were open day and evening, for the purpose of +bandage-rolling, so great was the demand for supplies of this kind. + +Amid their other labors, they were not unmindful of the distress which +the families of the soldiers were suffering. So great was the demand for +hospital clothing, that they could not supply it alone, and they +expended five thousand five hundred dollars received for the purpose +from the Western Sanitary Commission, in paying for the labor on +seventy-five thousand garments for the hospitals. The Medical Purveyor, +learning of their success, offered the Aid Society a large contract for +army work. They accepted it, and prepared the work at their rooms, and +gave out one hundred and twenty-eight thousand articles to be made, +paying out over six thousand dollars for labor. Several other contracts +followed, particularly one for two hundred and sixty-one thousand yards +of bandages, for the rolling of which six hundred and fifty-two dollars +were paid. By these means and a judicious liberality, the Society +prevented a great amount of suffering in the families of soldiers. The +Benton Barracks Hospital, one of the largest in the West, to which +reference has been frequently made in this volume, had for its +surgeon-in-charge, that able surgeon and earnest philanthropist, Dr. Ira +Russell. Ever anxious to do all in his power for his patients, and +satisfied that more skilfully prepared special diet, and in greater +variety than the government supplies permitted would be beneficial to +them, he requested the ladies of the Union Aid Society, to occupy a +reception-room, storeroom, and kitchen at the hospital, in supplying +this necessity. Donations intended for the soldiers could be left at +these rooms for distribution; fruit, vegetables, and other offerings +could here be prepared and issued as required. Thus all outside bounty +could be systematized, and the surgeon could regulate the diet of the +entire hospital. Miss Bettie Broadhead, was the first superintendent of +these rooms which were subsequently enlarged and multiplied. Bills of +fare were distributed in each ward every morning; the soldiers wrote +their names and numbers opposite the special dishes they desired; the +surgeon examined the bills of fare, and if he approved, endorsed them. +At the appointed time the dishes distinctly labelled, arrived at their +destination in charge of an orderly. Nearly forty-eight thousand dishes +were issued in one year. + +In the fall of 1863, the Society established a branch at Nashville, +Tennessee, Mrs. Barker and Miss H. A. Adams, going thither with five +hundred dollars and seventy-two boxes of stores. Miss Adams, though +surrounded with difficulties, and finding the surgeons indifferent if +not hostile, succeeded in establishing a special diet kitchen, like that +at Benton Barracks' Hospital. This subsequently became a very important +institution, sixty-two thousand dishes being issued in the single month +of August, 1864. The supplies for this kitchen, were mostly furnished by +the Pittsburg Subsistence Committee, and Miss Ellen Murdoch, the +daughter of the elocutionist to whom we have already referred, in the +account of the Pittsburg Branch, prepared the supplies with her own +hands, for three months. During this period, no reasonable wish of an +invalid ever went ungratified. + +This Society also did a considerable work for the freedmen--and the +white refugees, in connection with the Western Sanitary Commission. On +the formation of the Freedmen's Relief Society, this part of their work +was transferred to them. + +We have no means of giving definitely the aggregate receipts and +disbursements of this efficient Association. They were so involved with +those of the Western Sanitary Commission, that it would be a difficult +task to separate them. The receipts of the Commission were seven hundred +and seventy-one thousand dollars in money, and about three millions five +hundred thousand dollars in supplies. Of this sum we believe we are not +in the wrong in attributing nearly two hundred thousand dollars in cash, +and one million dollars in supplies to the Ladies' Union Aid Society, +either directly or indirectly. + +Believing that the exertions of the efficient officers of the Society +deserve commemoration, we have obtained the following brief sketches of +Mrs. Clapp, Miss Adams, (now Mrs. Collins), Mrs. Springer, and Mrs. +Palmer. + +Among the earnest and noble women of St. Louis, who devoted themselves +to the cause of their country and its heroic defenders at the beginning +of the great Rebellion, and whose labors and sacrifices were maintained +throughout the struggle for national unity and liberty, none are more +worthy of honorable mention, in a work of this character, than MRS. ANNA +L. CLAPP. + +She was distinguished among those ladies whose labors for the Charities +of the war, and whose presence in the Hospitals, cheered and comforted +the soldiers of the Union, and either prepared them for a tranquil and +happy deliverance from their sufferings, or sent them back to the field +of battle to continue the heroic contest until success should crown the +victorious arms of the nation, and give peace and liberty to their +beloved country. + +The maiden name of Mrs. Clapp was Wendell, and her paternal ancestors +originally emigrated from Holland. She was born in Cambridge, Washington +county, New York, and was educated at Albany. + +For three years she was a teacher in the celebrated school of Rev. +Nathaniel Prime, at Newburgh, New York. In the year 1838, she was +married to Alfred Clapp, Esq., an enterprising merchant, and lived for +several years in New York City, and Brooklyn, where she became an active +member of various benevolent associations, and performed the duties of +Treasurer of the Industrial School Association. + +Just previous to the Rebellion, she emigrated with her husband and +family to St. Louis, and after the war had commenced, and the early +battles in the West had begun to fill every vacant public building in +that city with sick and wounded men, she, with many other noble women of +like heroic temperament, found a new sphere for their activity and +usefulness. In the month of August, 1861, the Ladies' Union Aid Society, +of St. Louis, was organized for the purpose of ministering to the wants +of the sick and wounded soldiers, providing Hospital garments and +Sanitary stores, in connection with similar labors by the Western +Sanitary Commission, assisting soldiers' families, and visiting the +Hospitals, to give religious counsel, and minister consolation to the +sick and dying, in a city where only a few of the clergy of the various +denominations who were distinguished for their patriotism and loyalty, +attended to this duty; the majority, both Protestant and Catholic, being +either indifferent to the consequences of the rebellion, or in sympathy +with the treason which was at that time threatening the Union and +liberties of the country with disruption and overthrow. + +Of this Association of noble and philanthropic women, which continued +its useful labors during the war, Mrs. Clapp was made President in the +fall of 1861, holding that office during the existence of the +organization, giving nearly all her time and energies to this great work +of helping and comforting her country's defenders. + +After the great battles of Shiloh and Vicksburg, and Arkansas Post, she, +with other ladies of the Association, repaired on Hospital Steamers to +the scene of conflict, taking boxes of Sanitary stores, Hospital +garments and lint for the wounded, and ministered to them with her own +hands on the return trips to the Hospitals of St. Louis. + +As President of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, her labors were arduous +and unremitting. The work of this association was always very great, +consisting in part of the manufacture of hospital garments, by contract +with the medical purveyor, which work was given out to the wives of +soldiers, to enable them the better to support themselves and children, +during the absence of their husbands in the army. The work of cutting +out these garments, giving them out, keeping an account with each +soldier's wife, paying the price of the labor, etc., was no small +undertaking, requiring much labor from the members of the society. It +was an interesting sight, on Thursday of each week, to see hundreds of +poor women filling the large rooms of the association on Chestnut +Street, from morning to night, receiving work and pay, and to witness +the untiring industry of the President, Secretary, Treasurer, and +Committees, waiting upon them. + +The visitation of these families by committees, and their reports, to +say nothing of the general sanitary and hospital work performed by the +society, required a large amount of labor; and in addition to this the +aid rendered to destitute families of Union refugees, and the part taken +by Mrs. Clapp in organizing a Refugee Home, and House of Industry, would +each of itself make quite a chapter of the history of the association. + +In all these labors Mrs. Clapp showed great executive and administrative +ability, and must be reckoned by all who know her, among the truly +patriotic women of the land. And in all the relations of life her +character stands equally high, adorning, as she does, her Christian +profession by works of piety, and patriotism, and love, and commanding +the highest confidence and admiration of the community in which she +lives. + +The devoted labors of MISS H. A. ADAMS, in the service of the soldiers +of the Union and their families, from the beginning of the war, till +near its close, entitle her to a place in the records of this volume. +She was born in Fitz William, New Hampshire, at the foot of Mount +Monadnock, and grew to maturity amid the beautiful scenery, and the pure +influences of her New England home. Her father, Mr. J. S. Adams, was a +surveyor, a man of character and influence, and gave to his daughter an +excellent education. At fifteen years of age she became a teacher, and +in 1856 came West for the benefit of her health, having a predisposition +to pulmonary consumption, and fearing the effect of the east winds and +the trying climate of the Eastern States. + +Having connections in St. Louis she came to that city, and, for a year +and a half, was employed as a teacher in the public schools. In this, +her chosen profession, she soon acquired an honorable position, which +she retained till the commencement of the war. At this time, however, +the management of the schools was directed by a Board of Education, the +members of which were mostly secessionists, the school fund was diverted +from its proper uses by the disloyal State government, under Claib. +Jackson, and all the teachers, who were from New England, were dismissed +from their situations, at the close of the term in 1861. Miss Adams, of +course, was included in this number, and the unjust proscription only +excited more intensely the love of her country and its noble defenders, +who were already rallying to the standard of the Union, and laying down +their lives on the altars of justice and liberty. + +In August, 1861, the Ladies' Union Aid Society, of St. Louis, was +organized. Miss Adams was present at its first meeting and assisted in +its formation. She was chosen as its first secretary, which office she +filled with untiring industry, and to the satisfaction of all its +members, for more than three years. + +In the autumn of 1863, her only brother died in the military service of +the United States. With true womanly heroism, she went to the hospital +at Mound City, Illinois, where he had been under surgical treatment, +hoping to nurse and care for him, and see him restored to health, but +before she reached the place he had died and was buried. From this time +her interest in the welfare of our brave troops was increased and +intensified, and there was no sacrifice she was not willing to undertake +for their benefit. Moved by the grief of her own personal bereavement, +her sympathy for the sick and wounded of the army of the Union, was +manifested by renewed diligence in the work of sending them all possible +aid and comfort from the ample stores of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, +and the Western Sanitary Commission, and by labors for the hospitals far +and near. + +The duties of Miss Adams, as Secretary of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, +were very arduous. + +The Society comprised several hundred of the most noble, efficient and +patriotic women of St. Louis. The rooms were open every day, from +morning to night. Sanitary stores and Hospital garments were prepared +and manufactured by the members, and received by donation from citizens +and from abroad, and had to be stored and arranged, and given out again +to the Hospitals, and to the sick in regimental camps, in and around St. +Louis, and also other points in Missouri, as they were needed. Letters +of acknowledgement had to be written, applications answered, accounts +kept, proceedings recorded, information and advice given, reports +written and published, all of which devolved upon the faithful and +devoted Secretary, who was ever at her post, and constant and +unremitting in her labors. Soldiers' families had also to be assisted; +widows and orphans to be visited and cared for; rents, fuel, clothing, +and employment to be provided, and the destitute relieved, of whom there +were thousands whose husbands, and sons, and brothers, were absent +fighting the battles of the Union. + +Missouri was, during the first year of the war, a battle-ground. St. +Louis and its environs were crowded with troops; the Hospitals were +large and numerous; during the winter of 1861-2, there were twenty +thousand sick and wounded soldiers in them; and the concurrent labors of +the Ladies' Union Aid Society, and the Western Sanitary Commission, were +in constant requisition. The visiting of the sick, ministering to them +at their couches of pain, reading to them, cheerful conversation with +them, were duties which engaged many of the ladies of the Society; and +numerous interesting and affecting incidents were preserved by Miss +Adams, and embodied in the Reports of the Association. She also did her +share in this work of visiting; and during the winter of 1863-4, she +went to Nashville, Tennessee, and established there a special diet +kitchen, upon which the surgeons in charge of the hospitals, could make +requisitions for the nicer and more delicate preparations of food for +the very sick. She remained all winter in Nashville, in charge of a +branch of the St. Louis Aid Society, and, by her influence, secured the +opening of the hospitals to female nurses, who had hitherto not been +employed in Nashville. Knowing, as she did, the superior gentleness of +women as nurses, their more abundant kindness and sympathy, and their +greater skill in the preparation of food for the sick; knowing also the +success that had attended the experiment of introducing women nurses in +the Military Hospitals in other cities, she determined to overcome the +prejudices of such of the army surgeons as stood in the way, and secure +to her sick and wounded brothers in the hospitals at Nashville, the +benefit of womanly kindness, and nursing, and care. In this endeavor she +was entirely successful, and by her persuasive manners, her womanly +grace and refinement, and her good sense, she recommended her views to +the medical authorities, and accomplished her wishes. + +Returning to St. Louis in the spring of 1864, she continued to perform +the duties of Secretary of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, till the end +of the year, when, in consequence of a contemplated change in her life, +she resigned her position, and retired from it with the friendship and +warm appreciation of her co-workers in the useful labors of the society. +In the month of June, 1865, she was married to Morris Collins, Esq., a +citizen of St. Louis. + +MRS. C. R. SPRINGER, who has labored so indefatigably at St. Louis, for +the soldiers of the Union and their families during the war, was born in +Parsonsfield, Maine. Her maiden name was Lord. Previous to her marriage +to Mr. Springer, a respectable merchant of St. Louis, she was a teacher +in New Hampshire. On the event of her marriage, she came to reside at +St. Louis, about ten years ago, and on the breaking out of the war, +espoused with patriotic ardor the cause of her country in its struggle +with the great slaveholding rebellion. To do this in St. Louis, at that +period, when wealth and fashion, and church influence were so largely on +the side of the rebellion, and every social circle was more or less +infected with treason, required a high degree of moral courage and +heroism. + +From the first opening of the hospitals in St. Louis, in the autumn of +1861, Mrs. Springer became a most untiring, devoted and judicious +visiter, and by her kind and gracious manners, her words of sympathy and +encouragement, and her religious consolation, she imparted hope and +comfort to many a poor, sick, and wounded soldier, stretched upon the +bed of languishing. + +Besides her useful labors in the hospitals, Mrs. Springer was an active +member of the Ladies' Union Aid Society in St. Louis, from the date of +its organization in August, 1861, to its final disbanding--October, +1865--in the deliberations of which her counsel always had great weight +and influence. During the four years of its varied and useful labors for +the soldiers and their families, she has been among its most diligent +workers. In the winter of 1862, the Society took charge of the labor of +making up hospital garments, given out by the Medical Purveyor of the +department, and she superintended the whole of this important work +during that winter, in which one hundred and twenty-seven thousand five +hundred garments were made. + +Mrs. Springer is a highly educated woman, of great moral worth, devoted +to the welfare of the soldier, inspired by sincere love of country, and +a high sense of Christian duty. No one will be more gratefully +remembered by thousands of soldiers and their families, to whom she has +manifested kindness, and a warm interest in their welfare. These +services have been gratuitously rendered, and she has given up customary +recreations, and sacrificed ease and social pleasure to attend to these +duties of humanity. Her reward will be found in the consciousness of +having done good to the defenders of her native land, and in the +blessing of those who were ready to perish, to whom her kind services, +and words of good cheer came as a healing balm in the hour of +despondency, and strengthened them for a renewal of their efforts in the +cause of country and liberty. + +Among the devoted women who have made themselves martyrs to the work of +helping our patriotic soldiers and their families in St. Louis, was the +late MRS. MARY E. PALMER. She was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, +June 28th, 1827, and her maiden name was Locker. She was married in +February, 1847, to Mr. Samuel Palmer. In 1855 she removed to Kansas, and +in 1857 returned as far eastward as St. Louis, where she resided until +her death. + +In the beginning of the war, when battles began to be fought, and the +sick and wounded were brought to our hospitals to be treated and cared +for, Mrs. Palmer with true patriotic devotion and womanly sympathy +offered her services to this good cause, and after a variety of hospital +work in the fall of 1863, she entered into the service of the Ladies' +Union Aid Society of St. Louis as a regular visiter among the soldiers' +families, many of whom needed aid and work, during the absence of their +natural protectors in the army. It was a field of great labor and +usefulness; for in so large a city there were thousands of poor women, +whose husbands often went months without pay, or the means of sending it +home to their families, who were obliged to appeal for assistance in +taking care of themselves and children. To prevent imposition it was +necessary that they should be visited, the requisite aid rendered, and +sewing or other work provided by which they could earn a part of their +own support, a proper discrimination being made between the worthy and +unworthy, the really suffering, and those who would impose on the +charity of the society under the plea of necessity. + +In this work Mrs. Palmer was most faithful and constant, going from day +to day through a period of nearly two years, in summer and winter, in +sunshine and storm, to the abodes of these people, to find out their +real necessities, to report to the society and to secure for them the +needed relief. + +Her labors also extended to many destitute families of refugees, who had +found their way to St. Louis from the impoverished regions of Southern +Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and +who would have died of actual want, but for the charity of the +Government and the ministering aid of the Western Sanitary Commission +and the Ladies' Union Aid Society. In her visits and her dispensations +of charity Mrs. Palmer was always wise, judicious, and humane, and +enjoyed the fullest confidence of the society in whose service she was +engaged. In the performance of her duties she was always thoroughly +conscientious, and actuated by a high sense of religious duty. From an +early period of her life she had been a consistent member of the Baptist +Church, and her Christian character was adorned by a thorough +consecration to works of kindness and humanity which were performed in +the spirit of Him, who, during his earthly ministry, "went about doing +good." + +By her arduous labors, which were greater than her physical constitution +could permanently endure, Mrs. Palmer's health became undermined, and in +the summer of 1865 she passed into a fatal decline, and on the 2d of +August ended a life of usefulness on earth to enter upon the enjoyments +of a beatified spirit in heaven. + + + + +LADIES' AID SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA + + +One of the first societies formed by ladies to aid and care for the sick +and wounded soldiers, was the one whose name we have placed at the head +of this sketch. The Aid Society of Cleveland, and we believe one in +Boston claim a date five or six days earlier, but no others. The ladies +who composed it met on the 26th of April, 1861, and organized themselves +as a society to labor for the welfare of the soldiers whether in +sickness or health. They continued their labors with unabated zeal until +the close of the war rendered them unnecessary. The officers of the +society were Mrs. Joel Jones, President; Mrs. John Harris, Secretary; +and Mrs. Stephen Colwell, Treasurer. Mrs. Jones is the widow of the late +Hon. Joel Jones, a distinguished jurist of Philadelphia, and +subsequently for several years President of Girard College. A quiet, +self-possessed and dignified lady, she yet possessed an earnestly +patriotic spirit, and decided business abilities. Of Mrs. Harris, one of +the most faithful and persevering laborers for the soldiers in the +field, throughout the war, we have spoken at length elsewhere in this +volume. Mrs. Colwell, the wife of Hon. Stephen Colwell, a man of rare +philosophic mind and comprehensive views, who had acquired a reputation +alike by his writings, and his earnest practical benevolence, was a +woman every way worthy of her husband. + +It was early determined to allow Mrs. Harris to follow the promptings +of her benevolent heart and go to the field, while her colleagues should +attend to the work of raising supplies and money at home, and furnishing +her with the stores she required for her own distribution and that of +the zealous workers who were associated with her. The members of the +society were connected with twenty different churches of several +denominations, and while all had reference to the spiritual as well as +physical welfare of the soldier, yet there was nothing sectarian or +denominational in its work. From the fact that its meetings were held +and its goods packed in the basement and vestry of Dr. Boardman's +Church, it was sometimes called the Presbyterian Ladies' Aid Society, +but the name, if intended to imply that its character was +denominational, was unjust. As early as October, 1861, the pastors of +twelve churches in Philadelphia united in an appeal to all into whose +hands the circular might fall, to contribute to this society and to form +auxiliaries to it, on the ground of its efficiency, its economical +management, and its unsectarian character. + +The society, with but moderate receipts as compared with those of the +great organizations, accomplished a great amount of good. Not a few of +the most earnest and noble workers in the field were at one time or +another the distributors of its supplies, and thus in some sense, its +agents. Among these we may name besides Mrs. Harris, Mrs. M. M. Husband, +Mrs. Mary W. Lee, Miss M. M. C. Hall, Miss Cornelia Hancock, Miss Anna +M. Ross, Miss Nellie Chase, of Nashville, Miss Hetty K. Painter, Mrs. Z. +Denham, Miss Pinkham, Miss Biddle, Mrs. Sampson, Mrs. Waterman, and +others. The work intended by the society, and which its agents attempted +to perform was a religious as well as a physical one; hospital supplies +were to be dispensed, and the sick and dying soldier carefully nursed; +but it was also a part of its duty to point the sinner to Christ, to +warn and reprove the erring, and to bring religious consolation and +support to the sick and dying; the Bible, the Testament, and the tract +were as truly a part of its supplies as the clothing it distributed so +liberally, or the delicacies it provided to tempt the appetite of the +sick. Mrs. Harris established prayer-meetings wherever it was possible +in the camps or at the field hospitals, and several of the other ladies +followed her example. + +In her first report, Mrs. Harris said:--"In addition to the dispensing +of hospital supplies, the sick of two hundred and three regiments have +been personally visited. Hundreds of letters, bearing last messages of +love to dear ones at home, have been written for sick and dying +soldiers. We have thrown something of home light and love around the +rude couches of at least five hundred of our noble citizen soldiers, who +sleep their last sleep along the Potomac. + +"We have been permitted to take the place of mothers and sisters, wiping +the chill dew of death from the noble brow, and breathing words of Jesus +into the ear upon which all other sounds fell unheeded. The gentle +pressure of the hand has carried the dying one to the old homestead, +and, as it often happened, by a merciful illusion, the dying soldier has +thought the face upon which his last look rested, was that of a precious +mother, sister, or other cherished one. One, a German, in broken +accents, whispered: 'How good you have come, Eliza; Jesus is always near +me;' then, wrestling with that mysterious power, death, slept in Jesus. +Again, a gentle lad of seventeen summers, wistfully then joyfully +exclaimed: 'I knew she would come to her boy,' went down comforted into +the dark valley. Others, many others still, have thrown a lifetime of +trustful love into the last look, sighing out life with 'Mother, dear +mother!' + +"It has been our _highest_ aim, whilst ministering to the temporal +well-being of our loved and valued soldiers, to turn their thoughts and +affections heavenward. We are permitted to hope that not a few have, +through the blessed influence of religious tracts, soldiers' pocket +books, soldiers' Bibles, and, above all, the Holy Scriptures distributed +by us, been led 'to cast anchor upon that which is within the veil, +whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus.'" + +The society did not attempt, and wisely, to compete with the great +commissions in their work. It could not supply an entire army or throw +upon the shoulders of its hard-working voluntary agents the care of the +sick and wounded of a great battle. Its field of operations was rather +here and there a field hospital, the care of the sick and wounded of a +single division, or at most of a small army corps, when not engaged in +any great battles; the providing for some hundreds of refugees, the care +of some of the freedmen, and the assistance of the families of the +soldiers. Whatever it undertook to do it did well. Its semi-annual +reports consisted largely of letters from its absent secretary, letters +full of pathos and simple eloquence, and these widely circulated, +produced a deep impression, and stirred the sympathies of those who +read, to more abundant contributions. + +As an instance of the spirit which actuated the members of this society +we state the following incident of which we were personally cognizant; +one of the officers of the society soon after the commencement of the +war had contributed so largely to its funds that she felt that only by +some self-denial could she give more. Considering for a time where the +retrenchment should begin, she said to the members of her family; "these +soldiers who have gone to fight our battles have been willing to hazard +their lives for us, and we certainly cannot do too much for them. Now, I +propose, if you all consent, to devote a daily sum to the relief of the +army while the war lasts, and that we all go without some accustomed +luxury to procure that sum. Suppose we dispense with our dessert during +the war?" Her family consented, and the cost of the dessert was duly +paid over to the society as an additional donation throughout the war. + +The society received and expended during the four years ending April 30, +1865, twenty-four thousand dollars in money, beside five hundred and +fifty dollars for soldiers' families, and seven hundred dollars with +accumulated interest for aiding disabled soldiers to reach their homes. +The supplies distributed were worth not far from one hundred and +twenty-five thousand dollars, aside from those sent directly to Mrs. +Harris from individuals and societies, which were estimated at fully two +hundred thousand dollars. + + * * * * * + +In this connection it may be well to say something of two other +associations of ladies in Philadelphia for aiding the soldiers, which +remained independent of the Sanitary or Christian Commissions through +the war, and which accomplished much good. + +THE PENN RELIEF ASSOCIATION was organized early in 1862, first by the +Hicksite Friends, to demonstrate the falsity of the commonly received +report that the "Friends," being opposed to war, would not do anything +for the sick and wounded. Many of the "Orthodox Friends" afterwards +joined it, as well as considerable numbers from other denominations, and +it proved itself a very efficient body. Mrs. Rachel S. Evans was its +President, and Miss Anna P. Little and Miss Elizabeth Newport its active +and hard-working Secretaries, and Miss Little doubtless expressed the +feeling which actuated all its members in a letter in which she said +that "while loyal men were suffering, loyal women must work to alleviate +their sufferings." The "Penn Relief" collected supplies to an amount +exceeding fifty thousand dollars, which were almost wholly sent to the +"front," and distributed by such judicious and skilful hands as Mrs. +Husband, Mrs. Hetty K. Painter, Mrs. Mary W. Lee, and Mrs. Anna Carver. + +"THE SOLDIERS' AID ASSOCIATION," was organized on the 28th of July, +1862, mainly through the efforts of Mrs. Mary A. Brady, a lady of West +Philadelphia, herself a native of Ireland, but the wife of an English +lawyer, who had made his home in Philadelphia, in 1849. Mrs. Brady was +elected President of the Association, and the first labors of herself +and her associates were expended on the Satterlee Hospital, one of those +vast institutions created by the Medical Department of the Government, +which had over three thousand beds, each during those dark and dreary +days occupied by some poor sufferer. In this great hospital these ladies +found, for a time, full employment for the hearts and hands of the +Committees who, on their designated days of the week, ministered to +these thousands of sick and wounded men, and from the depôt of supplies +which the Association had established at the hospital, prepared and +distributed fruits, food skilfully prepared, and articles of hospital +clothing, of which the men were greatly in need. Those cheering +ministrations, reading and singing to the men, writing letters for them, +and the dressing and applying of cooling lotions to the hot and inflamed +wounds were not forgotten by these tender and kind-hearted women. + +But Mrs. Brady looked forward to work in other fields, and the exertion +of a wider influence, and though for months, she and her associates felt +that the present duty must first be done, she desired to go to the +front, and there minister to the wounded before they had endured all the +agony of the long journey to the hospital in the city. The patients of +the Satterlee Hospital were provided with an ample dinner on the day of +the National Thanksgiving, by the Association, and as they were now +diminishing in numbers, and the Auxiliary Societies, which had sprung up +throughout the State, had poured in abundant supplies, Mrs. Brady felt +that the time had come when she could consistently enter upon the work +nearest her heart. In the winter of 1863, she visited Washington, and +the hospitals and camps which were scattered around the city, at +distances of from five to twenty miles. Here she found multitudes of +sick and wounded, all suffering from cold, from hunger, or from +inattention. "Camp Misery," with its twelve thousand convalescents, in a +condition of intense wretchedness moved her sympathies, and led her to +do what she could for them. She returned home at the beginning of April, +and her preparations for another journey were hardly made, before the +battles of Chancellorsville and its vicinity occurred. Here at the +great field hospital of Sedgwick's (Sixth) Corps, she commenced in +earnest her labors in the care of the wounded directly from the field. +For five weeks she worked with an energy and zeal which were the +admiration of all who saw her, and then as Lee advanced toward +Pennsylvania, she returned home for a few days of rest. + +Then came Gettysburg, with its three days of terrible slaughter, and +Mrs. Brady was again at her work day and night, furnishing soft food to +the severely wounded, cooling drinks to the thirsty and fever-stricken, +soothing pain, encouraging the men to heroic endurance of their +sufferings, everywhere an angel of comfort, a blessed and healing +presence. More than a month was spent in these labors, and at their +close Mrs. Brady returned to her work in the Hospitals at Philadelphia, +and to preparation for the autumn and winter campaigns. When early in +January, General Meade made his Mine Run Campaign, Mrs. Brady had again +gone to the front, and was exposed to great vicissitudes of weather, and +was for a considerable time in peril from the enemy's fire. Her +exertions and exposures at this time brought on disease of the heart, +and her physician forbade her going to the front again. She however made +all the preparations she could for the coming campaign, and hoped, +though vainly, that she might be permitted again to enter upon the work +she loved. When the great battles of May, 1864, were fought, the +dreadful slaughter which accompanied them, so disquieted her, that it +aggravated her disease, and on the 27th of May, she died, greatly +mourned by all who knew her worth, and her devotion to the national +cause. + +The Association continued its work till the close of the war. The amount +of its disbursements, we have not been able to ascertain. + + + + +WOMEN'S RELIEF ASSOCIATION OF BROOKLYN AND LONG ISLAND. + + +The city of Brooklyn, Long Island, and the Island of which it forms the +Western extremity, were from the commencement of the war intensely +patriotic. Regiment after regiment was raised in the city, and its quota +filled from the young men of the city, and the towns of the island, till +it seemed as every man of military age, and most of the youth between +fifteen and eighteen had been drawn into the army. An enthusiastic zeal +for the national cause had taken as complete possession of the women as +of the men. Everywhere were seen the badges of loyalty, and there was no +lack of patient labor or of liberal giving for the soldiers on the part +of those who had either money or labor to bestow. The news of the first +battle was the signal for an outpouring of clothing, hospital stores, +cordials, and supplies of all sorts, which were promptly forwarded to +the field. After each successive engagement, this was repeated, and at +first, the Young Men's Christian Association of the city, a most +efficient organization, undertook to be the almoners of a part of the +bounty of the citizens. Distant as was the field of Shiloh, a delegation +from the Association went thither, bearing a large amount of hospital +stores, and rendered valuable assistance to the great numbers of +wounded. Other organizations sprang up, having in view the care of the +wounded and sick of the army, and many contributors entrusted to the +earnest workers at Washington, the stores they were anxious to bestow +upon the suffering. After the great battles of the summer and autumn of +1862, large numbers of the sick and wounded were brought to Brooklyn, +for care and treatment filling at one time three hospitals. They came +often in need of all things, and the benevolent women of the city formed +themselves into Committees, to visit these hospitals in turn, and +prepare and provide suitable dishes, delicacies, and special diet for +the invalid soldiers, to furnish such clothing as was needed, to read to +them, write letters for them, and bestow upon them such acts of kindness +as should cause them to feel that their services in defense of the +nation were fully appreciated and honored. + +There was, however, in these varied