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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.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<p><br /></p> +<hr /> +<p><br /></p> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen" style="font-weight: bold;">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p><br /></p> +<p class="noin">Illustrations originally printed in the middle of sentences have been moved to the nearest paragraph break.</p> +<p class="noin">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.</p> + +<p class="noin">For a complete list, please see the <a href="#TN">end of this document</a>.</p> + +</div> + +<p><br /></p> +<hr /> +<p><br /></p> + +<div class="img"><a name="barton" id="barton"></a> +<a href="images/barton.jpg"> +<img src="images/barton.jpg" width="75%" alt="Miss Clara H. Barton" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Miss Clara H. Barton.</span></p> +<p class="center">Eng<span style="vertical-align: super;">d</span>. by John Sartain.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="img"><a name="frietchie" id="frietchie"></a> +<a href="images/frietchie.jpg"> +<img src="images/frietchie.jpg" width="75%" alt="Barbara Frietchie" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;">WOMAN'S WORK IN THE CIVIL WAR<br /></p> + +<p class="center">"'SHOOT, IF YOU MUST, THIS OLD GRAY HEAD.<br /> +BUT SPARE YOUR COUNTRY'S FLAG,' SHE SAID."<br /><br /> + + Barbara Frietchie.<br /><br /></p> + +<p class="center">H. L. Stephens, Del. Samuel Sartain, Sc.</p> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1><span class="smcap">Woman's Work in the Civil War</span>:</h1> + +<h2>A RECORD</h2> + +<h3>OF</h3> +<h2>HEROISM, PATRIOTISM AND PATIENCE</h2> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>L. P. BROCKETT, M.D.,</h2> + +<h5><span class="smcap">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.</span></h5> + +<h3>AND</h3> + +<h2>MRS. MARY C. VAUGHAN.</h2> + +<p><br /></p> +<p><br /></p> + +<h3>WITH AN INTRODUCTION,</h3> +<h3> <span class="smcap">By</span> HENRY W. BELLOWS, D.D.,</h3> + +<h5>President U. S. Sanitary Commission.</h5> + +<p><br /></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>ILLUSTRATED WITH SIXTEEN STEEL ENGRAVINGS.</h4> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /></p> + +<h4>ZEIGLER, McCURDY & CO.,</h4> +<h5>PHILADELPHIA, PA.; CHICAGO, ILL.; CINCINNATI, OHIO; ST. LOUIS, MO.</h5> + +<h4>R. H. CURRAN,</h4> +<h5>48 WINTER STREET, BOSTON, MASS.</h5> + +<h4>1867.</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h5><a name="Entered_according_to_Act_of_Congress_in_the_year_1867_by" id="Entered_according_to_Act_of_Congress_in_the_year_1867_by"></a>Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by</h5> + +<h4>L. P. BROCKETT,</h4> + +<h5>In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the +Eastern District of New York.</h5> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /></p> + +<hr style="width: 30%;" /> +<h5><span class="smcap">King & Baird, Printers</span>,</h5> +<h5>607 Sansom Street, Philadelphia.</h5> + +<hr style="width: 20%;" /> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Westcott & Thomson</span>,</h5> +<h5>Stereotypers.</h5> + +<hr style="width: 30%;" /> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="TO" id="TO"></a>TO</h3> + +<h2><span class="smcap">The Loyal Women of America</span>,</h2> + + +<h3>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;</h3> + +<h4>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</h4> + +<h3>NATION'S DEFENSE,</h3> + +<h4>HAVE WON FOR THEMSELVES ETERNAL HONOR, AND THE UNDYING REMEMBRANCE +OF THE PATRIOTS OF ALL TIME,</h4> + +<h3>WE DEDICATE THIS</h3> +<h3>VOLUME.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p class="right"> +L. P. B.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Brooklyn</span>, N. Y., <i>February, 1867</i>.<br /></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> + + +<h2 class="chapterhead">CONTENTS.</h2> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="95%" +summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td style="width: 90%;"> </td> + <td style="width: 10%; text-align: right; padding-right: +.25em;"><span class="smcap">Page</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + + <td>DEDICATION.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>PREFACE.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td>TABLE OF CONTENTS.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_25">25-51</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>INTRODUCTION BY HENRY W. BELLOWS, D. D.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_65">65-94</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdcs">PART I. SUPERINTENDENT OF NURSES.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MISS DOROTHEA L. DIX.</td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" +id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_97">97-108</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdcs">PART II. LADIES WHO MINISTERED TO THE +SICK AND WOUNDED IN CAMP, FIELD, +AND GENERAL HOSPITALS.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CLARA HARLOWE BARTON.</td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_111">111-132</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">HELEN LOUISE GILSON.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_133">133-148</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. JOHN HARRIS.<span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_149">149-160</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. ELIZA C. PORTER.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_161">161-171</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. MARY A. BICKERDYKE.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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 + +<i>vs.</i> 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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_172">172-186</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MARGARET ELIZABETH BRECKINRIDGE. <i>By +Mrs. J. G. Forman.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" +id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_187">187-199</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. STEPHEN BARKER.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_200">200-211</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">AMY M. BRADLEY.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_212">212-224</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. ARABELLA GRIFFITH BARLOW.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> + +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.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_225">225-233</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. NELLIE MARIA TAYLOR.</td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_234">234-240</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. ADALINE TYLER.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_241">241-250</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. WILLIAM H. HOLSTEIN.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> + +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.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_251">251-259</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. CORDELIA A. P. HARVEY. <i>By Rev. N. +M. Mann.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_260">260-268</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. SARAH R. JOHNSTON.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_269">269-272</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">EMILY E. PARSONS. <i>By Rev. J. G. +Forman.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_273">273-278</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. ALMIRA FALES.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_279">279-283</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CORNELIA HANCOCK.<span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">Early labors for the soldiers—Mr. Vassar's +testimony—Gettysburg—The +campaign of 1864—Fredericksburg and City Point.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_284">284-286</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. MARY MORRIS HUSBAND.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_287">287-298</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">THE HOSPITAL TRANSPORT SERVICE.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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 +<i>soft</i> bread"—"Guess +I can stand h'isting better'n <i>him</i>"—"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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_299">299-315</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">OTHER LABORS OF SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF +THE HOSPITAL TRANSPORT CORPS.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">Miss Bradley, Miss Gilson, Mrs. Husband, Miss +Charlotte Bradford, Mrs. +W. P. Griffin, Miss H. D. Whetten.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a +href="#Page_317">317</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">KATHERINE PRESCOTT WORMELEY.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> + +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.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_318">318-323</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">THE MISSES WOOLSEY.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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 <i>butter</i> on +it and <i>jelly</i> 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 + 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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_324">324-342</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">ANNA MARIA ROSS.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_343">343-351</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. G. T. M. DAVIS.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_352">352-356</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MARY J. SAFFORD.<span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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 +<i>petite</i> + +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</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. LYDIA G. PARRISH.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_362">362-372</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. ANNIE WITTENMEYER.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_373">373-378</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MELCENIA ELLIOTT. <i>By Rev. J. G. +Forman.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_379">379-383</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MARY DWIGHT PETTES. <i>By Rev. J. G. +Forman.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" +id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_384">384-388</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">LOUISA MAERTZ. <i>By Rev. J. G. +Forman.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_390">390-394</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. HARRIET R. COLFAX.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_395">395-399</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CLARA DAVIS.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_400">400-403</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. R. H. SPENCER.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> + +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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_404">404-415</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. HARRIET FOOTE HAWLEY. <i>By Mrs. H. +B. Stowe.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_416">416-419</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">ELLEN E. MITCHELL.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_420">420-426</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">JESSIE HOME.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a +href="#Page_428">428</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MISS VANCE AND MISS BLACKMAR. <i>By Mrs. +M. M. Husband.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a +href="#Page_430">430</a></td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">H. A. DADA AND S. E. HALL.<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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 <i>God-blessedest</i> woman I +ever saw"—Service +to the close of the war and beyond—Lookout Mountain.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_431">431-439</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. SARAH P. EDSON.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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</td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MARIA M. C. HALL.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_448">448-454</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">THE HOSPITAL CORPS AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY +HOSPITAL, ANNAPOLIS.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" +id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_455">455-460</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">OTHER LABORS OF SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF +THE ANNAPOLIS HOSPITAL CORPS.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">The <i>Maine stay</i> 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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_461">461-466</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. A. H. AND MISS S. H. GIBBONS.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_467">467-475</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. E. J. RUSSELL.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_477">477-479</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. MARY W. LEE.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" +id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> + +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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_480">480-488</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CORNELIA M. TOMPKINS. <i>By Rev. J. G. +Forman.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">A scion of an eminent family—At Benton +Barracks Hospital—At Memphis—Return +to St. Louis—At Jefferson Barracks.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_489">489</a>, <a +href="#Page_490">490</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. ANNA C. McMEENS. <i>By Mrs. E. S. +Mendenhall.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_491">491</a>, <a href="#Page_492">492</a></td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. JERUSHA R. SMALL. <i>By Mrs. E. S. +Mendenhall.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_493">493</a>, <a +href="#Page_494">494</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. S. A. MARTHA CANFIELD. <i>By Mrs. E. +S. Mendenhall.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_495">495</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. THOMAS AND MISS MORRIS.</td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">Faithful laborers in the hospitals at Cincinnati +till the close of the +war.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_496">496</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. SHEPARD WELLS. <i>By Rev. J. G. +Forman.</i></td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_497">497</a>, <a +href="#Page_498">498</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. E. C. WITHERELL. <i>By Rev. J. G. +Forman.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_499">499-501</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">PHEBE ALLEN. <i>By Rev. J. G. +Forman.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" +id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">A teacher in Iowa—Volunteered as a nurse in +Benton Barracks hospital—Very +efficient—Died of malarious fever in 1864, at the hospital.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_502">502</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. EDWIN GREBLE.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_503">503</a>, <a +href="#Page_504">504</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. ISABELLA FOGG.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_505">505-510</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. E. E. GEORGE.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_511">511-513</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. CHARLOTTE E. McKAY.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_514">514-516</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. FANNY L. RICKETTS.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_517">517-519</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. JOHN S. PHELPS.<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">Early history—Residence in the +Southwest—Rescues General Lyon's +body—Her heroism and benevolence at Pea Ridge and elsewhere.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_520">520</a>, <a +href="#Page_521">521</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. JANE R. MUNSELL.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_522">522</a>, <a +href="#Page_523">523</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdcs">PART III. LADIES WHO ORGANIZED AID +SOCIETIES, RECEIVED AND FORWARDED +SUPPLIES TO THE HOSPITALS, DEVOTING THEIR WHOLE TIME TO THE WORK, +ETC.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">WOMAN'S CENTRAL ASSOCIATION OF RELIEF. +<i>By Mrs. Julia B. Curtis.</i></td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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 +<i>Federal +principle</i>—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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" +id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> + +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.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_527">527-539</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY OF NORTHERN +OHIO.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_540">540-552</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">NEW ENGLAND WOMEN'S AUXILIARY +ASSOCIATION.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_553">553-559</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">THE NORTHWESTERN SANITARY +COMMISSION.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_560">560-561</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. A. H. HOGE.<span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_562">562-576</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">Mrs. Livermore's childhood and +education—She becomes a teacher—Her +marriage—She is associated with her husband as Editor of <i>The +New +Covenant</i>—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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_577">577-589</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">GENERAL AID SOCIETY FOR THE ARMY, +BUFFALO.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_590">590-592</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MICHIGAN SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" +id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> + +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.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_593">593-595</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">WOMEN'S PENNSYLVANIA BRANCH OF UNITED +STATES SANITARY COMMISSION.</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_596">596-606</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">THE WISCONSIN SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY. +<i>By Rev. J. G. Forman.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_607">607-614</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">PITTSBURG BRANCH UNITED STATES SANITARY +COMMISSION.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_615">615</a>, <a +href="#Page_616">616</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. ELIZABETH S. MENDENHALL.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_617">617-620</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH.<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_621">621-629</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">ST. LOUIS LADIES' UNION AID SOCIETY.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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</td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">LADIES' AID SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA, +&c.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" +id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> + +Gettysburg, and at Mine Run—Her health injured by her exposure +and +excessive labors—She dies of heart-disease in May, 1864.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_643">643-649</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">WOMEN'S RELIEF ASSOCIATION OF BROOKLYN +AND LONG ISLAND.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_650">650-658</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. ELIZABETH M. STREETER.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_659">659-664</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. CURTIS T. FENN.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_665">665-675</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. JAMES HARLAN.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_676">676-678</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">NEW ENGLAND SOLDIERS' RELIEF +ASSOCIATION.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_679">679</a>, <a +href="#Page_680">680</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdcs">PART IV. LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR +SERVICES AMONG THE FREEDMEN AND +REFUGEES.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. FRANCES DANA GAGE.<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_683">683-690</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. LUCY GAYLORD POMEROY.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_691">691-696</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MARIA R. MANN.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_697">697-703</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">SARAH J. HAGAR.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" +id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> + +and dies May 3—Tribute to her character and work, from Mr. Marsh, +superintendent of Freedmen at Vicksburg.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_704">704-706</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. JOSEPHINE R. GRIFFIN.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_707">707-709</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. M. M. HALLOWELL.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_710">710-712</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">OTHER FRIENDS OF THE FREEDMEN AND +REFUGEES.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_733">733-716</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdcs">PART V. LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR +SERVICES IN SOLDIERS' HOMES, VOLUNTEER +REFRESHMENT SALOONS, ON GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL TRANSPORTS ETC.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. O. E. HOSMER.</td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" +id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> + +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.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_719">719-724</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MISS HATTIE WISWALL.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_726">726-727</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. LUCY E. STARR.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_728">728-730</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MISS CHARLOTTE BRADFORD.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_731">731</a>, <a +href="#Page_732">732</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">UNION VOLUNTEER REFRESHMENT SALOON OF +PHILADELPHIA.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_733">733-737</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. R. M. BIGELOW.<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">"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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_738">738-740</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MISS HATTIE R. SHARPLESS AND HER +ASSOCIATES.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_741">741-743</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdcs">PART VI. LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR OTHER +SERVICES IN THE NATIONAL CAUSE.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. ANNIE ETHERIDGE.</td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_747">747-753</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">DELPHINE P. BAKER.<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_754">754-759</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. S. BURGER STEARNS.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_760">760</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">BARBARA FRIETCHIE.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">Her age—Her patriotism—Whittier's +poem.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_761">761-763</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MRS. HETTIE M. McEWEN.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_764">764-766</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">OTHER DEFENDERS OF THE FLAG.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">Mrs. Effie Titlow—Mrs. Alfred +Clapp—Mrs. Moore (Parson Brownlow's +daughter)—Miss Alice Taylor—Mrs. Booth—"<i>Never +surrender the flag to +traitors</i>".</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_767">767-769</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MILITARY HEROINES.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_770">770-774</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">THE WOMEN OF GETTYSBURG.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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!"</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_775">775-778</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">LOYAL WOMEN OF THE SOUTH.<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_779">779-782</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">MISS HETTY A. JONES. <i>By Horatio G. +Jones, Esq.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_783">783-786</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdcs">FINAL CHAPTER</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">THE FAITHFUL BUT LESS CONSPICUOUS +LABORERS.</td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="hanging">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.</td> + + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_787">787-794</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="padding-top: 1em;">INDEX OF NAMES OF LADIES.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_795">795-800</a></td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="ILLUSTRATIONS" id="ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="75%" summary="Illustrations"> + <tr> + <td style="width: 70%;"></td> + <td style="width: 30%; text-align: right; padding-right: .25em;"><span class="smcap">Page</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">1.—MISS CLARA H. BARTON</td> + <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 5%;"><a href="#barton"><span +class="smcap">Frontispiece.</span></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">2.—BARBARA FRIETCHIE</td> + <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 5%;"><a href="#frietchie"><span +class="smcap">Vignette Title.</span></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">3.—MRS. MARY A. BICKERDYKE</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#bickerdyke">172</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">4.—MISS MARGARET E. BRECKENRIDGE</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#breckenridge">187</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">5.—MRS. NELLIE MARIA TAYLOR</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#taylor">234</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">6.—MRS. CORDELIA A. P. HARVEY</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#harvey">260</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">7.—MISS EMILY E. PARSONS</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#parsons">273</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">8.—MRS. MARY MORRIS HUSBAND</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#husband">287</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">9.—MISS MARY J. SAFFORD</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#safford">357</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">10.—MRS. R. H. SPENCER</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#spencer">404</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">11.—MISS HATTIE A. DADA</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#dada">431</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">12.—MRS. MARIANNE F. STRANAHAN</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#stranahan">651</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">13.—MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#livermore">577</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">14.—MRS. HENRIETTA L. COLT</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#colt">609</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">15.—MRS. MARY B. WADE</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#wade">736</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="white-space: nowrap;">16.—ANNIE ETHERIDGE</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#etheridge">747</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION.</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"The world knows nothing of its +greatest men,"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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>i. e.</i>, to the labors of the women who actually went to the war, +and worked +in the hospitals and camps.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" +id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<p>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 <i>genius</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +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 name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a +href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The participation by actual work and service in the labors of the +War,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p class="right"> +H. W. B.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" +id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></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.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> +<h1 class="chapterhead"><span class="smcap">Woman's Work in the Civil +War.</span></h1> +<p><br /></p> + +<hr class="chapterhead" style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="INTRODUCTORY_CHAPTER" id="INTRODUCTORY_CHAPTER"></a>INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>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.</p><br /> +</div> + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />n 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>A far nobler, though less demonstrative manifestation of patriotic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In the wars of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and the early part<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +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 <i>cantiniéres</i>, <i>vivandiéres</i>, <i>filles du +regiment</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +Nightingale among the number, were rendered hopeless invalids +for life, by their exertions.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Nor are these, alone, among those whose deeds of love and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>A barrel of hospital clothing sent from Conway, Mass., contained +a pair of socks knit by a lady ninety-seven years old, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>something</i> immediately. +Which do you prefer—that I should give money, or buy material +and manufacture it into garments?'"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I prefer to give you money, if it will do as much good."</p> + +<p>"Very well; then give money, which we need badly, and +without which we cannot do what is most necessary for our brave +sick men."</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +came again, the poor sewing girl, her face radiant with the consciousness +of philanthropic intent. Opening her porte-monnaie, +she counted out <i>nineteen dollars and thirty-seven cents</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>Two other offerings inspired by the true spirit of earnest and +active philanthropy, related by the same lady, deserve a place +here.</p> + +<p>"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 +<i>could</i> they do?</p> + +<p>"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 <i>open sesame</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +all her money, and to get all the girls to do so, to buy things for +the wounded soldiers."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +and insanity supervened, or the broken heart found rest and reunion +with the loved and lost in the grave.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +long foretold by patriarch, prophet, and apostle, become a welcome +and enduring reality.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="PART_I" id="PART_I"></a>PART I.</h2> + + +<h4>SUPERINTENDENT OF NURSES.</h4> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> +<hr class="chapterhead" style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="DOROTHEA_L_DIX" id="DOROTHEA_L_DIX"></a>DOROTHEA L. DIX</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />mong 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>all</i> bad, but, though sunk into the +lowest depths of vice, has yet in his soul some white spot which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +the taint has not reached, but which some kind hand may reach, +and some kind heart may touch.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +she made another voyage to Europe in 1858 or '59, and continued +to pursue them with indefatigable zeal and devotion.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>offer</i> to her +country whatever service a woman could perform in this hour of +its need, and determined that it should be given.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Washington became a great camp. Every one was willing, +nay anxious, to be useful and employed. Military hospitals were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +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, <i>leaders</i>, were wanted.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>This at once opened for her a wide and most important field of +duty and labor. Except hospital matrons,<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"We fortunately found the good lady at home, but just ready +to start for the hospitals. She is slight and delicate looking, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +alike grateful to the recipient of the kindness, or to the agent +who acted in her stead in this work of mercy.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The following is the General Order above alluded to.</p> +<p><br /></p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +GENERAL ORDERS, No. 351.</p> +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">War Department, Adjutant-General's Office</span>,<br /> +<span style="padding-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, <i>October 29, 1863</i>.</span></p> + +<p>The employment of women nurses in the United States General Hospitals +will in future be strictly governed by the following rules:</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">By Order of the Secretary of War</span>:</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap" style="padding-right: 1em;">E. D. Townsend,</span><br /> +<i>Assistant Adjutant-General</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Official</span>:</p></div> +<p><br /></p> +<p>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!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Miss Dix, I suspect, was as early <i>in</i>, as <i>long</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +woman would imagine they saw in her the champion of the +oppressed and suffering classes.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> In many instances she appointed these also.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="PART_II" id="PART_II"></a>PART II.</h2> + +<h4>LADIES WHO MINISTERED TO THE SICK AND WOUNDED IN CAMP, +FIELD AND GENERAL HOSPITALS.</h4> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p> +<hr class="chapterhead" style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="CLARA_HARLOWE_BARTONC" id="CLARA_HARLOWE_BARTONC"></a>CLARA HARLOWE BARTON.<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a></h2> + + +<p><img src="images/o.png" alt="O" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />f 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p> + +<p>To this latter class pre-eminently belongs Miss Clara Harlowe +Barton.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"One example will show her character as a teacher. She went +to Bordentown, N. J., in 1853, where there was not, and never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +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, <i>en route</i> to the Washington hospitals.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>By this time, of course, she was very generally known, and +the circle of her correspondence was wide. Her influence in high<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +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 <i>might</i> 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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> 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.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="HELEN_LOUISE_GILSON" id="HELEN_LOUISE_GILSON"></a>HELEN LOUISE GILSON.</h2> + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />iss 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>During nearly the whole term of Miss Gilson's service she was +in company with Mr. Fay and his assistants. The party had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +their own tent, forming a household, and carrying with them +something of home-life.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.'</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In all her journeys Miss Gilson made use of the opportunities<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +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:—</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>abandon</i> of the negro character.</p> + +<p>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,—</p> + +<p>"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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>Then she sang Whittier's exquisite hymn:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O, praise an' tanks,—the Lord he come<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To set de people free;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An' massa tink it day ob doom,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An' we ob jubilee.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">De Lord dat heap de Red Sea wabes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He just as 'trong as den;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He say de word, we last night slabes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To-day de Lord's free men."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +without any qualification whatever; and by this she overcame the +natural sensitiveness of the medical authorities.</p> + +<p>"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,<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> +to show the variety of the articles, and her careful consideration +of the condition of separate men."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p> + +<p>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:—</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +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!'</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In person Miss Gilson is small and delicately proportioned. +Without being technically beautiful, her features are lovely both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> "List of rations in the Colored Hospital at City Point, being a dinner on +Wednesday, April 25th, 1865:— +</p><p><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Roast Beef,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Shad,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Veal Broth,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Stewed Oysters,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Beef Tea,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mashed Potatoes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lemonade,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Apple Jelly,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Farina Pudding.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tomatoes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tea,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Coffee,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Toast,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gruel,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Scalded Milk,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Crackers and Sherry Cobbler,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Roast Apple</span><br /> +</p> +<p> +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."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_JOHN_HARRIS" id="MRS_JOHN_HARRIS"></a>MRS. JOHN HARRIS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/h.png" alt="H" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />e 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>She thus describes the scene and her work:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"There were eight hundred on board. Passage-ways, state-rooms, floors +from the dark and fœtid 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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +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; <i>eight hundred</i> on +board.</p> + +<p>"When we went aboard, the first cry we met was for tea and bread. 'For +God's sake, give us <i>bread</i>,' came from many of our wounded soldiers. Others +shot in the face or neck, begged for liquid food. With feelings of a <i>mixed</i> 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 <i>jellied</i>, pickles were got in readiness, +and in an incredibly short time, we were back to our poor sufferers.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>twenty years were given me</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +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, <i>every +garment</i> 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."</p></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"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."</p></div> + +<p>Of the scenes of the retreat from the Chickahominy to Harrison's +Landing, Mrs. Harris was an active and deeply interested<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_ELIZA_C_PORTER" id="MRS_ELIZA_C_PORTER"></a>MRS. ELIZA C. PORTER</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />rs. Eliza C. Porter, the subject of the following +sketch, is the wife of the Rev. Jeremiah Porter, a Presbyterian +clergyman of Chicago, Illinois.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>While at Memphis, Mrs. Porter became deeply interested in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +the welfare of the escaped slaves and their families congregated +there.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +Mrs. Harvey went alone, and as the result of her efforts, succeeded +in the establishment of the Harvey Hospital at Madison, +Wisconsin.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"From a mass of deeply interesting correspondence on hand,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">In Camp, November 4th Field Hospital</span>,<br /> +<span style="padding-right: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">Chattanooga</span>, <i>January 24, 1864.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +were Sanitary goods more deeply felt to be <i>good goods</i>. '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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.,</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">"Eliza C. Porter</span>."<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +wounds dressed. Mrs. Bickerdyke and myself assisted in the +operation. Poor boys! how my heart ached that I could do so +little.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Amidst all this care for others, there was little thought for her +own comfort. She says in another place:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<p>"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 +<i>floor</i>. 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."</p> + +<p>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.'"</p> + +<p>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."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_MARY_A_BICKERDYKE" id="MRS_MARY_A_BICKERDYKE"></a>MRS. MARY A. BICKERDYKE.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />mong 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<div class="img"><a name="bickerdyke" id="bickerdyke"></a> +<a href="images/bickerdyke.jpg"> +<img src="images/bickerdyke.jpg" width="75%" alt="Mrs. Mary A. Bickerdyke" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Mary A. Bickerdyke</span>.</p> +<p class="center">Eng<span style="vertical-align: super;">d</span>. by A.H. Ritchie.</p> +</div> + + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>We are not certain whether she was an assistant in one of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, visiting one of the wards containing the badly +wounded men, at nearly eleven o'clock, <span class="smcap">A. M.</span>, 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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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>i. e.</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well," was her reply, "leave it to him if you think best; but +if you do you will lose your men."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Almost every article of special diet has been cooked by Mrs. +Bickerdyke personally, and all has been superintended by her."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +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.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<div class="img"><a name="breckenridge" id="breckenridge"></a> +<a href="images/breckenridge.jpg"> +<img src="images/breckenridge.jpg" width="75%" alt="Miss Margaret E. Breckenridge" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Miss Margaret E. Breckenridge</span>.</p> +<p class="center">Eng<span style="vertical-align: super;">d</span>. by A.H. Ritchie.</p> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MARGARET_E_BRECKINRIDGE" id="MARGARET_E_BRECKINRIDGE"></a>MARGARET E. BRECKINRIDGE.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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 <i>bother</i>, 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."</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +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, <i>our Florence Nightingale</i>.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +by her friends shortly after her death, which occurred at +Niagara Falls, July 27th, 1864.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"'Good-by,' said the poor fellows from the ambulances, 'we're +coming back as soon as ever we get well.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, yes,' we whispered, for there were spies all around us, +'and every one of you bring a regiment with you.'"</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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." * * *</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +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!"</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'So I've had a sight of drilling,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And I've roughed it many days;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yes, and death has nearly had me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet, I think, the service pays.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Indeed it does,—richly, abundantly, blessedly, and I thank God<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Then came news of the fighting before Richmond and of the +probability that her brother-in-law, Colonel Porter,<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> had fallen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> 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: '<i>Boys, follow me.