efforts for the soldiers a lack of +concentration and efficiency which rendered them less serviceable than +they otherwise might have been. The different organizations and +committees working independently of each other, not unfrequently +furnished over-abundant supplies to some regiments or hospitals, while +others were left to lack, and many who had the disposition to give, +hesitated from want of knowledge or confidence in the organizations +which would disburse the funds. The churches of the city though giving +freely when called upon, were not contributing systematically, or +putting forth their full strength in the service. It was this conviction +of the need of a more methodical and comprehensive organization to which +the churches, committees, and smaller associations should become +tributary, which led to the formation of the Women's Relief Association, +as a branch of the United States Sanitary Commission. This Association +was organized November 23d, 1862, at a meeting held by the Ladies of +Brooklyn, in the Lecture Room of the Church of the Pilgrims, and MRS. +MARIAMNE FITCH STRANAHAN, was chosen President, and Miss Kate E. +Waterbury, Secretary, with an Executive Committee of twelve ladies of +high standing and patriotic impulses. The selection of President and +Secretary was eminently a judicious one. MRS. STRANAHAN was a native of +Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York, and had received for the time, +and the region in which her childhood and youth was passed, superior +advantages of education. She was married in 1837, to Mr. James S. T. +Stranahan, then a merchant of Florence, Oneida County, New York, but who +removed with his family in 1840, to Newark, New Jersey, and in 1845, +took up his residence in Brooklyn. Here they occupied a high social +position, Mr. Stranahan having been elected a Representative to the +Thirty-fourth Congress, and subsequently appointed to other positions of +responsibility in the city and State. Mrs. Stranahan was active in every +good work in the city of her adoption, and those who knew her felt that +they could confide in her judgment, her discernment, her tact, and her +unflinching integrity and principle. For eight years she was the first +Directress of the "Graham Institute, for the relief of Aged and Indigent +Females," a position requiring the exercise of rare abilities, and the +most skilful management, to harmonize the discords, and quiet the +misunderstandings, inevitable in such an institution. Her discretion, +equanimity, and tact, were equal to the duties of the place, and under +her administration peace and quiet reigned. It was probably from the +knowledge of her executive abilities, that she was unanimously chosen to +preside over the Women's Relief Association. This position was also one +requiring great tact and skill in the presiding officer. About eighty +churches of different denominations in Brooklyn, coöperated in the work +of the Association, and it had also numerous auxiliaries scattered over +the Island. These diverse elements were held together in perfect +harmony, by Mrs. Stranahan's skilful management, till the occasion +ceased for their labors. The Association was from first to last a +perfect success, surpassing in its results most of the branches of the +Commission, and surpassed in the harmony and efficiency of its action by +none. + +In her final report Mrs. Stranahan said: "The aggregate of our efforts +including the results of our Great Fair, represents a money value of not +less than half a million of dollars." Three hundred thousand dollars of +this sum were paid into the treasury of the United States Sanitary +Commission in cash; and hospital supplies were furnished to the amount +of over two hundred thousand more. The Great Fair of Brooklyn had its +origin in the Women's Relief Association. At first it was proposed that +Brooklyn should unite with New York in the Metropolitan Fair; but on +further deliberation it was thought that a much larger result would be +attained by an independent effort on the part of Brooklyn and Long +Island, and the event fully justified the opinion. The conducting of +such a fair involved, however, an excessive amount of labor on the part +of the managers; and notwithstanding the perfect equanimity and +self-possession of Mrs. Stranahan, her health was sensibly affected by +the exertions she was compelled to make to maintain the harmony and +efficiency of so many and such varied interests. It is much to say, but +the proof of the statement is ample, that no one of the Sanitary Fairs +held from 1863 to 1865 equalled that of Brooklyn in its freedom from all +friction and disturbing influences, in the earnestness of its patriotic +feeling, and the complete and perfect harmony which reigned from its +commencement to its close. This gratifying condition of affairs was +universally attributed to the extraordinary tact and executive talent of +Mrs. Stranahan. + +Rev. Dr. Spear, her pastor, in a touching and eloquent memorial of her, +uses the following language in regard to the success of her +administration as President of the Women's Relief Association; "It is +due to truth to say that this success depended very largely upon her +wisdom and her efforts. She was the right woman in the right place. She +gave her time to the work with a zeal and perseverance that never +faltered, and with a hopefulness for her country that yielded to no +discouragement or despondency. As a presiding officer she discharged her +duties with a self-possession, courtesy, skill, and method, that +commanded universal admiration. She had a quick and judicious insight +into the various ways and means by which the meetings of the +Association would be rendered interesting and attractive. The business +part of the work was constantly under her eye. No woman ever labored in +a sphere more honorable; and but few women could have filled her place. +Her general temper of mind, her large and catholic views as a Christian, +and then her excellent discretion, eminently fitted her to combine all +the churches in one harmonious and patriotic effort. This was her +constant study; and well did she succeed. As an evidence of the +sentiments with which she had inspired her associates, the following +resolution offered at the last meeting of the Association, and +unanimously adopted, will speak for itself:-- + + "'_Resolved_, That the thanks of the Women's Relief Association are + pre-eminently due to our President, Mrs. J. S. T. Stranahan, for + the singular ability, wisdom, and patience with which she has + discharged the duties of her office, at all times arduous, and not + unfrequently requiring sacrifices to which nothing short of the + deepest love of country could have been equal. It is due to + justice, and to the feelings of our hearts, to say that the + usefulness, the harmony, and the continued existence of the Women's + Relief Association, through the long and painful struggle, now + happily ended, have been in a large measure owing to the + combination of rare gifts, which have been so conspicuous to us all + in the guidance of our public meetings, and which have marked not + less the more unnoticed, but equally essential, superintendence of + the work in private.'" + +The Rev. Dr. Bellows, President of the United States Sanitary +Commission, thus speaks of Mrs. Stranahan and of the Brooklyn Woman's +Relief Association, of which she was the head: + +"Knowing Mrs. Stranahan only in her official character, as head of the +noble band of women who through the war, by their admirable organization +and efficient, patient working, made Brooklyn a shining example for all +other cities--I wonder that she should have left so deep a _personal_ +impression upon my heart; and that from a dozen interviews confined +wholly to one subject, I should have conceived a friendship for her +which it commonly takes a life of various intercourse and intimate or +familiar relations to establish. And this is the more remarkable, +because her directness, clearness of intention, and precision of purpose +always kept her confined, in the conversations I held with her, to the +special subject on which we met to take counsel. She had so admirably +ordered an understanding, was so business-like and clear in her habits +of mind, that not a minute was lost with her in beating the bush. With +mild determination, and in a gentle distinctness of tone, she laid her +views or wishes before me, in a way that never needed any other +explanation or enforcement than her simple statement carried with it. In +few, precise, and transparent words, she made known her business, or +gave her opinion, and wasted not a precious minute in generalities, or +on matters aside from our common object. This rendered my official +intercourse with her peculiarly satisfactory. She always knew just what +she wanted to say, and left no uncertainty as to what she had said; and +what she said, had always been so carefully considered, that her wishes +were full of reason, and her advice full of persuasion. She seemed to me +to unite the greatest discretion with the finest enthusiasm. As earnest, +large, and noble in her views of what was due to the National cause, as +the most zealous could be, she was yet so practical, judicious, and +sober in her judgment, that what she planned, I learned to regard as +certain of success. No one could see her presiding with mingled modesty +and dignity over one of the meetings of the Women's Relief Association, +without admiration for her self-possession, propriety of utterance, and +skill in furthering the objects in view. I have always supposed that her +wisdom, resolution, and perseverance, had a controlling influence in the +glorious success of the Brooklyn Relief Association--the most marked and +memorable fellowship of women, united from all sects and orders of +Christians, in one practical enterprise, that the world ever saw." + +After the disbanding of the Women's Relief Association, Mrs. Stranahan, +though retaining her profound interest in the welfare of her country, +and her desire for its permanent pacification by such measures as should +remove all further causes of discord and strife, returned to the quiet +of her home, and except her connection with the Graham Institute, gladly +withdrew from any conspicuous or public position. Her health was as we +have said impaired somewhat by her assiduous devotion to her duties in +connection with the Association, but she made no complaint, and her +family did not take the alarm. The spring of 1866 found her so feeble, +that it was thought the pure and bracing air of the Green Mountains +might prove beneficial in restoring her strength, but her days were +numbered. On the 30th of August she died at Manchester, Vermont. + +In closing our sketch of this excellent woman, we deem it due to her +memory to give the testimony of two clergymen who were well acquainted +with her work and character, to her eminent abilities, and her +extraordinary worth. Rev. Dr. Farley, says of her: + +"When I think of the amount of time, thought, anxious and pains-taking +reflection, and active personal attention and effort she gave to this +great work; when I recall how for nearly three years, with other weighty +cares upon her, and amid failing health, she contrived to give herself +so faithfully and devotedly to carrying it on, I am lost in admiration. +True, she had for coadjutors a company of noble women, worthy +representatives of our great and beautiful city. They represented every +phase of our social and religious life; they were distinguished by all +the various traits which are the growth of education and habit; they had +on many subjects few views or associations in common. In one thing, +indeed, they were united--the desire to serve their country in her hour +of peril, by ministering to the sufferings of her heroic defenders in +the field. Acting on this thought--knowing no personal distinctions +where this was the prevailing sentiment--and treating all with the like +courtesy--she had yet the nice tact to call into requisition for special +emergencies the precise talent which was wanted, and give it its right +direction. Now and then--strange if it had not been so--there would be +some questioning of her proposed measures, some demur to, or reluctance +to accept her suggestions; but among _men_, the case would be found a +rare one, where a presiding officer carried so largely and uniformly, +from first to last, the concurrent judgment and approval of his +compeers. + +"I shall always call her to mind as among the remarkable women whom I +have had the good fortune to know. With no especial coveting of +notoriety, she was--as one might say--in the course of nature, or +rather--as I prefer to say--in the order of the Divine Providence, +called to occupy very responsible positions bearing largely on the +public weal; and she was not found wanting. Nay, she was found eminently +fit. All admitted it. And all find, now that she has been taken to her +rest, that they owe her every grateful and honored remembrance." + +The Rev. W. J. Budington, D.D., who had known her activity and zeal in +the various positions she had been called to fill, pays the following +eloquent tribute to her memory: + +"I had known Mrs. Stranahan chiefly, in common with the citizens of +Brooklyn, as the head of the 'Women's Relief Association,' and thus, as +the representative of the patriotism and Christian benevolence of the +Ladies of Brooklyn, in that great crisis of our national history which +drew forth all that was best in our countrymen and countrywomen, and +nowhere more than in our own city. Most naturally--_inevitably_, I may +say--she became the presiding officer of this most useful and efficient +Association. Possessed naturally of a strong mind, clear in her +perceptions, and logical in her courses of thought, she had, at the +outset of the struggle, the most decided convictions of duty, and +entered into the work of national conservation with a heartiness and +self-devotion, which, in a younger person, would have been called +enthusiasm, but which in her case was only the measure of an enlightened +Christianity and patriotism. She toiled untiringly, in season and out of +season, when others flagged, she supplied the lack by giving more time, +and redoubling her exertions; as the war wore wearily on, and disasters +came, enfeebling some, and confounding others, she rose to sublimer +efforts, and supplied the ranks of the true and faithful who gathered +round her, with the proper watchwords and fresh resources. I both +admired and wondered at her in this regard; and when success came, +crowning the labors and sacrifices of our people, her soul was less +filled with mere exultation than with sober thoughtfulness as to what +still remained to be done. * * * * + +"I regard Mrs. Stranahan as one of the most extraordinary of that galaxy +of women, whom the night of our country's sorrow disclosed, and whose +light will shine forever in the land they have done their part--I dare +not say, how great a part--to save." + +We should do gross injustice to this efficient Association, if we +neglected to give credit to its other officers, for their faithfulness +and persevering energy during the whole period of its existence. +Especially should the services of its patient and hard-working +Corresponding Secretary, Miss Kate E. Waterbury, be acknowledged. Next +to the president, she was its most efficient officer, ever at her post, +and performing her duties with a thoroughness and heartiness which +called forth the admiration of all who witnessed her zeal and devotion. +Miss Perkins, the faithful agent in charge of the depôt of supplies and +rooms of the Association, was also a quiet and persevering toiler for +the promotion of its great objects. + + + + +LADIES' UNION RELIEF ASSOCIATIONS OF BALTIMORE. + + +Amidst the malign influences of secession and treason, entire and +unqualified devotion to the Union, shone with additional brightness from +its contrast with surrounding darkness. In all portions of the South +were found examples of this patriotic devotion, and nowhere did it +display itself more nobly than in the distracted city of Baltimore. The +Union people were near enough to the North with its patriotic sentiment, +and sufficiently protected by the presence of Union soldiery, to be able +to act with the freedom and spontaneity denied to their compatriots of +the extreme South, and they did act nobly for the cause of their country +and its defenders. + +Among the ladies of Baltimore, few were more constantly or conspicuously +employed, for the benefit of sufferers from the war, than MRS. ELIZABETH +M. STREETER. With the modesty that almost invariably accompanies great +devotion and singleness of purpose she sought no public notice; but in +the case of one so actively employed in good works, it was impossible to +avoid it. + +More than one of the Associations of Ladies formed in Baltimore for the +relief of soldiers, of their families, and of refugees from secession, +owes its inception, organization, and successful career to the mind and +energies of Mrs. Streeter. It may truly be said of her that she has +refused no work which her hands could find to accomplish. + +Mrs. Streeter was the wife of the late Hon. S. F. Streeter, Esq., a +well-known citizen of Baltimore, a member of the city Government during +the war, an active Union man, devoted to the cause of his country and +her defenders as indefatigably as his admirable wife. Working in various +organizations, he was made an almoner of the city funds bestowed upon +the families of soldiers, and upon hospitals, and afterwards appointed +in conjunction with George R. Dodge, Esq., to distribute the +appropriation of the State, for the families of Maryland soldiers. Thus +the two were continually working side by side, or in separate spheres of +labor, for the same cause, all through the dark days of the rebellion. + +Mrs. Streeter was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, her ancestors, the +Jacksons, having been among the original settlers of the old Colony, and +she has doubtless inherited the ancestral love of freedom. For thirty +years she has been a resident of Baltimore. + +On the 16th of October, 1861, she originated the Ladies' Union Relief +Association, of Baltimore, and in connection with other zealous loyal +ladies, carried on its operations for more than a year with great +success. From this as a center, sprang other similar associations in +different parts of the city, and connected with the various hospitals. + +After the battle of Antietam, Mrs. Streeter, with Mrs. Pancoast, a most +energetic member of the Association, spent some time on the field +dispensing supplies, and attending to the wants of the wounded, +suffering and dying. + +Exhausted by her labors and responsibilities, at the end of a year, Mrs. +Streeter resigned her official connection with the Ladies' Relief +Association, and after a brief period of repose, she devoted herself to +personal visitation of the hospitals, dispensing needed comforts and +delicacies, and endeavoring by conversation with the inmates to cheer +them, stimulate their patriotism, and to make their situation in all +respects, more comfortable. + +Subsequently, she connected herself with the hospital attached to the +Union Relief Association, located at 120 South Eutaw Street, Baltimore. +Up to the time of the discontinuance of the work of the Association, +she gave it her daily attendance, and added largely to its resources by +way of supplies. + +At this time, Baltimore was thronged by the families of refugees, who +were rendered insecure in their homes by the fact of their entertaining +Union sentiments, or homeless, by some of the bands of marauders which +followed the advance of the Confederate troops when they invaded +Maryland, or, who perhaps, living unfortunately in the very track of the +conflicting armies, found themselves driven from their burning +homesteads, and devastated fields, victims of a wanton soldiery. +Destitute, ragged and shelterless, their condition appealed with +peculiar force to the friends of the Union. State aid was by no means +sufficient, and unorganized charity unavailable to any great extent. + +Mrs. Streeter was one of the first to see the need of systematic +assistance for this class. On the 16th of November, 1863, the result of +her interest was seen in the organization of the "Ladies' Aid Society, +for the Relief of Soldiers' Families," which included in its efforts the +relief of all destitute female refugees. A house was taken more +particularly to accommodate these last, and the Association, which +consisted of twenty-five ladies, proceeded to visit the families of +soldiers and refugees in person, inquiring into their needs, and +dispensing money, food, clothing, shoes, fuel, etc., as required. Over +twelve hundred families were thus visited and relieved, in addition to +the inmates of the Home. For this purpose they received from the city +and various associations about seven thousand dollars, and a large +amount from private contributions. In this and kindred work, Mrs. +Streeter was engaged till the close of the war. + +The second report of the Maryland Committee of the Christian Commission +thus speaks of the services of the devoted women who proceeded to the +field after the battle of Antietam, and there ministered to the wants of +the suffering and wounded soldiers. + +"Attendance in the hospitals upon the wounded at Antietam, was required +for several months after the battle. Services and supplies were +furnished by the Committee, principally through the agency of the ladies +of the Relief Associations, to whom the Committee acknowledge its +indebtedness for important and necessary labors, which none but +themselves could so well perform. The hospitals were located near the +battle-field, and the adjacent towns, and in Baltimore and Frederick +cities. Connected with each of them there was a band of faithful and +devoted women, who waited about the beds of the suffering objects of +their concern, and ministered to their relief and comfort during the +hours of their affliction. Through the months of September, October, and +November, these messengers of mercy labored among the wounded of +Antietam, and were successful in saving the lives of hundreds of the +badly wounded. They had not yet cleared the hospitals, when other +battles added to their number, and made new drafts for services, which +were promptly and cheerfully rendered." + +Many times the Committee take occasion to mention the valuable services +of the loyal ladies of Baltimore, and the services of Mrs. Streeter are +specially noticed in the third report in connection with the Invalid +Camp Hospital located at the boundary of the city and county of +Baltimore in the vicinity of Northern Avenue. + +"The services to this camp, usually performed by ladies, were under the +supervision of Mrs. S. F. Streeter, who visited the grounds daily, on +several occasions several times a day. The Secretary of the Committee +has frequently met Mrs. Streeter on her errand of benevolence, conveying +to the sufferers the delicacies she had prepared. Her active and +faithful services were continued until the breaking up of the camp." + +The ladies of Baltimore worked in connection with the Sanitary and +Christian Commissions, both of which organizations take occasion +frequently to acknowledge their services. + +Late in 1864, Mrs. Streeter was called to deep affliction. Her +noble-hearted and patriotic husband, who had been as active as herself +in all enterprises for the welfare of the soldiers, and the promotion of +the cause for which the war was undertaken, was suddenly taken from her, +falling a victim to fever contracted in his ministrations to the sick +and wounded of the Army of the Potomac, and the home and city where his +presence had been to her a joy and delight, became, since he was gone +too full of gloom and sorrow to be borne. Mrs. Streeter returned to her +New England home in the hope of finding there some relief from the grief +which overwhelmed her spirit. + +Two other ladies of Baltimore, and doubtless many more, deserve especial +mention in this connection, Miss TYSON, and Mrs. BECK. Active and +efficient members of the Ladies' Relief Association of that city, they +were also active and eminently useful in the field and general +hospitals. To the hospital work they seem both to have been called by +Mrs. John Harris, who to her other good qualities added that of +recognizing instinctively, the women who could be made useful in the +work in which she was engaged. + +Miss Tyson was with Mrs. Harris at French's Division Hospital, after +Antietam, and subsequently at Smoketown General Hospital, and after six +or eight weeks of labor there, was attacked with typhoid fever. Her +illness was protracted, but she finally recovered and resumed her work, +going with Mrs. Harris to the West, and during most of the year 1864, +was in charge of the Low Diet Department of the large hospital on +Lookout Mountain. Few ladies equalled her in skill in the preparation of +suitable food and delicacies for those who needed special diet. Miss +Tyson was a faithful, indefatigable worker, and not only gave her +services to the hospitals, but expended largely of her own means for the +soldiers. She was always, however, disposed to shrink from any mention +of her work, and we are compelled to content ourselves with this brief +mention of her great usefulness. + +Mrs. Beck was also a faithful and laborious aide to Mrs. Harris, at +Falmouth, and afterwards at the West. She was, we believe, a native of +Philadelphia, though residing in Baltimore. Her earnestness and patience +in many very trying circumstances, elicited the admiration of all who +knew her. She was an excellent singer, and when she sang in the +hospitals some of the popular hymns, the words and melody would often +awaken an interest in the heart of the soldier for a better life. + + + + +MRS. C. T. FENN. + + +Berkshire County, Massachusetts, has long been noted as the birth-place +of many men and women distinguished in the higher ranks of the best +phases of American life, literature, law, science, art, philosophy, as +well as religion, philanthropy, and the industrial and commercial +progress of our country have all been brilliantly illustrated and +powerfully aided by those who drew their first breath, and had their +earliest home among the green hills and lovely valleys of Berkshire. +Bryant gained the inspiration of his poems--sweet, tender, refined, +elevating--from its charming scenery; and from amidst the same scenes +Miss Sedgwick gathered up the quiet romance of country life, often as +deep as silent, and wove it into those delightful tales which were the +joy of our youthful hearts. + +The men of Berkshire are brave and strong, its women fair and noble. Its +mountains are the green altars upon which they kindled the fires of +their patriotism. And these fires brightened a continent, and made glad +the heart of a nation. + +Berkshire had gained the _prestige_ of its patriotism in two wars, and +at the sound of the signal gun of the rebellion its sons--"brave sons of +noble sires"--young men, and middle-aged, and boys, sprang to arms. Its +regiments were among the first to answer the call of the country and to +offer themselves for its defense. Let Ball's Bluff and the Wilderness, +the Chickahominy, and the deadly swamps and bayous of the Southwest, +tell to the listening world the story of their bravery, their endurance +and their sacrifices. + +But these men who went forth to fight left behind them, in their homes, +hearts as brave and strong as their own. If Berkshire has a proud record +of the battle-field, not less proud is that which might be written of +her home work. Its women first gave their best beloved to the defense of +the country, and then, in their desolate homes, all through the slow +length of those horrible, sometimes hopeless years, by labor and +sacrifice, by thought and care, they gave themselves to the more silent +but not less noble work of supplying the needs and ministering to the +comforts of the sick and wounded soldiery. + +Foremost among these noble women, as the almoner of their bounty, and +the organizer of their efforts, stands the subject of this sketch, Mrs. +C. T. Fenn, of Pittsfield, whose devotion to the work during the entire +war was unintermitted and untiring. + +Mrs. Fenn, whose maiden name was Dickinson, was born in Pittsfield just +before the close of the last century, and with the exception of a brief +residence in Boston, has passed her entire life there. Her husband, +Deacon Curtis T. Fenn, an excellent citizen, and enterprising man of +business, in his "haste to be rich," was at one time tempted to venture +largely, and became bound for others. The result was a failure, and a +removal to Boston with the idea of retrieving his fortunes in new +scenes. Here his only son, a promising young man of twenty-two years, +fell ill, and with the hope of arresting his disease, and if possible +saving his precious life, his parents returned to his native place, +giving up their flattering prospects in the metropolis. It was in vain, +however--in a few months the insidious disease, always so fatal in New +England, claimed its victim, and they were bereaved in their dearest +hopes. + +This affliction did not change, but perhaps intensified, the character +of Mrs. Fenn. She was now called to endure labor, and to make many +sacrifices, while her husband was slowly winning his way back to +competence. But ever full of kindness and sympathy, she devoted her time +more unsparingly to doing good. Her name became a synonym for +spontaneous benevolence in her native town. By the bed-sides of the sick +and dying, in the home of poverty, and the haunts of disease, where sin, +and sorrow and suffering, that trinity of human woe are ever to be +found, she became a welcome and revered visitant. All sought her in +trouble, and she withheld not counsel nor aid in any hour of need, nor +from any who claimed them. + +This was the prestige with which she was surrounded at the opening of +the war, and her warm heart, as well as her patriotic instincts were at +once ready for any work of kindness or aid it should develop. The +following extract from the Berkshire County Eagle, of May, 1862, tells +better than we can of the estimation in which she was held in her native +town. + +"Mrs. Fenn, as most of our Pittsfield readers know, has been for many +years the kind and familiar friend of the sick and suffering. Familiar +with its shades, her step in the sick chamber has been as welcome and as +beneficial as that of the physician. When the ladies were appealed to +for aid for our soldiers suffering from wounds or disease, she entered +into the work with her whole soul and devoted all her time and the skill +learned in years of attendance on the sick to the new necessities. +Possessing the entire confidence of our citizens, and appealing to them +personally and assiduously, she was met by generous and well selected +contributions which we have, from time to time, chronicled. In her +duties at the work room, in preparing the material contributed, she has +had constant and reliable assistance, but very much less than was +needed, a defect which we hope will be remedied. Surely many of our +ladies have leisure to relieve her of a portion of her work, and we +trust that some of our patriotic boys will give their aid, for we learn +that even such duties as the sweeping of the rooms devolve upon her. + +"Knowing that Mrs. Fenn's entire time had been occupied for months in +this great and good cause, and that all her time was not adequate to the +manifold duties imposed upon her, we were somewhat surprised to see a +letter addressed to her in print a few weeks since, complimenting her +upon her efforts for the soldiers and asking her to give her aid in +collecting hospital stores for the clinic at the Medical College. Surely +thought we, there ought to be more than one Dorcas in Pittsfield. +Indeed, it occurred to us that there were ladies here who, however +repugnant to aid the soldiers of the North, could, without violence to +their feelings so far as the object is concerned, gracefully employ a +share of their elegant leisure in the service of the Medical College. +But Mrs. Fenn did not refuse the new call, and having let her charity +begin at home with those who are dearest and nearest to our hearts, our +country's soldiers, expanded it to embrace those whose claim is also +imperative, the poor whom we have always with us, and made large +collections for the patients of the clinic. + +"We have thus briefly sketched the services of this noble woman, partly +in justice to her, but principally as an incentive to others." + +Very early in the war, a meeting of the ladies of Pittsfield was called +with the intention of organizing the services, so enthusiastically +proffered on all hands, for the benefit of the soldiers. It was quite +numerously attended, and the interest and feeling was evidently intense. +But they failed to organize anything beyond a temporary association. All +wanted to work, but none to lead. All looked to Mrs. Fenn as head and +leader, while she was more desirous of being hand and follower. No +constitution was adopted, nor officers elected. But as the general +expression of feeling seemed to be that all should be left in the hands +of Mrs. Fenn, the meeting adjourned with a tacit understanding to that +effect. + +And so it remained until the close of the work. Mrs. Fenn continued to +be the life and soul of the movement, and there was never any +organization. In answer to her appeals, the people of Pittsfield, of +many towns in Berkshire, as well as numbers of the adjoining towns in +the State of New York, forwarded to her their various and liberal +contributions. She hired rooms in one of the business blocks, where the +ladies were invited to meet daily for the purpose of preparing clothing, +lint, and bandages, and where all articles and money were to be sent. + +Such was the confidence and respect of the people, that they freely +placed in her hands all these gifts, without stint or fear. She received +and disbursed large sums of money and valuable stores of all kinds, and +to the last occupied this responsible position without murmur or +distrust on the part of any, only from time to time acknowledging her +receipts through the public prints. + +Pittsfield is a wealthy town, with large manufacturing interests, and +Mrs. Fenn was well sustained and aided in all her efforts, by valuable +contributions. She received also the most devoted and efficient +assistance from numerous ladies. Among these may be named, Mrs. Barnard, +Mrs. Oliver, during the whole time, Mrs. Brewster, Mrs. Dodge, Mrs. +Pomeroy, and many others, either constantly or at all practicable +periods. Young ladies, reared in luxury, and unaccustomed to perform any +laborious services in their own homes, would at the Sanitary Rooms sew +swiftly upon the coarsest work, and shrink from no toil. A few of this +class, during the second winter of the war manufactured thirty-one pairs +of soldiers' trowsers, and about fifty warm circular capes from remnants +of heavy cloth contributed for this use by Robert Pomeroy, Esq., a +wealthy manufacturer of Pittsfield. The stockings, mittens of yarn and +cloth, and hospital clothing of every variety, are too numerous to be +mentioned. + +Meanwhile supplies of every kind and description poured in. All of these +Mrs. Fenn received, acknowledged, collected many of them by her own +personal efforts, and then with her own hands arranged, packed, and +forwarded them. During the war more than nine thousand five hundred +dollars' worth of supplies thus passed directly through her hands, and +of these nothing save one barrel of apples at David's Island, was ever +lost. + +During the entire four years of the war, she devoted three days of the +week to this work, often all the days. But these three she called the +"soldiers' days," and caused it to be known among her friends that this +was not her time, and could not be devoted to personal work or pleasure. + +The Sanitary Rooms were more than half a mile distant from her own home. +But on all these mornings, immediately after breakfast, she proceeded to +them, on foot, (for she kept no carriage), carrying with her, her lunch, +and at mid-day, making herself that old lady's solace, a cup of tea, and +remaining as long as she could see; busily at work, receiving letters, +supplies, acknowledging the same, packing and unpacking, buying needed +articles, cutting out and preparing work, and answering the numerous and +varied calls upon her time. After the fatiguing labors of such a day, +she would again return to her home on foot, unless, as was very +frequently the case, some friend took her up in the street, or was +thoughtful enough to come and fetch her in carriage or sleigh. When we +reflect that these tasks were undertaken in all weathers, and at all +seasons, by a lady past her sixtieth year, during so long a period, we +are astonished at learning that her health was never seriously injured, +and that she was able to perform all her duties with comfort, and +without yielding to fatigue. + +In addition to these labors, she devoted much time and personal +attention to such sick and wounded soldiers as fell in her way cheered +and aided many a raw recruit, faltering on the threshhold of his new and +dangerous career. Twice, at least, in each year, she herself proceeded +to the hospitals at New York, or some other point, herself the bearer of +the bounties she had arranged, and in some years she made more frequent +visits. + +Early in her efforts, she joined hands with Mrs. Col. G. T. M. Davis, +of New York, (herself a native of Pittsfield, and a sister of Robert +Pomeroy, Esq., of that place), in the large and abundant efforts of that +lady, for the welfare of the sick and wounded soldiers. Mrs. Davis was a +member of the Park Barracks' Ladies' Aid