</i>' We +notice the following extract from his will, which was made before entering the +service, which shows the man: +</p><p> +"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."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_STEPHEN_BARKER" id="MRS_STEPHEN_BARKER"></a>MRS. STEPHEN BARKER</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />rs. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>duty</i>—for I +wanted to work for the soldiers, and should have been desperately +disappointed had I been prevented from doing it."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +visited in a day, and in this manner she would complete the entire +round weekly.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +all along her path were strewed the blessings of thousands of +grateful hearts.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>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</i>, gives a much better idea of the work required than could +otherwise be presented.</p> + +<p>"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 diarrhœa.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"The Commissary Department issued vegetables in such small +quantities that they did not affect the condition of the troops in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"First, the supply of vegetables;</p> + +<p>"Second, the depots for hospital and miscellaneous supplies; +and,</p> + +<p>"Third, the visitation of troops for the purpose of direct distribution +of small articles of necessity or comfort."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Washington, D. C.</span>, <i>June 29, 1865</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">A. M. Sperry</span>—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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Six ladies have been employed by the Sanitary Commission as Hospital +Visitors. These were temporarily transferred from their hospitals to the field.</p> + +<p>"The Second and Fifth Corps were visited by Mrs. Steel and Miss Abby +Francis.</p> + +<p>"The Sixth Corps by Mrs. Johnson, Miss Armstrong, and Mrs. Barker; on +in each division.</p> + +<p>"The Ninth Corps by Miss Wallace, whose illness afterward obliged her to +yield her place to Mrs. Barker.</p> + +<p>"The Fourteenth Corps by Miss Armstrong.</p> + +<p>"The Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps by ladies belonging to those corps—Mrs. +Porter and Mrs. Bickerdyke—whose admirable services rendered other +presence superfluous.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The Twentieth Corps was visited by Mrs. Johnson.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.'</p> + +<p>"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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="padding-right: 8em;">"Yours respectfully,</span><br /> +"<span class="smcap">Mrs. Stephen Barker</span>."<br /> +</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="AMY_M_BRADLEY" id="AMY_M_BRADLEY"></a>AMY M. BRADLEY</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/v.png" alt="V" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />ery 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>At sixteen she commenced life as a teacher of public schools, +and continued the same for more than ten years, or until 1850.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>To her these were words of doom. Not possessed of the means +for travelling, and unable, as she supposed, to obtain a livelihood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> +in a far off country, she returned to Maine, and resigned herself +with what calmness she might, to the fate in store for her.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>This school she taught with success for three years. At the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>As soon as possible she started for the seat of war, and on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +1st of September, 1861, commenced her services as nurse in the +hospital of the Fifth Maine Regiment.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The Sanitary Commission in their desire to do what they could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +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 <i>home</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In December, 1862, orders were issued by the Government for +the construction of a new Rendezvous of Distribution, at a point<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>very</i> 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, <i>en route</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_ARABELLA_G_BARLOW" id="MRS_ARABELLA_G_BARLOW"></a>MRS. ARABELLA G. BARLOW.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" /> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Into the midst of their joyful anticipations, came the echoes of +the first shot fired by rebellion. The country sprang to arms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>. +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Soon after, with short space for rest, she rejoined her husband +in the field during the campaign in Maryland, but was obliged to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +go north upon business, and was detained and unable to return +until the day following the battle of Antietam.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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 <i>Sanitary Commission Bulletin</i>, 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 <i>New York Evening Post</i>. The briefer extract is +from a letter which appeared in the columns of the <i>New York +Herald</i> of July 31st, 1864.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Dr. Lieber says: "Mrs. Barlow, (Arabella Griffith before she +married), was a highly cultivated lady, full of life, spirit, activity +and charity.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The <i>Herald</i> correspondent, writing from Petersburg, July 31, +says:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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:"</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_NELLIE_MARIA_TAYLOR" id="MRS_NELLIE_MARIA_TAYLOR"></a>MRS. NELLIE MARIA TAYLOR.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />he 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<div class="img"><a name="taylor" id="taylor"></a> +<a href="images/taylor.jpg"> +<img src="images/taylor.jpg" width="75%" alt="Mrs. Nellie Maria Taylor" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Nellie Maria Taylor</span>.</p> +<p class="center">Eng<span style="vertical-align: super;">d</span>. by A.H. Ritchie.</p> +</div> + + +<p>She married early, and about the year 1847 removed with her +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>en-masse</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>it</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>Her answer was memorable.</p> + +<p>"Sir, I will say to you and your crowd, and to the <i>world</i> if +you choose to summon it—I am, always have been, and ever +shall be, for the <i>Union</i>. Tear my house down if you choose!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +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.""</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>blessed</i> 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 +<i>every</i> day in the hospital—all her school salary she spent for the +soldiers—night after night she toiled, and long after others were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>one</i> 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span></p> + +<p>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—<i>viz</i>: +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_ADALINE_TYLER" id="MRS_ADALINE_TYLER"></a>MRS. ADALINE TYLER.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />rs. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +whom she had herself brought thither, and then went northward +to visit her friends.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +they were indeed a spectacle to inspire, as they did, the keenest +sympathy, and to call for every effort of kindness.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>During and subsequent to the superintendency of Mrs. Tyler +at Annapolis a little paper was published weekly at the hospital,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>She left the Naval School Hospital on the 27th of May, 1864, +and set sail from New York on the 15th of June.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Tyler spent about eighteen months in Europe, traveling +over various parts of the Continent, and England, where she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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>I</i> will say His +name be praised!"</p> + +<p>All this was uttered as in one breath, and then the restless +form, and fierce inflamed visage as suddenly disappeared, leaving<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_WILLIAM_H_HOLSTEIN" id="MRS_WILLIAM_H_HOLSTEIN"></a>MRS. WILLIAM H. HOLSTEIN.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />t 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> +our land, at the first sound and threatening of war, there sprang +up in my heart an uncontrollable impulse <i>to do, to act</i>; for <i>anything</i> +but idleness when our country was in peril and her sons +marching to battle.</p> + +<p>"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 +<i>me</i> 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.'</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"The <i>first</i> wounded and the <i>first</i> hospitals I saw I shall never +forget, for then flashed across my mind, '<i>This</i> 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. <i>We</i> have no <i>right</i> to the comforts of <i>our</i> 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 <i>then</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>"We gave up our sweet country home, and from that date<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> +few who were retained at Smoketown and Locust Spring Hospitals.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The site of the hospital where Mrs. Holstein was now stationed, +was very beautiful. The surgeon in charge had covered the sloping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>home</i>, were on their way to Washington.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>exultingly</i>, because they were for 'The Flag' +and our country."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +and Christian Commissions, in caring for the vast army of +wounded and suffering upon this dreadful field.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>Of that long period, Mrs. Holstein records two grand experiences +as conspicuous—the salute which followed the news of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +the completion of Sherman's "March to the Sea," and the explosion +of the mine at City Point.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"All of horror I had seen, or known, throughout the war, +faded into insignificance when contrasted with the results of this +heinous <i>sin</i>—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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> +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 <i>they</i> had ceased to +suffer and were at rest,—<i>these</i> were still living, breathing, helpless +<i>skeletons</i>.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'In treason's prison-hold<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their martyred spirits grew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To stature like the saints of old,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While, amid agonies untold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They <i>starved</i> for <i>me</i>—and <i>you</i>.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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, <i>perfect rest</i> to overtasked mind and wearied +body."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead">MRS. CORDELIA A. P. HARVEY</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />he 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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Pittsburg Landing</span>, <i>April 17, 1862</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Wife:</span>—Yesterday was <i>the day</i> 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,</p> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Louis</span>."<br /> +</p></div> + +<div class="img"><a name="harvey" id="harvey"></a> +<a href="images/harvey.jpg"> +<img src="images/harvey.jpg" width="75%" alt=">Mrs. Cordelia A. P. Harvey" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Cordelia A. P. Harvey</span>.</p> +<p class="center">Eng<span style="vertical-align: super;">d</span>. by A.H. Ritchie.</p> +</div> + + +<p>With these words ringing in her ears as from beyond the tomb,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class="smcap">Harvey</span> have sprung those flowers of Love +and Mercy whose fragrance has filled the land.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> +and early in the autumn of 1862, set out for St. Louis to commence +her new work.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class="smcap">Grant</span> had regained possession of the Father of Waters.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> +prisons, asking to be set at liberty, and promising faithful service +thereafter!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> +its establishment, the reader is referred to the reports of the surgeon +in charge of the hospital.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>During the summer of 1864, the garrison of Vicksburg suffered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> +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 <i>public</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_SARAH_R_JOHNSTON" id="MRS_SARAH_R_JOHNSTON"></a>MRS. SARAH R. JOHNSTON.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/o.png" alt="O" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />ur 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="img"><a name="parsons" id="parsons"></a> +<a href="images/parsons.jpg"> +<img src="images/parsons.jpg" width="75%" alt="Miss Emily E. Parsons" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Miss Emily E. Parsons</span>.</p> +<p class="center">Eng<span style="vertical-align: super;">d</span>. by John Sartain.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p> + + +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="EMILY_E_PARSONS" id="EMILY_E_PARSONS"></a>EMILY E. PARSONS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />mong 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And slow, as in a dream of bliss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The speechless sufferer turned to kiss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her shadow as it falls<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the darkening walls."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_ALMIRA_FALES" id="MRS_ALMIRA_FALES"></a>MRS. ALMIRA FALES.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />rs. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +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.'</p> + +<p>"Through all those years, <i>every day</i>, 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 <i>her</i> 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 <i>your</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +large blue eyes still beam with the clear brightness of youth. +But her hands tell the story of hardship and sacrifice.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MISS_CORNELIA_HANCOCK" id="MISS_CORNELIA_HANCOCK"></a>MISS CORNELIA HANCOCK.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />mong 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:</p> + +<p>"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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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!</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="img"><a name="husband" id="husband"></a> +<a href="images/husband.jpg"> +<img src="images/husband.jpg" width="75%" alt="Mrs. Mary Morris Husband" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Mary Morris Husband</span>.</p> +<p class="center">Eng. by John Sartain.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_MARY_MORRIS_HUSBAND" id="MRS_MARY_MORRIS_HUSBAND"></a>MRS. MARY MORRIS HUSBAND.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />here 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span></p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"I was prostrated by a severe attack of camp dysentery, stagnant +water and <i>unctuous</i> 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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> +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 +("<i>her</i> flaxseed tea," says one of her boys, "was <i>never</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> +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 <i>his</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="HOSPITAL_TRANSPORT_SERVICE" id="HOSPITAL_TRANSPORT_SERVICE"></a>HOSPITAL TRANSPORT SERVICE.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />mong 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> +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!'</p> + +<p>"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 <i>can</i> speak, speak with a will; the others +grunt, or murmur their satisfaction. 'Well, this bed is most <i>too</i> +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 <i>soft</i> 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 <i>him</i>.' It was agony to both.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> +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 <i>in use</i>. * * * *</p> + +<p>"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. <i>Do</i> 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!"</p> + +<p>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:—</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> +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?"</p> + +<p>Or, again, the following:—</p> + +<p>"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 <i>tin</i>."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> +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 (<i>we</i> 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 <i>very</i> 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. <i>Is</i> this Sunday? What days<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>No one, it is believed, can tell the story, <i>as it occurred</i>, of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>any</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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:—</p> + +<p>"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,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>thousands of wounded</i>, I am sure that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> +we shall join with them in gratitude and thankfulness that they +were enabled to be there."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a></p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a> 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." * * * * *</p> + +<p>"<i>Hospital Transport 'Spaulding,' July 3d.</i>—Reached Harrison's +Bar at 11 <span class="smcap">A. M.</span>, 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; <i>yellow flag</i> we had none, so we trusted +to the <i>red</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>The work of the Commission upon the hospital transports was +about to close.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> +because he would not let them take off his arm. 'I wasn't going +to let them have it in Richmond; I said I <i>would</i> 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."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> Dr. Robert Ware.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> Malvern Hill.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="OTHER_LABORS_OF_SOME_OF_THE_MEMBERS_OF_THE_HOSPITAL_TRANSPORT_CORPS" id="OTHER_LABORS_OF_SOME_OF_THE_MEMBERS_OF_THE_HOSPITAL_TRANSPORT_CORPS"></a>OTHER LABORS OF SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF THE +HOSPITAL TRANSPORT CORPS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />ost 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 <span class="smcap">Bradley</span>, as we have seen accomplished +a noble work in connection with the Soldiers' Home at Washington, +and the Rendezvous of Distribution; Miss <span class="smcap">Gilson</span> and +Mrs. <span class="smcap">Husband</span> were active in every good word and work; Mrs. +<span class="smcap">Charlotte Bradford</span> succeeded Miss Bradley in the charge +of the Soldiers' Home at Washington, where she accomplished a +world of good. Mrs. <span class="smcap">W. P. Griffin</span>, 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 <span class="smcap">Harriet +Douglas Whetten</span>, 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>born nurse</i>. 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.'"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="KATHERINE_P_WORMELEY" id="KATHERINE_P_WORMELEY"></a>KATHERINE P. WORMELEY</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />mong 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> +given him far more trouble than contracts with regular clothing +establishments, his goodness, which was purely benevolent, never +flagged.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>battles</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span></p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="THE_MISSES_WOOLSEY" id="THE_MISSES_WOOLSEY"></a>THE MISSES WOOLSEY.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/w.png" alt="W" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />e 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> +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</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"From old St. Paul till now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of honorable women, not a few<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have left their golden ease, in love to do<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The saintly work which Christ-like hearts pursue.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And such an one art thou? God's fair apostle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bearing his love in war's horrific train;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy blessed feet follow its ghastly pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And misery and death without disdain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To one borne from the sullen battle's roar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dearer the greeting of thy gentle eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When he, a-weary, torn, and bleeding lies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than all the glory that the victors prize.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"When peace shall come and homes shall smile again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thousand soldier hearts, in northern climes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall tell their little children in their rhymes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the sweet saints who blessed the old war times."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="right"><i>On the Chickahominy, June 12th, 1862.</i></p> + + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="i8">IN THE HOSPITAL.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"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.'</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I lay me down to sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With little thought or care.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether my waking find<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Me here—or <span class="smcap">There</span>!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A bowing, burdened head,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That only asks to rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unquestioning, upon<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A loving Breast.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"My good right-hand forgets<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its cunning now—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To march the weary march<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I know not how.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I am not eager, bold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor strong—all that is past:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am ready NOT TO DO<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At last—at last!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"My half-day's work is done,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And this is all my part;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I give a patient God<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My patient heart.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And grasp his banner still,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though all its blue be dim;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These stripes, no less than stars.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lead after Him."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Mrs. Howland died in the summer of 1864.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> +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.</p> +<p><br /></p> + +<p>THREE WEEKS AT GETTYSBURG.</p> + +<p>"<i>July, 1863.</i></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear</span> ——: <i>What we did at Gettysburg</i>, for the three weeks +we were there, you will want to know. 'We,' are Mrs.<a name="FNanchor_H_8" id="FNanchor_H_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_H_8" class="fnanchor">[H]</a> —— +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.</p> + +<p>"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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> +came the wounded men who had made their way down from the +corps-hospitals, expecting to leave at once in the return-cars.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>would</i> have been, and you are ready to appreciate +the relief and comfort that <i>was</i>. 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Oh darkies, hab you seen my Massa?'<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'When this <i>cruel</i> war is <i>over</i>.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> +dressers and attendants, bringing a first-rate supply of necessities +and comforts for the wounded, which they handed over to the +Commission.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> +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 <i>so</i>?' 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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>butter</i> on it, and +<i>jelly</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> +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 <i>could not</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> +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.'</p> + +<p>"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 <i>so</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> +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 <i>had</i> 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.'</p> + +<p>"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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"A week after, Mrs. —— had a letter full of gratitude, and +saying that the husband was found and secured for <i>home</i>. 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 <i>she</i> was a man, she'd be a soldier too, right +off.'</p> + +<p>"For this temporary sheltering and feeding of all these wounded +men, Government could make no provision. There was nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.'"</p> + +<p>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 <i>work</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_8" id="Footnote_H_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_H_8"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> Her mother, Mrs. Woolsey.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="ANNA_MARIA_ROSS" id="ANNA_MARIA_ROSS"></a>ANNA MARIA ROSS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />nna 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> +the labors which gave her so just a claim to the title of "The +Soldier's Friend."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>It would be impossible to enumerate a tithe of the special +instances of her kindly ministrations, but there are some that so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span> +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 <i>will</i> 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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> +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?</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Her funeral was attended by a sorrowing multitude, all of +whom had known, and many, yea, most of whom, had been blest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span> +by her labors. For even they are blest to whom it has happened +to know and appreciate a character like hers.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + + +<h4>ERECTED BY HER FRIENDS</h4> +<h5>IN MEMORY OF</h5> +<h3>ANNA M. ROSS,</h3> +<h3><span class="smcap">Died, December 22, 1863</span>.</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>So closes the brief and imperfect record of a beautiful life; +but the light of its lovely example yet remains.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_G_T_M_DAVIS" id="MRS_G_T_M_DAVIS"></a>MRS. G. T. M. DAVIS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />mong 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Besides her visits at David's Island and Howard Street, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<div class="img"><a name="safford" id="safford"></a> +<a href="images/safford.jpg"> +<img src="images/safford.jpg" width="75%" alt="Miss Mary J. Safford" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Miss Mary J. Safford</span>.</p> +<p class="center">Eng. by John Sartain.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MISS_MARY_J_SAFFORD" id="MISS_MARY_J_SAFFORD"></a>MISS MARY J. SAFFORD</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />iss 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span> +Every day found her a visitor and a laborer among these sick +soldiers, scores of whom now bear fresh in their memories the +<i>petite</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Miss Safford commenced her labors immediately, when Cairo +was occupied. I think she was the <i>very first woman</i> 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. <i>She did +just what she pleased.</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"She was very frail, as <i>petite</i> as a girl of twelve summers, and +utterly unaccustomed to hardships. Sleeping in hospital tents,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>We add also the following extracts from a letter from Cairo, +published in one of the Chicago papers, early in the war.</p> + +<p><br /></p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center">AN ANGEL AT CAIRO.</p> +<p>"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, <i>petite</i> 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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 <i>carte blanche</i> 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."</p></div> +<p><br /></p> +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_LYDIA_G_PARRISH" id="MRS_LYDIA_G_PARRISH"></a>MRS. LYDIA G. PARRISH.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />t 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>She felt now that her time, and if need be her life, must be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Her labors during the summer and autumn of 1862 visibly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> +affected her health, and were the cause of a severe illness which +continued for several weeks.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span> +fed and comforted these poor men as best she could, till the +steamer anchored off Old Point again.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Annapolis</span>, <i>December 1, 1864</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"The steamer <i>Constitution</i> 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> +They then passed out to another building near by, where warm water, soap, +towels, brushes and combs awaited them.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.'</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> +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."</p></div> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +"<i>December 6, 1864.</i><br /> +</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.'</p> + +<p>"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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> +the doctor said, had been deposited by the United States Sanitary Commission +Agent. These were useful articles that were not furnished by the Government.</p> + +<p>"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."</p></div> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +"<i>December 8, 1864.</i><br /> +</p> + +<p>"No human tongue or pen can ever describe the horrible suffering we have +witnessed this day.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> +prominences which the bony head and feet indicated. Oh! God of justice, what +retribution awaits the perpetrators of such slow and awful murder.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> +the soldier's use, the whole forming a neat little volume of convenient +size for the pocket.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_ANNIE_WITTENMEYER" id="MRS_ANNIE_WITTENMEYER"></a>MRS. ANNIE WITTENMEYER</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />rs. 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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 <i>The Lutheran</i>:—</p> + +<p>"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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span> +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 <i>to the very bed-sides</i> 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."</p> + +<p>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:—<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 362.</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">War Department, Adjutant-General's Office,</span><br /> +<br /></p> +<p><span style="padding-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Washington, D. C.</span>, <i>October 24, 1864</i>.</span></p> +<p class="center">[EXTRACT.]<br /> +</p> + +<p>* * * * 56. Permission to visit the United States General Hospitals, +within the lines of the several Military Departments of the United States, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">By order of the Secretary of War:</span></p> +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap" style="padding-right: 1em;">E. D. Townsend,</span><br /> +<i>Assistant Adjutant-General.</i></p> +<p><span class="smcap">Official</span>:<br /> +</p></div> + +<p><br /></p> +<p class="center">DIET KITCHENS.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MISS_MELCENIA_ELLIOTT" id="MISS_MELCENIA_ELLIOTT"></a>MISS MELCENIA ELLIOTT.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />mong 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span> +soon as there began to be a demand for female nurses in the hospitals, +she was prompt to offer her services and was accepted.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Another incident of her fearless and undaunted bravery will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span> +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 +<i>volunteer</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MARY_DWIGHT_PETTES" id="MARY_DWIGHT_PETTES"></a>MARY DWIGHT PETTES.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />o 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Mary Dwight Pettes was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in +the year 1841, and belonged to a family who were eminent for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Transcript</i>, 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."</p> + +<p>No doubt her sympathetic heart protested against all delays +and all seeming indifference to the welfare of the poor fellows on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> +whose bravery and devotion the salvation of the country depended.</p> + +<p>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 <i>would</i> go about among them doing them good.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> +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.'"</p> + +<p>"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.'"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In a letter of Rev. Dr. Eliot, the Unitarian Pastor, of St. +Louis, published in the <i>Christian Register</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span> +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.'"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="LOUISA_MAERTZ" id="LOUISA_MAERTZ"></a>LOUISA MAERTZ.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/d.png" alt="D" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />uring 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>At a later period in the service, Miss Maertz was transferred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_HARRIET_R_COLFAX" id="MRS_HARRIET_R_COLFAX"></a>MRS. HARRIET R. COLFAX.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />his 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Her mother and other friends disapproved of her going, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span> +the floor as it was supposed in a swoon, but was found to be +dead.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">St. Louis</span>, <i>March</i> 2d, 1866.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"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."</p></div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Like all earnest, unselfish workers, in this eminently unselfish +service, Mrs. Colfax delights to bear testimony to the efficient +labors of others.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MISS_CLARA_DAVIS" id="MISS_CLARA_DAVIS"></a>MISS CLARA DAVIS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />his 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In the early part of this summer, memorable as the season of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.'"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_R_H_SPENCER" id="MRS_R_H_SPENCER"></a>MRS. R. H. SPENCER.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/o.png" alt="O" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />f 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<div class="img"><a name="spencer" id="spencer"></a> +<a href="images/spencer.jpg"> +<img src="images/spencer.jpg" width="75%" alt="Mrs. R. H. Spencer" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Mrs. R. H. Spencer</span>.</p> +<p class="center">Eng<span style="vertical-align: super;">d</span>. by A.B. Walter.</p> +</div> + + +<p>When, therefore, immediately after the battle of Antietam he +announced to Mrs. Spencer that he had resolved to enlist in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>en route</i> for Arlington +Heights.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Nearly two weeks were consumed in this march, one of which +was spent in an encampment on Broad Run.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span> +to every weary and wounded man who applied for the +refreshing beverage.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Do as I tell you ——, and you shall not die," said Mrs. +Spencer. "Can you bear to go without food a week?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span> +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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>From Brandy Station, Mrs. Spencer went to Alexandria, and +remained there until after the battle of the Wilderness, when she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span> +the agency, and left her free once again to seek the welcome seclusion +of her home.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_I_9" id="FNanchor_I_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_I_9" class="fnanchor">[I]</a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span> +that accompanied it, would receive from the enemy a warlike response +in the strange music of the whistling shot, or the bursting +shell.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Spencer remained at City Point, engaged in her duties, +till all the wounded had been removed, and the hospitals broken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I_9" id="Footnote_I_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I_9"><span class="label">[I]</span></a> Every facility was furnished her by the various officers in command, and +a special and permanent pass by General Grant.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_HARRIET_FOOTE_HAWLEY" id="MRS_HARRIET_FOOTE_HAWLEY"></a>MRS. HARRIET FOOTE HAWLEY.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />mong 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>About the first of March, directly after its capture, her husband +had been assigned to the command of Wilmington, North Carolina.</p> + +<p>She arrived at Wilmington, directly after nine thousand Union +prisoners had been delivered there, of whom more than three +thousand needed hospital treatment.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="ELLEN_E_MITCHELL" id="ELLEN_E_MITCHELL"></a>ELLEN E. MITCHELL.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />his 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.</p> + +<p>Perhaps her own words extracted from a letter to the writer +of this sketch will give the best statement of her views and +motives.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span> +women moving around! We did not expect anything like +this!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MISS_JESSIE_HOME" id="MISS_JESSIE_HOME"></a>MISS JESSIE HOME.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/j.png" alt="J" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />essie 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span> +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 <i>rewarded</i>, she might save something +for the wants of the suffering ones under her care.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>At the end of that period she fell a martyr to her exertions in +the cause to which she had so nobly devoted herself.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="M_VANCE_AND_M_A_BLACKMAR" id="M_VANCE_AND_M_A_BLACKMAR"></a>M. VANCE AND M. A. BLACKMAR.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />iss 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<div class="img"><a name="dada" id="dada"></a> +<a href="images/dada.jpg"> +<img src="images/dada.jpg" width="75%" alt="Miss Hattie A. Dada" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Miss Hattie A. Dada</span>.</p> +<p class="center">Eng<span style="vertical-align: super;">d</span>. by A.H. Ritchie.</p> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="H_A_DADA_AND_S_E_HALL" id="H_A_DADA_AND_S_E_HALL"></a>H. A. DADA AND S. E. HALL.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />iss 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span> +in that city. The only question Miss Dix asked, was, "Are you +ready to work?" and added, "You are needed in Alexandria."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>A busy month passed thus, and then the numbers in the hospital<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span> +began to decrease, many of the convalescent being sent North, +or having furloughs, till only the worst cases remained.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>Soon the rebels had possession of the town, and the ladies found +themselves prisoners with a rebel guard placed about their hospital.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>Such are a few of the heart-rending scenes and incidents through +which these devoted ladies passed.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span> +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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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 <i>God-blessedest</i> woman I ever saw.' He +only lived a few days after being brought to the hospital."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_SARAH_P_EDSON" id="MRS_SARAH_P_EDSON"></a>MRS. SARAH P. EDSON.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />rs. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Here she became well known as a writer, but her productions, +both in prose and poetry, were usually written under various +<i>nommes de plume</i>, and met very general acceptance.</p> + +<p>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."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span> +the ship which was to convey them within reach of supplies and +care.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>When the army left she repaired again to Fortress Monroe, +and was on duty there at Hygeia Hospital during the transit of +the army.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Many meetings were held. The attention of commanding and +medical officers was drawn to the plan. Almost unanimously +they expressed approval of it.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[446]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Eighty more nurses were at once ordered.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Amidst all her sorrows and disappointments, Mrs. Edson continued<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MISS_MARIA_M_C_HALL" id="MISS_MARIA_M_C_HALL"></a>MISS MARIA M. C. HALL.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />lthough 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_J_10" id="FNanchor_J_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_J_10" class="fnanchor">[J]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span> +to a suffering Saviour, and corresponding with their friends +as circumstances required.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>During her residence at this Hospital, Miss Hall often contributed +to "<span class="smcap">The Crutch</span>," 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_J_10" id="Footnote_J_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_J_10"><span class="label">[J]</span></a> 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. +</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"><br /> +"<span class="smcap">Manchester, Mass</span>. <i>June 28th</i>, 1866.<br /> +</p> +<p> +"Miss17980 + M. M. C. Hall:—There are kind deeds received which a <i>man</i> 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. +</p><p> +"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 +</p> +<p class="center"><br /> +"Your obedient and respectful servant,</p> +<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Julius F. Rabardy</span>."<br /> +</p> +<p> +The Frenchman who sometimes sang the Marseillaise—formerly of the 12th +Massachusetts Volunteers.</p></div> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead">THE HOSPITAL CORPS AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY +HOSPITAL, ANNAPOLIS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />hough 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>Of her Miss Hall wrote in the <i>Crutch</i>, "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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'For God metes to each his measure;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the woman's patient prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No less than ball or bayonet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Brings the victory unaware.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span> +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.'"</p> + +<p>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.'"</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[459]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>her</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="OTHER_LABORS_OF_SOME_OF_THE_MEMBERS_OF_THE" id="OTHER_LABORS_OF_SOME_OF_THE_MEMBERS_OF_THE"></a>OTHER LABORS OF SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF THE +ANNAPOLIS HOSPITAL CORPS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/s.png" alt="S" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />ome 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 <i>Maine-stay</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[465]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Miss Howe brought to her work not only extraordinary skill +and tact in the performance of her duties, but a deep <i>personal</i> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[466]</a></span> +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 <i>most</i>, 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 <i>presence</i> and <i>influence</i>, +even if she had not been strong enough to <i>work</i> 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[467]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_A_H_AND_MISS_S_H_GIBBONS" id="MRS_A_H_AND_MISS_S_H_GIBBONS"></a>MRS. A. H. AND MISS S. H. GIBBONS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />rs. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[468]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>discomforts</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gibbons and her daughter entered the hospital. All<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[469]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Come and take care of me, and I shall get well. If you do +not come, I shall die."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[470]</a></span> +beat back the advances of death. This time both ladies had come +with the intention of remaining.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[471]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[472]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[473]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>She had not long returned before rumors of the riots in New +York, the riots of July, 1863, reached Point Lookout.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The remainder of the night was spent in packing, and in the +morning they started for home.</p> + +<p>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;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[474]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Immediately after the battle of the Wilderness, Mrs. Gibbons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[475]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[476]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[477]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_E_J_RUSSELL" id="MRS_E_J_RUSSELL"></a>MRS. E. J. RUSSELL.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/w.png" alt="W" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />e 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[478]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[479]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Since the war, Mrs. Russell has resumed her profession as a +teacher at Newburgh, New York.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[480]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_MARY_W_LEE" id="MRS_MARY_W_LEE"></a>MRS. MARY W. LEE.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/i.png" alt="I" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />t 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[481]</a></span> +in most of her labors, and emulated her example of active usefulness.</p> + +<p>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 battlefields, +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[482]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[483]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[484]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[485]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[486]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[487]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[488]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[489]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MISS_CORNELIA_M_TOMPKINS" id="MISS_CORNELIA_M_TOMPKINS"></a>MISS CORNELIA M. TOMPKINS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />iss 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>On her return to St. Louis she was assigned to duty at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[490]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[491]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_ANNA_C_McMEENS" id="MRS_ANNA_C_McMEENS"></a>MRS. ANNA C. McMEENS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />rs. 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[492]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[493]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_JERUSHA_R_SMALL" id="MRS_JERUSHA_R_SMALL"></a>MRS. JERUSHA R. SMALL.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />his 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[494]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[495]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_S_A_MARTHA_CANFIELD" id="MRS_S_A_MARTHA_CANFIELD"></a>MRS. S. A. MARTHA CANFIELD.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />his 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[496]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_E_THOMAS_AND_MISS_MORRIS" id="MRS_E_THOMAS_AND_MISS_MORRIS"></a>MRS. E. THOMAS, AND MISS MORRIS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />hese 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[497]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_SHEPARD_WELLS" id="MRS_SHEPARD_WELLS"></a>MRS. SHEPARD WELLS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />his 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[498]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[499]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_E_C_WITHERELL" id="MRS_E_C_WITHERELL"></a>MRS. E. C. WITHERELL.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/i.png" alt="I" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />n 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[500]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[501]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[502]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MISS_PHEBE_ALLEN" id="MISS_PHEBE_ALLEN"></a>MISS PHEBE ALLEN.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />his 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[503]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_EDWIN_GREBLE" id="MRS_EDWIN_GREBLE"></a>MRS. EDWIN GREBLE.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />mong 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[504]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[505]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_ISABELLA_FOGG" id="MRS_ISABELLA_FOGG"></a>MRS. ISABELLA FOGG.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />aine 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[506]</a></span> +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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[507]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>rest</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[508]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[509]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[510]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[511]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_E_E_GEORGE" id="MRS_E_E_GEORGE"></a>MRS. E. E. GEORGE.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/o.png" alt="O" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />ld 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[512]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Learning that Sherman's army was at Savannah, she set out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[513]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"While valor's haughty champions wait,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till all their scars be shown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love walks unchallenged through the gate<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To sit beside the Throne."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[514]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_CHARLOTTE_E_McKAY" id="MRS_CHARLOTTE_E_McKAY"></a>MRS. CHARLOTTE E. McKAY.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />his 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[515]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[516]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[517]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_FANNY_L_RICKETTS" id="MRS_FANNY_L_RICKETTS"></a>MRS. FANNY L. RICKETTS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />rs. 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[518]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[519]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[520]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_JOHN_S_PHELPS" id="MRS_JOHN_S_PHELPS"></a>MRS. JOHN S. PHELPS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />t 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.</p> + +<p>Col. Phelps was subsequently made Military Governor of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[521]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[522]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_JANE_R_MUNSELL" id="MRS_JANE_R_MUNSELL"></a>MRS. JANE R. MUNSELL.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />aryland, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[523]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[524]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[525]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="PART_III" id="PART_III"></a>PART III.</h2> + +<h4>LADIES WHO ORGANIZED AID SOCIETIES, AND SOLICITED, RECEIVED +AND FORWARDED SUPPLIES TO THE HOSPITALS, DEVOTING +THEIR WHOLE TIME TO THE WORK, ETC., ETC.</h4> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[526]</a></span></p> +<hr class="chapterhead" style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[527]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead">WOMAN'S CENTRAL ASSOCIATION OF RELIEF</h2> + + + +<p><img src="images/w.png" alt="W" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />hen 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.</p> + +<p>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,</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +<span class="smcap">Valentine Mott</span>, M.D., <i>President</i>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Henry W. Bellows</span>, D.D., <i>Vice President</i>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">George F. Allen</span>, Esq., <i>Secretary</i>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Howard Potter</span>, Esq., <i>Treasurer</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[528]</a></span></p> + +<p>EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.</p> + +<p>H. W. Bellows, D.D., <i>Chairman</i>.<br /> +Mrs. G. L. Schuyler.<a name="FNanchor_K_11" id="FNanchor_K_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_K_11" class="fnanchor">[K]</a><br /> +Miss Ellen Collins.<br /> +F. L. Olmstead, Esq.<br /> +Valentine Mott, M.D.<br /> +Mrs. T. d'Orémieulx.<br /> +W. H. Draper, M.D.<br /> +G. F. Allen, Esq.</p> + +<p>REGISTRATION COMMITTEE.</p> + +<p>E. Blackwell, M.D., <i>Chairman</i>.<br /> +Mrs. H. Baylis.<br /> +Mrs. V. Botta.<br /> +Wm. A. Muhlenburg, D.D.<br /> +Mrs. W. P. Griffin, <i>Secretary</i>.<br /> +Mrs. J. A. Swett.<br /> +Mrs. C. Abernethy.<br /> +E. Harris, M.D.</p> + +<p>FINANCE COMMITTEE.</p> + +<p>Howard Potter, Esq.<br /> +John D. Wolfe, Esq.<br /> +William Hague, D.D.<br /> +J. H. Markoe, M.D.<br /> +Mrs. Hamilton Fish.<br /> +Mrs. C. M. Kirkland.<br /> +Mrs. C. W. Field.<br /> +Asa D. Smith, D.D.</p></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[529]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[530]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>First, The receiving book recorded the receipt and acknowledgement +of box.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Thus early began through these minute details, the effectiveness +of the Woman's Central. Every woman engaged in it learnt the +value of precision.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In June, 1861, the association met with a great loss in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[531]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Federal principle</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[532]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[533]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>About this time a Hospital Directory was opened at Number +10, Cooper Union.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[534]</a></span> +was organized, consisting of Mrs. J. H. Swett, Mrs. H. Fish, +Mrs. S. Weir Roosevelt.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1863, the Association lost its faithful Secretary, +Mr. George F. Allen. Mr. S. W. Bridgham was elected +in his place.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[535]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[536]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[537]</a></span> +expended was only sixty-one thousand three hundred and eighty-six +dollars and fifty-seven cents.<a name="FNanchor_L_12" id="FNanchor_L_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_L_12" class="fnanchor">[L]</a></p> + +<div class="img"><a name="stranahan" id="stranahan"></a> +<a href="images/stranahan.jpg"> +<img src="images/stranahan.jpg" width="75%" alt="Mrs. Marianne F. Stranahan" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Marianne F. Stranahan</span>.</p> +<p class="center">Eng<span style="vertical-align: super;">d</span>. by A.H. Ritchie.</p> +</div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[538]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Resolved</i>, 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.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i>, 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.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i>, 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.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i>, 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[539]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i>, 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.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i>, 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.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>The meeting then adjourned <i>sine die</i>.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Samuel W. Bridgham</span>, <i>Secretary</i>.<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>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?</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_K_11" id="Footnote_K_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_K_11"><span class="label">[K]</span></a> This lady's place was filled by her daughter from the beginning.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_L_12" id="Footnote_L_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_L_12"><span class="label">[L]</span></a> 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.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[540]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="SOLDIERS_AID_SOCIETY_OF_NORTHERN_OHIO" id="SOLDIERS_AID_SOCIETY_OF_NORTHERN_OHIO"></a>SOLDIER'S AID SOCIETY OF NORTHERN OHIO</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />mong 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>No constitution or by-laws were ever adopted, and beyond a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[541]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[542]</a></span> +February and March, 1864. The net proceeds of this fair were +about seventy-nine thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[543]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[544]</a></span> +at Louisville, Nashville, Chattanooga, etc., with a view to +obtaining knowledge which might benefit their cause.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>With a brief sketch of each of these ladies, we close our history +of the Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern Ohio.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_545" id="Page_545">[545]</a></span> +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 <i>petite</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[546]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_547" id="Page_547">[547]</a></span> +she and Miss Brayton have acted as clerks of the Free Claim +Agency for recovering the dues of the soldiers, from the Government +offices.</p> + +<p>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 +<i>Cleveland Herald</i>, 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.</p> +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="center">ON A HOSPITAL TRAIN.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>argumentum ad hominem</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_548" id="Page_548">[548]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_549" id="Page_549">[549]</a></span> +authority from the 'powers that be,' we went forward with confidence.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>did</i> 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550">[550]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551">[551]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_552" id="Page_552">[552]</a></span> +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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_553" id="Page_553">[553]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="NEW_ENGLAND_WOMENS_AUXILIARY" id="NEW_ENGLAND_WOMENS_AUXILIARY"></a>NEW ENGLAND WOMEN'S AUXILIARY ASSOCIATION.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />mong 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_554" id="Page_554">[554]</a></span> +Fair in Boston, the net proceeds of which were nearly one hundred +and forty-six thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_555" id="Page_555">[555]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>To a lady friend who sought to win from her some incidents +of her labors for publication, she wrote:</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_556" id="Page_556">[556]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_557" id="Page_557">[557]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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 <i>Boston Sewing Circle</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_558" id="Page_558">[558]</a></span> +and sixty-nine articles of clothing of which one-third were of +flannel.</p> + +<p>Another "Boston notion," and a very excellent notion it was, +was the organization of the <i>Ladies' Industrial Aid Association</i>, +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_559" id="Page_559">[559]</a></span> +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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_560" id="Page_560">[560]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="NORTHWESTERN_SANITARY_COMMISSION" id="NORTHWESTERN_SANITARY_COMMISSION"></a>NORTHWESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/w.png" alt="W" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />hen 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_561" id="Page_561">[561]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_562" id="Page_562">[562]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_A_H_HOGE" id="MRS_A_H_HOGE"></a>MRS. A. H. HOGE.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/p.png" alt="P" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />erhaps 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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_563" id="Page_563">[563]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Of her visit to one of these hospitals she subsequently related +the following incidents:</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_564" id="Page_564">[564]</a></span> +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, +<i>because they had to take the fort</i>.' 'But,' said I, 'did you not feel +'twas cruel to leave you to suffer so long?' 'Of course not! how +could they help it? <i>They had to take the fort</i>, 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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_565" id="Page_565">[565]</a></span> +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.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_566" id="Page_566">[566]</a></span> +Before the midnight hour he was at rest. The vacant bed told +the story next morning."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_567" id="Page_567">[567]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>there</i>, that you and I may be enabled to meet +<i>here</i>, in peace and comfort to-day.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_568" id="Page_568">[568]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_569" id="Page_569">[569]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>She thus describes some of the incidents of this visit:</p> + +<p>"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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_570" id="Page_570">[570]</a></span> +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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_571" id="Page_571">[571]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Come humble sinner in whose breast<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A thousand thoughts revolve;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come with thy sins and fears oppressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And make this last resolve,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I joined in the second verse;</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'I'll go to Jesus, though my sins<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Have like a mountain rose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I know His courts, I'll enter in,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whatever may oppose.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_572" id="Page_572">[572]</a></span> +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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_573" id="Page_573">[573]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_574" id="Page_574">[574]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_575" id="Page_575">[575]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_576" id="Page_576">[576]</a></span> +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.'"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The Women's Relief Association, of Brooklyn, New York, +presented her an elegant silver vase.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="img"><a name="livermore" id="livermore"></a> +<a href="images/livermore.jpg"> +<img src="images/livermore.jpg" width="75%" alt="Mrs. Mary A. Livermore" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Mary A. Livermore</span>.</p> +<p class="center">Eng<span style="vertical-align: super;">d</span>. by A.H. Ritchie.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_577" id="Page_577">[577]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_MARY_A_LIVERMORE" id="MRS_MARY_A_LIVERMORE"></a>MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/f.png" alt="F" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />ew 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>New Covenant</i>, 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_578" id="Page_578">[578]</a></span> +and purify erring and sinful human nature. Of this paper Mrs. +Livermore is associate editor.</p> + +<p>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 <i>somewhere</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_579" id="Page_579">[579]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_580" id="Page_580">[580]</a></span> +suffering this sacrifice involves—and which has already +been made by thousands."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The writer is not aware that a complete and separate sketch of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_581" id="Page_581">[581]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_582" id="Page_582">[582]</a></span> +has receded and receded, like the cup of Tantalus, but the +backward movement came suddenly upon us, like a thief in the +night."</p> + +<p>"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, <i>naive</i> 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 <i>to suppress the national airs</i>, as being offensive +to these traitors in crinoline."</p> + +<p>During the year 1862, Mrs. Livermore, besides the constant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_583" id="Page_583">[583]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_584" id="Page_584">[584]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_585" id="Page_585">[585]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_586" id="Page_586">[586]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_587" id="Page_587">[587]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Our first effort was to obtain an interview with the President<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_588" id="Page_588">[588]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_589" id="Page_589">[589]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, +"<i>Poculum qui meruit fuit</i>." 