Society, and through her a +large part of the bounty of Berkshire was directed in that channel. The +sick and weary, and fainting men at the Barracks, at the New England +Rooms, and Bedloe's Island, were principally aided by this Association, +which were not long in discovering the great value of the nicely +selected, arranged and packed articles contained in the boxes which had +passed through the hands of Mrs. Fenn, and came from Pittsfield. + +But the ladies of this Association, were desirous of concentrating all +their efforts upon the sufferers who had reached New York, while Mrs. +Fenn, and her associates in Berkshire, desired to place no bound or +limit to their divine charity. The soldiers of the whole army were their +soldiers, and all had equal wants, and equal rights. Thus they often +answered individual appeals from a variety of sources, and their +supplies often helped to fit out expeditions, and were sent to Sherman's +and Grant's, and Burnside's forces--to Annapolis, to Alexandria, to the +Andersonville and Libby prisoners, and wherever the cry for help seemed +most importunate. + +Among other things, Mrs. Fenn organized a plan for giving refreshments +to the weary soldiers, who from time to time passed through Pittsfield. +A signal gun would be fired when a transport-train reached the station +at Richmond, ten miles distant, and the ladies would hasten to prepare +the palatable lunch and cooling drink, against the arrival of the +wearied men, and to distribute them with their own hands. + +In the fall of 1862, Mrs. Fenn, herself, conveyed to New York the +contribution of Berkshire, to the Soldiers' Thanksgiving Dinner at +Bedloe's Island. Among the abundance of good things thus liberally +collected for this dinner, were more than a half ton of poultry, and +four bushels of real Yankee doughnuts, besides cakes, fruit and +vegetables, in enormous quantities. These she greatly enjoyed helping to +distribute. + +In the fall of 1864, she had a similar pleasure in contributing to the +dinner at David's Island, where several thousand sick and wounded +soldiers, (both white and colored) returned prisoners, and freedmen were +gathered, fourteen boxes and parcels of similar luxuries. Various +accidents combined to prevent her arrival in time, and her good things +were consequently in part too late for the dinner. There was fortunately +a plenty beside, and the Berkshire's contribution was reserved for the +feast of welcome to the poor starved wrecks so soon to come home from +the privations and cruelties of Andersonville. + +Mrs. Fenn however enjoyed the occasion to the fullest, and was welcomed +with such joy and gratitude, by the men who had so often shared the good +things she had sent to the hospitals, as more than repaid her for all +her labors and sacrifices. Many thousands of all classes, sick and +wounded convalescents, and returned prisoners, white and colored troops, +were then gathered there, and on the last day of her stay, Mrs. Fenn +enjoyed the pleasure of personally distributing to each individual in +that vast collection of suffering men, some little gift from the stores +she had brought. Fruit, (apples, or some foreign fruit), cakes, a +delicacy for the failing appetite, stores of stationery, contributed by +the liberal Berkshire manufacturers, papers, books--to each one some +token of individual remembrance. And, with great gusto, she still tells +how she came at last to the vast pavilion where the colored troops were +stationed, and how the dusky faces brightened, and the dark eyes swam in +tears, and the white teeth gleamed in smiles, half joyful, half sad; and +how, after bestowing upon each some token of her visit, and receiving +their enthusiastic thanks, she paused at the door, before bidding them +farewell, and asked if any were there who were sorry for their freedom, +regretted the price they had paid for it, or wished to return to their +old masters, they should say--Aye. "The gentleman from Africa," perhaps +for the first time in his life had a vote. He realized the solemnity of +the moment. A dead silence fell upon the crowd, and no voice was lifted +in that important affirmative. "Very well, boys," again spoke the clear, +kind voice of Mrs. Fenn. "Each of you who is glad to be free, proud to +be a free soldier of his country, and ready for the struggles which +freedom entails, will please to say Aye." Instantly, such a shout arose, +as startled the sick in their beds in the farthest pavilion. No voice +was silent. An irrepressible, exultant, enthusiastic cry answered her +appeal, and told how the black man appreciated the treasure won by such +blood and suffering. + +As has been said before, the personal labors of Mrs. Fenn were +unintermitted as long as a sick or wounded soldier remained in any +hospital. After all the hospitals in the neighborhood of New York were +closed, except that of David's Island, months after the suspension of +hostilities, she continued to be the medium of sending to the men there +the contributions of Berkshire, and the supplies her appeals drew from +various sources. + +The United Societies of Shakers, at Lebanon and Hancock, furnished her +with many supplies--excellent fruit, cheese, eatables of various kinds, +all of the best, cloth, linen new and old, towels, napkins, etc., etc., +all of their own manufacture and freely offered. The Shakers are no less +decided than the Quakers in their testimony against war, but they are +also, as a body, patriotic to a degree, and full of kindly feelings +which thus found expression. + +At one time Mrs. Fenn with a desire of saving for its legitimate purpose +even the small sum paid for rent, gave up the rooms she had hired, and +for more than a year devoted the best parlor of her own handsome +residence to the reception of goods contributed for the soldiers. +Thousands of dollars' worth of supplies were there received and packed +by her own hands. + +Among other things accomplished by this indefatigable woman was the +making of nearly one hundred gallons of blackberry cordial. Most of the +bandages sent from Pittsfield were made by her, and so nicely, that Mrs. +Fenn's bandages became famed throughout the army and hospitals. In all, +they amounted to many thousand yards. One box which accompanied +Burnside's expedition, alone contained over four thousand yards of +bandages, which she had prepared. + +Though the bounties she so lavishly sent forth were in a very large +measure devoted to the hospitals in the neighborhood of New York, to the +Soldiers' Rest in Howard Street; New England Rooms, Central Park, +Ladies' Home and Park Barracks, they were still diffused to all parts of +the land. The Army of the Potomac, and of the Southwest, and scores of +scattered companies and regiments shared them. The Massachusetts +Regiments, whether at home or abroad, were always remembered with the +tenderest care, and especially was the gallant Forty-ninth, raised +almost entirely in Berkshire, the object of that helpful solicitude +which never wearied of well-doing. + +Almost decimated by disease in the deadly bayous of the Southwest, and +in the fearful conflicts at Port Hudson and its neighborhood in the +summer of 1863, the remnant at length returned to Berkshire to receive +such a welcome and ovation at Pittsfield, on the 22d of August of that +year, as has seldom been extended to our honored soldiery. About fifty +of these men were at once taken to the hospital, and long lay ill, the +constant recipients of unwearied kind attentions from Mrs. Fenn and her +coadjutors. + +Much as we have said of the excellent and extensive work performed by +this most admirable woman, space fails us for the detail of the half. +Her work was so various, and so thoroughly good in every department, +both head and hands were so entirely at the service of these her +suffering countrymen, that it would be impossible to tell the half. The +close of the war has brought her a measure of repose, but for such as +she there is no rest while human beings suffer and their cry ascends for +help. Her charities are large to the freedmen, and the refugees who at +the present time so greatly need aid. She is also lending her efforts to +the collection of the funds needful for the erection of a monument to +her fallen soldiers which Pittsfield proposes to raise at an expense of +several thousands of dollars contributed by the people. + +At sixty-eight, Mrs. Fenn is still erect, active, and with a countenance +beaming with animation and benevolence, bids fair to realize the wish +which at sight of her involuntarily springs to all lips that her life +may long be spared to the good words and works to which it is devoted. +She has been the recipient of several handsome testimonials from her +towns-people and from abroad, and many a token of the soldier's +gratitude, inexpensive, but most valuable, in view of the laborious and +painstaking care which formed them, has reached her hands and is placed +with worthy pride among her treasures. + + + + +MRS. JAMES HARLAN. + + +There have been numerous instances of ladies of high social position, +the wives and daughters of generals of high rank, and commanding large +bodies of troops, of Governors of States, of Senators and +Representatives in Congress, of Members of the Cabinet, or of other +Government officials, who have felt it an honor to minister to the +defenders of their country, or to aid in such ways as were possible the +blessed work of relieving pain and suffering, of raising up the +down-trodden, or of bringing the light of hope and intelligence back to +the dull and glazed eyes of the loyal whites who escaped from cruel +oppression and outrages worse than death to the Union lines. Among these +will be readily recalled, Mrs. John C. Fremont, Mrs. General W. H. L. +Wallace, Mrs. Harvey, Mrs. Governor Salomon, Mrs. William H. Seward, +Mrs. Ira Harris, Mrs. Samuel C. Pomeroy, Mrs. L. E. Chittenden, Mrs. +John S. Phelps, and, though last named, by no means the least efficient, +Mrs. James Harlan. + +Mrs. Harlan is a native of Kentucky, but removed to Indiana in her +childhood. Here she became acquainted with Mr. Harlan to whom she was +married in 1845 or 1846. In the rapid succession of positions of honor +and trust to which her husband was elevated by the people, as +Superintendent of Public Instruction, President of Mount Pleasant +University, United States Senator, Secretary of the Interior, and again +United States Senator, Mrs. Harlan proved herself worthy of a position +by his side. Possessing great energy and resolution and a highly +cultivated intellect, she acquitted herself at all times with dignity +and honor. When the nominal became the actual war, and great battles +were fought, she was among the first to go to the bloody battle-fields +and minister to the wounded and dying. After the battle of Shiloh she +was one of the first ladies on the field, and her labors were incessant +and accomplished great good. Her position as the wife of a distinguished +senator, and her energy and decision of character were used with effect, +and she was enabled to wring from General Halleck the permission +previously refused to all applicants to remove the wounded to hospitals +at Mound City, St. Louis, Keokuk, and elsewhere, where their chances of +recovery were greatly improved. At Washington where she subsequently +spent much of her time, she devoted her energies first to caring for the +Iowa soldiers, but she soon came to feel that all Union soldiers were +her brothers, and she ministered to all without distinction of State +lines. She lost during the war a lovely and beautiful daughter, Jessie +Fremont Harlan, and the love which had been bestowed upon her overflowed +after her death upon the soldiers of the Union. Her faithfulness, +energy, and continuous labors in behalf of the soldiers, her earnestness +in protecting them from wrongs or oppression, her quick sympathy with +their sorrows, and her zealous efforts for their spiritual good, will be +remembered by many thousands of them all over the country. Mrs. Harlan +early advocated the mingling of religious effort with the distribution +of physical comforts among the soldiers, and though she herself would +probably shrink from claiming, as some of her enthusiastic friends have +done for her, the honor of inaugurating the movement which culminated in +the organization of the Christian Commission, its plan of operations was +certainly fully in accordance with her own, and she was from the +beginning one of its most active and efficient supporters. + +Mrs. Harlan was accompanied in many of her visits to the army by Mrs. +Almira Fales, of whom we have elsewhere given an account, and whose +husband having been the first State Auditor of Iowa, was drawn to her +not only by the bond of a common benevolence, but by State ties, which +led them both to seek the good of the soldiers in whom both felt so deep +an interest. Mrs. Harlan continued her labors for the soldiers till +after the close of the war, and has been active since that time in +securing for them their rights. Her health was much impaired by her +protracted efforts in their behalf, and during the year 1866 she was +much of the time an invalid. + + + + +NEW ENGLAND SOLDIERS' RELIEF ASSOCIATION. + + +The "New England Society," of New York City, is an Association of long +standing, for charitable and social purposes, and is composed of natives +of New England, residing in New York, and its vicinity. Soon after the +outbreak of the war, this society became the nucleus of a wider and less +formal organization--the Sons of New England. In April, 1862, these +gentlemen formed the New England Soldiers' Relief Association, whose +object was declared to be "to aid and care for all sick and wounded +soldiers passing through the city of New York, on their way to or from +the war." On the 8th of April, its "Home," a building well adapted to +its purposes, was opened at No. 198 Broadway, and Dr. Everett Herrick, +was appointed its resident Surgeon, and Mrs. E. A. Russell, its Matron. +The Home was a hospital as well as a home, and in its second floor +accommodated a very considerable number of patients. Its Matron was +faithful and indefatigable in her performance of her duties, and in the +three years of her service had under her care more than sixty thousand +soldiers, many of them wounded or disabled. + +A Women's Auxiliary Committee was formed soon after the establishment of +the Association, consisting of thirty ladies who took their turn of +service as nurses for the sick and wounded through the year, and +provided for them additional luxuries and delicacies to those furnished +by the Association and the Government rations. These ladies, the wives +and daughters of eminent merchants, clergymen, physicians, and lawyers +of the city, performed their work with great faithfulness and assiduity. +The care of the sick and wounded men during the night, devolved upon the +Night Watchers' Association, a voluntary committee of young men of the +highest character, who during a period of three years never failed to +supply the needful watchers for the invalid soldiers. + +The ladies in addition to their services as nurses, took part in a choir +for the Sabbath services, in which all the exercises were by volunteers. + +The Soldiers' Depôt in Howard Street, New York, organized in 1863, was +an institution of somewhat similar character to the New England +Soldiers' Relief, though it recognized a primary responsibility to New +York soldiers. It was founded and sustained mainly by State +appropriations, and a very earnest and faithful association of ladies, +here also bestowed their care and services upon the soldiers. Mrs. G. T. +M. Davis, was active and prominent in this organization. + + + + +PART IV. + +LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR SERVICES AMONG THE FREEDMEN AND REFUGEES. + + + + +MRS. FRANCES D. GAGE. + + +On the 12th of October, 1808, was born in the township of Union, +Washington County, Ohio, Frances Dana Barker. Her father had, twenty +years before that time, gone a pioneer to the Western wilds. His name +was Joseph Barker, a native of New Hampshire. Her mother was Elizabeth +Dana, of Massachusetts, and her maternal grandmother was Mary Bancroft. +She was thus allied on the maternal side to the well-known Massachusetts +families of Dana and Bancroft. + +During her childhood, schools were scarce in Ohio, and in the small +country places inferior. A log-cabin in the woods was the Seminary where +Frances Barker acquired the rudiments of education. The wolf's howl, the +panther's cry, the hiss of the copperhead, often filled her young heart +with terror. + +Her father was a farmer, and the stirring life of a farmer's daughter in +a new country, fell to her lot. To spin the garments she wore, to make +cheese and butter, were parts of her education, while to lend a hand at +out-door labor, perhaps helped her to acquire that vigor of body and +brain for which she has since been distinguished. + +She made frequent visits to her grandmother, Mrs. Mary Bancroft Dana, +whose home was at Belpre, Ohio, upon the Ohio river, only one mile from +Parkersburg, Virginia, and opposite Blennerhasset's Island. Mrs. Dana, +was even then a radical on the subject of slavery, and Frances learned +from her to hate the word, and all it represented. She never was on the +side of the oppressor, and was frequently laughed at in childhood, for +her sympathy with the poor fugitives from slavery, who often found their +way to the neighborhood in which she lived, seeking kindness and charity +of the people. + +It had not then become a crime to give a crust of bread, or a cup of +milk to the "fugitive from labor," and Mrs. Barker, a noble, +true-thinking woman, often sent her daughter on errands of mercy to the +neighboring cabins, where the poor creatures sought shelter, and would +tarry a few days, often to be caught and sent back to their masters. +Thus she early became familiarized with their sufferings, and their +wants. + +At the age of twenty, on the 1st of January, 1829, Frances Barker became +the wife of James L. Gage, a lawyer of McConnellsville, Ohio, a good and +noble man, whose hatred of the system of slavery in the South, was +surpassed only by that of the great apostle of anti-slavery, Garrison, +himself. Moral integrity, and unflinching fidelity to the cause of +humanity, were leading traits of his character. + +A family of eight children engrossed much of their attention for many +years, but still they found time to wage moral warfare with the +stupendous wrong that surrounded them, and bore down their friends and +neighbors beneath the leaden weight of its prejudice and injustice. + +Mrs. Gage records that "it never seemed to her to require any sacrifice +to resist the popular will upon the subjects of freedom for the slave, +temperance, or even the rights of woman." They were all so manifestly +right, in her opinion, that she could not but take her stand as their +advocates, and it was far easier for her to maintain them than to yield +one iota of her conscientious views. + +Thus she always found herself in a minority, through all the struggling +years between 1832 and 1865. She had once an engagement with the editor +of a "State Journal" to write weekly for his columns during a year. +This, at that time seemed to her a great achievement. But a few plain +words from her upon the Fugitive Slave Law, brought a note saying her +services were no longer wanted; "He would not," the editor wrote, +"publish sentiments in his Journal, which, if carried out, would strike +at the foundations of all law, order, and government," and added much +good advice. Her reply was prompt: + + "Yours of ---- is at hand. Thanking you for your unasked counsel, I + cheerfully retire from your columns. + + "Respectfully yours, + "F. D. GAGE." + +She has lived to see that editor change many of his views, and approach +her standard. + +The great moral struggle of the thirty years preceding the war, in her +opinion, required for its continuance far more heroism than that which +marshalled our hosts along the Potomac, prompted Sheridan's raids, or +Sherman's triumphant "march to the sea." + +In all her warfare against existing wrong, that which she waged for the +liberties of her own sex subjected her to the most trying persecution, +insult and neglect. In the region of Ohio where she then resided, she +stood almost alone, but she was never inclined to yield. Probably, +unknown to herself, this very discipline was preparing her for the +events of the future, and its supreme tests of her principles. + +A member of Congress once called to urge her to persuade her husband to +yield a point of principle (which he said if adhered to would prove the +political ruin of Mr. Gage) holding out the bribe of a seat in Congress, +if he would stand by the old Whig party in some of its tergiversations, +and insisting that if he persisted in doing as he had threatened, he +would soon find himself standing alone. She promised the gentleman that +she would repeat to her husband what he had said, and as soon as he had +gone seized her pencil and wrote the following impromptu, which serves +well to illustrate her firm persistence in any course she believes +right, as well as the principle that animates her. + + + DARE TO STAND ALONE. + + "Be bold, be firm, be strong, be true, + And dare to stand alone. + Strike for the Right whate'er ye do, + Though helpers there be none. + + "Oh! bend not to the swelling surge + Of popular crime and wrong. + 'Twill bear thee on to Ruin's verge + With current wild and strong. + + "Strike for the Right, tho' falsehood rail + And proud lips coldly sneer. + A poisoned arrow cannot wound + A conscience pure and clear. + + "Strike for the Right, and with clean hands + Exalt the truth on high, + Thou'lt find warm sympathizing hearts + Among the passers by, + + "Those who have thought, and felt, and prayed, + Yet could not singly dare + The battle's brunt; but by thy side + Will every danger share. + + "Strike for the Right. Uphold the Truth. + Thou'lt find an answering tone + In honest hearts, and soon no more + Be left to stand alone." + +She handed this poem to the gentleman with whom she had been conversing, +and he afterwards told her that it decided him to give up all for +principle. He led off in his district in what was soon known as the Free +Soil party, the root of the present triumphant Republican party. + +In 1853 the family of Mrs. Gage removed to St. Louis. Those who fought +the anti-slavery battle in Massachusetts have little realization of the +difficulty and danger of maintaining similar sentiments in a +slaveholding community, and a slave State. Mrs. Gage spoke boldly +whenever her thought seemed to be required, and soon found herself +branded as an "abolitionist" with every adjective appended that could +tend to destroy public confidence. + +While Colonel Chambers, the former accomplished editor of the Missouri +Republican lived, she wrote for his columns, and at one time summing up +the resources of that great State, she advanced this opinion: "Strike +from your statute books the laws that give man the right to hold +property in man, and ten years from this time Missouri will lead its +sister State on the eastern shore of the Mississippi." + +After the publication of this article, Colonel Chambers was waited upon +and remonstrated with by some old slaveholders, for allowing an +abolitionist to write for his journal. "Such sentiments," they said, +"would destroy the Union." "If your Union," replied he, "is based upon a +foundation so unstable that one woman's breath can blow it down, in +God's name let her do it. She shall say her say while I live and edit +this paper." + +He died soon after, and Mrs. Gage was at once excluded from its columns, +by the succeeding editors, refused payment for past labors, or a return +of her manuscripts. + +The Missouri Democrat soon after hoisted the flag of Emancipation under +the leadership of Frank Blair. She became one of its correspondents, and +for several years continued to supply its columns with an article once +or twice a week. Appearing in 1858 upon the platform of the Boston +Anti-Slavery Society, she was at once excluded as dangerous to the +interests of the party which the paper represented. + +During all the years of her life in Missouri Mrs. Gage frequently +received letters threatening her with personal violence, or the +destruction of her husband's property. Slaves came to her for aid, and +were sent to entrap her, but she succeeded in evading all positive +difficulty and trial. + +During the Kansas war she labored diligently with pen, tongue, and +hands, for those who so valiantly fought the oppressor in that hour of +trial. She expected to be waylaid and to be made to suffer for her +temerity, and perhaps she did; for about the close of that perilous year +three disastrous fires, supposed to be the work of incendiaries, greatly +reduced the family resources. + +This portion of the life of Mrs. Gage has been dwelt upon at +considerable length, because she regards the struggle then made against +the wickedness, prejudice, and bigotry of mankind, as the main bravery +of her life, and that if there has been heroism in any part of it, it +was then displayed. "If as a woman," she says, "to take the platform +amidst hissing, and scorn, and newspaper vituperations, to maintain the +right of woman to the legitimate use of all the talents God invests her +with; to maintain the rights of the slave in the very ears of the +masters; to hurl anathemas at intemperance in the very camps of the +dram-sellers; if to continue for forty years, in spite of all opposing +forces, to press the triune cause persistently, consistently, and +unflinchingly, entitles me to a humble place among those noble ones who +have gone about doing good, you can put me in that place as it suits +you." + +At the breaking out of the war, by reason of her husband's failure in +business at St. Louis, and his ill-health, Mrs. Gage found herself +filling the post of Editor of the Home Department of an Agricultural +paper in Columbus, Ohio. The call for help for the soldiers, was +responded to by all loyal women. Mrs. Gage did what she could with her +hands, but found them tied by unavoidable labors. She offered tongue and +pen, and found them much more efficient agents. The war destroyed the +circulation of the paper, and she was set free. + +The cry of suffering from the Freedmen reached her, and God seemed to +speak to her heart, telling her that there was her mission. + +In the autumn of 1862, without appointment, or salary, with only faith +in God that she should be sustained, and with a firm reliance on the +invincible principles of Truth and Justice, in the hope of doing good, +she left Ohio, and proceeded directly to Port Royal. + +She remained among the freedmen of Beaufort, Paris, Fernandina, and +other points, thirteen months; administering also to the soldiers, as +often as circumstances gave opportunity. Her own four boys were in the +Union army, and this, if no more, would have given every "boy in blue," +a claim upon her sympathy and kindness. + +In the fall of 1863, Mrs. Gage returned North, and with head and heart +filled to overflowing with the claims of the great mission upon which +she had entered, she commenced a lecturing tour, speaking to the people +of her "experiences among the Freedmen." To show them as they were, to +give a truthful portrayal of Slavery, its barbarity and heinousness, its +demoralization of master and man, its incompatibility with all things +beautiful or good, its defiance of God and his truth; and to show the +intensely human character of the slave, who, through this fearful ordeal +of two hundred years, had preserved so much goodness, patient hope, +unwavering trust in Jesus, faith in God, such desire for knowledge and +capability of self-support--such she felt to be her mission, and as such +she performed it! She believed that by removing prejudice, and inspiring +confidence in the Emancipation Proclamation, and by striving to unite +the people on this great issue, she could do more than in any other way +toward ending the war, and relieving the soldier--such was the aim of +her lectures, while she never omitted to move the hearts of the audience +toward those so nobly defending the Union and the Government. + +Thus, in all the inclement winter weather, through Pennsylvania, New +York, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri, she pursued her labors of love, +never omitting an evening when she could get an audience to address, +speaking for Soldiers' Aid Societies, and giving the proceeds to those +who worked only for the soldier,--then for Freedmen's Associations. She +worked without fee or reward, asking only of those who were willing, to +give enough to defray her expenses--for herself--thankful if she +received, cheerful if she did not. + +Following up this course till the summer days made lecturing seem +impossible, she started from St. Louis down the Mississippi, to Memphis, +Vicksburg, and Natchez. On this trip she went as an unsalaried agent of +the Western Sanitary Commission--receiving only her expenses, and the +goods and provisions wherewith to relieve the want and misery she met +among our suffering men. + +A few months' experience among the Union Refugees, and unprotected +fugitives, or unprotected Freedmen, convinced her that her best work for +all was in the lecturing field, in rousing the hearts of the multitude +to good deeds. + +She had but one weak pair of hands, while her voice might set a hundred, +nay, a thousand pairs in motion, and believing that we err if we fail to +use our best powers for life's best uses, she again, after a few months +with the soldiers and other sufferers, entered the lecturing field in +the West, speaking almost nightly. + +In the month of September, she was overturned in a carriage at +Galesburg, Illinois. Some bones were broken, and she was otherwise so +injured as to be entirely crippled for that year. She has since been +able to labor only occasionally, and in great weakness for the _cause_. +This expression she uses for all struggle against wrong. "Temperance, +Freedom, Justice to the negro, Justice to woman," she says, "are but +parts of one great whole, one mighty temple whose maker and builder is +God." + +Through all the vicissitudes of the past; through all its years of +waiting, her faith in Him who led, and held, and comforted, has never +wavered, and to Him alone does she ascribe the Glory of our National +Redemption. + + + + +MRS. LUCY GAYLORD POMEROY. + + +In 1803, some families from Bristol and Meriden, Connecticut, removed to +the wilderness of New York, and settled in what is now Otisco, Onondaga +County. Among these were Chauncey Gaylord, a sturdy, athletic young man, +just arrived at the age of twenty-one, and "a little, quiet, black-eyed +girl, with a sunny, thoughtful face, only eleven years old." Her name +was Dema Cowles. So the young man and the little girl became +acquaintances, and friends, and in after years lovers. In 1817 they were +married. Their first home was of logs, containing one room, with a rude +loft above, and an excavation beneath for a cellar. + +In this humble abode was born Lucy Ann Gaylord, the subject of this +sketch, who afterwards became the wife of Samuel C. Pomeroy, United +States Senator from Kansas. + +Plain and humble as was this home, it was a consecrated one, where God +was worshipped, and the purest religious lessons taught. Mrs. Gaylord +was a woman of remarkable strength of character and principles, one who +carried her religion into all the acts of daily life, and taught by a +consistent example, no less than by a wise precept. Her mother had early +been widowed, and had afterwards married Mr. Eliakim Clark, from +Massachusetts, and had become the mother of the well-known +twin-brothers, Lewis Gaylord, and Willis Gaylord Clark, destined to +develop into scholars and poets, and to leave their mark upon the +literature of America. She had been entrusted with the care of these +beautiful and noble boys for some years, and was already experienced in +duties of that kind, before children of her own were given her. +Doubtless to her high order of intellect, refined taste, amiable +disposition, and sterling good sense, all the children who shared her +care are indebted to a great extent for the noble qualities they +possess. + +Other children succeeded Lucy, and as the elder sister, she shared, in +their primitive mode of life, her mother's cares and duties. Her +character developed and expanded, and she grew in mental grace as in +stature, loving all beautiful things and noble thoughts, and early +making a profession of religion. + +By this time the family occupied a handsome rural homestead, where +neatness, order, regularity, industry and kindness reigned, and where a +liberal hospitality was always practiced. Here gathered all the large +group of family relatives, here the aged grandmother Clark lived, and +hither came her gifted twin sons, from time to time, as to their home. +The most beautiful scenery surrounded this homestead; peace, order, +intelligence, truth and godliness abounded there, and amidst such +influences Lucy Gaylord had the training which led to the future +usefulness of her life. Even in her youth she was the friend and safe +counsellor of her brothers, as in her maturer years she was of her +gifted husband. + +At eighteen she made a public profession of religion, and soon after the +thought of consecrating herself to the missionary work took possession +of her mind. To this end she labored and studied for several years, +steadfastly educating herself for a vocation to which she believed +herself called, though often afflicted with serious doubts as to whether +she, being an only daughter, could leave her parents. + +In early life she became an earnest and efficient teacher in +Sunday-schools, her intellectual pursuits furnishing her with ever fresh +means of rendering her instruction interesting and useful to her +classes. She undoubtedly at the first considered this as a training for +the work to which, in time, she hoped to devote herself. + +But this hope was destined to disappointment. One violent illness after +another finally destroyed her health, and she never quite recovered the +early tone of her system. Yet she worked on, doing good wherever the +means presented. + +Soon afterwards she met with the great sorrow of her life. The young man +to whom she was soon to be married, between whom and herself the +strongest attachment existed, cemented by a mutual knowledge of noble +qualities, was suddenly snatched from her, and she became a widow in all +but the name. + +This sorrow still more refined and beautified her character. By degrees +the sharpness of the grief wore away, and it became a sweet, though +saddened memory. Eight years after her loss, she became the wife of +Samuel C. Pomeroy, of Southampton, Massachusetts. "They were of kindred +feelings in life's great work, had suffered alike by early bereavement, +and were drawn together by that natural affinity which unites two lives +in one." + +He had given up mercantile business in Western New York not long before, +and had returned to his early home to care for the declining years of +his aged parents. And this was the missionary work to which Mrs. Pomeroy +found herself appointed. She was welcomed heartily, and found her duties +rendered light by appreciation and affection. + +Here, as elsewhere, Mrs. Pomeroy made herself actively useful beyond, as +well as within, her home. She performed duties of Sabbath School and +general religious instruction, that might be called arduous, especially +when added to her domestic cares and occupations. These, with other +labors, exhausted her strength and a protracted season of illness +followed. + +From that time, 1850, for five or six years, she continued to suffer, +being most of the time very ill, her life often despaired of. During all +this season of peculiar trial she never lost her faith and courage, even +when her physicians gave no hope of her recovery, being contented to +abide by the will of Providence, convinced that if God had any work for +her to do He would spare her life. During this time her husband was +often absent, being first in the Massachusetts Legislature, and +afterwards sent out as Agent by the Northeastern Aid Society to Kansas, +which they were desirous to settle as a free State. Into this last duty +she insisted with energy that he should enter. During his absence she +experienced other afflictions, but her health notwithstanding rallied, +and as soon as possible she made preparations to remove to Kansas where +Mr. Pomeroy wished to make a home. In the spring of 1857 she finally +arrived there, and there she remained until the spring of 1861, when she +accompanied her husband to Washington, when he went thither to take his +seat in the Senate. + +The hardships and the usefulness of her life in Kansas are matters of +history, and it is truly surprising to read how one so long an invalid +was enabled to perform such protracted and exhausted labors. All who +knew her there bear ample and enthusiastic testimony to the usefulness +of her life. To the whites she was friend, hostess, counsellor, +assistant, in sickness and in health. To the poor and despised blacks, +striving to find freedom, she was friend and teacher, even at the time +when her near neighborhood to the slave State of Missouri, made the +service most dangerous. Then followed the terrible famine year of 1860. +During all that time she freely gave her services in the work of +providing for the sufferers. Mr. Pomeroy, aided by the knowledge he had +acquired in his experience as Agent of Emigration, was able at once to +put the machinery in motion for obtaining supplies from the East, and +Mrs. Pomeroy transformed her home into an office of distribution, of +which she was superintendent and chief clerk. It was a year that taxed +far too heavily her already much exhausted