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_590" id="Page_590">[590]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="GENERAL_AID_SOCIETY_FOR_THE" id="GENERAL_AID_SOCIETY_FOR_THE"></a>GENERAL AID SOCIETY FOR THE +ARMY, BUFFALO.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />his 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_591" id="Page_591">[591]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>In her closing report, Mrs. Seymour says:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_592" id="Page_592">[592]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_593" id="Page_593">[593]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MICHIGAN_SOLDIERS_AID_SOCIETY" id="MICHIGAN_SOLDIERS_AID_SOCIETY"></a>MICHIGAN SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/f.png" alt="F" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />ew 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_594" id="Page_594">[594]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_595" id="Page_595">[595]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_596" id="Page_596">[596]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="WOMENS_PENNSYLVANIA_BRANCH" id="WOMENS_PENNSYLVANIA_BRANCH"></a>WOMEN'S PENNSYLVANIA BRANCH +OF U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/p.png" alt="P" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />hiladelphia 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_597" id="Page_597">[597]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_598" id="Page_598">[598]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_599" id="Page_599">[599]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_600" id="Page_600">[600]</a></span> +W. Morris, Miss H. and Miss Anna Blanchard, Miss E. P. Hawley, +and Miss M. J. Moss.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_601" id="Page_601">[601]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_602" id="Page_602">[602]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_603" id="Page_603">[603]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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?</p> + +<p>"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."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_604" id="Page_604">[604]</a></span></p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="55%" summary="list of the expenses of the Supply Department"> + <tr> + <td style="width: 80%;">Rent of Depository</td> + <td style="width: 20%; text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">$2,876 66</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Wm. Platt, Jr., Superintendent, for expenses incurred by him on + supplies contributed</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">2,159 73</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Salary of Storekeeper and Porter</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">3,093 50</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Freight, express charges, cartage</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">7,115 22</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Boxes and material for packing</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">261 78</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Labor, extra</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">352 96</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Printing and Stationery</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">928 49</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Advertising</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">2,310 59</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Fuel and Lights</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">344 03</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Fitting up Depository, including repairs</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">619 13</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Insurance on Stock</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">244 00</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Postages</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">940 66</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Miscellaneous</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom; border-bottom: solid 1pt black;">668 11</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Total</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom; border-top: solid 1pt black;">$21,914 86</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Relief Committee.</span>—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.</p> + +<p>The rooms in which this work has been carried on, are at the +South-east corner of Thirteenth and Chestnut streets.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The means for supplying this aid have been furnished principally +through generous monthly subscriptions from a few citizens,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_605" id="Page_605">[605]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_606" id="Page_606">[606]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The receipts of the Committee have been as follows:</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="55%" summary="list of the expenses of the Supply Department"> + <tr> + <td style="width: 80%;">From Subscriptions and donations</td> + <td style="width: 20%; text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">$28,300 00</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>From Entertainment given for the benefit of the Committee</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">1,444 00</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>From Contractors in payment for work done</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom;">1,681 31</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>From the Sanitary Commission</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom; border-bottom: solid 1pt black;">2,551 50</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Total</td> + <td style="text-align: right; padding-right: .25em; vertical-align: bottom; border-top: solid 1pt black;">$33,976 81</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_607" id="Page_607">[607]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="WISCONSIN_SOLDIERS_AID_SOCIETY" id="WISCONSIN_SOLDIERS_AID_SOCIETY"></a>WISCONSIN SOLDIER'S AID SOCIETY.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/e.png" alt="E" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />arly 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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_608" id="Page_608">[608]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="colt" id="colt"></a> +<a href="images/colt.jpg"> +<img src="images/colt.jpg" width="75%" alt="Mrs. Henrietta L. Colt" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Henrietta L. Colt</span>.</p> +<p class="center">Eng<span style="vertical-align: super;">d</span>. by A.H. Ritchie.</p> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_609" id="Page_609">[609]</a></span></p> +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Henrietta L. Colt</span>, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_610" id="Page_610">[610]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_611" id="Page_611">[611]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_612" id="Page_612">[612]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.'</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I know now that love of country is the strongest love, next to +the love of God, given to man."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_613" id="Page_613">[613]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Eliza Salomon</span>, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_614" id="Page_614">[614]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_615" id="Page_615">[615]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="PITTSBURG_BRANCH_U_S_SANITARY" id="PITTSBURG_BRANCH_U_S_SANITARY"></a>PITTSBURG BRANCH, U. S. SANITARY +COMMISSION.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/p.png" alt="P" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />ittsburg, 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_616" id="Page_616">[616]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>The Pittsburg Branch continued its labors to the close of the war.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_617" id="Page_617">[617]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_ELIZABETH_S_MENDENHALL" id="MRS_ELIZABETH_S_MENDENHALL"></a>MRS. ELIZABETH S. MENDENHALL.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />his 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.</p> + +<p>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 Cincin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_618" id="Page_618">[618]</a></span>nati, +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Times</i>, of October 31, 1863, and +being followed by others from her pen in the other loyal papers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_619" id="Page_619">[619]</a></span> +of the city. The idea was received with favor, and on the 7th of +November an editorial appeared in the <i>Cincinnati Gazette</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_620" id="Page_620">[620]</a></span> +of soldiers who were the recipients of her gentle ministries, give +equally earnest testimonies to her kindness and tenderness of heart.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_621" id="Page_621">[621]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="DEPARTMENT_OF_THE_SOUTH" id="DEPARTMENT_OF_THE_SOUTH"></a>DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/d.png" alt="D" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />r. 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.</p> + +<p>It was in the early part of the year 1863 that Mrs. Marsh left +her home in Vermont and joined her husband at Beaufort.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_622" id="Page_622">[622]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>A young officer from one of the Northern States and regiments,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_623" id="Page_623">[623]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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>I am glad</i>, +that I have done what I have done, and would do it again, if +possible."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>The hemorrhage was, however, checked, but he died soon after. +Meantime the Sanitary Commission stores were constantly arriving,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_624" id="Page_624">[624]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>This spirit of self-sacrifice was almost universal among the men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_625" id="Page_625">[625]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>When, soon after, by means of this entering wedge, the way to +the prisons of Andersonville, Florence, and Salisbury, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_626" id="Page_626">[626]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Dr. Marsh was for a long time detained at Folly and Morris<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_627" id="Page_627">[627]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>We may perhaps imagine how busy was the brave woman, left +with such an immense responsibility on her hands.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_628" id="Page_628">[628]</a></span> +human kindness in his heart to lead him to desire to do something +for her suffering soldiers and prisoners.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_629" id="Page_629">[629]</a></span> +those long hours of the nation's peril, in which the best blood of +her sons was poured out a red libation to Liberty.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_630" id="Page_630">[630]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="SAINT_LOUIS_LADIES_UNION_AID_SOCIETY" id="SAINT_LOUIS_LADIES_UNION_AID_SOCIETY"></a>SAINT LOUIS LADIES' UNION AID SOCIETY.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />his 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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_631" id="Page_631">[631]</a></span> +and Miss Eliza Page, were indefatigable in their labors for the +soldiers.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_632" id="Page_632">[632]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>In the fall of 1863, the Society established a branch at Nashville, +Tennessee, Mrs. Barker and Miss H. A. Adams, going<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_633" id="Page_633">[633]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_634" id="Page_634">[634]</a></span> +unity and liberty, none are more worthy of honorable mention, +in a work of this character, than <span class="smcap">Mrs. Anna L. Clapp</span>.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_635" id="Page_635">[635]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The visitation of these families by committees, and their reports, +to say nothing of the general sanitary and hospital work performed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_636" id="Page_636">[636]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The devoted labors of <span class="smcap">Miss H. A. Adams</span>, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_637" id="Page_637">[637]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The duties of Miss Adams, as Secretary of the Ladies' Union +Aid Society, were very arduous.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_638" id="Page_638">[638]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_639" id="Page_639">[639]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. C. R. Springer</span>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_640" id="Page_640">[640]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class="smcap">Mrs. Mary E. Palmer</span>. 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_641" id="Page_641">[641]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_642" id="Page_642">[642]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_643" id="Page_643">[643]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="LADIES_AID_SOCIETY_OF_PHILADELPHIA" id="LADIES_AID_SOCIETY_OF_PHILADELPHIA"></a>LADIES' AID SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/o.png" alt="O" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />ne 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.</p> + +<p>It was early determined to allow Mrs. Harris to follow the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_644" id="Page_644">[644]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_645" id="Page_645">[645]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!'</p> + +<p>"It has been our <i>highest</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_646" id="Page_646">[646]</a></span> +that which is within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us +entered, even Jesus.'"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_647" id="Page_647">[647]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Penn Relief Association</span> 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.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">The Soldiers' Aid Association</span>," 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_648" id="Page_648">[648]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_649" id="Page_649">[649]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The Association continued its work till the close of the war. +The amount of its disbursements, we have not been able to +ascertain.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_650" id="Page_650">[650]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="WOMENS_RELIEF_ASSOCIATION_OF" id="WOMENS_RELIEF_ASSOCIATION_OF"></a>WOMEN'S RELIEF ASSOCIATION OF +BROOKLYN AND LONG ISLAND.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />he 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_651" id="Page_651">[651]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class="smcap">Mrs. Mariamne +Fitch Stranahan</span>, 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. <span class="smcap">Mrs. Stranahan</span> +was a native of Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_652" id="Page_652">[652]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_653" id="Page_653">[653]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_654" id="Page_654">[654]</a></span> +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:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'<i>Resolved</i>, 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.'"</p></div> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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 <i>personal</i> 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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_655" id="Page_655">[655]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_656" id="Page_656">[656]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_657" id="Page_657">[657]</a></span> +of her proposed measures, some demur to, or reluctance +to accept her suggestions; but among <i>men</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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—<i>inevitably</i>, 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_658" id="Page_658">[658]</a></span> +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. * * * *</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_659" id="Page_659">[659]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="LADIES_UNION_RELIEF_ASSOCIATIONS" id="LADIES_UNION_RELIEF_ASSOCIATIONS"></a>LADIES' UNION RELIEF ASSOCIATIONS +OF BALTIMORE.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />midst 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.</p> + +<p>Among the ladies of Baltimore, few were more constantly or +conspicuously employed, for the benefit of sufferers from the war, +than <span class="smcap">Mrs. Elizabeth M. Streeter</span>. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Streeter was the wife of the late Hon. S. F. Streeter, Esq.,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_660" id="Page_660">[660]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_661" id="Page_661">[661]</a></span> +work of the Association, she gave it her daily attendance, and +added largely to its resources by way of supplies.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Attendance in the hospitals upon the wounded at Antietam, +was required for several months after the battle. Services and supplies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_662" id="Page_662">[662]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The ladies of Baltimore worked in connection with the Sanitary +and Christian Commissions, both of which organizations +take occasion frequently to acknowledge their services.</p> + +<p>Late in 1864, Mrs. Streeter was called to deep affliction. Her +noble-hearted and patriotic husband, who had been as active as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_663" id="Page_663">[663]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>Two other ladies of Baltimore, and doubtless many more, +deserve especial mention in this connection, Miss <span class="smcap">Tyson</span>, and +Mrs. <span class="smcap">Beck</span>. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Beck was also a faithful and laborious aide to Mrs. +Harris, at Falmouth, and afterwards at the West. She was, we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_664" id="Page_664">[664]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_665" id="Page_665">[665]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_C_T_FENN" id="MRS_C_T_FENN"></a>MRS. C. T. FENN.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/b.png" alt="B" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />erkshire 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Berkshire had gained the <i>prestige</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_666" id="Page_666">[666]</a></span> +listening world the story of their bravery, their endurance and +their sacrifices.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_667" id="Page_667">[667]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Knowing that Mrs. Fenn's entire time had been occupied for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_668" id="Page_668">[668]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"We have thus briefly sketched the services of this noble +woman, partly in justice to her, but principally as an incentive +to others."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_669" id="Page_669">[669]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_670" id="Page_670">[670]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Early in her efforts, she joined hands with Mrs. Col. G. T. M.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_671" id="Page_671">[671]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_672" id="Page_672">[672]</a></span> +of poultry, and four bushels of real Yankee doughnuts, besides +cakes, fruit and vegetables, in enormous quantities. These she +greatly enjoyed helping to distribute.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_673" id="Page_673">[673]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Among other things accomplished by this indefatigable woman +was the making of nearly one hundred gallons of blackberry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_674" id="Page_674">[674]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_675" id="Page_675">[675]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_676" id="Page_676">[676]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_JAMES_HARLAN" id="MRS_JAMES_HARLAN"></a>MRS. JAMES HARLAN.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />here 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_677" id="Page_677">[677]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Harlan was accompanied in many of her visits to the +army by Mrs. Almira Fales, of whom we have elsewhere given<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_678" id="Page_678">[678]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_679" id="Page_679">[679]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="NEW_ENGLAND_SOLDIERS_RELIEF" id="NEW_ENGLAND_SOLDIERS_RELIEF"></a>NEW ENGLAND SOLDIERS' RELIEF +ASSOCIATION.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />he "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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_680" id="Page_680">[680]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_681" id="Page_681">[681]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="PART_IV" id="PART_IV"></a>PART IV.</h2> + +<h4>LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR SERVICES AMONG THE FREEDMEN +AND REFUGEES.</h4> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_682" id="Page_682">[682]</a></span></p> +<hr class="chapterhead" style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_683" id="Page_683">[683]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_FRANCES_D_GAGE" id="MRS_FRANCES_D_GAGE"></a>MRS. FRANCES D. GAGE.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/o.png" alt="O" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />n 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_684" id="Page_684">[684]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_685" id="Page_685">[685]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Yours of —— is at hand. Thanking you for your unasked counsel, I cheerfully +retire from your columns.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="padding-right: 2em;">"Respectfully yours,</span><br /> +"<span class="smcap">F. D. Gage</span>."<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>She has lived to see that editor change many of his views, and +approach her standard.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_686" id="Page_686">[686]</a></span></p> +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="i10">DARE TO STAND ALONE.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Be bold, be firm, be strong, be true,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And dare to stand alone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strike for the Right whate'er ye do,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though helpers there be none.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Oh! bend not to the swelling surge<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of popular crime and wrong.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twill bear thee on to Ruin's verge<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With current wild and strong.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Strike for the Right, tho' falsehood rail<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And proud lips coldly sneer.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A poisoned arrow cannot wound<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A conscience pure and clear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Strike for the Right, and with clean hands<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Exalt the truth on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou'lt find warm sympathizing hearts<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Among the passers by,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Those who have thought, and felt, and prayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet could not singly dare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The battle's brunt; but by thy side<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will every danger share.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Strike for the Right. Uphold the Truth.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou'lt find an answering tone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In honest hearts, and soon no more<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Be left to stand alone."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_687" id="Page_687">[687]</a></span> +and soon found herself branded as an "abolitionist" with every +adjective appended that could tend to destroy public confidence.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_688" id="Page_688">[688]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The cry of suffering from the Freedmen reached her, and God +seemed to speak to her heart, telling her that there was her mission.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_689" id="Page_689">[689]</a></span> +hope of doing good, she left Ohio, and proceeded directly to Port +Royal.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_690" id="Page_690">[690]</a></span> +defray her expenses—for herself—thankful if she received, cheerful +if she did not.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>cause</i>. 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_691" id="Page_691">[691]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_LUCY_GAYLORD_POMEROY" id="MRS_LUCY_GAYLORD_POMEROY"></a>MRS. LUCY GAYLORD POMEROY.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/i.png" alt="I" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />n 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_692" id="Page_692">[692]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_693" id="Page_693">[693]</a></span> +this as a training for the work to which, in time, she hoped to +devote herself.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_694" id="Page_694">[694]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>When she accompanied her husband to Washington in the +spring, her health failed, cough and hoarseness troubled her, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_695" id="Page_695">[695]</a></span> +she was obliged to leave for visits in her native air, and for a +stay of some months at Geneva Water Cure.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Almost entirely by her exertions, a building for the Asylum<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_696" id="Page_696">[696]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_697" id="Page_697">[697]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MARIA_R_MANN" id="MARIA_R_MANN"></a>MARIA R. MANN.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />mong 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>During the first year of the rebellion, she left all her pleasant +associations in New England, and came out to St. Louis, that she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_698" id="Page_698">[698]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_699" id="Page_699">[699]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_700" id="Page_700">[700]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_701" id="Page_701">[701]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>In the autumn of 1863 Miss Mann felt that her work in Helena<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_702" id="Page_702">[702]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Miss Mann has made many personal sacrifices in establishing +and carrying forward this school without government patronage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_703" id="Page_703">[703]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_704" id="Page_704">[704]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="SARAH_J_HAGAR" id="SARAH_J_HAGAR"></a>SARAH J. HAGAR</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/i.png" alt="I" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />t 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_705" id="Page_705">[705]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Late in April of that year, she had an attack of malarial fever, +which prostrated her very suddenly, and just in the proportion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_706" id="Page_706">[706]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>The following tribute to her character, is taken from the letter +of Mr. Marsh, in which he communicated the sad tidings of her +death.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_707" id="Page_707">[707]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_JOSEPHINE_R_GRIFFIN" id="MRS_JOSEPHINE_R_GRIFFIN"></a>MRS. JOSEPHINE R. GRIFFIN.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/i.png" alt="I" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />f 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_708" id="Page_708">[708]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_709" id="Page_709">[709]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_710" id="Page_710">[710]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_M_M_HALLOWELL" id="MRS_M_M_HALLOWELL"></a>MRS. M. M. HALLOWELL.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />he 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_711" id="Page_711">[711]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_712" id="Page_712">[712]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_713" id="Page_713">[713]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="OTHER_FRIENDS_OF_THE_FREEDMEN_AND_REFUGEES" id="OTHER_FRIENDS_OF_THE_FREEDMEN_AND_REFUGEES"></a>OTHER FRIENDS OF THE FREEDMEN AND REFUGEES.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/i.png" alt="I" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />n 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_714" id="Page_714">[714]</a></span> +at Springfield, Missouri, and Mrs. Mary A. Whitaker, an excellent +and efficient teacher, had charge of it for two years.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_715" id="Page_715">[715]</a></span> +died there on the 5th of June, 1865, a martyr to her faithfulness +and zeal.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_716" id="Page_716">[716]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_717" id="Page_717">[717]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="PART_V" id="PART_V"></a>PART V.</h2> + +<h4>LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR SERVICES IN SOLDIERS' HOMES, VOLUNTEER +REFRESHMENT SALOONS, ON GOVERNMENT +HOSPITAL TRANSPORTS, ETC.</h4> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_718" id="Page_718">[718]</a></span></p> +<hr class="chapterhead" style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_719" id="Page_719">[719]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_O_E_HOSMER" id="MRS_O_E_HOSMER"></a>MRS. O. E. HOSMER.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />t 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_720" id="Page_720">[720]</a></span> +and there were the usual consequences, devastation, want and suffering +to be met on all sides.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_721" id="Page_721">[721]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_722" id="Page_722">[722]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The following summer that admirable and most useful institution, +the "Soldiers' Home," was established in Chicago, and +Mrs. Hosmer was appointed first vice-president.</p> + +<p>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, <i>in transitu</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_723" id="Page_723">[723]</a></span> +worn and exhausted, and without the cheering influence +of the consciousness of having accomplished much good by their +efforts.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_724" id="Page_724">[724]</a></span> +dead, drowned or scalded, in that awful accident. As she says, +herself, her heart was nearly broken by this dreadful sight.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_725" id="Page_725">[725]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MISS_HATTIE_WISWALL" id="MISS_HATTIE_WISWALL"></a>MISS HATTIE WISWALL.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />iss 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_726" id="Page_726">[726]</a></span> +to occur to her. It was often remarked that "Miss Hattie was +never quite so happy as when administering medicine or dressing +a wound."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The good work of Miss Wiswall in Vicksburg was not confined +to the Soldiers' Home. She did not forget the freedmen,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_727" id="Page_727">[727]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_728" id="Page_728">[728]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_LUCY_E_STARR" id="MRS_LUCY_E_STARR"></a>MRS. LUCY E. STARR.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/i.png" alt="I" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />n 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In the autumn of 1863 Mrs. Starr was needed by the Western<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_729" id="Page_729">[729]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_730" id="Page_730">[730]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_731" id="Page_731">[731]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="CHARLOTTE_BRADFORD" id="CHARLOTTE_BRADFORD"></a>CHARLOTTE BRADFORD</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />his 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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_732" id="Page_732">[732]</a></span> +Miss Helen L. Gilson, Miss Amy M. Bradley, Mrs. Balustier, +Miss Gardner and others.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>After the close of the war, Miss Bradford returned to private +life at her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_733" id="Page_733">[733]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="UNION_VOLUNTEER_REFRESHMENT" id="UNION_VOLUNTEER_REFRESHMENT"></a>UNION VOLUNTEER REFRESHMENT +SALOON OF PHILADELPHIA.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/w.png" alt="W" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />e 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.</p> + +<p>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<a name="FNanchor_M_13" id="FNanchor_M_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_M_13" class="fnanchor">[M]</a> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_734" id="Page_734">[734]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_735" id="Page_735">[735]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Eliza G. Plummer</span> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_736" id="Page_736">[736]</a></span> +and she sank rapidly, and died on the 21st of October, 1863. +The soldier has lost no more earnest or faithful friend than she.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Mary B. Wade</span>, 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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Ellen J. Lowry</span>, 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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Margaret Boyer</span>, 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.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="wade" id="wade"></a> +<a href="images/wade.jpg"> +<img src="images/wade.jpg" width="75%" alt="Mrs. Mary B. Wade" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Mary B. Wade</span>.</p> +<p class="center">Eng<span style="vertical-align: super;">d</span>. by A.H. Ritchie.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Priscilla Grover</span> and <span class="smcap">Mrs. Green</span>, 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 <span class="smcap">Mrs. Mary Grover, Mrs. Hannah Smith, Mrs. +Sarah Femington</span> and <span class="smcap">Miss Sarah Holland</span>, all noble, persevering +and efficient nurses, and strongly attached to their work. +Nor were the younger women lacking in skill, patience or activity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_737" id="Page_737">[737]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_M_13" id="Footnote_M_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_M_13"><span class="label">[M]</span></a> Mr. Bazilla S. Brown</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_738" id="Page_738">[738]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_R_M_BIGELOW" id="MRS_R_M_BIGELOW"></a>MRS. R. M. BIGELOW.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/i.png" alt="I" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />n 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 <i>at +home</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_739" id="Page_739">[739]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_740" id="Page_740">[740]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_741" id="Page_741">[741]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MISS_SHARPLESS_AND_ASSOCIATES" id="MISS_SHARPLESS_AND_ASSOCIATES"></a>MISS SHARPLESS AND ASSOCIATES.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/w.png" alt="W" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />hat 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>en route</i> for home. On this steamship Miss <span class="smcap">Hattie +R. Sharpless</span> commenced her labors as matron, on the 10th of +May, 1864, and continued with only a brief intermission till<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_742" id="Page_742">[742]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Miss <span class="smcap">W. F. Harris</span> is a native, and was previous to the war, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_743" id="Page_743">[743]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_744" id="Page_744">[744]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_745" id="Page_745">[745]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="PART_VI" id="PART_VI"></a>PART VI.</h2> + +<h4>LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR OTHER SERVICES IN THE NATIONAL +CAUSE.</h4> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_746" id="Page_746">[746]</a></span></p> +<hr class="chapterhead" style="width: 65%;" /> + + + +<div class="img"><a name="etheridge" id="etheridge"></a> +<a href="images/etheridge.jpg"> +<img src="images/etheridge.jpg" width="75%" alt="Annie Etheridge" /></a><br /> +<p class="center" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="smcap">Annie Etheridge</span>.</p> +<p class="center">H.L. Stephens, Del. John Sartain, Sc.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_747" id="Page_747">[747]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_ANNIE_ETHERIDGE" id="MRS_ANNIE_ETHERIDGE"></a>MRS. ANNIE ETHERIDGE</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/n.png" alt="N" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />o woman attached to a regiment, as <i>vivandiére</i>, <i>cantiniére</i>, +or <i>fille du regiment</i> (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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_748" id="Page_748">[748]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_749" id="Page_749">[749]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_750" id="Page_750">[750]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_751" id="Page_751">[751]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Washington, D. C.</span>, <i>January</i> 14th, 1864.<br /> +</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Annie</span>—<i>Dearest Friend</i>: I am not long for this world, and I wish to thank +you for your kindness ere I go.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>sainted mother</i>; 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,</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap" style="padding-right: 4em;">George H. Hill,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Cleveland, Ohio</span>.<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_752" id="Page_752">[752]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_753" id="Page_753">[753]</a></span> +an act more heartily approved by his entire command, +than when in the presence of his troops, he presented her with +the Kearny cross.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_754" id="Page_754">[754]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="DELPHINE_P_BAKER" id="DELPHINE_P_BAKER"></a>DELPHINE P. BAKER</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />hough 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_755" id="Page_755">[755]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_756" id="Page_756">[756]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_757" id="Page_757">[757]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_758" id="Page_758">[758]</a></span> +and though an effort was made to substitute proxies for actual +members of the body, it was unsuccessful, and an organization +was not effected.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_759" id="Page_759">[759]</a></span> +amended bill was reached, and the votes of both Houses at last +placed the whole matter on a proper footing, and in competent +hands.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_760" id="Page_760">[760]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_S_BURGER_STEARNS" id="MRS_S_BURGER_STEARNS"></a>MRS. S. BURGER STEARNS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />his 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_761" id="Page_761">[761]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="BARBARA_FRIETCHIE" id="BARBARA_FRIETCHIE"></a>BARBARA FRIETCHIE.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/b.png" alt="B" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />arbara 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.</p> +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="i10">BARBARA FRIETCHIE.</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Up from the meadows rich with corn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clear in the cool September morn,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The clustered spires of Frederick stand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Round about them orchards sweep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Apple and peach trees fruited deep,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fair as a garden of the Lord<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the eyes of the famished rebel horde,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_762" id="Page_762">[762]</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On that pleasant morn of the early fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Lee marched over the mountain-wall—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Over the mountains winding down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Horse and foot, into Frederick town.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Forty flags with their silver stars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forty flags with their crimson bars,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Flapped in the morning wind: the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of noon looked down, and saw not one.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bravest of all in Frederick town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She took up the flag the men hauled down;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In her attic-window the staff she set,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To show that one heart was loyal yet,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Up the street came the rebel tread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Under his slouched hat left and right<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He glanced; the old flag met his sight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Halt!"—the dust-brown ranks stood fast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Fire!"—out blazed the rifle-blast.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It shivered the window, pane and sash:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It rent the banner with seam and gash.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She leaned far out on the window-sill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shook it forth with a royal will.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But spare your country's flag," she said.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over the face of the leader came;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The nobler nature within him stirred<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To life at that woman's deed and word:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_763" id="Page_763">[763]</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Who touches a hair of yon gray head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All day long through Frederick street<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sounded the tread of marching feet:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All day long that free flag tost<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over the heads of the rebel host.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ever its torn folds rose and fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the loyal winds that loved it well;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And through the hill-gaps sunset light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shone over it with a warm good-night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the Rebel rides on his raids no more.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Honor to her! and let a tear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Over Barbara Frietchie's grave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flag of Freedom and Union, wave!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Peace and order and beauty draw<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Round thy symbol of light and law;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And ever the stars above look down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On thy stars below in Frederick town!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_764" id="Page_764">[764]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MRS_HETTY_M_McEWEN" id="MRS_HETTY_M_McEWEN"></a>MRS. HETTY M. McEWEN.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/m.png" alt="M" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />rs. 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:</p> +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="i12">HETTY McEWEN.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh Hetty McEwen! Hetty McEwen!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What were the angry rebels doing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That autumn day, in Nashville town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They looked aloft with oath and frown,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_765" id="Page_765">[765]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And saw the Stars and Stripes wave high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against the blue of the sunny sky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep was the oath, and dark the frown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And loud the shout of "Tear it down!