strength. + +When she accompanied her husband to Washington in the spring, her health +failed, cough and hoarseness troubled her, and she was obliged to leave +for visits in her native air, and for a stay of some months at Geneva +Water Cure. + +From the breaking out of the war Mrs. Pomeroy, on all occasions, proved +herself desirous of the welfare of our soldiers. The record of her deeds +of kindness in their behalf is not as ample as that of some others, for +her health forbade the active nursing, and visiting of the sick in +hospitals, which is the most showy part of the work. But her +contributions of supplies were always large; and she had always a +peculiar care and interest in the religious and moral welfare of the +volunteers, who, far from the influences of home, and exposed to new and +numerous temptations, were, she felt, in more than one sense encircled +by peculiar dangers. + +Only once did she revisit her Kansas home, and in the autumn of 1862 +spent some months there. There was at that time a regiment in camp at +Atchison, and she was enabled to do great good to the sick in hospital, +not only with supplies, but by her own personal efforts for their +physical and spiritual welfare. + +On her return to Washington she there entered as actively as possible +into this work. Her form became known in the hospitals, and many a +suffering man hailed her coming with a new light kindling his dimmed +eyes. She brought them comforts and delicacies, and she added her +prayers and her precious instructions. She cared both for souls and +bodies, and earned the immortal gratitude of those to whom she +ministered. + +In January, 1863, her last active benevolent work was commenced, namely +the foundation of an asylum at the National Capital for the freed +orphans and destitute aged colored women whom the war, and the +Proclamation of Emancipation, had thrown upon the care of the +benevolent. For several months she was actively engaged in this +enterprise. A charter was immediately obtained, and when the Association +was organized, Mrs. Pomeroy was chosen President. + +Almost entirely by her exertions, a building for the Asylum was +obtained, as well as some condemned hospital furniture, which was to be +sold at auction by the Government, but was instead transferred--a most +useful gift--to the Asylum. + +But when the time came, about the 1st of June, 1863, for the Association +to be put in possession of the buildings and grounds assigned them, Mrs. +Pomeroy was too ill to receive the keys, and the Secretary took her +place. She was never able to look upon the fruit of her labors. Again, +she had exhausted her feeble powers, and she was never more to rally. + +A slow fever followed, which at last assumed the form of typhoid. She +lingered on, slightly better at times, until the 17th of July, when +preparations were completed for removing her to the Geneva Water Cure, +and she started upon her last journey. She went by water, and arrived at +New York very comfortably, leaving there again on the boat for Albany, +on the morning of the 20th. But death overtook her before even this +portion of the journey was finished. She died upon the passage, on the +afternoon of July 20th, 1863. After her life of usefulness and devotion, +her name at last stands high upon the roll of martyr-women, whom this +war has made. + + + + +MARIA R. MANN. + + +Among the heroic women who labored most efficiently and courageously +during the late civil war for the good of our soldiers, and the poor +"contrabands," as the freed people were called, was Miss Maria R. Mann, +an educated and refined woman from Massachusetts, a near relative of the +first Secretary of the Board of Education of that renowned Commonwealth, +who gave his life and all his great powers to the cause of education, +and finished his noble career as the President of Antioch College, in +Ohio. + +Miss Mann, is a native of Massachusetts, and spent the greater portion +of her mature life previous to the war, as a teacher. In this, her +chosen profession, she attained a high position, and for a number of +years taught in the High Schools. As a teacher she was highly esteemed +for her varied and accurate knowledge, the care and minuteness with +which she imparted instruction to her pupils, the high moral and +religious principle which controlled her actions, and made her life an +example of truth and goodness to her pupils, and for her enthusiastic +interest in the cause of education, of freedom and justice for the +slave, and of philanthropy and humanity towards the orphan, the +prisoner, the outcast, the oppressed and the poor, to whom her heart +went out in kindly sympathies, and in prayer and effort for the +improvement of their condition. + +During the first year of the rebellion, she left all her pleasant +associations in New England, and came out to St. Louis, that she might +be nearer to the scene of conflict, and aid in the work of the Western +Sanitary Commission, and in nursing the sick and wounded soldiers, with +whom the hospitals at St. Louis were crowded that year. On her arrival, +she was duly commissioned by Mr. Yeatman, (the agent of Miss Dix for the +employment of women nurses), and entered upon her duties in the Fifth +Street Hospital. + +For several months, she devoted herself to this work with great fidelity +and patience, and won the gratitude of many a poor sufferer by her +kindness, and the respect of the surgeons, by her good judgment and her +blended gentleness and womanly dignity. + +Late in the fall of 1862, the Western Sanitary Commission was moved to +establish an agency at Helena, Ark., for the special relief of several +hundred colored families at that military post who had gathered there +from the neighboring country, and from the opposite shore in +Mississippi, as a place of refuge from their rebel owners. It was at +that time a miserable refuge, for the post was commanded by pro-slavery +Generals, who succeeded the humane and excellent Major-General Curtis, +who was unfortunately relieved of his command, and transferred to St. +Louis, in consequence of slanders against him at Washington, which some +of his pro-slavery subordinates had been busy in fabricating; and the +free papers which he gave to the colored people were violated; they were +subjected to all manner of cruelties and hardships; they were put under +a forced system of labor; driven by mounted orderlies to work on the +fortifications, and to unload steamboats and coal barges; and discharged +at night without compensation, or a comfortable shelter. No proper +record was kept of their services, and most of them never received any +pay for months of incessant toil. They were compelled to camp together +in the outskirts of the town, in huts and condemned tents, and the +rations issued to them were cut down to a half ration for the women and +children; so that they were neither well fed nor sheltered properly from +the weather, while they were entirely destitute of comfortable +clothing, and were without the means of purchasing new. Subjected to +this treatment, very great sickness and mortality prevailed among them. +In the miserable building assigned them for a hospital, which was wholly +unprovided with hospital furniture and bedding, and without regular +nurses or attendants, they were visited once a day by a contract +surgeon, who merely looked in upon them, administered a little medicine, +and left them to utter neglect and misery. Here they died at a fearful +rate, and their dead bodies were removed from the miserable pallet of +straw, or the bare floor where they had breathed their last, and buried +in rude coffins, and sometimes coffinless, in a low piece of ground near +by. The proportion of deaths, was about seventy-five percent. of all who +were carried sick to this miserable place, so that the colored people +became greatly afraid of being sent to the hospital, considering it the +same as going to a certain death; and many of them refused to go, even +in the last stages of sickness, and died in their huts, and in and out +of the very places into which they had crawled for concealment, +neglected and alone. + +This state of things was fully known to the Generals commanding, and to +the medical director, and the army surgeons at Helena, without the least +effort being made on their part towards their improvement or +alleviation. From August, 1862, to January, 1863, they continued to +suffer in this manner, until the printed report and appeal of the +chaplains at Helena for aid, brought some voluntary contributions of +clothing, and secured the attention of the Western Sanitary Commission, +at St. Louis, to the great need of help at Helena, for the +"contrabands." + +It was at this juncture that the Commission proposed to Miss Mann to go +to Helena, and act the part of the Good Samaritan to the colored people +who had congregated there; to establish a hospital for the sick among +them; to supply them with clothing and other necessaries, and in all +possible ways to improve their condition. The offer was readily accepted +by her, and in the month of January she arrived at Helena, with an ample +supply of sanitary goods and clothing, and with letters commending her +to the protection and aid of the commanding general, and to the chaplain +of the post, (who now furnishes this sketch from his memory), and to the +superintendent of freedmen, who welcomed her as a providential messenger +whom God had sent to his neglected and suffering poor. + +The passage from St. Louis to Helena, a distance of six hundred miles, +in mid-winter, at a time when the steamers were fired on by guerrillas +from the shore, and sometimes captured, was made by Miss Mann, +unattended, and without knowing where she would find a shelter when she +arrived. The undertaking was attended with difficulty and danger, and +many obstacles were to be overcome, but the brave spirit of this noble +woman knew no such word as fail. Fortunately, the post chaplain, who had +been detailed to a service requiring clerks, was able to receive Miss +Mann, provide rooms for her, give her a place at the mess board, and +render useful aid in her work. He remembers with a grateful interest how +bravely she encountered every difficulty, and persevered in her humane +undertaking, until almost every evil the colored people suffered was +removed. A new hospital building was secured, furnished, and provided +with good surgeons and nurses, and the terrible sickness and mortality +reduced to the minimum per-centage of the best regulated hospitals; a +new and better camping ground was obtained, and buildings erected for +shelter; a school for the children was established, and the women taught +how to cut and make garments, and advised and instructed how to live and +be useful to themselves and their families. Material for clothing was +furnished them, which they made up for themselves. As the season of +spring came, the able-bodied men were enlisted as soldiers, by a new +order of the Government; those who were not fit for the military service +were hired by the new lessees of the plantations, and the condition of +the colored people was changed from one of utter misery and despair, to +one of thrift, improvement and comparative happiness. + +In all these changes Miss Mann was a moving spirit, and with the +co-operation of the chaplains, and the friendly sanction and aid of +Major-General Prentiss--who on his arrival in February, 1863, introduced +a more humane treatment of the freed people--she was able to fulfil her +benevolent mission, and remained till the month of August of that year. + +The heroism of Miss Mann during the winter season at Helena, was a +marvel to us all. It was an exceedingly rainy winter, and the streets +were often knee deep with mud. The town is built on a level, marshy +region of bottom land, and for weeks the roads became almost impassable, +and had to be waded on horseback, or the levee followed, and causeways +had to be built by the military. But Miss Mann was not to be prevented +by these difficulties from visiting the "Contraband Hospital," as it was +called, and from going her rounds to the families of the poor colored +people who needed her advice and assistance. I have often taken her +myself in an open wagon with which we carried the mail bags to and from +the steamers--having charge of the military post-office--and conveyed +her from place to place, when the wheels would sink almost to the hubs, +and returned with her to her quarters; and on several occasions when she +had gone on foot when the side-walks were dry, and she came to a +crossing that required deep wading, I have known her to call some stout +black man to her aid, to carry her across, and set her down on the +opposite sidewalk. In these cases the service was rendered with true +politeness and gallantry, and with the remark, "Bress the Lord, missus, +it's no trouble to carry you troo de mud, and keep your feet dry, you +who does so much for us black folks. You's light as a fedder, anyhow, +and de good Lord gibs you a wonderful sight of strength to go 'bout dis +yere muddy town, to see de poor culled folks, and gib medicines to the +sick, and feed the hungry, and clothe de naked, and I bress de good Lord +dat he put it into your heart to come to Helena." + +In the autumn of 1863 Miss Mann felt that her work in Helena was +accomplished, and she returned to St. Louis, the colored people greatly +lamenting her departure. In her work there she not only had the +co-operation and assistance of the Western Sanitary Commission, but of +many benevolent ladies in New England, personal friends of Miss Mann and +others, who, through Rev. Dr. Eliot of St. Louis, supplied a large +portion of the funds that were necessary to defray the expenses of our +mission. + +A new call to a theatre of usefulness in Washington City, in the +District of Columbia, now came to Miss Mann, to become the teacher of a +colored orphan asylum, which she accepted, where she devoted her +energies to the welfare of the children of those who in the army, or in +some other service to their country and race have laid down their lives, +and left their helpless offspring to be cared for by Him, who hears even +the young ravens when they cry, and moves human hearts to fulfil the +ministry of his love; and who by his Spirit is moving the American +people to do justly to the freed people of this land, and to make +reparation for the oppression and wrong they have endured for so many +generations. + +After rendering a useful and excellent service as a teacher in the +Colored Orphan Asylum at Washington, she was induced by the colored +people, who greatly appreciated her work for their children, to +establish an independent school in Georgetown. Friends at the North +purchased a portable building for a school-house; the Freedmen's Bureau +offered her a lot of ground to put it on, but not being in the right +locality she rented one, and the building was sent to her, and has been +beautifully fitted up for the purpose. The school has been successfully +established, and under her excellent management, teaching, and +discipline, it has become a model school. Intelligent persons visiting +it are impressed by the perfect order maintained, and the advancement of +the scholars in knowledge and good behaviour. + +Miss Mann has made many personal sacrifices in establishing and carrying +forward this school without government patronage or support, and the +only fear concerning it is that the colored people will not be able from +their limited resources to sustain it. It is her wish to prepare her +scholars to become teachers of other colored schools, a work she is +amply and remarkably qualified to do, and one in which she would be +sustained by philanthropic aid, if the facts were known to those who +feel the importance of all such efforts for the education and +improvement of the colored people of this country, in the new position +upon which they have entered as free citizens of the republic. + +Among the gratifying results which Miss Mann has found in this work of +instruction among the colored people are the rapid improvement she has +witnessed among them, the capacity and eagerness with which they pursue +the acquisition of knowledge, the gratitude they have evinced to her, +and the consciousness that she has contributed to their welfare and +happiness. + +As a noble, self-sacrificing woman, devoted to the service of her +fellow-beings, and endowed with the best attributes of human nature, +Miss Mann deserves the title of a Christian philanthropist, and her life +and labors will be remembered with gratitude, and the blessing of him +that was ready to perish, and of those who had no helper, will follow +her all the remainder of her days. + + + + +SARAH J. HAGAR + + +It is due to the memory of this noble young woman that she should be +included in the record of those sainted heroines who fearlessly went +into the midst of danger and death that they might minister to the poor +and suffering freedmen, whom our victorious arms had emancipated from +their rebel masters, and yet had left for a time without means or +opportunity to fit themselves for the new life that opened before them. +To this humane service she freely devoted herself and became a victim to +the climate of the lower Mississippi, while engaged in the arduous work +of ministering to the physical wants and the education of the freed +people, who in the winter and spring of 1864, had gathered in camps +around Vicksburg, and along the Louisiana shore. + +Miss Hagar was the eldest daughter of Mrs. C. C. Hagar, who also was one +of the army of heroic nurses who served in the hospitals of St. Louis +during the greater part of the war. For many months they had served +together in the same hospital, and by their faithfulness and careful +ministrations to the sick and wounded soldier had won the highest +confidence of the Western Sanitary Commission, by whose President they +were appointed. + +During the fall of 1863 the National Freedmen's Aid Commission of New +York, under the presidency of Hon. Francis G. Shaw, sent two agents, +Messrs. William L. Marsh and H. R. Foster, to Vicksburg, to establish an +agency there, and at Natchez, for the aid of the freed people, in +furnishing supplies of food and clothing to the destitute, and +establishing schools for the children of the freedmen, and for such +adults as could attend, and to help them in all possible ways to enter +upon the new and better civilization that awaited them. In this work the +Western Sanitary Commission co-operated, and Messrs. Marsh and Foster +wrote to the writer of this sketch, then acting as Secretary of the +above Commission, to send them several teachers and assistants in their +work. Among those who volunteered for the service was Miss Hagar, who +was wanted in another situation in St. Louis, but preferred this more +arduous work for the freedmen. + +The reasons she gave for her choice were, that she was well and strong, +and felt a real interest in the welfare of the freed people; that she +had no prejudices against them, and that while there were enough who +were willing to fill the office of nurse to the white soldiers, it was +more difficult to get those who would render equal kindness and justice +to the black troops, and to the freed people, and therefore she felt it +her duty and pleasure to go. She was accordingly commissioned, and with +Miss A. M. Knight, of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, (another worthy laborer in +the same cause) went down the river to Vicksburg, in the winter of 1864. + +For several months she labored there with untiring devotion to the +interests and welfare of the colored people, under the direction of +Messrs. Marsh and Foster. No task was too difficult for her to undertake +that promised good results, and in danger of all kinds, whether from +disease, or from the assaults of the enemy, she never lost her presence +of mind, nor was wanting in the requisite courage for that emergency. In +person she was above the medium height, and had a face beaming with +kindness, and pleasant to look upon. Her mind had received a good degree +of culture, and her natural intelligence was of a high order. And better +than all within her earthly form dwelt a noble and heroic soul. + +Late in April of that year, she had an attack of malarial fever, which +prostrated her very suddenly, and just in the proportion that she had +been strong and apparently well fortified against disease, it took a +deep hold of her vital powers, and on the 3d of May, she yielded to the +fell destroyer, and breathed no more. + +The following tribute to her character, is taken from the letter of Mr. +Marsh, in which he communicated the sad tidings of her death. + +"In her death the National Freedmen's Aid Association, has lost a most +earnest, devoted, Christian laborer. She entered upon her duties at a +time of great suffering and destitution among the Freedmen at Vicksburg, +and when we were much in need of aid. The fidelity with which she +performed her labors, and the deep interest she manifested in them soon +endeared her to us all. We shall miss her sorely; but the noble example +she has left us will encourage us to greater efforts, and more patient +toil. She seemed also to realize the magnitude and importance of this +work upon which she had entered, and the need of Divine assistance in +its performance. She seemed also to realize what sacrifice might be +demanded of one engaged in a work like this, and the summons, although +sudden, did not find her unprepared to meet it. She has done a noble +work, and done it well. + +"The sacrifice she made is the greatest one that can be made for any +cause, the sacrifice of life. 'Greater love than this hath no man, that +a man lay down his life for his friends.' She has gone to receive her +reward." + +Her remains were brought to her native town in Illinois, and deposited +there, where the blessed memory she has left among her friends and +kindred, is cherished with heartfelt reverence and affection. + + + + +MRS. JOSEPHINE R. GRIFFIN. + + +If the most thoroughly unselfish devotion of an earnest and gifted woman +to the interests and welfare of a despised and down-trodden race, to the +manifest injury and detriment of her own comfort, ease, or pecuniary +prospects, and without any hope or desire of reward other than the +consciousness of having been their benefactor, constitutes a woman a +heroine, then is Mrs. Griffin one of the most remarkable heroines of our +times. + +Of her early history we know little. She was a woman of refinement and +culture, has always been remarkable for her energy and resolution, as +well as for her philanthropic zeal for the poor and oppressed. The +beginning of the war found her a widow, with, we believe, three +children, all daughters, in Washington, D. C. Of these daughters, the +eldest has a position in the Treasury Department, a second has for some +time assisted her mother in her labors, and the youngest is in school. +Mrs. Griffin was too benevolent ever to be rich, and when the freedmen +and their families began to concentrate in the District of Columbia, and +on Arlington Heights, across the Potomac, she sought them out, and made +the effort to ameliorate their condition. At that time they hardly knew +whether they were to be permanently free or not, and massed together as +they were, their old slave habits of recklessness, disorder, and +over-crowding soon gained the predominance, and showed their evil effect +in producing a fearful amount of sickness and death. They were not, +with comparatively few exceptions, indolent; but they had naturally +lapsed into the easy, slovenly methods, or rather want of method of the +old slave life, and a few were doing the greater part of what was done. +They were mere children in capacity, will and perseverance. Mrs. +Griffin, with her intensely energetic nature, soon effected a change. +Order took the place of disorder, under her direction; new cabins were +built, neatness and system maintained, till their good effects were so +apparent, that the freedmen voluntarily pursued the course advised by +their teacher and friend; all who were able to do any work were provided +as far as possible with employment, and schools for the children in the +day time, and for adults in the evening, were established. In this good +work she received material assistance from that devoted young Christian +now gone to his rest, the late Cornelius M. Welles. After awhile, the +able-bodied men were enlisted in the army, and the stronger and +healthier women provided with situations in many instances at the North, +and the children, and feeble, decrepit men and women, could not perform +work enough for their maintenance. Mrs. Griffin began to solicit aid for +them, and carried them through one winter by the assistance she was able +to collect, and by what she gave from her own not over-full purse. Some +land was now allotted to them, and by the utmost diligence they were +enabled to provide almost entirely for themselves, till autumn; but +meantime the Act of Emancipation in the District of Columbia had drawn +thither some thousands of people of color from the adjacent states of +Maryland and Virginia. All looked up to Mrs. Griffin as their special +Providence. She was satisfied that it was better for them, as far as +possible, to find places and work in the Northern States, than to remain +there, where employment was precarious, and where the excessive number +of workers had reduced the wages of such as could find employment. She +accordingly commenced an extensive correspondence, to obtain from +persons at the North in want of servants, orders for such as could be +supplied from the colored people residing in the District of Columbia. +Having completely systematized the matter, she has been in the habit, +for nearly two years past, of leaving Washington once or twice a week, +with a company of colored persons, for whom she had obtained situations +in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, or smaller +cities, paying their fare, providing them with food on the journey, and +at its termination until she could put them into the families who had +engaged them, and then returning to make up another company. The cost of +these expeditions she has provided almost entirely from her own means, +her daughters who have imbibed their mother's spirit, helping as far as +possible in this noble work. In the autumn of 1865 she found that +notwithstanding all for whom she could provide situations, there were +likely to be not less than twenty thousand colored persons, freedmen and +their families, in a state of complete destitution before the 1st of +December, and she published in the Washington and other papers, an +appeal to the benevolent to help. The Freedmen's Bureau at first denied +the truth of her statements, but further investigation convinced them +that she was right, and they were wrong, and Congress was importuned for +an appropriation for their necessities. Twenty-five thousand dollars +were appropriated, and its distribution left to the Freedmen's Bureau. +It would have been more wisely distributed had it been entrusted to Mrs. +Griffin, as she was more thoroughly cognizant of the condition and real +wants of the people than the Bureau could be. Mrs. Griffin has pursued +her work of providing situations for the freedmen, and watching over +their interests to the present time; and so long as life and health +lasts, she is not likely to give it up. + + + + +MRS. M. M. HALLOWELL. + + +The condition of the loyal whites of East Tennessee and Northern Alabama +and Georgia, deservedly excited the sympathy and liberality of the loyal +North. No portion of the people of the United States had proved their +devotion to the Union by more signal sacrifices, more patient endurance, +or more terrible sufferings. The men for the mere avowal of their +attachment to the Union flag and the Constitution were hunted like deer, +and if caught, murdered in cold blood. Most of them managed, though with +great peril, to escape to the Union army, where they became valuable +soldiers, and by their thorough knowledge of the country and their skill +in wood-craft rendered important service as scouts and pioneers. +Whenever they escaped the Rebels visited them, their houses were +plundered, their cattle and other live stock seized, and if the house +was in a Rebel neighborhood or in a secluded situation, it was burned +and the wife and children driven out penniless, and often maltreated, +outraged or murdered. If they escaped with their lives they were obliged +to hide in the caves or woods by day, and travel often hundreds of miles +by night, to reach the Union lines. They came in, wearied, footsore, in +rags, and often sick and nearly dead from starvation. When they reached +Nashville, or Knoxville after it came into our possession, they were in +need of all things; shelter, food, clothing, medicine and care. A few of +them were well educated; the majority were illiterate so far as book +knowledge was concerned, but intelligent and thoughtful on the subject +of loyalty and the war; not a few were almost reduced to a state of +fatuity by their sufferings, and seemed to have lost all distinct +consciousness of what was occurring around them. Nashville and Knoxville +a little later, Memphis, Cairo, St. Louis, and Louisville swarmed with +these poor loyal people, and efforts were made in each city to aid them. +In the Northern cities large contributions of money and clothing were +made for their relief. In Boston, Edward Everett, ever ready to aid the +suffering, gave the great influence of his name, as well as his personal +efforts, (almost the last act of his well-spent life) in raising a +liberal fund for their help. In New York, Brooklyn and other cities, +efforts were made which resulted in large contributions. In +Philadelphia, Mrs. M. M. Hallowell, a lady of high position and great +energy, appealed to the public for aid for these unfortunate people, and +Governor Curtin and many other State and National official personages, +gave their influence and contributions to the work. A large amount of +money and stores having been collected, Mrs. Hallowell and a committee +of ladies from Philadelphia visited Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga +and Huntsville to distribute their stores in person. The journey +undertaken early in May, 1864, was not unattended with danger; for, +though General Sherman had commenced his great march toward Atlanta, +Forrest, Morgan and Wheeler were exerting themselves to cut his +communications and break up his connection with his base. Along some +portions of the route the guerrillas swarmed, and more than once the +cars were delayed by reports of trouble ahead. The courageous ladies, +however, pushed forward and received from the generals in command the +most hearty welcome, and all the facilities they required for their +mission. They found that the suffering of the loyal refugees had not +been exaggerated; that in many cases their misery was beyond +description, and that from hunger, cold, nakedness, the want of suitable +shelter, and the prevalence of malignant typhoid fever, measles, scarlet +fever and the other diseases which usually prevail among the wretched +and starving poor, very many had died, and others could not long +survive. They distributed their stores freely yet judiciously, arranged +to aid a home and farm for Refugees and Orphans which had been +established near Nashville, and to render future assistance to those in +need at Knoxville, Chattanooga, &c., and returned to Philadelphia. Mrs. +Hallowell visited them again in the autumn, and continued her labors for +them till after the close of the war. The Home for Refugees and Orphans +near Nashville, formed a part of the battle ground in the siege and +battles of Nashville in December, 1864, and was completely ruined for +the time. Some new buildings of a temporary character were subsequently +erected, but the close of the war soon rendered its further occupation +unnecessary. + +Mrs. Hallowell's earnest and continued labors for the refugees drew +forth from the loyal men and women of East Tennessee letters full of +gratitude and expressive of the great benefits she had conferred on +them. Colonel N. G. Taylor, representative in Congress from East +Tennessee, and one of the most eloquent speakers and writers in the +West, among others, addressed her an interesting and touching letter of +thanks for what she had done for his persecuted and tried constituents, +from which we quote a single paragraph. + +"Accept, my dear madam, for yourself and those associated with you, the +warmest thanks of their representative, for the noble efforts you have +been and are making for the relief of my poor, afflicted, starving +people. Most of the men of East Tennessee are bleeding at the front for +our country (this letter was written before the close of the war) whilst +their wives and little ones are dying of starvation at home. They are +worthy of your sympathy and your labor, for they have laid all their +substance upon the altar of our country and have sacrificed everything +they had for their patriotism." + + + + +OTHER FRIENDS OF THE FREEDMEN AND REFUGEES. + + +In many of the preceding sketches we have had occasion to notice the +labors of ladies who had been most distinguished in other departments of +the great Army work, in behalf of the Freedmen, or the Refugees. Mrs. +Harris devoted in all five or six months to their care at Nashville and +its vicinity. Miss Tyson and Mrs. Beck gave their valuable services to +their relief. Miss Jane Stuart Woolsey was, and we believe still is +laboring in behalf of the Freedmen in Richmond or its vicinity. Mrs. +Governor Hawley of Connecticut was among the first to instruct them at +Fernandina and Hilton Head. Miss Gilson devoted nearly the whole of the +last year of her service in the army to the freedmen and the hospital +for colored soldiers. In the West, Mrs. Lucy E. Starr, while Matron of +the Soldiers' Home at Memphis, bestowed a large amount of labor on the +Refugees who were congregated in great numbers in that city. Mrs. +Clinton B. Fisk, the wife of the gallant Christian, General Fisk, +exerted herself to collect clothing, money and supplies for the +Refugees, black and white, at Pilot Knob, Missouri, and distributed it +to them in person. Mrs. H. F. Hoes and Miss Alice F. Royce of Wisconsin, +were very active in instructing and aiding the children of Refugees at +Rolla, Missouri, in 1864 and 1865. Mrs. John S. Phelps established with +the aid of a few other ladies a school for the children of Refugees at +Springfield, Missouri, and Mrs. Mary A. Whitaker, an excellent and +efficient teacher, had charge of it for two years. + +At Leavenworth and Fort Scott, large and well conducted schools for the +children of Refugees and Freedmen were established, and several teachers +employed, one of them, Mrs. Nettie C. Constant, at Leavenworth, winning +a very high reputation for her faithfulness and skill as a teacher. + +The Western Sanitary Commission, the National Freedmen's Relief +Association, Relief Societies in Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis and +elsewhere, and later the American Union Commission, were all engaged in +labor for either the Freedmen or the Refugees or both. + +All these organizations employed or supported teachers, an all worked in +remarkable harmony. At Vicksburg the Western Sanitary Commission sent, +in the spring of 1864, Miss G. D. Chapman of Exeter, Maine, to take +charge of a school for the children of Refugees, of whom there were +large numbers there. Miss Chapman served very faithfully for some +months, and then was compelled by her failing health, to return home. +The Commission then appointed Miss Sarah E. M. Lovejoy, daughter of Hon. +Owen Lovejoy, to take charge of the school. It soon became one of the +largest in the South, and was conducted with great ability by Miss +Lovejoy till the close of the War. + +The National Freedmen's Relief Association had, at the same time, a +school for Freedmen and the children of Freedmen there, and Miss Mary E. +Sheffield, a most faithful and accomplished teacher from Norwich, +Connecticut, was in charge of it. The climate, the Rebel prejudices and +the indifference or covert opposition to the school of those from whom +better things might have been expected, made the position one of great +difficulty and responsibility; but Miss Sheffield was fully equal to the +work, and continued in it with great usefulness until late in May, 1865, +when finding herself seriously ill she attempted to return North, but on +reaching Memphis was too ill to proceed farther, and died there on the +5th of June, 1865, a martyr to her faithfulness and zeal. + +In Helena, a Refugee Home was established by the Western Sanitary +Commission, and Mrs. Sarah Coombs, a benevolent and excellent lady of +that town, placed in charge of it. At Nashville, Tennessee, the +Nashville Refugee Relief Society, under the management of Mrs. Mary R. +Fogg, established a Refugees' Home which was aided by the Western +Sanitary Commission, the Philadelphia ladies, and other associations. At +Little Rock, Arkansas, was another Home which did good service. But the +most extensive institution of this description, was the Refugee and +Freedmen's Home at St. Louis, occupying the Lawson Hospital in that +city, and established by the Western Sanitary Commission with the +co-operation of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, and the Ladies' +Freedmen's Relief Association. Mrs. H. M. Weed was its efficient matron, +and was supported by a staff of six or seven assistants and teachers. +Over three thousand Refugees were received and aided here in the six +months from February to July, 1865, and both children and adults were +taught not only elementary studies but housework, cooking and laundry +work; the women were paid moderate wages with which to clothe themselves +and their children, and were taught some of the first lessons of a +better civilization. In the superintendence of this good work, Mrs. +Alfred Clapp, the President of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, Mrs. +Joseph Crawshaw, an active member of that Society, Mrs. Lucien Eaton, +the President of the Ladies' Freedmen's Association, and Mrs. N. +Stevens, one of the managers of that Society, were assiduous and +faithful. + +There were great numbers of other ladies equally efficient in the +Freedmen's Schools and Homes in the Atlantic States, but their work was +mainly under the direction of the Freedmen's Relief, and subsequently of +the American Union Commission, and it is not easy to obtain from them +accounts of the labors of particular individuals. The record of the +women who have labored faithfully, and not a few of them to the loss of +their health or lives in work which was in some respects even more +repulsive to the natural sensibilities than that in the hospitals, if +smaller in numbers, is not less honorable than that of their sisters in +the hospitals. + + + + +PART V. + +LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR SERVICES IN SOLDIERS' HOMES, VOLUNTEER +REFRESHMENT SALOONS, ON GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL TRANSPORTS, ETC. + + + + +MRS. O. E. HOSMER. + + +At the opening of the late war, the subject of this sketch, Mrs. O. E. +Hosmer, was residing with her family in Chicago, Illinois. Hers was by +no means a vague patriotism that contented itself with verbal +expressions of sympathy for her country's cause and defenders. She +believed that she had sacrifices to make, and work to do, and could hope +for no enjoyment, or even comfort, amidst the luxuries of home, while +thousands to whom these things were as dear as to herself, had +resolutely turned away from them, willing to perish themselves, if the +national life might be preserved. + +Her first sacrifice was that of two of her sons, whom she gave to the +service of the country in the army. Then, to use her own words, "feeling +a burning desire to aid personally in the work, I did not wait to hear +of sufferings I have since so often witnessed, but determined, as God +had given me health and a good husband to provide for me, to go forth as +a volunteer and do whatever my hands found to do." Few perhaps will ever +know to the full extent, how much the soldier benefited by this resolve. + +To such a spirit, waiting and ardent, opportunities were not long in +presenting themselves. Mrs. Hosmer's first experiences, away from home, +were at Tipton, and Smithtown, Missouri. This was early in the winter of +1862, only a few months after the commencement of the War; but as all +will remember there had already been desperate campaigns, and hard +fighting in Missouri, and there were the usual consequences, +devastation, want and suffering to be met on all sides. + +At this time the effects of that beneficent and excellent institution, +the Northwestern Sanitary Commission, had not been felt at all points +where need existed; for the field was vast, and even with the wonderful +charities of the great Northwest, pouring into its treasury and +store-houses, with a powerful organization, and scores of willing hands +and brains at command, time was necessary to enable it to assume that +sort of omnipresence which afterward caused it to be found in all places +where battles were fought, or hospitals erected, or men suffered from +the casualties of war, throughout that great territory. + +Mrs. Hosmer found the hospitals at Tipton and Smithtown in the worst +possible condition, and the men suffering for almost everything required +for their comfort. This, under the circumstances, caused no surprise, +for medical stores were not readily available at points so remote. But +Mrs. Hosmer had the pleasure of causing a large box of Sanitary stores +and comforts to be sent them by the kind and efficient agent at St. +Louis, which she helped to distribute. She was thus enabled to leave +them in a much more comfortable condition. + +On her return to Chicago, a number of influential ladies residing there, +formed an association to which the name of the "Ladies' War Committee" +was given. Mrs. Hosmer was appointed secretary of this organization. + +This association was very useful and efficient, and met daily to work +for the soldiers, particularly in making up garments for the Regiments +sent out by the Board of Trade of Chicago. + +When these, the Eighty-eighth and Seventy-second Illinois Regiments, and +the Board of Trade Battery, participated in any battle, they volunteered +to go and look after the wounded. The first volunteers were sent out +upon this charitable mission after the battle of Stone River, about the +1st of January, 1863, when two ladies, Mrs. Hosmer and Mrs. Smith +Tinkham proceeded to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, with a large quantity of +supplies. They remained there, in constant and unwearied attendance upon +the large number of wounded from this important battle, for nine or ten +weeks. + +The writer of this sketch was at that time in Chicago, and well +remembers the return of these ladies from this errand of mercy, and the +simple pathos of the report they then made, to the Board of Trade, of +their work and their stewardship of the funds entrusted to them by that +body for the expenses of the expedition, and the use of the wounded. + +As these ladies were the first volunteers upon the ground, they were +warmly welcomed by the medical director and surgeons, and their services +at once rendered available both in the preparation of delicacies for the +sufferers, and in personal attendance upon them. Here Mrs. Hosmer met +with a most singular and touching incident. A soldier who had been +wounded in the leg, and taken prisoner, had his leg amputated by a Rebel +surgeon. He was afterwards recaptured, and being found in a dreadful and +dangerous condition, had to suffer a second amputation. It was only by +the closest and best of care that there remained a possibility that his +life might be saved; and this the surgeon in charge requested of Mrs. +Hosmer. + +On approaching his bed, Mrs. Hosmer was almost painfully struck by his +strong resemblance to one of her sons, while he was at the same instant, +bewildered and excited by discovering in her an equally strong likeness +to the mother he was never to see again. + +It need hardly be said that this accidental likeness caused a strong +bond of feeling between those till that moment utter strangers. The +soldier begged to be allowed to call the lady mother, and she was only +too glad to minister to him as she hoped some kind soul might do to the +son he resembled, should an hour of need occur. She found him to be an +educated and intelligent young man. She did for him all she could, and +watched and tended him with real devotion, but in vain. It was found +impossible to save him; and when he was gone, she performed the last of +her sad offices, by cutting from above his brow a mass of clustering, +raven curls, which she enclosed in a letter to his mother, telling her +all she knew of her boy's bravery, and his fate. + +These days at Murfreesboro were days of hard labor, but of great +satisfaction. There had been more than five thousand men in hospital, +but these were thinned out by deaths, convalescence, etc., until but few +remained. Then Mrs. Hosmer and her friend returned to their home. + +The following summer that admirable and most useful institution, the +"Soldiers' Home," was established in Chicago, and Mrs. Hosmer was +appointed first vice-president. + +This "Home" occupied much of her time for the following year. In +connection with this was the Soldiers' Rest, where hundreds, and +sometimes thousands of men, _in transitu_, were furnished with good warm +meals, and with lodging for the sick, to the extent of its +accommodations. This was entirely sustained and carried on by the ladies +of Chicago, and Mrs. Hosmer often passed entire days and nights there, +in these labors of love. + +After the battle of Chickamauga she again felt it a duty and privilege +to proceed to the field, on a mission of mercy. Her friend, Mrs. +Tinkham, again accompanied her. As they neared Chattanooga, they were +unfortunately taken prisoners. They suffered much fatigue, and many +privations, but no other ill-treatment, though they were, a part of the +time, in great danger from the shells which were exploding all about +them. They were however soon recaptured, and proceeded on their way. + +Having lost their supplies, however, they found they could be of little +service. Provisions were very scarce, as in fact were all necessaries, +both for the wounded and well. Therefore, being provided with an escort, +they slowly retraced their way, and, after a disastrous and fatiguing +journey, arrived in Chicago, completely worn and exhausted, and without +the cheering influence of the consciousness of having accomplished much +good by their efforts. + +From this time, with the exception of occasional trips to Cairo, to look +after the sick and wounded there, Mrs. Hosmer remained in Chicago, +laboring for the soldiers at the "Home" and "Rest," until the close of +the year, 1864. The "Northwestern Sanitary and Soldiers' Home Fair," was +then in contemplation, and was to take place in June, 1865. Mrs. Hosmer +had been appointed one of the Executive Committee, and Corresponding +Secretary of the organization, which had the mammoth fair in charge. + +In pursuance of the objects in view, she then went down the Mississippi +River, to solicit donations of money and articles for the fair. Thinking +she could materially aid the object, by visiting hospitals, and giving +her testimony that supplies were still needed, she paid particular +attention to this part of her duty, and visited nearly every hospital +from Cairo to New Orleans. She had the satisfaction of raising about +five thousand dollars in money for the fair, besides obtaining a variety +and large amount of valuable articles for sale. She also had the +pleasure of causing supplies to be sent, at that time, to points where +they were much needed. + +She was at Vicksburg when five thousand emaciated wrecks of manhood from +the prisons of Andersonville and Catawba, were brought thither to be +exchanged, and often visited their camp and aided in distributing the +supplies so greatly needed. + +Many a time her kind heart was bursting with pain and sympathy for these +suffering men, many of whom had been tortured and starved till already +beyond the reach of help. But she was to see still greater horrors, +when, as the culmination of their fate, the steamer Sultana, on which +their homeward passage was taken, exploded, and, she, being near, beheld +hundreds who had escaped the sufferings of the prison pens, drawn from +the water, dying or dead, drowned or scalded, in that awful accident. +As she says, herself, her heart was nearly broken by this dreadful +sight. + +Mrs. Hosmer returned to Chicago, and did not cease her labors until the +Soldiers' Rest was closed, and the war ended. For about four years she +gave untiring devotion to the cause, and few have accomplished more +real, earnest and persistent service. Since the close of the war, Mrs. +Hosmer has become a resident of New York, though she is, at this present +writing, established at St. Paul, Minnesota, in charge of a sick son, +who seeks the recovery of his health in that bracing climate. + + + + +MISS HATTIE WISWALL. + + +Miss Hattie Wiswall entered the service as Hospital Nurse, May 1, 1863. +For the first five or six months she was employed in the Benton Barracks +Hospital at St. Louis. At that time the suffering of our boys in +Missouri was very great, and all through that summer the hospitals of +St. Louis were crowded to overflowing. From one thousand to fifteen +hundred were lying in Benton Barracks alone. Men, wounded in every +conceivable manner, were frequently arriving from the battle-fields, and +our friend went through the same experience to which so many brave +women, fresh from the quiet and happy scenes of their peaceful homes, +have been willing to subject themselves for the sake of humanity. +Sensitive and delicate though she was, she acquired here, by constant +attention to her duties, a coolness in the presence of appalling sights +that we have rarely seen equaled even in the stronger sex, and which, +when united with a tender sympathy, as in her case, makes the model +nurse. The feeling of horror which shrinks from the sight of agony and +vents itself in vapid exclamations, she rightly deemed had no place in +the character of one who proposes to do anything. So putting this aside +she learned to be happy in the hospital, and consequently made others +happy. Never in our observation has this first condition of success in +nursing been so completely met. It became so intense a satisfaction to +her to lessen, in ever so slight a degree, the misery of a sick or +wounded soldier that the horror of the case seemed never to occur to +her. It was often remarked that "Miss Hattie was never quite so happy as +when administering medicine or dressing a wound." + +From Benton Barracks she was ordered in the autumn of 1863 to Nashville, +Tennessee, where she remained a short time and was then ordered to +Vicksburg, Mississippi, to assist in conducting a Soldiers' Home. Here +she remained until the close of the war. How faithfully she discharged +her duties, first as assistant and then as principal Matron, the one +hundred and fifteen thousand guests who were entertained there during +her stay know, and the living can testify. Her position for much of the +time was an extremely responsible and laborious one, the capacities of +the Home being sometimes extended to the accommodation of six hundred +men, and averaging, for nearly the whole period of her stay, two hundred +daily. The multiplicity of duties in the charge of the household affairs +of such an institution, with the uncertain assistance to be found in +such a place, may be better imagined than told. Under her satisfactory +management the Vicksburg Home acquired an enviable reputation, and was +the favorite stopping-place on the river. The great difficulty in +conducting a Soldiers' Home in time of war, as every one knows who has +been connected with one, is to keep it neat and clean, to have the +floors, the tables, the beds sufficiently respectable to remind the +soldier of the home he has left. Nothing but ceaseless vigilance could +do this at Vicksburg, as men were constantly arriving from filthy camps, +and still filthier prisons, covered not with greenbacks but with what +was known there as the rebel "currency." But on any one of the hundreds +of beds that filled the dormitories of this Home our most fastidious +reader could have slept in peace and safety; and, but for the fact that +the bill of fare was mostly limited to the army ration, could have set +down at any of the tables and enjoyed a meal. + +The good work of Miss Wiswall in Vicksburg was not confined to the +Soldiers' Home. She did not forget the freedmen, but was true to the +teachings of her uncles, the great and good Lovejoys. Of the sufferings +of these poor people she had opportunity to see much, and often did her +sympathies lead her beyond the sphere of her ordinary duties, to carry +food and clothing and medicine to such as were ready to perish. + +In these charities, which were extended also to the white refugees, Miss +Wiswall did not lose sight of the direct line of her duty, the work she +had set out to do. The needs of the loyal soldier took precedence in her +mind of all others. No service so delighted her as this, and to none was +she so well fitted. + +We remember after the calamitous Red River expedition, boat-load after +boat-load of the wounded were sent up to Vicksburg. As soon as they +touched the shore, our friend and her companions met the poor fellows +stretched upon the decks and scattered through the cabins and around the +engines, with words of womanly cheer, and brought the delicacies and +refreshments prepared by thoughtful hands at home. Many a brave man will +remember to his dying day how he shed tears of joy at sight of the first +true Northern woman's face that met him after that toilsome, disastrous +march. + +At length a boat-load of the severely wounded were about to be sent up +the river to Northern hospitals, or on furlough to go to their homes. +The surgeon in charge desired the aid of a competent lady assistant; and +Miss Wiswall obtained temporary leave of absence to accompany him and +help take care of the sufferers. Her influence, we were told, was +inspiriting to all on board. She was once more in hospital and entirely +at home. At Cairo, where a portion of the wounded were discharged, she +took charge of an officer, whose limb had been amputated, and saw him +safely to his home in Elgin, Illinois. Making her friends in Chicago a +brief visit, she returned to her duties at Vicksburg, where she remained +until, with the close of the war, the Soldiers' Home was discontinued +about the 1st of June, 1865. + + + + +MRS. LUCY E. STARR. + + +In an early period of the civil war this heroic woman left her home at +Griggsville, Illinois, came to St. Louis and offered her services to the +Western Sanitary Commission as a nurse in the hospitals. She was already +known as a person of excellent Christian character, of education and +refinement, of real practical ability, the widow of a deceased +clergyman, and full of the spirit of kindness and patriotic sympathy +towards our brave soldiers in the field. Her services were gladly +accepted, and she entered at once upon her duties as a nurse in the +Fifth Street Hospital at St. Louis, which was in charge of the excellent +Dr. John T. Hodgen, an eminent surgeon of that city. + +For nearly two years Mrs. Starr served as nurse in this hospital, having +charge of one of the special diet kitchens, and ministering with her own +hands to the sick and wounded inmates. In these services the great +kindness of her manners, the cheerful and hopeful spirit that animated +her, the words of sympathy and encouragement she gave her patients, and +the efficiency and excellence of everything she did won for her a large +measure of esteem and confidence, and made her a favorite nurse with the +authorities of the hospital, and with the sick and wounded, who received +her ministrations and care. Small in stature, it was wonderful how much +labor she was able to accomplish, and how she was sustained by a soul +full of noble purposes and undoubting faith. + +In the autumn of 1863 Mrs. Starr was needed by the Western Sanitary +Commission to take the position of Matron of the Soldiers' Home at +Memphis, to have charge of the domestic arrangements of the institution, +and to extend a true hospitality to the many invalid soldiers going on +furlough to their homes or returning to the hospitals, or to their +regiments, passing through Memphis on their way. The number thus +entertained sometimes reached as high as three hundred and fifty in one +day. The average daily number for two years and a half was one hundred +and six. When the Home was first opened, and before it was much known, +the first guests were brought in by Mrs. Governor Harvey, of Wisconsin, +who found them wandering in the streets, sadly in need of a kind friend +to give them assistance and care. Sometimes the Superintendent, Mr. O. +E. Waters, would have from twenty to thirty discharged, furloughed and +invalid soldiers to aid, in collecting their pay, procuring +transportation, many of whom he found lying on the hard pavements in the +streets and on the bluff near the steamboat landing, in a helpless +condition, with no friend to assist them. The object of the Soldiers' +Home was to take care of such, give them food and lodging without +charge, make them welcome while they stayed, and send them rejoicing on +their way. + +In the internal management of this institution, and in the kind +hospitality extended to the soldiers Mrs. Starr was doing a congenial +work. For two years she filled this position with great fidelity and +success, and to the highest satisfaction of those who placed her here, +and of all who were the guests of the Home. At the end of this service, +on the closing of the Home, the Superintendent in his final report to +the Western Sanitary Commission, makes this acknowledgment of her +services: + +"It would not only be improper but unjust, not to speak of the +faithfulness and hearty co-operation of the excellent and much esteemed +Matron, Mrs. Lucy E. Starr. Her mission has been full of trials and +discouragements, yet she has patiently and uncomplainingly struggled +through them all; and during my frequent absences she has cheerfully +assumed the entire responsibility of the Home. Her Christian forbearance +and deep devotion to the cause of humanity have won the admiration of +all who have come within the sphere of her labors." + +On the closing of the Soldiers' Home, Mrs. Starr became connected with +an institution for the care of suffering refugees and freedmen at +Memphis, under the patronage of the Freedmen's Aid Commission of +Cincinnati, Ohio. She took a great interest in the thousands of this +class of destitute people who had congregated in the vicinity of +Memphis; visited them for weeks almost daily; and in the language of Mr. +Waters' report, "administered to the sick with her own hands, going from +pallet to pallet, giving nourishing food and medicines to many helpless +and friendless beings." + +Thus she continued to be a worker for the suffering soldiers of the +Union army from the beginning to the end of the war, and when peace had +come, devoted herself to the poor and suffering refugees and freedmen, +whom the war had driven from their homes and reduced to misery and want. +With a wonderful fortitude, endurance and heroism she persevered in her +faithfulness to the end, and through the future of her life on earth and +in heaven, those whom she has comforted and relieved of their sorrows +and distresses will constitute for her a crown of rejoicing, and their +tears of gratitude will be the brightest jewels in her diadem. + + + + +CHARLOTTE BRADFORD + + +This lady, like her friend, Miss Abby W. May, of Boston, though a woman +of extraordinary attainments and culture, and an earnest outspoken +advocate of the immediate abolition of slavery before the War, is +extremely averse to any mention of her labors in behalf of the soldiers, +alleging that they were not worthy to be compared with the sacrifices of +those humbler and unnamed heroines, who in their country homes, toiled +so incessantly for the boys in blue. We have no desire to detract one +iota of the honors justly due to these noble and self-sacrificing women; +but when one is called to a position of more prominent usefulness than +others, and performs her duties with great ability, system and +perseverance, though her merits may be no greater than those of humbler +and more obscure persons, yet the public position which she assumes, +renders her service so far public property, that she cannot with +justice, refuse to accept the consequences of such public action or the +sacrifices it entails. Holding this opinion we deem it a part of our +duty to speak of Miss Bradford's public and official life. With her +motives and private feelings we have no right to meddle. + +So far as we can learn, Miss Bradford's first public service in +connection with the Sanitary Commission, was in the Hospital Transport +Corps in the waters of the Peninsula, in 1862. Here she was one of the +ladies in charge of the Elm City, and afterward of the Knickerbocker, +having as associates Mrs. Bailey, Miss Helen L. Gilson, Miss Amy M. +Bradley, Mrs. Balustier, Miss Gardner and others. + +Miss Bradley was presently called to Washington by the officers of the +Sanitary Commission, to take charge of the Soldiers' Home then being +established there, and Miss Bradford busied herself in other Relief +work. In February following, Miss Bradley relinquished her position as +Matron of the Home, to enter upon her great work of reforming and +improving the Rendezvous of Distribution, which under the name of "Camp +Misery," had long been the opprobrium of the War Department, and Miss +Bradford was called to succeed her in charge of the Soldiers' Home at +Washington. Of the efficiency and beneficence of her administration here +for two and a half years there is ample testimony. Thoroughly refined +and ladylike in her manners, there was a quiet dignity about her which +controlled the wayward and won the respect of all. Her executive ability +and administrative skill were such, that throughout the realm where she +presided, everything moved with the precision and quietness of the most +perfect machinery. There was no hurry, no bustle, no display, but +everything was done in time and well done. To thousands of the soldiers +just recovering from sickness or wounds, feeble and sometimes almost +disheartened, she spoke words of cheer, and by her tender and kind +sympathy, encouraged and strengthened them for the battle of life; and +in all her intercourse with them she proved herself their true and +sympathizing friend. + +After the close of the war, Miss Bradford returned to private life at +her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts. + + + + +UNION VOLUNTEER REFRESHMENT SALOON OF PHILADELPHIA. + + +We have already in our sketch of the labors of Mrs. Mary W. Lee, one of +the most efficient workers for the soldiers in every position in which +she was placed, given some account of this institution, one of the most +remarkable philanthropic organizations called into being by the War, as +in the sketch of Miss Anna M. Ross we have made some allusions to the +Cooper Shop Refreshment Saloon, its rival in deeds of charity and love +for the soldier. The vast extent, the wonderful spirit of self-sacrifice +and persevering patience and fidelity in which these labors were +performed, demand, however, a more than incidental notice in a record +like this. + +No philanthropic work during the war was more thoroughly free from +self-seeking, or prompted by a higher or nobler impulse than that of +these Refreshment Saloons. Beginning in the very first movements of +troops in the patriotic feeling which led a poor man[M] to establish his +coffee boilers on the sidewalk to give a cup of hot coffee to the +soldiers as they waited for the train to take them on to Washington, and +in the generous impulses of women in humble life to furnish such food as +they could provide for the soldier boys, it grew to be a gigantic +enterprise in its results, and the humble commencement ere long +developed into two rival but not hostile organizations, each zealous to +do the most for the defenders of their country. Very early in the +movement some men of larger means and equally earnest sympathies were +attracted to it, and one of them, a thorough patriot, Samuel B. Fales, +Esq., gave himself wholly to it for four and a half years. The interest +of the community was excited also in the labors of these humble men and +women, and the enterprise seldom lacked for funds; the zealous and +earnest Chairman, Mr. Arad Barrows, and Corresponding Secretary, Mr. +Fales, of the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, took good care of that +part of the work, and Mr. W. M. Cooper and his associates did the same +for the Cooper Shop Saloon. + +[Footnote M: Mr. Bazilla S. Brown] + +Ample provision was made to give the regiments the benefit of a bath and +an ample repast at whatever hour of day or night they might come into +the city. In the four and a half years of their labors, the Volunteer +Refreshment Saloon fed between eight hundred thousand and nine hundred +thousand soldiers and expended about one hundred thousand dollars in +money, aside from supplies. The Cooper Shop Saloon, closing a little +earlier, fed about four hundred thousand men and expended nearly seventy +thousand dollars. Both Saloons had hospitals attached to them for sick +and wounded soldiers. The Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon had, during +the war, nearly fifteen thousand patients, the Cooper Shop, perhaps half +that number. + +But noble and patriotic as were the labors of the men connected with +these Saloons, they were less deserving of the highest meed of praise +than those of the women who, with a patience and fidelity which has +never been surpassed, winter and summer, in cold and heat, at all hours +of night as well as in the day, at the boom of the signal gun, hastened +to the Refreshment Saloons and prepared those ample repasts which made +Philadelphia the Mecca to which every soldier turned longingly during +his years of Army life. These women were for the most part in the middle +and humbler walks of life; they were accustomed to care for their own +households, and do their own work; and it required no small degree of +self-denial and patriotic zeal on their part, after a day of the +housekeeper's never ending toil, to rise from their beds at midnight +(for the trains bringing soldiers came oftener at night than in the day +time), and go through the darkness or storm, a considerable distance, +and toil until after sunrise at the prosaic work of cooking and +dish-washing. + +Of some of these noble women we have the material for brief sketches, +and we know of none more deserving a place in our record. + +MRS. ELIZA G. PLUMMER was a native of Philadelphia, of revolutionary +stock, born in 1812, and had been a widow for nearly twenty-five years. +Though possessed of but little property, she had for many years been the +friend and helper of the poor, attending them in sickness, and from her +scanty purse and by her exertions, securing to them a decent and +respectable Christian burial when they were called to die. At the very +commencement of the War, she entered into the Refreshment Saloon +enterprise with a zeal and perseverance that never flagged. She was +particularly devoted to the hospital, and when the accommodations of the +Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon Hospital were too limited for the +number who needed relief, as was the case in 1862, she received a +considerable number of the worst cases of sick or wounded soldiers into +her own house, and nursed them without any compensation till they +recovered. At the second fair held by the Saloon in June, 1863, she was +instant in season and out of season, feeding the soldiers as well as +attending the fair; and often remaining at her post till long after +midnight. In July and August, 1863, she was constantly engaged in +nursing the wounded from Gettysburg, who crowded the Saloon Hospitals +for some time, and in supplying the needs of the poor fellows who passed +through in the Hospital Cars on their way to Northern hospitals. For +these she provided tea and toast always, having everything ready +immediately on their arrival. These excessive labors impaired her +health, and being called to nurse her aged blind mother during a severe +fit of sickness, her strength failed and she sank rapidly, and died on +the 21st of October, 1863. The soldier has lost no more earnest or +faithful friend than she. + +MRS. MARY B. WADE, a widow and now nearly eighty years of age, but a +woman of remarkable energy and perseverance, was throughout the whole +four and a half years, as constantly at her post, as faithful and as +efficient as any of the Executive Committee of the Saloon. Suffering +from slight lameness, she literally hobbled down to the Saloon with a +cane, by night or day; but she was never absent. Her kind, winning and +motherly ways made her always a great favorite with the soldiers, who +always called her Mother Wade. She is a woman of rare conscientiousness, +truthfulness and amiability of character. She is a native of Southwark, +Philadelphia, and the widow of a sea-captain. + +MRS. ELLEN J. LOWRY, a widow upwards of fifty years of age, a native of +Baltimore, was in the beginning of the War a woman of large and powerful +frame, and was surpassed by none in faithfulness and efficiency, but her +labors among the wounded from Gettysburg seriously injured her health, +and have rendered her, probably a permanent invalid; she suffered +severely from typhoid fever, and her life was in peril in the summer of +1864. + +MRS. MARGARET BOYER, a native of Philadelphia, the wife of a +sea-captain, but in very humble circumstances, and advanced in years, +was also one of the faithful untiring workers of the Union Saloon, but +like Mrs. Lowry, lost her health by her care of the Gettysburg wounded, +and those from the great battles of Grant's Campaign. + +[Illustration: MRS. MARY B. WADE. + Eng^d. by A.H. Ritchie.] + +MRS. PRISCILLA GROVER and MRS. GREEN, both women about sixty years of +age, were constant in their attendance and remarkably faithful in their +services at the Saloon. Our record of these remarkable women of advanced +age would be incomplete did we omit MRS. MARY GROVER, MRS. HANNAH SMITH, +MRS. SARAH FEMINGTON and MISS SARAH HOLLAND, all noble, persevering and +efficient nurses, and strongly attached to their work. Nor were the +younger women lacking in skill, patience or activity. Mrs. Ellen B. +Barrows, wife of the Chairman of the Saloon, though blessed with more +ample means of usefulness than some of the others, was second to none in +her untiring energy and persistency in the discharge of her duties both +in the hospitals and the Saloon. Mrs. Eliza J. Smith, whose excessive +labors have nearly cost her her life, Mrs. Mary A. Cassedy, Mrs. Kate B. +Anderson, Mrs. Mary E. Field, Mrs. Emily Mason, Mrs. Anna A. Elkinton +and Mrs. Hannah F. Bailey were all notable women for their steady and +efficient work in the hospitals and Saloon. Of Mrs. Mary W. Lee and her +daughter, Miss Amanda Lee, we have spoken elsewhere. + +Miss Catharine Bailey, Mrs. Eliza Helmbold, Mrs. Mary Courteney, Mrs. +Elizabeth Horton and Misses Grover, Krider and Field were all useful and +active, though their duties were less severe than those we have +previously named. + +The Cooper Shop Saloon was smaller and its work consequently less +severe, yet, as we have seen, the labors of Miss Ross in its hospital +proved too severe for even her vigorous constitution, and she added +another to the long list of blessed martyrs in the cause of liberty. +Others there were in that Saloon and hospital, who, by faithful labor, +patient and self-denying toil, and great sacrifices, won for themselves +an honorable place in that record which the great day of assize shall +reveal. We may not know their names, but God knows them, and will reward +them for their deeds of mercy and love. + + + + +MRS. R. M. BIGELOW. + + +In the ordinary acceptation of the term, Mrs. Bigelow has not been +connected with Soldiers' Homes either in Washington or elsewhere; yet +there are few if any ladies in the country who have taken so many sick +or wounded soldiers to their own houses, and have made them _at home_ +there, as she. To hundreds, if not thousands, of the soldiers of the +Army of the Potomac, the name of "Aunty Bigelow," the title by which she +was universally known among the sick and wounded soldiers, is as +carefully, and quite as gratefully cherished as the name of their +commanders. Mrs. Bigelow is a native of Washington, in which city she +has always resided. She was never able, in consequence of her family +duties, to devote herself exclusively to hospital work, but was among +the first to respond to the call for friendly aid to the sick soldier. +She was, in 1861, a daily visitor to the Indiana Hospital in the Patent +Office Building, coming at such hours as she could spare from her home +duties; and she was always welcome, for no one was more skillful as a +nurse than she, or could cheer and comfort the sick better. When she +could not come, she sent such delicacies as would tempt the appetite of +the invalid to the hospital. Many a soldier remembers to this day the +hot cakes, or the mush and milk, or the custard which came from Aunty +Bigelow's, on purpose for him, and always exactly at the right time. +Mrs. R. K. Billing, a near relative of Mrs. Bigelow, and the mother of +that Miss Rose M. Billing whose patriotic labors ended only with her +life--a life freely sacrificed for the relief of our poor returned +prisoners from Andersonville, as related in our sketch of the Annapolis +Hospital Corps,--was the co-laborer of her kinswoman in these labors of +love. Both were indefatigable in their labors for the sick soldiers; +both knew how to make "that bread which tasted exactly like mother's" to +the convalescent soldier, whose feeble appetite was not easily tempted; +and both opened their houses, as well as their hearts to these poor +suffering invalids, and many is the soldier who could and did say: "I +don't know what would have become of me if I had not met with such good +friends." + +Mrs. Bigelow became, ere long, the almoner of the bounty of many Aid +Societies at the North, and vast quantities of supplies passed through +her hands, to the patients of the hospitals; and they were always +judiciously distributed. She not only kept up a constant correspondence +with these societies, but wrote regularly to the soldier-boys who had +been under her care, after they returned to their regiments, and thus +retained her influence over them, and made them feel that somebody cared +for them, even when they were away from all other home influences. + +Besides these labors, which were seemingly sufficient to occupy her +entire time, she visited continually the hospitals about the city, and +always found room in her house for any sick one, who came to her begging +that he might "come home," rather than go to a boarding-house or to a +hospital. Three young officers, who came to her with this plea, were +received and watched over till death relieved them of their sufferings, +and cared for as tenderly as they could have been in their own homes; +and those who came thither were nursed and tended till their recovery +were numbered by scores. + +To all the hospital workers from abroad, and the number was not few, her +house was always a home. There was some unappropriated room or some +spare bed in which they could be accommodated, and they were welcome for +the sake of the cause for which they were laboring. Had she possessed an +ample fortune, this kindness, though honorable, might not have been so +noteworthy, but her house was small and her means far from ample. In the +midst of these abundant labors for the soldiers, she was called to pass +through deep affliction, in the illness and death of her husband; but +she suffered no personal sorrow to so absorb her interest as to make her +unmindful of her dear hospital and home-work for the soldiers. This was +continued unfalteringly as long as there was occasion for it. + +Few, if any, of the "Women of the War," have been or have deserved to +be, more generally beloved by the soldiers and by all true +hospital-workers than Mrs. Bigelow. + + + + +MISS SHARPLESS AND ASSOCIATES. + + +What the Hospital Transport service was under the management of the +Sanitary Commission, we have elsewhere detailed, and have also given +some glimpses of its chaotic confusion, its disorder and wretchedness +under the management of government officials, early in the war. Under +the efficient direction of Surgeon-General Hammond, and his successor, +Surgeon-General Barnes, there was a material improvement; and in the +later years of the war the Government Hospital Transports bore some +resemblance to a well ordered General Hospital. There was not, indeed, +the complete order and system, the thorough ventilation, the well +regulated diet, and the careful and systematic treatment which marked +the management of the great hospitals, for these were to a considerable +extent impossible on shipboard, and especially where the changes of +patients were so frequent. + +For a period of nearly seventeen months, during the last two years of +the war, the United States Steamship Connecticut was employed as a +hospital transport, bringing the sick and wounded from City Point to +Washington and Baltimore, and later, closing up one after another, the +hospitals in Virginia and on the shores of Maryland and Delaware, and +transferring their patients to convalescent camps or other hospitals, or +some point where they could be put _en route_ for home. On this +steamship Miss HATTIE R. SHARPLESS commenced her labors as matron, on +the 10th of May, 1864, and continued with only a brief intermission +till September 1st, 1865. She was no novice in hospital work when she +assumed this position. A native and resident of Bloomsburg, Columbia +County, Pa., she had first entered upon her duties as nurse in the Army +in July, 1862, when in connection with Miss Rose M. Billing and Miss +Belle Robinson, the latter being also a Pennsylvanian, she commenced +hospital work at Fredericksburg. Subsequently, with her associate, she +was at the Falls Church Hospital and at Antietam, and we believe also at +Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. She is a lady admirably adapted to the +hospital-work; tender, faithful, conscientious, unselfish, never resting +while she could minister to the suffering, and happiest when she could +do most for those in her care. During her service on the Connecticut, +thirty-three thousand sick and wounded men were conveyed on that steamer +to hospitals in Washington, Alexandria, Baltimore and other points. +Constant and gentle in the discharge of her duties, with a kind and if +possible a cheering word for each poor sufferer, and skillful and +assiduous in providing for them every needed comfort so far as lay in +her power, she proved herself a true Christian heroine in the extent and +spirit of her labors, and sent joy to the heart of many who were on the +verge of despair. + +Her religious influence upon the men was remarkable. Never obtrusive or +professional in her treatment of religious subjects, she exhibited rare +tact and ability in bringing those who were in the possession of their +reason and consciousness to converse on their spiritual condition, and +in pointing them affectionately to the atoning Sacrifice for sin. + +In these works of mercy and piety she was ably seconded by her cousin, +Miss Hattie S. Reifsnyder, of Catawissa, Columbia County, Pa., a lady of +very similar spirit and tact, who was with her for about eight months; +and subsequently by Mrs. Cynthia Case, of Newark, Ohio, who succeeded +Miss Reifsnyder, and entered into her work in the same thorough +Christian spirit. + +Miss W. F. HARRIS is a native, and was previous to the war, a resident +of Providence, Rhode Island. She was a faithful worker through the whole +war, literally wearing herself out in the service. She commenced her +work at the Indiana Hospital, in the Patent Office, Washington, in the +spring of 1862. After the closing of that hospital, she transferred her +service to Ascension Church Hospital, and subsequently early in 1863, to +the Carver Hospital, both in Washington, where she labored with great +assiduity and faithfulness. Early in May, 1864, she was appointed to +service on the Transport Connecticut, where she was indefatigable in her +service, and manifested the same tender spirit, and the same skill and +tact, as Miss Sharpless. Of less vigorous constitution than her +associates, she was frequently a severe sufferer from her over +exertions. In the summer of 1864, she was transferred to the Hospital at +Harper's Ferry, and at that hospital and at Winchester continued her +service faithfully, though amid much pain and weariness, to the close of +the war. Though her health was much shattered by her labors she could +not rest, and has devoted herself to the instruction and training of the +Freedmen from that time to the present. A gentleman who was associated +with her in her service in the Carver Hospital and afterward on the +Transport Connecticut, says of her: "I know of no more pure-minded, +unselfish and earnest laborer among all the Women of the war that came +under my notice." + + + + +PART VI. + +LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR OTHER SERVICES IN THE NATIONAL CAUSE. + + + + +[Illustration: ANNIE ETHERIDGE. + H.L. Stephens, Del. John Sartain, Sc.] + + +MRS. ANNIE ETHERIDGE + + +No woman attached to a regiment, as _vivandiére_, _cantiniére_, or +_fille du regiment_ (we use the French terms because we have no English +ones which fully correspond to them), during the recent war, has won so +high and pure a renown as Annie Etheridge. Placed in circumstances of +peculiar moral peril, her goodness and purity of character were so +strongly marked that she was respected and beloved not only by all her +own regiment, but by the brigade division and corps to which that +regiment belonged, and so fully convinced were the officers from the +corps commander down, of her usefulness and faithfulness in the care of +the wounded, that at a time when a peremptory order was issued from the +headquarters of the army that all women, whatever their position or +services should leave the camp, all the principal field officers of the +corps to which her regiment was attached united in a petition to the +general-in-chief, that an exception might be made in her favor. + +The greater part of Annie Etheridge's childhood was passed in Wisconsin. +Her father was a man of considerable property, and her girlhood was +passed in ease and luxury; but as she drew near the age of womanhood, he +met with misfortunes by which he lost nearly all he had possessed, and +returned to her former home in Michigan. Annie remained in Wisconsin, +where she had married, but was on a visit to her father in Detroit at +the outbreak of the war, and joined the Second Michigan Regiment when +they departed for the seat of war, to fulfil the office of a daughter +of the regiment, in attending to its sick and wounded. When that +regiment was sent to Tennessee she went to the Third Regiment in which +she had many friends, and was with them in every battle in which they +were engaged. When their three years' service was completed, she with +the re-enlisted veterans joined the Fifth Michigan. Through this whole +period of more than four years' service she conducted herself with such +modesty and propriety, and was at the same time so full of patriotism +and courage, that she was a universal favorite with the soldiers as well +as officers. + +She was in the skirmish of Blackburn's Ford, and subsequently in the +first battle of Bull Run, where she manifested the same courage and +presence of mind which characterized her in all her subsequent career in +the army. She never carried a musket, though she had a pair of pistols +in her holsters, but seldom or never used them. She was for a time +during the winter following engaged in hospital service, and when the +Army of the Potomac went to the Peninsula, during the Chickahominy +campaign she was on a hospital transport with Miss Amy M. Bradley, and +rendered excellent service there. She was a very tender and careful +nurse, and seemed to know instinctively what to do for the sick and +wounded. She returned to Alexandria with her regiment, and was with them +at the second battle of Bull Run, on the 29th of August, 1862. Early in +this battle she was on a portion of the battle-field which had been +warmly contested, where there was a rocky ledge, under shelter of which, +some of the wounded had crawled. Annie lingered behind the troops, as +they changed position, assisted several poor helpless fellows to this +cover and dressed their wounds. One of these was William ---- of the +Seventh New York Infantry, a noble-looking boy, to whose parched lips +she had held the cooling draught, and had bound up his wounds, receiving +in return a look of unutterable gratitude from his bright blue eyes, and +his faintly murmured "God's blessing on you," when a shot from the +rebel battery tore him to pieces under her very hands. She discovered at +the same moment that the rebels were near, and almost upon her, and she +was forced to follow in the direction taken by her regiment. On another +portion of that bloody field, Annie was kneeling by the side of a +soldier binding up his wounds, when hearing a gruff voice above her, she +looked up and to her astonishment saw General Kearny checking his horse +beside her. He said, "That is right; I am glad to see you here helping +these poor fellows, and when this is over, I will have you made a +regimental sergeant;" meaning of course that she should receive a +sergeant's pay and rations. But two days later the gallant Kearny was +killed at Chantilly, and Annie never received the appointment, as has +been erroneously asserted. + +At Chancellorsville on the 2d of May, 1863, when the Third Corps were in +such extreme peril, in consequence of the panic by which the Eleventh +Corps were broken up, one company of the Third Michigan, and one of the +sharp-shooters were detailed as skirmishers. Annie, although advised to +remain in the rear accompanied them, taking the lead; meeting her +colonel however, he told her to go back, as the enemy was near, and he +was every moment expecting an attack. Very loth to fall back, she turned +and rode along the front of a line of shallow trenches filled with our +men; she called to them, "Boys, do your duty and whip the rebels." The +men partially rose and cheered her, shouting "Hurrah for Annie," "Bully +for you." This revealed their position to the rebels, who immediately +fired a volley in the direction of the cheering; Annie rode to the rear +of the line, then turned to see the result; as she did so, an officer +pushed his horse between her and a large tree by which she was waiting, +thus sheltering himself behind her. She looked round at him with +surprise, when a second volley was fired, and a Minié ball whizzing by +her, entered the officer's body, and he fell a corpse, against her and +then to the ground. At the same moment another ball grazed her hand, +(the only wound she received during the war), pierced her dress, the +skirt of which she was holding, and slightly wounded her horse. +Frightened by the pain, he set off on a run through a dense wood, +winding in and out among the trees so rapidly that Annie feared being +torn from her saddle by the branches, or having her brains dashed out by +violent contact with the trunks. She raised herself upon the saddle, and +crouching on her knees clung to the pommel. The frightened animal as he +emerged from the woods plunged into the midst of the Eleventh Corps, +when his course was soon checked. Many of the men, recognizing Annie, +received her with cheers. As she was now at a distance from her +regiment, she felt a strong impulse to see and speak with General Berry, +the commander of her division, with whom she was well acquainted. +Meeting an aid, she asked where the General was. "He is not here," +replied the aid. "He is here," replied Annie; "He is my Division +General, and has command on the right to-day. I must see him." The aid +turned his horse and rode up to the General, who was near at hand, and +told him that a woman was coming up who insisted on seeing him. "It is +Annie," said General Berry, "let her come; let her come, I would risk my +life for Annie, any time." As she approached from one side, a prisoner +was brought up on the other, said to be an aid of General Hill's. After +some words with him, and receiving his sword, the General sent him to +the rear; and after giving Annie a cordial greeting and some kind words, +he put the prisoner under her charge, directing him to walk by her +horse. It was her last interview with the brave General. Early the next +morning he was slain, in the desperate fight for the possession of the +plank road past the Chancellor House. In the neighborhood of the +hospital, Annie, working as usual among the wounded, discovered an +artillery man badly injured and very much in need of her assistance. She +bound up his wounds and succeeded in having him brought to the hospital. +The batteries were not usually accompanied by surgeons, and their men +were often very much neglected, when wounded, as the Infantry Surgeons +with their hands full with their own wounded would not, and perhaps +could not, always render them speedy assistance. A year later Annie +received the following letter, which was found on the body of a +Lieutenant Strachan, of her division, who was killed in one of the early +battles of Grant's campaign. + + + WASHINGTON, D. C., _January_ 14th, 1864. + + ANNIE--_Dearest Friend_: I am not long for this world, and I wish + to thank you for your kindness ere I go. + + You were the only one who was ever kind to me, since I entered the + Army. At Chancellorsville, I was shot through the body, the ball + entering my side, and coming out through the shoulder. I was also + hit in the arm, and was carried to the hospital in the woods, where + I lay for hours, and not a surgeon would touch me; when you came + along and gave me water, and bound up my wounds. I do not know what + regiment you belong to, and I don't know if this will ever reach + you. There is only one man in your division that I know. I will try + and send this to him; his name is Strachan, orderly sergeant in + Sixty-third Pennsylvania volunteers. + + But should you get this, please accept my heartfelt gratitude; and + may God bless you, and protect you from all dangers; may you be + eminently successful in your present pursuit. I enclose a flower, a + present from a _sainted mother_; it is the only gift I have to send + you. Had I a picture, I would send you one; but I never had but + two, one my sister has; the other, the sergeant I told you of; he + would give it you, if you should tell him it is my desire. I know + nothing of your history, but I hope you always have, and always may + be happy; and, since I will be unable to see you in this world, I + hope I may meet you in that better world, where there is no war. + May God bless you, both now and forever, is the wish of your + grateful friend, + + GEORGE H. HILL, + CLEVELAND, OHIO. + +During the battle of Spottsylvania, Annie met a number of soldiers +retreating. She expostulated with them, and at last shamed them into +doing their duty, by offering to lead them back into the fight, which +she did under a heavy fire from the enemy. She had done the same thing +more than once on other battle-fields, not by flourishing a sword or +rifle, for she carried neither: nor by waving a flag, for she was never +color-bearer; but by inspiring the men to deeds of valor by her own +example, her courage, and her presence of mind. On the 1st or 2nd of +June, when the Second Corps attacked the enemy at Deep Bottom, Annie +became separated from her regiment, and with her usual attendant, the +surgeon's orderly, who carried the "pill box" (the medicine chest), she +started in search of it, and before long, without being aware of the +fact, she had passed beyond the line of Union pickets. Here she met an +officer, apparently reconnoitering, who told her she must turn back, as +the enemy was near; and hardly were the words spoken, when their +skirmishers suddenly appeared. The officer struck his spurs into his +horse and fled, Annie and the orderly following with all speed, and +arrived safe within our lines. As the Rebels hoped to surprise our +troops, they did not fire lest they should give the alarm; and to this +fact Annie probably owed her escape unscathed. + +On the 27th of October, 1864, in one of the battles for the possession +of Hatcher's Run and the Boydtown Plank Road, a portion of the Third +Division of the Second Corps, was nearly surrounded by the enemy, in +what the soldiers called the "Bull Ring." The regiment to which Annie +was attached was sorely pressed, the balls flying thick and fast, so +that the surgeon advised her to accompany him to safer quarters; but she +lingered, watching for an opportunity to render assistance. A little +drummer boy stopped to speak to her, when a ball struck him, and he fell +against her, and then to the ground, dead. This so startled her, that +she ran towards the line of battle. But to her surprise, she found that +the enemy occupied every part of the ground held a few moments before by +Union troops. She did not pause, however, but dashed through their line +unhurt, though several of the chivalry fired at her. + +So strong was the confidence of the soldiers in her courage and fidelity +to her voluntarily assumed duties, that whenever a battle was to be +fought it was regarded as absolutely certain that "Gentle Annie" (so the +soldiers named her) would be at hand to render assistance to any in +need. General Birney never performed an act more heartily approved by +his entire command, than when in the presence of his troops, he +presented her with the Kearny cross. + +At the close of the war, though her health had been somewhat shaken by +her varied and trying experiences, she felt the necessity of engaging in +some employment, by which she could maintain herself, and aid her aged +father, and accepted an appointment in one of the Government +departments, where she labors assiduously for twelve hours daily. Her +army experiences have not robbed her of that charming modesty and +diffidence of demeanor, which are so attractive in a woman, or made her +boastful of her adventures. To these she seldom alludes, and never in +such a way as to indicate that she thinks herself in the least a +heroine. + + + + +DELPHINE P. BAKER + + +Though her attentions and efforts have had a specific direction widely +different, for the most part, from those of the majority of the American +women, who have devoted themselves to the cause of the country and its +defenders, few have been more actively and energetically employed, or +perhaps more usefully, than the subject of the following sketch. To her +efforts, persistent, untiring, self-sacrificing, almost entirely does +the Nation owe the organization of the National Military Asylum--a home +for the maimed and permanently disabled veterans who gave themselves to +the cause which has so signally triumphed. + +Delphine P. Baker was born in Bethlehem, Grafton County, New Hampshire, +in the year 1828, and she resided in New England during her early youth. +Her father was a respectable mechanic of good family, an honest, +intellectual, industrious man, of sterling principle and a good member +of society. Her mother possessed a large self-acquired culture, a mind +of uncommon scope, and a vivid and powerful imagination. She was in a +large degree capable of influencing the minds of others, and was endowed +with a natural power of leadership. + +These qualities and traits of both parents we find remarkably developed +in the daughter, and to them is doubtless largely due the successful +achievement of the great object of her later labors. A feeling, from +some cause always cherished by her mother, until it became an actual +belief, that her child was destined to an extraordinary career, was so +impressed upon her daughter's mind, and inwrought with her higher being +as to become a controlling impulse. It is easy, in tracing the history +of Miss Baker, to mark the influence of this fixed idea in every act of +her life. + +For some years previous to the breaking out of the war, Miss Baker had +devoted herself to the inculcation of proper ideas of the sphere and +culture of woman. She belonged to no party, or clique, had no connection +with the Women's Rights Movement, but desired to see her sex better +educated, and in the enjoyment of the fullest mental development. To +that end she had travelled in many of the Western States, giving +lectures upon her favorite subject, and largely influencing the public +mind. In this employment her acquaintance had become very extensive. + +At the time of the first breaking out of hostilities, Miss Baker was +residing in Chicago, Illinois, enjoying a respite from public labors, +and devoting herself to her family. But she soon saw that there was much +need of the efforts of woman--a great deal to be done by her in +preparing for the sudden emergency into which the nation had been +plunged. Government had not at hand all the appliances for sending its +newly raised forces into the field properly equipped, and women, who +could not wield the bayonet, were skillful in the use of another +implement as sharp and bright, and which just at that period could be as +usefully brought into action. + +The devoted labors of the women of Chicago for the soldiers, have long +since become a part of the history of the war. In these Miss Baker had +her own, and a large share. She collected materials for garments, +exerted her influence among her extensive circle of acquaintances in +gathering up supplies, and providing for the yet small, but rapidly +increasing, demand for hospital comforts. She took several journeys to +St. Louis and Chicago, ministered in the hospitals, and induced others +to enter upon the same work. Perceiving, with a quick eye, what was most +needed in the hastily-arranged and half-furnished places to which the +sick and wounded were consigned, she journeyed backward and forward, +gathering up from the rich and well-disposed the needed articles, and +then conveying them herself to those points where they were most wanted. + +Not in strong health, a few months of such indefatigable labors +exhausted her strength. She returned to Chicago, but her ardent spirit +chafed in inaction. After a time she resolved to commence a literary +enterprise in aid of the object she had so much at heart, and in the +spring of 1862 she announced the forthcoming publication of the +"National Banner," a monthly paper of sixteen pages, the profits of +which were to be devoted to the needs of the volunteer soldiery of the +United States. + +After publishing in Chicago a few numbers of this very readable paper, +she removed it to Washington, D. C., where its publication was for some +time continued. It was then transferred to New York. + +The National Banner did not meet with all the success, its patriotic +object and its real literary excellence, demanded. During the last year +of the war it was not published with complete regularity, owing to this +cause, and to the lack of pecuniary means. But it was undoubtedly the +means of doing a great deal of good. Among other things it kept +constantly before the people the great object into which Miss Baker had +now entered with all the ardor and the persistence of her nature. + +This object was the founding of a National Home for totally disabled +volunteers of the Union service, and included all who had in their +devotion to the cause of the nation become incompetent to provide for +their own wants or those of their families. + +For years, with a devotion seldom equalled, and a self-sacrifice almost +unparalleled, Miss Baker gave herself to this work. She wrote, she +travelled, she enlisted the aid of her numerous friends, she importuned +the Executive, Heads of Departments, and members of Congress. She gave +herself no rest, she flinched at no privations. She apparently existed +by the sheer necessity of living for her object, and in almost total +self-abnegation she encountered opposition, paralyzing delays, false +promises, made only to be broken, and hypocritical advice, intended only +to mislead. + +Hopeful, unsubdued, unchanged, she at last saw herself nearing success. +The session of 1865 was drawing to a close, and repeated promises of +reporting the bill for the establishment of the Asylum had been broken. +But at length her almost agonized pleadings had their effect. Three days +before the adjournment of Congress Hon. Henry Wilson, chairman of the +Committee on Military Affairs, in the Senate introduced the bill. It +provided for the establishment of a National Military and Naval Asylum +for the totally disabled of both branches of the service. + +In the confusion and hurry of the closing scenes of the session the bill +did not probably meet the attention it would have done under other +circumstances. But it was well received, passed by a large vote of both +houses, was sanctioned by the signature of President Lincoln, and became +a law before the adjournment of Congress. + +The bill appointed one hundred corporators who were to organize and +assume the powers granted them under its provisions, for the immediate +foundation of the proper establishment or establishments, for the +reception of the contemplated recipients of its benefits. The fund +accrued from military fines and unclaimed pay of members of the service, +was to be handed over to the use of the Asylum as soon as a +corresponding sum was raised by public gift. + +Unfortunately for the success of the organization, the meeting of the +corporators for that purpose was appointed for the day afterward so +mournfully conspicuous as that of the funeral obsequies of our +assassinated President. Amidst the sad and angry excitement of the +closing scenes of that terrible tragedy, it was found impossible to +convene a sufficient number of the corporators (although present in the +city) to form a quorum for the transaction of business. The opportunity +thus lost did not recur, and though an effort was made to substitute +proxies for actual members of the body, it was unsuccessful, and an +organization was not effected. + +Thus a year dragged its slow length along. Miss Baker was busy enlarging +her sphere of influence--encountering and overcoming opposition and +obstacles, endeavoring to secure co-operation, and in securing also +personal possession of the property at Point Lookout, Maryland, which +she believed to be a desirable site for the Asylum. Her object in this +was that she might hold this property until the organization was +effected, and it might be legally transferred to the corporators. + +Point Lookout was a watering-place previous to the war. The hospital +property there consists of three hundred acres of land, occupying the +point which divides the mouth of the Potomac River from Chesapeake Bay, +at the confluence of the former with the Bay. One or more large hotels, +numerous cottages and other buildings remained from the days of peace. +The Government also established there, during the war, Hammond General +Hospital with its extensive buildings, and a stockade and encampment for +prisoners. The air is salubrious, the land fertile, a supply of +excellent water brought from neighboring heights, and an extensive +oyster-bed and a fine beach for bathing, add to its attractions. +Believing the place well calculated to meet the wants of the Asylum, +Miss Baker desired to secure the private property together with a grant +from the Government of that portion which belongs to it. She succeeded +in securing the latter, and in delaying the contemplated sale of the +former. + +A change being imperatively demanded in the Act of Incorporation, +efforts were immediately commenced at the next session of Congress to +effect this purpose. Again the painful, anxious delays, again the +wearisome opposition were encountered. But Miss Baker and the movement +had friends--and in the highest quarters. Her efforts were countenanced +and aided by these, but it was not till the session of 1866 approached +its close that the amended bill was reached, and the votes of both +Houses at last placed the whole matter on a proper footing, and in +competent hands. + +With Major-General Butler at the head of the Managing Board of Trustees, +the successful commencement of the Institution is a foregone conclusion. +The Board is composed of some of the best men of the Nation--men, some +of them unequalled in their various spheres. The United States will soon +boast for its disabled defenders Institutions (for the present +management contemplate the establishment of Homes at several points), +fully equal to those which the great Powers of Europe have erected for +similar purposes. In the autumn and winter of 1866-7 Miss Baker +succeeded in consummating the purchase, and tender to the Trustees of +the Asylum of the Point Lookout property. + +The labors of Miss Baker for this purpose are now ended. She retires, +not to rest or idleness, but still to lend her efforts to this or any +other great and worthy cause. She has no official connection with the +organization which controls the destiny of the Asylum. But it will not +cease to be remembered in this country that to her efforts the United +States owes in great part all that, as a nation, it has done for the men +who have thus given all but life itself to its cause. + + + + +MRS. S. BURGER STEARNS. + + +This lady is a native of New York city, where she resided for the first +seven years of her life. In 1844 her parents removed to Michigan, where +she has lived ever since, receiving her education at the best schools, +and spending much time in preparation for a classical course at the +State University. She was, however, with other young ladies, denied +admission there, on the ground of expediency; and finally entered the +State Normal School where she graduated with high honors. + +She soon after became Mrs. Stearns, her husband being a graduate of the +Literary and Law Departments of the Michigan University. But choosing to +devote himself to the service of his country, he entered the army as +First Lieutenant, afterwards rising to the rank of Colonel. + +Mrs. Stearns determined to devote herself to the work of lecturing in +behalf of the Aid movement, and did extensive, and much appreciated +services in this direction. From time to time she visited the hospitals, +and learned the details of the work, as well as the necessities required +there; in that way rendering herself peculiarly competent for her chosen +field of labor. She continued in this service until the close of the +war, accomplishing much good, and laboring with much acceptance. + + + + +BARBARA FRIETCHIE. + + +Barbara Frietchie was an aged lady of Frederick, Maryland, of German +birth, but intensely patriotic. In September, 1862, when Lee's army were +on their way to Antietam, "Stonewall" Jackson's corps passed through +Frederick, and the inhabitants, though a majority of them were loyal, +resolved not to provoke the rebels unnecessarily, knowing that they +could make no effectual resistance to such a large force, and +accordingly took down their flags; but Dame Barbara though nearly eighty +years of age could not brook that the flag of the Union should be +humbled before the rebel ensign, and from her upper window waved her +flag, the only one visible that day in Frederick. Whittier has told the +whole story so admirably that we cannot do better than to transfer his +exquisite poem to our pages. Dame Barbara died in 1865. + + + BARBARA FRIETCHIE. + + Up from the meadows rich with corn, + Clear in the cool September morn, + + The clustered spires of Frederick stand, + Green-walled by the hills of Maryland. + + Round about them orchards sweep, + Apple and peach trees fruited deep, + + Fair as a garden of the Lord + To the eyes of the famished rebel horde, + + On that pleasant morn of the early fall + When Lee marched over the mountain-wall-- + + Over the mountains winding down, + Horse and foot, into Frederick town. + + Forty flags with their silver stars, + Forty flags with their crimson bars, + + Flapped in the morning wind: the sun + Of noon looked down, and saw not one. + + Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then, + Bowed with her fourscore years and ten; + + Bravest of all in Frederick town, + She took up the flag the men hauled down; + + In her attic-window the staff she set, + To show that one heart was loyal yet, + + Up the street came the rebel tread, + Stonewall Jackson riding ahead. + + Under his slouched hat left and right + He glanced; the old flag met his sight. + + "Halt!"--the dust-brown ranks stood fast, + "Fire!"--out blazed the rifle-blast. + + It shivered the window, pane and sash: + It rent the banner with seam and gash. + + Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff + Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf; + + She leaned far out on the window-sill, + And shook it forth with a royal will. + + "Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, + But spare your country's flag," she said. + + A shade of sadness, a blush of shame, + Over the face of the leader came; + + The nobler nature within him stirred + To life at that woman's deed and word: + + "Who touches a hair of yon gray head + Dies like a dog! March on!" he said. + + All day long through Frederick street + Sounded the tread of marching feet: + + All day long that free flag tost + Over the heads of the rebel host. + + Ever its torn folds rose and fell + On the loyal winds that loved it well; + + And through the hill-gaps sunset light + Shone over it with a warm good-night. + + Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er, + And the Rebel rides on his raids no more. + + Honor to her! and let a tear + Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier. + + Over Barbara Frietchie's grave, + Flag of Freedom and Union, wave! + + Peace and order and beauty draw + Round thy symbol of light and law; + + And ever the stars above look down + On thy stars below in Frederick town! + + + + +MRS. HETTY M. McEWEN. + + +Mrs. McEwen is an aged woman of Nashville, Tennessee, of revolutionary +stock, having had six uncles in the revolutionary war, four of whom fell +at the battle of King's Mountain. Her husband, Colonel Robert H. McEwen, +was a soldier in the war of 1812, as his father had been in the +revolution. Her devotion to the Union, like that of most of those who +had the blood of our revolutionary fathers in their veins is intense, +and its preservation and defense were the objects of her greatest +concern. Making a flag with her own hands, she raised it in the first +movements of secession, in Nashville, and when through the treachery of +Isham Harris and his co-conspirators, Tennessee was dragged out of the +Union, and the secessionists demanded that the flag should be taken +down, the brave old couple nailed it to the flag-staff, and that to the +chimney of their house. The secessionists threatened to fire the house +if it was not lowered, and the old lady armed with a shot-gun, undertook +to defend it, and drove them away. She subsequently refused to give up +her fire-arms on the requisition of the traitor Harris. Mrs. Lucy H. +Hooper has told the story of the rebel efforts to procure the lowering +of her flag very forcibly and truthfully: + + + HETTY McEWEN. + + Oh Hetty McEwen! Hetty McEwen! + What were the angry rebels doing, + That autumn day, in Nashville town, + They looked aloft with oath and frown, + And saw the Stars and Stripes wave high + Against the blue of the sunny sky; + Deep was the oath, and dark the frown, + And loud the shout of "Tear it down!" + + For over Nashville, far and wide, + Rebel banners the breeze defied, + Staining heaven with crimson bars; + Only the one old "Stripes and Stars" + Waved, where autumn leaves were strewing, + Round the home of Hetty McEwen. + + Hetty McEwen watched that day + Where her son on his death-bed lay; + She heard the hoarse and angry cry-- + The blood of "76" rose high. + Out-flashed her eye, her cheek grew warm, + Up rose her aged stately form; + From her window, with steadfast brow, + She looked upon the crowd below. + + Eyes all aflame with angry fire + Flashed on her in defiant ire, + And once more rose the angry call, + "Tear down that flag, or the house shall fall!" + Never a single inch quailed she, + Her answer rang out firm and free: + "Under the roof where that flag flies, + Now my son on his death-bed lies; + Born where that banner floated high, + 'Neath its folds he shall surely die. + Not for threats nor yet for suing + Shall it fall," said Hetty McEwen. + + The loyal heart and steadfast hand + Claimed respect from the traitor band; + The fiercest rebel quailed that day + Before that woman stern and gray. + They went in silence, one by one-- + Left her there with her dying son, + And left the old flag floating free + O'er the bravest heart in Tennessee, + To wave in loyal splendor there + Upon that treason-tainted air, + Until the rebel rule was o'er + And Nashville town was ours once more. + + Came the day when Fort Donelson + Fell, and the rebel reign was done; + And into Nashville, Buell, then, + Marched with a hundred thousand men, + With waving flags and rolling drums + Past the heroine's house he comes; + He checked his steed and bared his head, + "Soldiers! salute that flag," he said; + "And cheer, boys, cheer!--give three times three + For the bravest woman in Tennessee!" + + + + +OTHER DEFENDERS OF THE FLAG. + + +Barbara Frietchie and Hettie McEwen were not the only women of our +country who were ready to risk their lives in the defense of the +National Flag. Mrs. Effie Titlow, as we have already stated elsewhere, +displayed the flag wrapped about her, at Middletown, Maryland, when the +Rebels passed through that town in 1863. Early in 1861, while St. Louis +yet trembled in the balance, and it seemed doubtful whether the +Secessionists were not in the majority, Alfred Clapp, Esq., a merchant +of that city, raised the flag on his own house, then the only loyal +house for nearly half a mile, on that street, and nailed it there. His +secession neighbors came to the house and demanded that it should be +taken down. Never! said his heroic wife, afterwards president of the +Union Ladies' Aid Society. The demand was repeated, and one of the +secessionists at last said, "Well, if you will not take it down, I +will," and moved for the stairs leading to the roof. Quick as thought, +Mrs. Clapp intercepted him. "You can only reach that flag over my dead +body," said she. Finding her thus determined, the secessionist left, and +though frequent threats were muttered against the flag, it was not +disturbed. + +Mrs. Moore (Parson Brownlow's daughter) was another of these fearless +defenders of the flag. In June, 1861, the Rebels were greatly annoyed at +the sturdy determination of the Parson to keep the Stars and Stripes +floating over his house; and delegation after delegation came to his +dwelling to demand that they should be lowered. They were refused, and +generally went off in a rage. On one of these occasions, nine men from +a Louisiana regiment stationed at Knoxville, determined to see the flag +humbled. Two men were chosen as a committee to proceed to the parson's +house to order the Union ensign down. Mrs. Moore (the parson's daughter) +answered the summons. In answer to her inquiry as to what was their +errand, one said, rudely: + +"We have come to take down that d----d rag you flaunt from your +roof--the Stripes and Stars." + +Mrs. Moore stepped back a pace or two within the door, drew a revolver +from her dress pocket, and leveling it, answered: + +"Come on, sirs, and take it down!" + +The chivalrous Confederates were startled. + +"Yes, come on!" she said, as she advanced toward them. + +They cleared the piazza, and stood at bay on the wall. + +"We'll go and get more men, and then d----d if it don't come down!" + +"Yes, go and get more men--you are not men!" said the heroic woman, +contemptuously, as the two backed from the place and disappeared. + +Miss Alice Taylor, daughter of Mrs. Nellie Maria Taylor, of New Orleans, +a young lady of great beauty and intelligence, possessed much of her +mother's patriotic spirit. The flag was always suspended in one or +another of the rooms of Mrs. Taylor's dwelling, and notwithstanding the +repeated searches made by the Rebels it remained there till the city was +occupied by Union troops. The beauty and talent of the daughter, then a +young lady of seventeen, had made her very popular in the city. In 1860, +she had made a presentation speech when a flag was presented to one of +the New Orleans Fire Companies. In May, 1861, a committee of thirteen +gentlemen called on Mrs. Taylor, and informed her that the ladies of the +district had wrought a flag for the Crescent City (Rebel) regiment to +carry on their march to Washington, and that the services of her +daughter Alice were required to make the presentation speech. Of course +Mrs. Taylor's consent was not given, and the committee insisted that +they _must_ see the young lady, and that she must make the presentation +address. She was accordingly called, and after hearing their request, +replied that she would readily consent on two conditions. First, that +her mother's permission should be obtained; and second, that the Stars +and Stripes should wave around her, and decorate the arch over her head, +as on the former occasion. The committee, finding that they could get no +other terms, withdrew, vexed and mortified at their failure. + +Mrs. Booth, the widow of Major Booth, who fell contending against +fearful odds at Fort Pillow, at the time of the bloody massacre, a few +weeks after presented the blood-stained flag of the fort which had been +saved by one of the few survivors, to the remnant of the First Battalion +of Major Booth's regiment, then incorporated with the Sixth United +States Heavy Artillery, with these thrilling words, "Boys, I have just +come from a visit to the hospital at Mound City. There I saw your +comrades, wounded at the bloody struggle in Fort Pillow. There I found +the flag--you recognize it! One of your comrades saved it from the +insulting touch of traitors. I have given to my country all I had to +give--my husband--such a gift! Yet I have freely given him for freedom +and my country. Next to my husband's cold remains, the dearest object +left to me in the world, is that flag--the flag that waved in proud +defiance over the works of Fort Pillow! Soldiers! this flag I give to +you, knowing that you will ever remember the last words of my noble +husband, '_never surrender the flag to traitors_!'" + +Colonel Jackson received from her hand--on behalf of his command--the +blood-stained flag, and called upon his regiment to receive it as such a +gift ought to be received. At that call, he and every man of the +regiment fell upon their knees, and solemnly appealing to the God of +battles, each one swore to avenge their brave and fallen comrades, and +never, _never surrender the flag to traitors_. + + + + +MILITARY HEROINES. + + +The number of women who actually bore arms in the war, or who, though +generally attending a regiment as nurses and vivandiéres, at times +engaged in the actual conflict was much larger than is generally +supposed, and embraces persons of all ranks of society. Those who from +whatever cause, whether romance, love or patriotism, and all these had +their influence, donned the male attire and concealed their sex, are +hardly entitled to a place in our record, since they did not seek to be +known as women, but preferred to pass for men; but aside from these +there were not a few who, without abandoning the dress or prerogatives +of their sex, yet performed skillfully and well the duties of the other. + +Among these we may name Madame Turchin, wife of General Turchin, who +rendered essential service by her coolness, her thorough knowledge of +military science, her undaunted courage, and her skill in command. She +is the daughter of a Russian officer, and had been brought up in the +camps, where she was the pet and favorite of the regiment up to nearly +the time of her marriage to General Turchin, then a subordinate officer +in that army. When the war commenced she and her husband had been for a +few years residents of Illinois, and when her husband was commissioned +colonel of a regiment of volunteers she prepared at once to follow him +to the field. During the march into Tennessee in the spring of 1862, +Colonel Turchin was taken seriously ill, and for some days was carried +in an ambulance on the route. Madame Turchin took command of the +regiment during his illness, and while ministering kindly and tenderly +to her husband, filled his place admirably as commander of the regiment. +Her administration was so judicious that no complaint or mutiny was +manifested, and her commands were obeyed with the utmost promptness. In +the battles that followed, she was constantly under fire, now +encouraging the men, and anon rescuing some wounded man from the place +where he had fallen, administering restoratives and bringing him off to +the field-hospital. When, in consequence of the "Athens affair," Colonel +Turchin was court-martialed and an attempt made by the conservatives to +have him driven from the army, she hastened to Washington, and by her +skill and tact succeeded in having the court-martial set aside and her +husband promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General, and confounded his +accusers by bringing his commission and the order to abandon the trial +into court, just as the officers comprising it were about to find him +guilty. In all the subsequent campaigns at the West, Madame Turchin was +in the field, confining herself usually to ministrations of mercy to the +wounded, but ready if occasion required, to lead the troops into action +and always manifesting the most perfect indifference to the shot and +shell or the whizzing minie balls that fell around her. She seemed +entirely devoid of fear, and though so constantly exposed to the enemy's +fire never received even a scratch. + +Another remarkable heroine who, while from the lower walks of life, was +yet faithful and unwearied in her labors for the relief of the soldiers +who were wounded and who not unfrequently took her place in the ranks, +or cheered and encouraged the men when they were faltering and ready to +retreat, was Bridget Divers, better known as "Michigan Bridget," or +among Sheridan's men as "Irish Biddy." A stout robust Irish woman, she +accompanied the First Michigan Cavalry regiment in which her husband was +a private soldier, to the field, and remained with that regiment and the +brigade to which it belonged until the close of the war. She became +well known throughout the brigade for her fearlessness and daring, and +her skill in bringing off the wounded. Occasionally when a soldier whom +she knew fell in action, after rescuing him if he was only wounded, she +would take his place and fight as bravely as the best. In two instances +and perhaps more, she rallied and encouraged retreating troops and +brought them to return to their position, thus aiding in preventing a +defeat. Other instances of her energy and courage are thus related by +Mrs. M. M. Husband, who knew her well. + +"In one of Sheridan's grand raids, during the latter days of the +rebellion, she, as usual, rode with the troops night and day wearing out +several horses, until they dropped from exhaustion. In a severe cavalry +engagement, in which her regiment took a prominent part, her colonel was +wounded, and her captain killed. She accompanied the former to the rear, +where she ministered to his needs, and when placed in the cars, bound to +City Point Hospitals, she remained with him, giving all the relief in +her power, on that fatiguing journey, although herself almost exhausted, +having been without sleep _four_ days and nights. After seeing her +colonel safely and comfortably lodged in the hospital, she took one +night's rest, and returned to the front. Finding that her captain's body +had not been recovered, it being hazardous to make the attempt, she +resolved to rescue it, as "it never should be left on rebel soil." So, +with her orderly for sole companion, she rode fifteen miles to the scene +of the late conflict, found the body she sought, strapped it upon her +horse, rode back seven miles to an embalmer's, where she waited whilst +the body was embalmed, then again strapping it on her horse, she rode +several miles further to the cars in which, with her precious burden she +proceeded to City Point, there obtained a rough coffin, and forwarded +the whole to Michigan. Without any delay Biddy returned to her Regiment, +told some officials, that wounded men had been left on the field from +which she had rescued her Captain's body. They did not credit her tale, +so she said, "Furnish me some ambulances and I will bring them in." The +conveyances were given her, she retraced her steps to the deserted +battle-field, and soon had some eight or ten poor sufferers in the +wagons, and on their way to camp. The roads were rough, and their moans +and cries gave evidence of intense agony. While still some miles from +their destination, Bridget saw several rebels approaching, she ordered +the drivers to quicken their pace, and endeavoured to urge her horse +forward, but he baulked and refused to move. The drivers becoming +alarmed, deserted their charge and fled to the woods, while the wounded +men begged that they might not be left to the mercy of the enemy, and to +suffer in Southern prisons. The rebels soon came up, Bridget plead with +them to leave the sufferers unmolested, but they laughed at her, took +the horses from the ambulances, and such articles of value as the men +possessed, and then dashed off the way they came. Poor Biddy was almost +desperate, darkness coming on, and with none to help her, the wounded +men beseeching her not to leave them. Fortunately, an officer of our +army rode up to see what the matter was, and soon sent horses and +assistance to the party." + +When the war ended, Bridget accompanied her regiment to Texas, from +whence she returned with them to Michigan, but the attractions of army +life were too strong to be overcome, and she has since joined one of the +regiments of the regular army stationed on the plains in the +neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains. + +Mrs. Kady Brownell, the wife of an Orderly Sergeant of the First and +afterwards of the Fifth Rhode Island Infantry, who, like Madame Turchin +was born in the camp, and was the daughter of a Scottish soldier of the +British army, was another of these half-soldier heroines; adopting a +semi-military dress, and practicing daily with the sword and rifle, she +became as skillful a shot and as expert a swordsman as any of the +company of sharp-shooters to which she was attached. Of this company she +was the chosen color-bearer, and asking no indulgence, she marched with +the men, carrying the flag and participating in the battle as bravely +as any of her comrades. In the first battle of Bull Run, she stood by +her colors and maintained her position till all her regiment and several +others had retreated, and came very near falling into the hands of the +enemy. She was in the expedition of General Burnside to Roanoke Island +and Newbern and by her coolness and intrepidity saved the Fifth Rhode +Island from being fired upon by our own troops by mistake. Her husband +was severely wounded in the engagement at Newbern, and she rescued him +from his position of danger and having made him as comfortable as +possible attempted to rescue others of the wounded, both rebel and Union +troops. By some of the rebels, both men and women, she was grossly +insulted, but she persevered in her efforts to help the wounded, though +not without some heart-burnings for their taunts. Her husband recovering +very slowly, and being finally pronounced unfit for service, she +returned to Rhode Island with him after nursing him carefully for +eighteen months or more, and received her discharge from the army. + +There were very, probably, many others of this class of heroines who +deserve a place in our record; but there is great difficulty in +ascertaining the particulars of their history, and in some cases they +failed to maintain that unsullied reputation without which courage and +daring are of little worth. + + + + +THE WOMEN OF GETTYSBURG. + + +Those who have read Miss Georgiana Woolsey's charming narrative "Three +Weeks at Gettysburg," in this volume, will have formed a higher estimate +of the women of Gettysburg than of the men. There were some exceptions +among the latter, some brave earnest-hearted men, though the farmers of +the vicinity were in general both cowardly and covetous; but the women +of the village have won for themselves a high and honorable record, for +their faithfulness to the flag, their generosity and their devotion to +the wounded. + +Chief among these, since she gave her life for the cause, we must reckon +MRS. JENNIE WADE. Her house was situated in the valley between Oak Ridge +and Seminary Hill, and was directly in range of the guns of both armies. +But Mrs. Wade was intensely patriotic and loyal, and on the morning of +the third day of the battle, that terrible Friday, July 3, she +volunteered to bake bread for the Union troops. The morning passed +without more than an occasional shot, and though in the midst of danger, +she toiled over her bread, and had succeeded in baking a large quantity. +About two o'clock, P. M., began that fearful artillery battle which +seemed to the dwellers in that hitherto peaceful valley to shake both +earth and heaven. Louder and more deafening crashed the thunder from two +hundred and fifty cannon, but as each discharge shook her humble +dwelling, she still toiled on unterrified and only intent on her +patriotic task. The rebels, who were nearest her had repeatedly ordered +her to quit the premises, but she steadily refused. At length a shot +from the rebel batteries struck her in the breast killing her instantly. +A rebel officer of high rank was killed almost at the same moment near +her door, and the rebel troops hastily constructing a rude coffin, were +about to place the body of their commander in it for burial, when, in +the swaying to and fro of the armies, a Union column drove them from the +ground, and finding Mrs. Wade dead, placed her in the coffin intended +for the rebel officer. In that coffin she was buried the next day amidst +the tears of hundreds who knew her courage and kindness of heart. + +MISS CARRIE SHEADS, the principal of Oak Ridge Female Seminary, is also +deserving of a place in our record for her courage, humanity and true +womanly tact. The Seminary buildings were within a few hundred yards of +the original battle-field of the first day's fight, and in the course of +the day's conflict, after the death of General Reynolds, the Union +troops were driven by the greatly superior force of the enemy into the +grounds of the Seminary itself, and most of them swept past it. The +Ninety-seventh New York volunteer infantry commanded on that day by +Lieutenant-Colonel, afterwards General Charles Wheelock, were surrounded +by the enemy in the Seminary grounds, and after repeated attempts to +break through the ranks of the enemy, were finally compelled to +surrender. Miss Sheads who had given her pupils a holiday on the +previous day, and had suddenly found herself transformed into the lady +superintendent of a hospital, for the wounded were brought to the +Seminary, at once received Colonel Wheelock and furnished him with the +signal for surrender. The rebel commander demanded his sword, but the +colonel refused to give it up, as it was a gift of friends. An +altercation ensued and the rebel officer threatened to kill Colonel +Wheelock. Mr. Sheads, Miss Carrie's father, interposed and endeavored to +prevent the collision, but was soon pushed out of the way, and the rebel +officer again presented his pistol to shoot his prisoner. Miss Sheads +now rushed between them and remonstrated with the rebel on his +inhumanity, while she urged the colonel to give up his sword. He still +refused, and at this moment the entrance of other prisoners attracted +the attention of the rebel officer for a few moments, when Miss Sheads +unbuckled his sword and concealed it in the folds of her dress unnoticed +by the rebel officer. Colonel Wheelock, when the attention of his foe +was again turned to him, said that one of his men who had passed out had +his sword, and the rebel officer ordered him with the other prisoners to +march to the rear. Five days after the battle the colonel, who had made +his escape from the rebels, returned to the Seminary, when Miss Sheads +returned his sword, with which he did gallant service subsequently. + +The Seminary buildings were crowded with wounded, mostly rebels, who +remained there for many weeks and were kindly cared for by Miss Sheads +and her pupils. The rebel chief undertook to use the building and its +observatory as a signal station for his army, contrary to Miss Sheads' +remonstrances, and drew the fire of the Union army upon it by so doing. +The buildings were hit many times and perforated by two shells. But amid +the danger, Miss Sheads was as calm and self-possessed as in her +ordinary duties, and soothed some of her pupils who were terrified by +the hurtling shells. From the grounds of the Seminary she and several of +her pupils witnessed the terrible conflict of Friday. The severe +exertion necessary for the care of so large a number of wounded, for so +long a period, resulted in the permanent injury of Miss Sheads' health, +and she has been since that time an invalid. Two of her brothers were +slain in the war, and two others disabled for life. Few families have +made greater sacrifices in the national cause. + +Another young lady of Gettysburg, Miss Amelia Harmon, a pupil of Miss +Sheads, displayed a rare heroism under circumstances of trial. The house +where she resided with her aunt was the best dwelling-house in the +vicinity of Gettysburg, and about a mile west of the village, on Oak or +Seminary Ridge. During the fighting on Wednesday (the first day of the +battle) it was for a time forcibly occupied by the Union sharp-shooters +who fired upon the rebels from it. Towards evening the Union troops +having retreated to Cemetery Hill, the house came into possession of the +rebels, who bade the family leave it as they were about to burn it, in +consequence of its having been used as a fort. Miss Harmon and her aunt +both protested against this, explaining that the occupation was forcible +and not with their consent. The young lady added that her mother, not +now living, was a Southern woman, and that she should blush for her +parentage if Southern men would thus fire the house of defenseless +females, and deprive them of a home in the midst of battle. One of the +rebels, upon this, approached her and proposed in a confidential way, +that if she would prove that she was not a renegade Southerner by +hurrahing for the Southern Confederacy, he would see what could be done. +"Never!" was the indignant reply of the truly loyal girl, "burn the +house if you will! I will never do that, while the Union which has +protected me and my friends, exists." The rebels at once fired the +house, and the brave girl and her aunt made their way to the home of +friends, running the gauntlet of the fire of both armies, and both were +subsequently unwearied in their labors for the wounded. + + + + +LOYAL WOMEN OF THE SOUTH. + + +We have already had occasion to mention some of those whose labors had +been conspicuous, and especially Mrs. Sarah R. Johnson, Mrs. Nellie M. +Taylor, Mrs. Grier, Mrs. Clapp, Miss Breckinridge, Mrs. Phelps, Mrs. +Shepard Wells, and others. There was however, beside these, a large +class, even in the chief cities of the rebellion, who not only never +bowed their knee to the idol of secession, but who for their fidelity to +principle, their patient endurance of proscription and their humanity +and helpfulness to Union men, and especially Union prisoners, are +deserving of all honor. + +The loyal women of Richmond were a noble band. Amid obloquy, persecution +and in some cases imprisonment (one of them was imprisoned for nine +months for aiding Union prisoners) they never faltered in their +allegiance to the old flag, nor in their sympathy and services to the +Union prisoners at Libby and Belle Isle, and Castle Thunder. With the +aid of twenty-one loyal white men in Richmond they raised a fund of +thirteen thousand dollars in gold, to aid Union prisoners, while their +gifts of clothing, food and luxuries, were of much greater value. Some +of these ladies were treated with great cruelty by the rebels, and +finally driven from the city, but no one of them ever proved false to +loyalty. In Charleston, too, hot-bed of the rebellion as it was, there +was a Union league, of which the larger proportion were women, some of +them wives or daughters of prominent rebels, who dared everything, even +their life, their liberty and their social position, to render aid and +comfort to the Union soldiers, and to facilitate the return of a +government of liberty and law. Had we space we might fill many pages +with the heroic deeds of these noble women. Through their assistance, +scores of Union men were enabled to make their escape from the prisons, +some of them under fire, in which they were confined, and often after +almost incredible sufferings, to find their way to the Union lines. +Others suffering from the frightful jail fever or wasted by privation +and wearisome marches with little or no food, received from them food +and clothing, and were thus enabled to maintain existence till the time +for their liberation came. The negro women were far more generally loyal +than their mistresses, and their ready wit enabled them to render +essential service to the loyal whites, service for which, when detected, +they often suffered cruel tortures, whipping and sometimes death. + +In New Orleans, before the occupation of the city by the Union troops +under General Butler, no woman could declare herself a Unionist without +great personal peril; but as we have seen there were those who risked +all for their attachment to the Union even then. Mrs. Taylor was by no +means the only outspoken Union woman of the city, though she may have +been the most fearless. Mrs. Minnie Don Carlos, the wife of a Spanish +gentleman of the city, was from the beginning of the war a decided Union +woman, and after its occupation by Union troops was a constant and +faithful visitor at the hospitals and rendered great service to Union +soldiers. Mrs. Flanders, wife of Hon. Benjamin Flanders, and her two +daughters, Miss Florence and Miss Fanny Flanders were also well known +for their persistent Unionism and their abundant labors for the sick and +wounded. Mrs. and Miss Carrie Wolfley, Mrs. Dr. Kirchner, Mrs. Mills, +Mrs. Bryden, Mrs. Barnett and Miss Bennett, Mrs. Wibrey, Mrs. +Richardson, Mrs. Hodge, Mrs. Thomas, Mrs. Howell, Mrs. Charles Howe of +Key West, and Miss Edwards from Massachusetts, were all faithful and +earnest workers in the hospitals throughout the war, and Union women +when their Unionism involved peril. Miss Sarah Chappell, Miss Cordelia +Baggett and Miss Ella Gallagher, also merit the same commendation. + +Nor should we fail to do honor to those loyal women in the mountainous +districts and towns of the interior of the South. Our prisoners as they +were marched through the towns of the South always found some tender +pitying hearts, ready to do something for their comfort, if it were only +a cup of cold water for their parched lips, or a corn dodger slyly +slipped into their hand. Oftentimes these humble but patriotic women +received cruel abuse, not only from the rebel soldiers, but from rebel +Southern women, who, though perhaps wealthier and in more exalted social +position than those whom they scorned, had not their tenderness of heart +or their real refinement. Indeed it would be difficult to find in +history, even among the fierce brutal women of the French revolution, +any record of conduct more absolutely fiendish than that of some of the +women of the South during the war. They insisted on the murder of +helpless prisoners; in some instances shot them in cold blood +themselves, besought their lovers and husbands to bring them Yankee +skulls, scalps and bones, for ornaments, betrayed innocent men to death, +engaged in intrigues and schemes of all kinds to obtain information of +the movements of Union troops, to convey it to the enemy, and in every +manifestation of malice, petty spite and diabolical hatred against the +flag under which they had been reared, and its defenders, they attained +a bad pre-eminence over the evil spirits of their sex since the world +began. It is true that these were not the characteristics of all +Southern, disloyal women, but they were sufficiently common to make the +rebel women of the south the objects of scorn among the people of +enlightened nations. Many of these patriotic loyal women, of the +mountainous districts, rendered valuable aid to our escaping soldiers, +as well as to the Union scouts who were in many cases their own kinsmen. +Messrs. Richardson and Browne, the Tribune correspondents so long +imprisoned, have given due honor to one of this class, "the nameless +heroine" as they call her, Miss Melvina Stevens, a young and beautiful +girl who from the age of fourteen had guided escaping Union prisoners +past the most dangerous of the rebel garrisons and outposts, on the +borders of North Carolina and East Tennessee, at the risk of her liberty +and life, solely from her devotion to the national cause. The +mountainous regions of East Tennessee, Northern Alabama and Northern +Georgia were the home of many of these loyal and energetic Union +women--women, who in the face of privation, persecution, death and +sometimes outrages worse than death, kept up the courage and patriotic +ardor of their husbands, brothers and lovers, and whose lofty +self-sacrificing courage no rebel cruelties or indignities could weaken +or abate. + + + + +MISS HETTY A. JONES.[N] + + +[Footnote N: The sketch of Miss Jones belonged appropriately in Part II. +but the materials for it were not received till that part of the work +was printed, and we are therefore under the necessity of inserting it +here.] + +Among the thousands of noble women who devoted their time and services +to the cause of our suffering soldiers during the rebellion there were +few who sacrificed more of comfort, money or health, than Miss Hetty A. +Jones of Roxborough, in the city of Philadelphia. She was a daughter of +the late Rev. Horatio Gates Jones, D.D., for many years pastor of the +Lower Merion Baptist Church, and a sister of the Hon. J. Richter Jones, +who was Colonel of the Fifty-eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, +and who was killed at the head of his regiment, near Newbern, N. C., in +May, 1863, and grand-daughter of Rev. Dr. David Jones, a revolutionary +chaplain, eminently patriotic. + +At the commencement of the war Miss Jones freely gave of her means to +equip the companies which were organized in her own neighborhood, and +when the news came of the death of her brave oldest brother, although +for a time shocked by the occurrence, she at once devoted her time and +means to relieve the wants of the suffering. She attached herself to the +Filbert Street Hospital in Philadelphia, and thither she went for weeks +and months, regardless of her own comfort or health. Naturally of a +bright and cheerful disposition, she carried these qualities into her +work, and wherever she went she dispensed joy and gladness, and the +sick men seemed to welcome her presence. One who had abundant means of +observing, bears testimony to the power of her brave heart and her +pleasant winning smile. He says, "I have often seen her sit and talk +away the pain, and make glad the heart of the wounded." Nor did she +weary in well-doing. Her services at the hospital were constant and +efficient, and when she heard of any sick soldier in her village she +would visit him there and procure medicine and comforts for him. + +In the fall of 1864 she accompanied a friend to Fortress Monroe to meet +his sick and wounded son, and thus was led to see more of the sufferings +of our brave patriots. On returning home she expressed a wish to go to +the front, and although dissuaded on account of her delicate health, she +felt it to be her duty to go, and accordingly on the 2d of November, +1864, she started on her errand of mercy, to City Point, Va., the +Headquarters of General Grant. The same untiring energy, the same +forgetfulness of self, the same devotion to the sick and wounded, were +exhibited by her in this new and arduous field of labor. She became +attached to the Third Division Second Corps Hospital of the Army of the +Potomac, and at once secured the warm affections of the soldiers. + +She continued her work with unremitting devotion until the latter part +of November, when she had an attack of pleurisy, caused no doubt, by her +over exertions in preparing for the soldiers a Thanksgiving Dinner. On +her partial recovery she wrote to a friend, describing her tent and its +accommodations. She said: "When I was sick, I did want some home +comforts; my straw bed was very hard. But even that difficulty was met. +A kind lady procured some pillows from the Christian Commission, and +sewed them together, and made me a soft bed. _But I did not complain, +for I was so much better off than the sick boys._" The italics are ours, +not hers. She never put her own ease before her care for "the sick +boys." + +She not only attended to the temporal comforts of the soldiers, but she +was equally interested in their spiritual welfare, and was wont to go to +the meetings of the Christian Commission. Her letters home and to her +friends, were full of details of these meetings, and her heart +overflowed with Christian love as she spoke of the brave soldiers rising +in scores to ask for the prayers of God's people. + +She continued her labors, as far as possible, on her recovery, but was +unable to do all that her heart prompted her to attempt. She was urged +by her friends at home to return and recruit her strength. In her brief +journal she alludes to this, but says, "Another battle is expected; and +then our poor crippled boys will need all the care that we can give. God +grant that we may do something for them!" + +Two days after writing this, in her chilly, leaking tent, she was +prostrated again. She was unwilling at first that her family should be +made uneasy by sending for them. But her disease soon began to make +rapid and alarming progress. She consented that they should be summoned. +But on the 21st of December, 1864, the day after this consent was +obtained, she passed away to her rest. Like a faithful soldier, she died +at her post. + +She was in early life led to put her trust in Christ, and was baptized +about thirty years ago, by her father, on confession of her faith. She +continued from that time a loved member of the Lower Merion Baptist +church. In her last hours she still rested with a calm, child-like +composure on the finished work of Christ. Though called to die, with +none of her own kindred about her, she was blessed with the presence of +her Lord, who, having loved his own, loves them unto the end. + +Her remains were laid beside those of her father, in the cemetery of the +Baptist church at Roxborough, Pa., on Friday, the 30th of December, +1864. A number of the convalescent soldiers from the Filbert Street +Hospital in the city, with which she was connected, attended her +funeral; and her bier was borne by four of those who had so far +recovered as to be able to perform this last office for their departed +friend. + +Her memory will long be cherished by those who knew her best, and tears +often shed over her grave by the brave soldiers whom she nursed in their +sickness. + +The soldiers of the Filbert Street Hospital, on receiving the +intelligence of her death, met and passed resolutions expressive of +their high esteem and reverence for her who had been their faithful and +untiring friend, and deep sympathy with her friends in their loss. + + + + +FINAL CHAPTER. + +THE FAITHFUL BUT LESS CONSPICUOUS LABORERS. + + +So abundant and universal was the patriotism and self-sacrifice of the +loyal women of the nation that the long list of heroic names whose deeds +of mercy we have recorded in the preceding pages gives only a very +inadequate idea of woman's work in the war. These were but the generals +or at most the commanders of regiments, and staff-officers, while the +great army of patient workers followed in their train. In every +department of philanthropic labor there were hundreds and in some, +thousands, less conspicuous indeed than these, but not less deserving. +We regret that the necessities of the case compel us to pass by so many +of these without notice, and to give to others of whom we know but +little beyond their names, only a mere mention. + +Among those who were distinguished for services in field, camp or army +hospitals, not already named, were the following, most of whom rendered +efficient service at Antietam or at the Naval Academy Hospital at +Annapolis. Some of them were also at City Point; Miss Mary Cary, of +Albany, N. Y., and her sister, most faithful and efficient nurses of the +sick and wounded, as worthy doubtless, of a more prominent position in +this work as many others found in the preceding pages, Miss Agnes +Gillis, of Lowell, Mass., Mrs. Guest, of Buffalo, N. Y., Miss Maria +Josslyn, of Roxbury, Mass., Miss Ruth L. Ellis, of Bridgewater, Mass., +Miss Kate P. Thompson, of Roxbury, Mass., whose labors at Annapolis, +have probably made her permanently an invalid, Miss Eudora Clark, of +Boston, Mass., Miss Sarah Allen, of Wilbraham, Mass., Miss Emily Gove, +of Peru, N. Y., Miss Caroline Cox, of Mott Haven, N. Y., first at +David's Island and afterward at Beverly Hospital, N. J., with Mrs. +Gibbons, Miss Charlotte Ford, of Morristown, N. J., Miss Ella Wolcott, +of Elmira, N. Y., who was at the hospitals near Fortress Monroe, for +some time, and subsequently at Point Lookout. + +Another corps of faithful hospital workers were those in the Benton +Barracks and other hospitals, in and near St. Louis. Of some of these, +subsequently engaged in other fields of labor we have already spoken; a +few others merit special mention for their extraordinary faithfulness +and assiduity in the service; Miss Emily E. Parsons, the able lady +superintendent of the Benton Barracks Hospital, gives her testimony to +the efficiency and excellent spirit of the following ladies; Miss S. R. +Lovell, of Galesburg, Michigan, whose labors began in the hospitals near +Nashville, Tennessee, and in 1864 was transferred to Benton Barracks, +but was almost immediately prostrated by illness, and after her recovery +returned to the Tennessee hospitals. Her gentle sympathizing manners, +and her kindness to the soldiers won for her their regard and gratitude. + +Miss Lucy J. Bissell, of Meremec, St. Louis County, Mo., offered her +services as volunteer nurse as soon as the call for nurses in 1861, was +issued; and was first sent to one of the regimental hospitals at Cairo, +in July, 1861, afterward to Bird's Point, where she lived in a tent and +subsisted on the soldiers' rations, for more than a year. After a short +visit home she was sent in January, 1863, by the Sanitary Commission to +Paducah, Ky., where she remained till the following October. In +February, 1864, she was assigned to Benton Barracks Hospital where she +continued till June 1st, 1864, except a short sickness contracted by +hospital service. In July, 1864, she was transferred to Jefferson +Barracks Hospital and continued there till June, 1865, and that +hospital being closed, served a month or two longer, in one of the +others, in which some sick and wounded soldiers were still left. Many +hundreds of the soldiers will testify to her untiring assiduity in +caring for them. + +Mrs. Arabella Tannehill, of Iowa, after many months of assiduous work at +the Benton Barracks Hospital, went to the Nashville hospitals, where she +performed excellent service, being a most conscientious and faithful +nurse, and winning the regard and esteem of all those under her charge. + +Mrs. Rebecca S. Smith, of Chelsea, Ill., the wife of a soldier in the +army, had acquitted herself so admirably at the Post Hospital of Benton +Barracks, that one of the surgeons of the General Hospital, who had +formerly been surgeon of the Post, requested Miss Parsons to procure her +services for his ward. She did so, and found her a most excellent and +skillful nurse. + +Mrs. Caroline E. Gray, of Illinois, had also a husband in the army; she +was a long time at Benton Barracks and was one of the best nurses there, +an estimable woman in every respect. + +Miss Adeline A. Lane, of Quincy, Ill., a teacher before the war, came to +Benton Barracks Hospital in the Spring of 1863, and after a service of +many months there, returned to her home at Quincy, where she devoted her +attention to the care of the sick and wounded soldiers sent there, and +accomplished great good. + +Miss Martha Adams, of New York city, was long employed in the Fort +Schuyler Hospital and subsequently at Benton Barracks, and was a woman +of rare devotion to her work. + +Miss Jennie Tileston Spaulding, of Roxbury, Mass., was for a long period +at Fort Schuyler Hospital, where she was much esteemed, and after her +return home busied herself in caring for the families of soldiers around +her. + +Miss E. M. King, of Omaha, Nebraska, was a very faithful and excellent +nurse at the Benton Barracks Hospital. + +Mrs. Juliana Day, the wife of a surgeon in one of the Nashville +hospitals, acted as a volunteer nurse for them, and by her protracted +services there impaired her health and died before the close of the war. + +Other efficient nurses appointed by the Western Sanitary Commission (and +there were none more efficient anywhere) were, Miss Carrie C. McNair, +Miss N. A. Shepard, Miss C. A. Harwood, Miss Rebecca M. Craighead, Miss +Ida Johnson, Mrs. Dorothea Ogden, Miss Harriet N. Phillips, Mrs. A. +Reese, Mrs. Maria Brooks, Mrs. Mary Otis, Miss Harriet Peabody, Mrs. M. +A. Wells, Mrs. Florence P. Sterling, Miss N. L. Ostram, Mrs. Anne Ward, +Miss Isabella M. Hartshorne, Mrs. Mary Ellis, Mrs. L. E. Lathrop, Miss +Louisa Otis, Mrs. Lydia Leach, Mrs. Mary Andrews, Mrs. Mary Ludlow, Mrs. +Hannah A. Haines and Mrs. Mary Allen. Most of these were from St. Louis +or its vicinity. + +The following, also for the most part from St. Louis, were appointed +somewhat later by the Western Sanitary Commission, but rendered +excellent service. Mrs. M. I. Ballard, Mrs. E. O. Gibson, Mrs. L. D. +Aldrich, Mrs. Houghton, Mrs. Sarah A. Barton, Mrs. Olive Freeman, Mrs. +Anne M. Shattuck, Mrs. E. C. Brendell, Mrs. E. J. Morris, Miss Fanny +Marshall, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Nichols, Mrs. H. A. Reid, Mrs. Reese, Mrs. +M. A. Stetler, Mrs. M. J. Dykeman, Misses Marian and Clara McClintock, +Mrs. Sager, Mrs. Peabody, Mrs. C. C. Hagar, Mrs. J. E. Hickox, Mrs. +L. L. Campbell, Miss Deborah Dougherty and Mrs. Ferris. + +As in other cities, many ladies of high social position, devoted +themselves with great assiduity to voluntary visiting and nursing at the +hospitals. Among these were Mrs. Chauncey I. Filley, wife of Mayor +Filley, Mrs. Robert Anderson, wife of General Anderson, Mrs. Jessie B. +Fremont, wife of General Fremont, Mrs. Clinton B. Fisk, wife of General +Fisk, Mrs. E. M. Webber, Mrs. A. M. Clark, Mrs. John Campbell, Mrs. +W. F. Cozzens, Mrs. E. W. Davis, Miss S. F. McCracken, Miss Anna M. +Debenham, since deceased, Miss Susan Bell, Miss Charlotte Ledergerber, +Mrs. S. C. Davis, Mrs. Hazard, Mrs. T. D. Edgar, Mrs. George Partridge, +Miss E. A. Hart, since deceased, Mrs. H. A. Nelson, Mrs. F. A. Holden, +Mrs. Hicks, Mrs. Baily, Mrs. Elizabeth Jones, Mrs. C. V. Barker, Miss +Bettie Broadhead, Mrs. T. M. Post, Mrs. E. J. Page, Miss Jane Patrick, +since deceased, Mrs. R. H. Stone, Mrs. C. P. Coolidge, Mrs. S. R. Ward, +Mrs. Washington King, Mrs. Wyllys King, Miss Fales, since deceased. + +The following were among the noble women at Springfield, Ill., who were +most devoted in their labors for the soldier in forwarding sanitary +supplies, in visiting the hospitals in and near Springfield, in +sustaining the Soldiers' Home in that city, and in aiding the families +of soldiers. Mrs. Lucretia Jane Tilton, Miss Catharine Tilton, Mrs. +Lucretia P. Wood, Mrs. P. C. Latham, Mrs. M. E. Halbert, Mrs. Zimmerman, +Mrs. J. D. B. Salter, Mrs. John Ives, Mrs. Mary Engleman, Mrs. Paul +Selby, Mrs. S. H. Melvin, Mrs. Stoneberger, Mrs. Schaums, Mrs. E. +Curtiss, Mrs. L. Snell, Mrs. J. Nutt and Mrs. J. P. Reynolds. Mrs. R. H. +Bennison, of Quincy, Ill., was also a faithful hospital visitor and +friend of the soldier. Mrs. Dr. Ely, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, efficient in +every good work throughout the war, and at its close the active promoter +and superintendent of a Home for Soldiers' Orphans, near Davenport, +Iowa, is deserving of all honor. + +Miss Georgiana Willets, of Jersey City, N. J., a faithful and earnest +helper at the front from 1864 to the end of the war, deserves especial +mention, as do also Miss Molineux, sister of General Molineux and Miss +McCabe, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who were, throughout the war, active in +aiding the soldiers by all the means in their power. Miss Sophronia +Bucklin, of Auburn, N. Y., an untiring and patient worker among the +soldiers of the Army of the Potomac, also deserves a place in our +record. + +Cincinnati had a large band of noble hospital workers, women who gave +freely of their own property as well as their personal services for the +care and comfort of the soldier. Among these were, Mrs. Crafts J. +Wright, wife of Colonel Crafts J. Wright, was among the first hospital +visiters of the city, and was unwearied in her efforts to provide +comforts for the soldiers in the general hospitals of the city as well +as for the sick or wounded soldiers of her husband's regiment in the +field. Mrs. C. W. Starbuck, Mrs. Peter Gibson, Mrs. William Woods and +Mrs. Caldwell, were also active in visiting the hospitals and gave +largely to the soldiers who were sick there. Miss Penfield and Mrs. +Elizabeth S. Comstock, of Michigan, Mrs. C. E. Russell, of Detroit, Mrs. +Harriet B. Dame, of Wisconsin and the Misses Rexford, of Illinois, were +remarkably efficient, not only in the hospitals at home, but at the +front, where they were long engaged in caring for the soldiers. + +From Niagara Falls, N. Y., Miss Elizabeth L. Porter, sister of the late +gallant Colonel Peter A. Porter, went to the Baltimore Hospitals and for +nineteen months devoted her time and her ample fortune to the service of +the soldiers, with an assiduity which has rendered her an invalid ever +since. + +In Louisville, Ky., Mrs. Menefee and Mrs. Smith, wife of the Bishop of +the Protestant Episcopal Church for the diocese of Kentucky, were the +leaders of a faithful band of hospital visitors in that city. + +Boston was filled with patriotic women; to name them all would be almost +like publishing a directory of the city. Mrs. Lowell, who gave two sons +to the war, both of whom were slain at the head of their commands, was +herself one of the most zealous laborers in behalf of the soldier in +Boston or its vicinity. Like Miss Wormeley and Miss Gilson, she took a +contract for clothing from the government, to provide work for the +soldiers' families, preparing the work for them and giving them more +than she received. Her daughter, Miss Anna Lowell, was on one of the +Hospital Transports in the Peninsula, and arrived at Harrison's Landing, +where she met the news of her brother's death in the battles of the +Seven Days, but burying her sorrows in her heart, she took charge of a +ward on the Transport when it returned, and from the summer of 1862 +till the close of the war was in charge as lady superintendent, of the +Armory Square Hospital, Washington. Other ladies hardly less active were +Mrs. Amelia L. Holmes, wife of the poet and essayist, Miss Hannah E. +Stevenson, Miss Ira E. Loring, Mrs. George H. Shaw, Mrs. Martin Brimmer +and Mrs. William B. Rogers. Miss Mary Felton, of Cambridge, Mass., +served for a long time with her friend, Miss Anna Lowell, at Armory +Square Hospital, Washington. Miss Louise M. Alcott, daughter of A. B. +Alcott, of Concord, Mass., and herself the author of a little book on +"Hospital Scenes," as well as other works, was for some time an +efficient nurse in one of the Washington hospitals. + +Among the leaders in the organization of Soldiers' Aid Societies in the +smaller cities and towns, those ladies who gave the impulse which during +the whole war vibrated through the souls of those who came within the +sphere of their influence, there are very many eminently deserving of a +place in our record. A few we must name. Mrs. Heyle, Mrs. Ide and Miss +Swayne, daughter of Judge Swayne of the United States Supreme Court, all +of Columbus, Ohio, did an excellent work there. The Soldiers' Home of +that city, founded and sustained by their efforts, was one of the best +in the country. Mrs. T. W. Seward, of Utica, was indefatigable in her +efforts for maintaining in its highest condition of activity the Aid +Society of that city. Mrs. Sarah J. Cowen was similarly efficient in +Hartford, Conn. Miss Long, at Rochester, N. Y., was the soul of the +efforts for the soldier there, and her labors were warmly seconded by +many ladies of high standing and earnest patriotism. In Norwalk, Ohio, +Mrs. Lizzie H. Farr was one of the most zealous coadjutors of those +ladies who managed with such wonderful ability the affairs of the +Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern Ohio, at Cleveland. To her is due the +origination of the Alert Clubs, associations of young girls for the +purpose of working for the soldiers and their families, which rapidly +spread thence over the country. Never flagging in her efforts for the +soldiers, Mrs. Farr exerted a powerful and almost electric influence +over the region of which Norwalk is the centre. + +Equally efficient, and perhaps exerting a wider influence, was the +Secretary of the Soldiers' Aid Society at Peoria, Ill., Miss Mary E. +Bartlett, a lady of superior culture and refinement, and indefatigable +in her exertions for raising supplies for the soldiers, from the +beginning to the close of the war. The Western Sanitary Commission had +no more active auxiliary out of St. Louis, than the Soldiers' Aid +Society of Peoria. + +Among the ladies who labored for the relief of the Freedmen, Miss Sophia +Knight of South Reading, Mass., deserves a place. After spending five or +six months in Benton Barracks Hospital (May to October, 1864) she went +to Natchez, Miss., and engaged as teacher of the Freedmen, under the +direction of the Western Sanitary Commission. Not satisfied with +teaching the colored children, she instructed also the colored soldiers +in the fort, and visited the people in their homes and the hospitals for +sick and wounded colored soldiers. She remained in Natchez until May, +1865. In the following autumn she accepted an appointment from the New +England Freedman's Aid Society as teacher of the Freedmen in South +Carolina, on Edisto Island, where she remained until July, 1866; she +then returned to Boston, where she is still engaged in teaching +freedmen. + +But time and space would both fail us were we to attempt to put on +record the tithe of names which memory recalls of those whose labors and +sacrifices of health and life for the cause of the nation, have been not +less heroic or noble than those of the soldiers whom they have sought to +serve. In the book of God's remembrance their names and their deeds of +love and mercy are all inscribed, and in the great day of reckoning, +when that record shall be proclaimed in the sight and hearing of an +assembled universe, it will be their joyful privilege to hear from the +lips of the Supreme Judge, the welcome words, "Inasmuch as ye did it +unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye did it unto me." + + + + +INDEX + +OF NAMES OF WOMEN WHOSE SERVICES ARE RECORDED IN THIS BOOK. + + +Abernethy, Mrs. C., 528. + +Adams, Miss H. A., 74, 79, 630, 636, 639. + +Adams, Miss Martha, 789. + +Adams, Mrs. N., 594. + +Alcott, Miss Louise M., 793. + +Aldrich, Mrs. L. D., 790. + +Aldrich, Milly, 85. + +Allen, Mrs. Mary, 790. + +Allen, Miss Phebe, 502. + +Allen, Miss Sarah, 459, 788. + +Anderson, Mrs. Kate B., 737. + +Anderson, Mrs. Robert, 630, 790. + +Andrews, Emma, 84. + +Andrews, Mrs. Mary, 790. + +Archer, Mrs., 79. + +Armstrong, Miss, 209. + + +Babcock, Miss Grace, 590. + +Bacon, Mrs. Elbridge, 463. + +Bailey, Mrs., 301, 731. + +Bailey, Mrs. Catharine, 737. + +Bailey, Mrs. Hannah F., 737. + +Baily, Mrs., 791. + +Baker, Miss Delphine P., 754-759. + +Bakewell, Miss, 616. + +Ballard, Mrs. M. I., 790. + +Balustier, Mrs., 301, 732. + +Barker, Mrs. C. N., 630, 632. + +Barker, Mrs. C. V., 791. + +Barker, Mrs. Stephen, 186, 200-211. + +Barlow, Mrs. Arabella Griffith, 88, 225-233. + +Barnard, Mrs., 664. + +Barnett, Mrs., 780. + +Barrows, Mrs. Ellen B., 737. + +Bartlett, Miss Mary E., 794. + +Bartlett, Mrs. Abner, 84. + +Barton, Mrs. Sarah A., 790. + +Barton, Miss Clara Harlowe, 73, 111-132. + +Baylis, Mrs. H., 528. + +Beck, Mrs., 157, 159, 485, 713. + +Bell, Miss Annie, 616. + +Bell, Miss Susan J., 630, 790. + +Bellows, Mrs. H. W., 302. + +Bennett, Miss, 780. + +Bennison, Mrs. R. H., 791. + +Bergen, Miss Rebecca, 428. + +Bickerdyke, Mrs. Mary A., 74, 163, 165-170, 172-186, 209, 512. + +Biddle, Misses, 644. + +Bigelow, Mrs. R. M., 738-740. + +Billing, Mrs. R. K., 738, 739. + +Billing, Miss Rose M., 460, 738, 739, 742. + +Bird, Miss, 590. + +Bissell, Miss Lucy J., 788. + +Bissell, Miss Mary, 616. + +Blackmar, Miss M. A., 429, 430. + +Blackwell, Miss Emily, 527. + +Blackwell, Miss Elizabeth, 527, 528, 529. + +Blanchard, Miss Anna, 600. + +Blanchard, Miss H., 600. + +Booth, Mrs., 769. + +Botta, Mrs. Vincenzo, 528. + +Boyer, Mrs. Margaret, 736. + +Bradford, Miss Charlotte, 153, 301, 316, 731, 732. + +Bradley, Miss Amy M., 212-224, 301, 316, 584, 732, 748. + +Brady, Mrs. Mary A., 597, 647-9. + +Brayton, Miss Mary Clark, 74, 79, 540, 543, 545, 546, 547-552. + +Breckinridge, Miss Margaret E., 74, 88, 187, 199, 779. + +Brendell, Mrs. E. C., 790. + +Brewster, Mrs., 664. + +Bridgham, Mrs. S. W., 531. + +Brimmer, Mrs. Martin, 557, 793. + +Broadhead, Mrs. Bettie, 632, 791. + +Brooks, Mrs. Maria, 790. + +Brownell, Mrs. Kady, 773, 774. + +Bryden, Mrs., 780. + +Bucklin, Miss Sophronia, 791. + + +Caldwell, Mrs., 792. + +Campbell, Mrs. John, 790. + +Campbell, Mrs. Lucy L., 790. + +Campbell, Miss Valeria, 79, 594, 595. + +Canfield, Mrs. S. A. Martha, 495. + +Carver, Mrs. Anna, 647. + +Cary, Miss Mary, 459, 787. + +Case, Mrs. Cynthia, 742. + +Cassedy, Mrs. Mary A., 737. + +Chase, Miss Nellie, 644. + +Chapman, Mrs. 354. + +Chapman, Miss G. D., 714. + +Chipman, Mrs. H. L., 594. + +Clapp, Mrs. Anna L., 79, 630, 634-636, 715, 767, 779. + +Clapp, Mrs. Samuel H., 599. + +Clark, Mrs. A. M., 790. + +Clark, Miss Eudora, 458, 788. + +Clark, Mrs. Lincoln, 165. + +Colby, Mrs. Robert, 530. + +Colfax, Mrs. Harriet R., 74, 395-399. + +Collins, Miss Ellen, 79, 528, 533, 534, 536. + +Colt, Mrs. Henrietta L., 79, 568, 586, 607, 609-613. + +Colwell, Mrs. Stephen, 643. + +Conrad, Mrs. R. E., 377. + +Constant, Mrs. Nettie C., 714. + +Coolidge, Mrs. C. P., 791. + +Combs, Mrs. Sarah, 715. + +Comstock, Mrs. Elizabeth S., 792. + +Cowen, Mrs. Sarah J., 793. + +Courteney, Mrs. Mary, 737. + +Cox, Miss Caroline, 788. + +Cozzens, Mrs. W. F., 790. + +Craighead, Miss Rebecca M., 790. + +Crawshaw, Mrs. Joseph, 630, 715. + +Curtis, Mrs. George, 537. + +Curtiss, Mrs. E., 791. + + +Dada, Miss Hattie A., 431-439. + +Dame, Mrs. Harriet B., 792. + +Dana, Miss Emily W., 456, 462. + +Davis, Miss Clara, 295, 400-403, 480. + +Davis, Mrs. E. W., 790. + +Davis, Mrs. G. T. M., 352-356, 666, 680. + +Davis, Mrs. Samuel C., 630, 790. + +Day, Mrs. Juliana, 789. + +Debenham, Miss Anna M., 630, 790. + +Delafield, Mrs. Louisa M., 607. + +Denham, Mrs. Z., 644. + +Detmold, Miss Z. T., 537. + +Divers, Bridget, 480, 593, 771-773. + +Dix, Miss Dorothea L., 71, 97-108, 134, 271, 290, 431, 432, 449, 472, + 478, 512, 579. + +Dodge, Mrs., 664. + +Don Carlos, Mrs. Minnie, 780. + +D'Orémieulx, Mrs. T., 528, 531. + +Dougherty, Miss Deborah, 790. + +Duane, Miss M. M., 599. + +Dunlap, Miss S. B., 599. + +Dupee, Miss Mary E., 456, 462, 463, 464. + +Dykeman, Mrs. M. J., 790. + + +Eaton, Mrs. J. S., 463, 507, 508. + +Eaton, Mrs. Lucien, 715. + +Edgar, Mrs. T. D., 791. + +Edson, Mrs. Sarah P., 440-447. + +Edwards, Miss, 780. + +Elkinton, Mrs. Anna A., 737. + +Elliott, Miss Melcenia, 74, 380-384. + +Ellis, Mrs. Mary, 790. + +Ellis, Miss Ruth L., 458, 787. + +Ely, Mrs. Charles L., 630. + +Ely, Mrs. Dr., 791. + +Engleman, Mrs. Mary, 791. + +Etheridge, Mrs. Annie, 218, 301, 593, 747-753. + + +Fales, Mrs. Almira, 73, 279-283, 449, 450, 483, 677. + +Fales, Miss, 791. + +Farr, Mrs. Lizzie H., 793. + +Fellows, Mrs. W. M., 530. + +Felton, Miss Mary, 793. + +Femington, Mrs. Sarah, 736. + +Fenn, Mrs. Curtis T., 660-670. + +Fernald, Mrs. James E., 463. + +Ferris, Mrs., 790. + +Field, Mrs. David Dudley, 88. + +Field, Mrs. Mary E., 737. + +Field, Miss, 737. + +Field, Mrs. C. W., 528. + +Field, Mrs. Samuel, 599. + +Filley, Mrs. Chauncey I., 790. + +Fish, Mrs. Hamilton, 528, 529. + +Fisk, Mrs. Clinton B., 713, 790. + +Flanders, Mrs. Benj., 780. + +Flanders, Miss Fanny, 780. + +Flanders, Miss Florence, 780. + +Fogg, Mrs. Mary R., 715. + +Fogg, Mrs. Isabella, 463, 506-510. + +Follett, Mrs. Joseph E., 590. + +Foote, Miss Kate, 418. + +Ford, Miss Charlotte, 459, 788. + +Fox, Miss Harriet, 463. + +Francis, Miss Abby, 209. + +Frederick, Mrs. M. L., 599. + +Freeman, Mrs. Olive, 790. + +Fremont, Mrs. Jessie B., 274, 790. + +Frietchie, Barbara, 522, 761-763, 767 + +Furness, Mrs. W. H., 599. + + +Gage, Mrs. Frances Dana, 683-690. + +Gardiner, Miss M., 301, 732. + +George, Mrs. E. E., 511-513. + +Gibbons, Mrs. A. H., 467-476, 788. + +Gibbons, Miss Sarah H., 467-476. + +Gibson, Mrs. E. O., 396, 399, 790. + +Gibson, Mrs. Peter, 792. + +Gillespie, Mrs. E. D., 599. + +Gillis, Miss Agnes, 459, 787. + +Gilson, Miss Helen L., 71, 73, 80, 81, 133-148, 232, 301, 316, 713, 732. + +Glover, Miss Eliza S., 630. + +Gove, Miss Emily, 459, 788. + +Graff, Mrs. C, 599. + +Gray, Mrs. Caroline E., 789. + +Greble, Mrs. Edwin, 503, 504. + +Green, Mrs., 736. + +Grier, Mrs. Maria C., 597-599, 600, 601, 779. + +Griffin, Mrs. Josephine R., 707-709. + +Griffin, Mrs. William Preston, 301, 316, 528, 529, 530, 534. + +Grover, Mrs. Mary, 736. + +Grover, Mrs. Priscilla, 736. + +Grover, Miss, 737. + +Guest, Mrs., 459, 787. + + +Hagar, Mrs. C. C., 704, 790. + +Hagar, Miss Sarah J., 704, 706. + +Haines, Mrs. Hannah A., 790. + +Hall, Miss Maria M. C., 157, 247, 290, 401, 448-454, 456, 457, 460, 483, + 485, 644. + +Hall, Miss Susan E., 431-439. + +Halbert, Mrs. M. E., 791. + +Hallowell, Mrs. M. M., 710-712. + +Hancock, Miss Cornelia, 284-286, 487, 644. + +Harlan, Mrs. James, 676, 678. + +Harmon, Miss Amelia, 777, 778. + +Harris, Mrs. John, 72, 73, 79, 149-160, 367, 450, 482, 483, 485, 596, + 643, 644, 645, 713. + +Harris, Miss W. F., 742, 743. + +Hart, Miss E. A., 791. + +Hartshorne, Miss Isabella M., 790. + +Harvey, Mrs. Cordelia A. P., 73, 164, 260-268, 729. + +Harwood, Miss C. A., 790. + +Hawley, Miss E. P., 600. + +Hawley, Mrs. Harriet Foote, 416-419, 513, 713. + +Hazard, Mrs., 790. + +Helmbold, Mrs. Eliza, 737. + +Heyle, Mrs., 793. + +Hickox, Mrs. J. E., 790. + +Hicks, Mrs., 791. + +Hoadley, Mrs. George, 79. + +Hoes, Mrs. H. F., 713. + +Hodge, Mrs., 780. + +Hoge, Mrs. A. H., 74, 79, 178, 561, 562-576, 580, 583, 585, 589, 610. + +Holden, Mrs. F. A., 791. + +Holland, Miss Sarah, 736. + +Holmes, Mrs. Amelia L., 793. + +Holmes, Miss Belle, 630. + +Holstein, Mrs. William H., 251-259. + +Home, Miss Jessie, 422, 427, 428, 480. + +Hooper, Mrs. Lucy H., 764. + +Horton, Mrs. Elizabeth, 737. + +Hosmer, Mrs. O. E., 719-724. + +Houghton, Mrs., 790. + +Howe, Miss Abbie J., 458, 465, 466. + +Howe, Mrs. Charles, 780. + +Howe, Mrs. T. O., 164. + +Howell, Mrs., 780. + +Howland, Mrs. Eliza W., 301, 324-326. + +Howland, Mrs. Robert S., 88, 326, 327. + +Humphrey, Miss, 164. + +Husband, Mrs. Mary Morris, 157, 287-298, 301, 316, 401, 451, 483, 485, + 486, 507, 596. + + +Ide, Mrs., 793. + +Ives, Mrs. John, 791. + + +Jackson, Mrs. Margaret A., 607. + +Jessup, Mrs. A. D., 599. + +Johnson, Miss Addie E., 399. + +Johnson, Miss Ida, 790. + +Johnson, Mrs. J. Warner, 599. + +Johnson, Mrs., 209, 210. + +Johnston, Mrs. Sarah R., 269-272, 779. + +Jones, Mrs. Elizabeth, 791. + +Jones, Miss Hetty A., 783, 786. + +Jones, Mrs. Joel, 79, 643. + +Josslyn, Miss Maria, 459, 787. + + +Kellogg, Mrs. S. B., 630. + +King, Miss E. M., 789. + +King, Mrs. Washington, 630, 791. + +King, Mrs. Wyllys, 791. + +Kirchner, Mrs. Dr., 780. + +Kirkland, Mrs. Caroline M., 88, 528. + +Knight, Miss A. M., 705. + +Knight, Miss Sophia, 794. + +Krider, Miss, 737. + + +Lane, Miss Adeline A., 789. + +Lane, Mrs. David, 530, 537. + +Latham, Mrs. P. C., 791. + +Lathrop, Mrs. L. E., 790. + +Lathrop, Mrs., 599. + +Leach, Mrs. Lydia, 790. + +Ledergerber, Miss Charlotte, 790. + +Lee, Miss Amanda, 480, 486, 737. + +Lee, Mrs. Mary W., 73, 157, 480-488, 596, 644, 647, 733, 737. + +Little, Miss Anna P., 647. + +Livermore, Mrs. Mary A., 74, 79, 85, 178, 359, 561, 566, 569, 577-589, 610. + +Long, Miss, 793. + +Loring, Miss Ira E., 557, 793. + +Lovejoy, Miss Sarah E. M., 714. + +Lovell, Miss S. R., 788. + +Lowell, Miss Anna, 792, 793. + +Lowell, Mrs., 792. + +Lowry, Mrs. Ellen J., 736. + +Ludlow, Mrs. Mary, 790. + + +McCabe, Miss, 791. + +McClintock, Miss Clara, 790. + +McClintock, Miss Marian, 790. + +McCracken, Miss Sarah F., 790. + +McEwen, Mrs. Hetty M., 764-766, 767. + +McFadden, Miss Rachel W., 79, 616. + +McKay, Mrs. Charlotte E., 514-516. + +McMeens, Mrs. Anna C., 491, 492. + +McMillan, Mrs., 616. + +McNair, Miss Carrie C., 790. + +Maertz, Miss Louisa, 74, 390-394. + +Maltby, Mrs. F. F., 630. + +Mann, Miss Maria R., 697-703. + +Marsh, Mrs. M. M., 534, 621-629. + +Marshall, Miss Fanny, 790. + +Mason, Mrs. Emily, 737. + +May, Miss Abby W., 79, 554-557. + +Mayhew, Mrs. Ruth S., 463, 506. + +Melvin, Mrs. S. H., 791. + +Mendenhall, Mrs. Elizabeth S., 79, 494, 617-620. + +Menefee, Mrs., 792. + +Merrill, Mrs. Eunice D., 457, 462. + +Merritt, Mrs., 302. + +Mills, Mrs., 780. + +Mitchell, Miss Ellen E., 420-426. + +Molineux, Miss, 791. + +Moore, Mrs. Clara J., 597, 599. + +Moore, Mrs., (of Knoxville, Tenn.), 767, 768. + +Morris, Mrs. E. J., 790. + +Morris, Miss, 354, 496. + +Morris, Miss Rachel W., 600. + +Moss, Miss M. J., 600. + +Munsell, Mrs. Jane R., 522, 523. + +Murdoch, Miss Ellen E., 616, 633. + + +Nash, Miss C., 537. + +Nelson, Mrs. H. A., 791. + +Newhall, Miss Susan, 456, 461, 464. + +Nichols, Mrs. Elizabeth A., 790. + +Noye, Miss Helen M., 456, 459. + +Nutt, Mrs. J., 791. + + +Ogden, Mrs. Dorothea, 790. + +Oliver, Mrs., 664. + +Ostram, Miss N. L., 790. + +Otis, Miss Louisa, 790. + +Otis, Mrs. Mary, 790. + + +Page, Miss Eliza, 631. + +Page, Mrs. E. J., 791. + +Painter, Mrs. Hetty K., 644, 647. + +Palmer, Mrs. Mary E., 81, 88, 630, 640-642. + +Palmer, Mrs. John, 594. + +Pancoast, Mrs., 656. + +Parrish, Mrs. Lydia G., 362-373, 599. + +Parsons, Miss Emily E., 74, 273-278, 382, 489, 502, 788. + +Partridge, Mrs. George, 791. + +Patrick, Miss Jane, 791. + +Peabody, Miss Harriet, 790. + +Peabody, Mrs., 790. + +Penfield, Miss, 792. + +Pettes, Miss Mary Dwight, 385-389. + +Phelps, Mrs. John S., 520, 521, 713, 779. + +Pierson, Miss Mary, 457, 462. + +Phillips, Miss Harriet N., 790. + +Pinkham, Miss, 644. + +Plummer, Mrs. Eliza G., 73, 88, 735. + +Plummer, Mrs. S. A., 396, 399. + +Pomeroy, Mrs. Lucy G., 88, 691-696. + +Pomeroy, Mrs. Robert, 664. + +Porter, Mrs. Eliza C., 74, 161-171, 174, 182, 183, 185, 186, 209, 512, 560. + +Porter, Miss Elizabeth L., 791. + +Post, Miss A., 537. + +Post, Mrs. T. M., 630, 791. + +Preble, Mrs. William, 463. + + +Quimby, Miss Almira, 456-462. + + +Reese, Mrs. A., 790. + +Reid, Mrs. H. A., 790. + +Reifsnyder, Miss Hattie S., 742. + +Reynolds, Mrs. J. P., 791. + +Rexford, Misses, 792. + +Rich, Miss, 370. + +Richardson, Mrs., 780. + +Ricketts, Mrs. Fanny L., 480, 517-519. + +Robinson, Miss Belle, 742. + +Rogers, Mrs. William B., 557, 793. + +Ross, Miss Anna Maria, 88, 343-351, 644, 733. + +Rouse, Mrs. B., 79, 540, 544, 545. + +Royce, Miss Alice F., 713. + +Russell, Mrs. E. A., 679. + +Russell, Mrs. E. J., 477-479. + +Russell, Mrs. C. E., 792. + + +Safford, Miss Mary J., 163, 357-361. + +Sager, Mrs., 790. + +Salomon, Mrs. Eliza, 613, 614. + +Salter, Mrs. J. D. B., 791. + +Sampson, Mrs., 644. + +Schaums, Mrs., 791. + +Schuyler, Mrs. G. L., 528. + +Schuyler, Miss Louisa Lee, 79, 532, 534, 537. + +Selby, Mrs. Paul, 791. + +Seward, Mrs. T. W., 793. + +Seymour, Mrs. Horatio, 79, 590-592. + +Sharpless, Miss Hattie R., 741-743. + +Shattuck, Mrs. Anna M., 790. + +Shaw, the Misses, 537. + +Shaw, Mrs. G. H., 557, 793. + +Sheffield, Miss Mary E., 714. + +Sheads, Miss Carrie, 776, 777. + +Shepard, Miss N. A., 790. + +Sibley, Miss S. A., 594. + +Small, Mrs. Jerusha C., 493, 494. + +Smith, Mrs. Aubrey H., 599. + +Smith, Mrs. Hannah, 736. + +Smith, Mrs., 792. + +Smith, Mrs. Eliza J., 737. + +Smith, Mrs. Rebecca S., 789. + +Snell, Mrs. L., 791. + +Spaulding Miss Jennie Tileston, 789. + +Spencer, Mrs. R. H., 404-415. + +Springer, Mrs. C. R., 80, 630, 639, 640. + +Starr, Mrs. Lucy E., 713, 728-730. + +Starbuck, Mrs. C. W., 792. + +Stearns, Mrs. S. Burger, 760. + +Steel, Mrs., 209. + +Sterling, Mrs. Florence P., 790. + +Stetler, Mrs. M. A., 790. + +Stevens, Miss Gertrude, 537. + +Stevens, Miss Melvina, 782. + +Stevens, Mrs. N., 715. + +Stevenson, Miss Hannah E., 793. + +Steward, Miss Ella, 616. + +Stillé, Mrs. Charles J., 599. + +Stone, Mrs. R. H., 791. + +Stoneberger, Mrs., 791. + +Stranahan, Mrs. Mariamne F., 79, 537, 651-658. + +Streeter, Mrs. Elizabeth M., 655-659. + +Strong, Mrs. George T., 301. + +Swett, Mrs. J. A., 528. + +Swayne, Miss, 793. + + +Tannehill, Mrs. Arabella, 789. + +Taylor, Miss Alice, 239, 240, 768, 769. + +Taylor, Mrs. Nellie Maria, 234, 240, 779, 780. + +Terry, Miss Ellen F., 540, 543, 546, 547. + +Tevis, Mrs. J., 599. + +Thomas, Mrs. E., 496. + +Thomas, Mrs. (of New Orleans), 780. + +Thompson, Miss Kate P., 458, 788. + +Ticknor, Miss Anna, 557. + +Ticknor, Mrs. George, 323, 557. + +Tileston, Miss Jennie, 789. + +Tilton, Miss Catherine, 791. + +Tilton, Mrs. Lucretia Jane, 791. + +Tinkham, Mrs. Smith, 720, 722. + +Titcomb, Miss Louise, 247, 453, 456, 461, 463. + +Titlow, Mrs. Effie, 522, 767. + +Tompkins, Miss Cornelia M., 489, 490. + +Trotter, Mrs. Laura, 301. + +Turchin, Madame, 480, 770, 771. + +Tyler, Mrs. Adaline, 241-250, 453, 456, 461, 464. + +Tyson, Miss, 157, 159, 485, 713. + + +Usher, Miss Rebecca R., 456, 461, 463. + + +Vance, Miss Mary, 429, 430. + +Vanderkieft, Mrs. Dr., 247. + + +Wade, Mrs. Jennie, 88, 775, 776. + +Wade, Mrs. Mary B., 736. + +Walker, Miss Adeline, 456, 457, 462. + +Wallace, Miss, 209. + +Wallace, Mrs. Martha A., 73. + +Ward, Mrs. Anne, 790. + +Ward, Mrs. S. R., 791. + +Waterbury, Miss Kate E., 651, 658. + +Waterman, Mrs., 644. + +Webber, Mrs. E. M., 790. + +Weed, Mrs. H. M., 715. + +Wells, Mrs. Shepard, 497, 498, 779. + +Whetten, Miss Harriet Douglas, 301, 316, 322. + +Whitaker, Miss Mary A., 714. + +Wibrey, Mrs., 780. + +Willets, Miss Georgiana, 791. + +Williams, Miss, 245. + +Wiswall, Miss Hattie, 725-727. + +Witherell, Mrs. E. C., 499-501. + +Wittenmeyer, Mrs. Annie, 374-379, 509. + +Wolcott, Miss Ella, 459, 788. + +Wolfley, Mrs., 780. + +Wolfley, Miss Carrie, 780. + +Wood, Mrs. Lucretia P., 791. + +Woods, Mrs. William, 792. + +Woolsey, Miss Georgiana M., 301, 303, 322, 323, 324, 327-342, 472. + +Woolsey, Miss Jane Stuart, 322, 324, 342, 472, 713. + +Woolsey, Miss Sarah C., 322, 342. + +Woolsey, Mrs., 328. + +Wormeley, Miss Katharine P., 80, 301, 303, 318-323, 327, 480. + +Wright, Mrs. Crafts J., 791. + + +Young, Miss M. A. B., 459. + + +Zimmerman, Mrs., 791. + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + +Illustrations originally printed in the middle of sentences have been +moved to the nearest paragraph break. + +Because sections of this book were written by different people, accent, +spelling and hyphen usage is inconsistent. These inconsistencies have +been preserved except where noted. + +Page 25: added page numbers for Table of Contents and Introduction + +Page 27: added period to "Visits Huntsville, Pulaski, etc." + +Page 30: added period to "preparation of diet, etc." + +Page 40: changed "e" to "é" in "Mrs. D'Orémieulx's departure for Europe" + +Page 41: changed "e" to "é" in "made by the employés of the Association," + +Page 42: "Did you drop from heaven" had opening " printed as ' + +Page 45: "Mr. Stranahan chosen President" corrected to "Mrs. Stranahan" + +Page 51: Removed period after Felton: Miss Felton--Louisville, + +Page 51: "Mrs. Corven, of Hartford, Conn." corrected to "Cowen" + +Page 51: Added period after Hartford, Conn. and Peoria, Ill. + +Page 53: "MRS. MARIANNE F. STRANAHAN" not corrected to MARIAMNE + +Page 66: "We need only recal" corrected to "recall" + +Page 82: Deleted quotation mark before: In that little hamlet + +Page 82: Deleted quotation mark before: "In one of the mountainous + +Page 129: "franks of some of her frinds" corrected to "friends" + +Page 137: "In all her journies Miss Gilson" corrected to "journeys" + +Page 169: Changed "most econonomical" corrected to "most economical" + +Page 191: Added close quote to: uncertainties of self-support." + +Page 210: "Companies A. B, C.," corrected to Companies "A, B, C," + +Page 237: Added second close quote to: "Lincoln's hirelings."" + +Page 292: Added close quote to: departure in copious tears." + +Page 305: "earnest hope that yon alleviate suffering" corrected to "you" + +Page 353: Added period to "themselves in the service of their country." + +Page 339: "'It is the man, you know," had opening ' printed as " + +Page 375: "$115,876,93" corrected to "$115,876.93" + +Page 386: ""develope that purity" corrected to "develop" + +Page 456: "year in the hospitel." corrected to "hospital" + +Page 462: Added close quote to: of the deceased to their friends." + +Page 529: "physicial fatigue" corrected to "physical fatigue" + +Page 537: "MRS. MARIANNE F. STRANAHAN" not corrected to MARIAMNE + +Page 574: "wih the Branch Commissions" corrected to "with" + +Page 577: "Charlestown (Mass)., Female Seminary" corrected to "(Mass.)," + +Page 592: Opening " changed to ': 'for two miles it was all people + +Page 609: "beleagured city" corrected to "beleaguered city" + +Page 612: Added opening quote mark: "After a little, as the thought + +Page 612: Added close single-quote: proud to have helped on the cause.' + +Page 617: "This lady and Mrs. George Hoadly" corrected to "Hoadley" + +Page 686: "Thoul't find warm sympathizing hearts" corrected to "Thou'lt" + +Page 691: "destined to develope" corrected to "develop" + +Page 732: "Miss Amy M. Bradley, Mrs. Balestier," corrected to "Balustier" + +Page 739: "freely sacrified" corrected to "sacrificed" + +Page 790: "Miss Isabella M. Hartshorn" corrected to "Hatshorne" + +Page 791: "Miss Bettie Brodhead" corrected to "Broadhead" + +Page 795: "Blackman, Miss M. A., 429, 430." corrected to "Blackmar" + +Page 796: "Cassidy, Mrs. Mary A., 737." corrected to "Cassedy" + +Page 796: "Englemann, Mrs. Mary, 791." corrected to Engleman + +Page 797: Added final period to "Howe, Miss Abbie J., 458, 465, 466." + +Page 798: "Molineaux, Miss, 791." corrected to "Molineux" + +Page 798: "Royer, Miss Alice F., 713." corrected to "Royce" + +Page 798: "Shephard, Miss N. A., 790." corrected to "Shepard" + +Page 798: "Stevens, Miss Gertude, 537." corrected to "Gertrude" + +Page 799: "Zimmermann, Mrs., 791" corrected to "Zimmerman" + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Illustrations originally printed in the middle of sentences have been +moved to the nearest paragraph break. + +Footnotes have been moved to the paragraph break following the footnote +marker. + +Because sections of this book were written by different people, accent, +spelling and hyphen usage is inconsistent. These inconsistencies have +been preserved except where noted below. Since page numbers have not +been preserved in this version, enough text has been retained for a +search to be effective: + +Page 25: changed page number 3 to page number 19 for DEDICATION +Page 25: changed page number 5 to page number 21 for PREFACE +Page 25: added page numbers for TABLE OF CONTENTS and INTRODUCTION +Page 27: added period to "Visits Huntsville, Pulaski, etc." +Page 30: added period to "preparation of diet, etc." +Page 40: changed "e" to "é" in "Mrs. D'Orémieulx's departure for Europe" +Page 41: changed "e" to "é" in "made by the employés of the Association," +Page 42: "Did you drop from heaven" had opening " printed as ' +Page 45: "Mr. Stranahan chosen President" corrected to "Mrs. Stranahan" +Page 51: Removed period after Felton: Miss Felton--Louisville, +Page 51: "Mrs. Corven, of Hartford, Conn." corrected to "Cowen" +Page 51: Added period after Hartford, Conn. and Peoria, Ill. +Page 53: "MRS. MARIANNE F. STRANAHAN" not corrected to MARIAMNE +Page 66: "We need only recal" corrected to "recall" +Page 82: Deleted quotation mark before: In that little hamlet +Page 82: Deleted quotation mark before: "In one of the mountainous +Page 129: "franks of some of her frinds" corrected to "friends" +Page 137: "In all her journies Miss Gilson" corrected to "journeys" +Page 169: Changed "most econonomical" corrected to "most economical" +Page 191: Added close quote to: uncertainties of self-support." +Page 210: "Companies A. B, C.," corrected to Companies "A, B, C," +Page 237: Added second close quote to: "Lincoln's hirelings."" +Page 292: Added close quote to: departure in copious tears." +Page 305: "earnest hope that yon alleviate suffering" corrected to "you" +Page 317: Changed double quotes to single quotes and added close quote + turning: heard her name "would rise up and call her blessed." + to: heard her name 'would rise up and call her blessed.'" +Page 353: Added period to "themselves in the service of their country." +Page 339: "'It is the man, you know," had opening ' printed as " +Page 375: "$115,876,93" corrected to "$115,876.93" +Page 386: ""develope that purity" corrected to "develop" +Page 456: "year in the hospitel." corrected to "hospital" +Page 457: Added opening quote to: Patient prayer and work +Page 462: Added close quote to: of the deceased to their friends." +Page 529: "physicial fatigue" corrected to "physical fatigue" +Page 537: "MRS. MARIANNE F. STRANAHAN" not corrected to MARIAMNE +Page 574: "wih the Branch Commissions" corrected to "with" +Page 577: "Charlestown (Mass)., Female Seminary" corrected to "(Mass.)," +Page 592: Opening " changed to ': 'for two miles it was all people +Page 609: "beleagured city" corrected to "beleaguered city" +Page 612: Added opening quote mark: "After a little, as the thought +Page 612: Added close single-quote: proud to have helped on the cause.' +Page 617: "This lady and Mrs. George Hoadly" corrected to "Hoadley" +Page 686: "Thoul't find warm sympathizing hearts" corrected to "Thou'lt" +Page 691: "destined to develope" corrected to "develop" +Page 732: "Miss Amy M. Bradley, Mrs. Balestier," corrected to "Balustier" +Page 739: "freely sacrified" corrected to "sacrificed" +Page 790: "Miss Isabella M. Hartshorn" corrected to "Hatshorne" +Page 791: "Miss Bettie Brodhead" corrected to "Broadhead" +Page 795: "Blackman, Miss M. A., 429, 430." corrected to "Blackmar" +Page 796: "Cassidy, Mrs. Mary A., 737." corrected to "Cassedy" +Page 796: "Englemann, Mrs. Mary, 791." corrected to Engleman +Page 797: Added final period to "Howe, Miss Abbie J., 458, 465, 466." +Page 798: "Molineaux, Miss, 791." corrected to "Molineux" +Page 798: "Royer, Miss Alice F., 713." corrected to "Royce" +Page 798: "Shephard, Miss N. A., 790." corrected to "Shepard" +Page 798: "Stevens, Miss Gertude, 537." corrected to "Gertrude" +Page 799: "Zimmermann, Mrs., 791" corrected to "Zimmerman" + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman's Work in the Civil War, by +Linus Pierpont Brockett and Mary C. Vaughan + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN'S WORK IN THE CIVIL WAR *** + +***** This file should be named 21853-8.txt or 21853-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/8/5/21853/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Cally Soukup and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was made using scans of public domain works from the +University of Michigan Digital Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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