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For over Nashville, far and wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rebel banners the breeze defied,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Staining heaven with crimson bars;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only the one old "Stripes and Stars"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waved, where autumn leaves were strewing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Round the home of Hetty McEwen.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hetty McEwen watched that day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where her son on his death-bed lay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She heard the hoarse and angry cry—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blood of "76" rose high.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out-flashed her eye, her cheek grew warm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up rose her aged stately form;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From her window, with steadfast brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She looked upon the crowd below.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Eyes all aflame with angry fire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flashed on her in defiant ire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And once more rose the angry call,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Tear down that flag, or the house shall fall!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Never a single inch quailed she,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her answer rang out firm and free:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Under the roof where that flag flies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now my son on his death-bed lies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Born where that banner floated high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Neath its folds he shall surely die.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not for threats nor yet for suing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall it fall," said Hetty McEwen.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The loyal heart and steadfast hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Claimed respect from the traitor band;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fiercest rebel quailed that day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before that woman stern and gray.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They went in silence, one by one—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Left her there with her dying son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And left the old flag floating free<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er the bravest heart in Tennessee,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_766" id="Page_766">[766]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">To wave in loyal splendor there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon that treason-tainted air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until the rebel rule was o'er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Nashville town was ours once more.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Came the day when Fort Donelson<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fell, and the rebel reign was done;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And into Nashville, Buell, then,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Marched with a hundred thousand men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With waving flags and rolling drums<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Past the heroine's house he comes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He checked his steed and bared his head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Soldiers! salute that flag," he said;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"And cheer, boys, cheer!—give three times three<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the bravest woman in Tennessee!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_767" id="Page_767">[767]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="OTHER_DEFENDERS_OF_THE_FLAG" id="OTHER_DEFENDERS_OF_THE_FLAG"></a>OTHER DEFENDERS OF THE FLAG.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/b.png" alt="B" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />arbara 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_768" id="Page_768">[768]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<p>"We have come to take down that d——d rag you flaunt from +your roof—the Stripes and Stars."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Moore stepped back a pace or two within the door, drew +a revolver from her dress pocket, and leveling it, answered:</p> + +<p>"Come on, sirs, and take it down!"</p> + +<p>The chivalrous Confederates were startled.</p> + +<p>"Yes, come on!" she said, as she advanced toward them.</p> + +<p>They cleared the piazza, and stood at bay on the wall.</p> + +<p>"We'll go and get more men, and then d——d if it don't come +down!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, go and get more men—you are not men!" said the heroic +woman, contemptuously, as the two backed from the place and +disappeared.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_769" id="Page_769">[769]</a></span> +Mrs. Taylor's consent was not given, and the committee insisted +that they <i>must</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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, +'<i>never surrender the flag to traitors</i>!'"</p> + +<p>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, <i>never surrender +the flag to traitors</i>.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_770" id="Page_770">[770]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MILITARY_HEROINES" id="MILITARY_HEROINES"></a>MILITARY HEROINES.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />he 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_771" id="Page_771">[771]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_772" id="Page_772">[772]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>four</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_773" id="Page_773">[773]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_774" id="Page_774">[774]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_775" id="Page_775">[775]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="THE_WOMEN_OF_GETTYSBURG" id="THE_WOMEN_OF_GETTYSBURG"></a>THE WOMEN OF GETTYSBURG.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/t.png" alt="T" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />hose 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.</p> + +<p>Chief among these, since she gave her life for the cause, we +must reckon <span class="smcap">Mrs. Jennie Wade</span>. 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_776" id="Page_776">[776]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miss Carrie Sheads</span>, 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_777" id="Page_777">[777]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_778" id="Page_778">[778]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_779" id="Page_779">[779]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="LOYAL_WOMEN_OF_THE_SOUTH" id="LOYAL_WOMEN_OF_THE_SOUTH"></a>LOYAL WOMEN OF THE SOUTH.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/w.png" alt="W" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />e 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_780" id="Page_780">[780]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_781" id="Page_781">[781]</a></span> +when their Unionism involved peril. Miss Sarah Chappell, Miss +Cordelia Baggett and Miss Ella Gallagher, also merit the same +commendation.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_782" id="Page_782">[782]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_783" id="Page_783">[783]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="MISS_HETTY_A_JONESN" id="MISS_HETTY_A_JONESN"></a>MISS HETTY A. JONES.<a name="FNanchor_N_14" id="FNanchor_N_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_N_14" class="fnanchor">[N]</a></h2> + + +<p><img src="images/a.png" alt="A" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />mong 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, <span class="smcap">D.D.</span>, +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_784" id="Page_784">[784]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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. <i>But I did not +complain, for I was so much better off than the sick boys.</i>" The +italics are ours, not hers. She never put her own ease before her +care for "the sick boys."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_785" id="Page_785">[785]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_786" id="Page_786">[786]</a></span> +of those who had so far recovered as to be able to perform this +last office for their departed friend.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_N_14" id="Footnote_N_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_N_14"><span class="label">[N]</span></a> 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.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_787" id="Page_787">[787]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="FINAL_CHAPTER" id="FINAL_CHAPTER"></a>FINAL CHAPTER.</h2> + +<h2>THE FAITHFUL BUT LESS CONSPICUOUS LABORERS.</h2> + + +<p><img src="images/s.png" alt="S" style="margin-right: .25em; float: left;" />o 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.</p> + +<p>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.,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_788" id="Page_788">[788]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_789" id="Page_789">[789]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Miss E. M. King, of Omaha, Nebraska, was a very faithful +and excellent nurse at the Benton Barracks Hospital.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Juliana Day, the wife of a surgeon in one of the Nashville<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_790" id="Page_790">[790]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_791" id="Page_791">[791]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_792" id="Page_792">[792]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_793" id="Page_793">[793]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_794" id="Page_794">[794]</a></span> +the soldiers, Mrs. Farr exerted a powerful and almost electric influence +over the region of which Norwalk is the centre.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_795" id="Page_795">[795]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> + +<h3>OF NAMES OF WOMEN WHOSE SERVICES ARE RECORDED IN +THIS BOOK.</h3> + + + +<ul><li>Abernethy, Mrs. C., <a href="#Page_528">528</a>.</li> + +<li>Adams, Miss H. A., <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_630">630</a>, <a href="#Page_636">636</a>, <a href="#Page_639">639</a>.</li> + +<li>Adams, Miss Martha, <a href="#Page_789">789</a>.</li> + +<li>Adams, Mrs. N., <a href="#Page_594">594</a>.</li> + +<li>Alcott, Miss Louise M., <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Aldrich, Mrs. L. D., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Aldrich, Milly, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li> + +<li>Allen, Mrs. Mary, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Allen, Miss Phebe, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li> + +<li>Allen, Miss Sarah, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_788">788</a>.</li> + +<li>Anderson, Mrs. Kate B., <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Anderson, Mrs. Robert, <a href="#Page_630">630</a>, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Andrews, Emma, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + +<li>Andrews, Mrs. Mary, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Archer, Mrs., <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> + +<li>Armstrong, Miss, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Babcock, Miss Grace, <a href="#Page_590">590</a>.</li> + +<li>Bacon, Mrs. Elbridge, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li> + +<li>Bailey, Mrs., <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_731">731</a>.</li> + +<li>Bailey, Mrs. Catharine, <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Bailey, Mrs. Hannah F., <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Baily, Mrs., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Baker, Miss Delphine P., <a href="#Page_754">754-759</a>.</li> + +<li>Bakewell, Miss, <a href="#Page_616">616</a>.</li> + +<li>Ballard, Mrs. M. I., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Balustier, Mrs., <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_732">732</a>.</li> + +<li>Barker, Mrs. C. N., <a href="#Page_630">630</a>, <a href="#Page_632">632</a>.</li> + +<li>Barker, Mrs. C. V., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Barker, Mrs. Stephen, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200-211</a>.</li> + +<li>Barlow, Mrs. Arabella Griffith, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225-233</a>.</li> + +<li>Barnard, Mrs., <a href="#Page_664">664</a>.</li> + +<li>Barnett, Mrs., <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Barrows, Mrs. Ellen B., <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Bartlett, Miss Mary E., <a href="#Page_794">794</a>.</li> + +<li>Bartlett, Mrs. Abner, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + +<li>Barton, Mrs. Sarah A., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Barton, Miss Clara Harlowe, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111-132</a>.</li> + +<li>Baylis, Mrs. H., <a href="#Page_528">528</a>.</li> + +<li>Beck, Mrs., <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>, <a href="#Page_713">713</a>.</li> + +<li>Bell, Miss Annie, <a href="#Page_616">616</a>.</li> + +<li>Bell, Miss Susan J., <a href="#Page_630">630</a>, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Bellows, Mrs. H. W., <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li> + +<li>Bennett, Miss, <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Bennison, Mrs. R. H., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Bergen, Miss Rebecca, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.</li> + +<li>Bickerdyke, Mrs. Mary A., <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165-170</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172-186</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>.</li> + +<li>Biddle, Misses, <a href="#Page_644">644</a>.</li> + +<li>Bigelow, Mrs. R. M., <a href="#Page_738">738-740</a>.</li> + +<li>Billing, Mrs. R. K., <a href="#Page_738">738</a>, <a href="#Page_739">739</a>.</li> + +<li>Billing, Miss Rose M., <a href="#Page_460">460</a>, <a href="#Page_738">738</a>, <a href="#Page_739">739</a>, <a href="#Page_742">742</a>.</li> + +<li>Bird, Miss, <a href="#Page_590">590</a>.</li> + +<li>Bissell, Miss Lucy J., <a href="#Page_788">788</a>.</li> + +<li>Bissell, Miss Mary, <a href="#Page_616">616</a>.</li> + +<li>Blackmar, Miss M. A., <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</li> + +<li>Blackwell, Miss Emily, <a href="#Page_527">527</a>.</li> + +<li>Blackwell, Miss Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_527">527</a>, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>.</li> + +<li>Blanchard, Miss Anna, <a href="#Page_600">600</a>.</li> + +<li>Blanchard, Miss H., <a href="#Page_600">600</a>.</li> + +<li>Booth, Mrs., <a href="#Page_769">769</a>.</li> + +<li>Botta, Mrs. Vincenzo, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>.</li> + +<li>Boyer, Mrs. Margaret, <a href="#Page_736">736</a>.</li> + +<li>Bradford, Miss Charlotte, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_731">731</a>, <a href="#Page_732">732</a>.</li> + +<li>Bradley, Miss Amy M., <a href="#Page_212">212-224</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_584">584</a>, <a href="#Page_732">732</a>, <a href="#Page_748">748</a>.</li> + +<li>Brady, Mrs. Mary A., <a href="#Page_597">597</a>, <a href="#Page_647">647-9</a>.</li> + +<li>Brayton, Miss Mary Clark, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_543">543</a>, <a href="#Page_545">545</a>, <a href="#Page_546">546</a>, <a href="#Page_547">547-552</a>.</li> + +<li>Breckinridge, Miss Margaret E., <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_779">779</a>.</li> + +<li>Brendell, Mrs. E. C., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Brewster, Mrs., <a href="#Page_664">664</a>.</li> + +<li>Bridgham, Mrs. S. W., <a href="#Page_531">531</a>.</li> + +<li>Brimmer, Mrs. Martin, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>, <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Broadhead, Mrs. Bettie, <a href="#Page_632">632</a>, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Brooks, Mrs. Maria, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Brownell, Mrs. Kady, <a href="#Page_773">773</a>, <a href="#Page_774">774</a>.</li> + +<li>Bryden, Mrs., <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Bucklin, Miss Sophronia, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Caldwell, Mrs., <a href="#Page_792">792</a>.</li> + +<li>Campbell, Mrs. John, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Campbell, Mrs. Lucy L., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Campbell, Miss Valeria, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_594">594</a>, <a href="#Page_595">595</a>.</li> + +<li>Canfield, Mrs. S. A. Martha, <a href="#Page_495">495</a>.</li> + +<li>Carver, Mrs. Anna, <a href="#Page_647">647</a>.</li> + +<li>Cary, Miss Mary, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_787">787</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_796" id="Page_796">[796]</a></span></li> + +<li>Case, Mrs. Cynthia, <a href="#Page_742">742</a>.</li> + +<li>Cassedy, Mrs. Mary A., <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Chase, Miss Nellie, <a href="#Page_644">644</a>.</li> + +<li>Chapman, Mrs.<a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li> + +<li>Chapman, Miss G. D., <a href="#Page_714">714</a>.</li> + +<li>Chipman, Mrs. H. L., <a href="#Page_594">594</a>.</li> + +<li>Clapp, Mrs. Anna L., <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_630">630</a>, <a href="#Page_634">634-636</a>, <a href="#Page_715">715</a>, <a href="#Page_767">767</a>, <a href="#Page_779">779</a>.</li> + +<li>Clapp, Mrs. Samuel H., <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Clark, Mrs. A. M., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Clark, Miss Eudora, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a href="#Page_788">788</a>.</li> + +<li>Clark, Mrs. Lincoln, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li> + +<li>Colby, Mrs. Robert, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>.</li> + +<li>Colfax, Mrs. Harriet R., <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395-399</a>.</li> + +<li>Collins, Miss Ellen, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_533">533</a>, <a href="#Page_534">534</a>, <a href="#Page_536">536</a>.</li> + +<li>Colt, Mrs. Henrietta L., <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_568">568</a>, <a href="#Page_586">586</a>, <a href="#Page_607">607</a>, <a href="#Page_609">609-613</a>.</li> + +<li>Colwell, Mrs. Stephen, <a href="#Page_643">643</a>.</li> + +<li>Conrad, Mrs. R. E., <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> + +<li>Constant, Mrs. Nettie C., <a href="#Page_714">714</a>.</li> + +<li>Coolidge, Mrs. C. P., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Combs, Mrs. Sarah, <a href="#Page_715">715</a>.</li> + +<li>Comstock, Mrs. Elizabeth S., <a href="#Page_792">792</a>.</li> + +<li>Cowen, Mrs. Sarah J., <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Courteney, Mrs. Mary, <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Cox, Miss Caroline, <a href="#Page_788">788</a>.</li> + +<li>Cozzens, Mrs. W. F., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Craighead, Miss Rebecca M., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Crawshaw, Mrs. Joseph, <a href="#Page_630">630</a>, <a href="#Page_715">715</a>.</li> + +<li>Curtis, Mrs. George, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>.</li> + +<li>Curtiss, Mrs. E., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Dada, Miss Hattie A., <a href="#Page_431">431-439</a>.</li> + +<li>Dame, Mrs. Harriet B., <a href="#Page_792">792</a>.</li> + +<li>Dana, Miss Emily W., <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.</li> + +<li>Davis, Miss Clara, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400-403</a>, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>.</li> + +<li>Davis, Mrs. E. W., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Davis, Mrs. G. T. M., <a href="#Page_352">352-356</a>, <a href="#Page_666">666</a>, <a href="#Page_680">680</a>.</li> + +<li>Davis, Mrs. Samuel C., <a href="#Page_630">630</a>, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Day, Mrs. Juliana, <a href="#Page_789">789</a>.</li> + +<li>Debenham, Miss Anna M., <a href="#Page_630">630</a>, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Delafield, Mrs. Louisa M., <a href="#Page_607">607</a>.</li> + +<li>Denham, Mrs. Z., <a href="#Page_644">644</a>.</li> + +<li>Detmold, Miss Z. T., <a href="#Page_537">537</a>.</li> + +<li>Divers, Bridget, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>, <a href="#Page_593">593</a>, <a href="#Page_771">771-773</a>.</li> + +<li>Dix, Miss Dorothea L., <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97-108</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>, <a href="#Page_579">579</a>.</li> + +<li>Dodge, Mrs., <a href="#Page_664">664</a>.</li> + +<li>Don Carlos, Mrs. Minnie, <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>D'Orémieulx, Mrs. T., <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_531">531</a>.</li> + +<li>Dougherty, Miss Deborah, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Duane, Miss M. M., <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Dunlap, Miss S. B., <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Dupee, Miss Mary E., <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>.</li> + +<li>Dykeman, Mrs. M. J., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Eaton, Mrs. J. S., <a href="#Page_463">463</a>, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>.</li> + +<li>Eaton, Mrs. Lucien, <a href="#Page_715">715</a>.</li> + +<li>Edgar, Mrs. T. D., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Edson, Mrs. Sarah P., <a href="#Page_440">440-447</a>.</li> + +<li>Edwards, Miss, <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Elkinton, Mrs. Anna A., <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Elliott, Miss Melcenia, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380-384</a>.</li> + +<li>Ellis, Mrs. Mary, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Ellis, Miss Ruth L., <a href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a href="#Page_787">787</a>.</li> + +<li>Ely, Mrs. Charles L., <a href="#Page_630">630</a>.</li> + +<li>Ely, Mrs. Dr., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Engleman, Mrs. Mary, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Etheridge, Mrs. Annie, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_593">593</a>, <a href="#Page_747">747-753</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Fales, Mrs. Almira, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279-283</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>, <a href="#Page_677">677</a>.</li> + +<li>Fales, Miss, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Farr, Mrs. Lizzie H., <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Fellows, Mrs. W. M., <a href="#Page_530">530</a>.</li> + +<li>Felton, Miss Mary, <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Femington, Mrs. Sarah, <a href="#Page_736">736</a>.</li> + +<li>Fenn, Mrs. Curtis T., <a href="#Page_660">660-670</a>.</li> + +<li>Fernald, Mrs. James E., <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li> + +<li>Ferris, Mrs., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Field, Mrs. David Dudley, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li> + +<li>Field, Mrs. Mary E., <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Field, Miss, <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Field, Mrs. C. W., <a href="#Page_528">528</a>.</li> + +<li>Field, Mrs. Samuel, <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Filley, Mrs. Chauncey I., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Fish, Mrs. Hamilton, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>.</li> + +<li>Fisk, Mrs. Clinton B., <a href="#Page_713">713</a>, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Flanders, Mrs. Benj., <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Flanders, Miss Fanny, <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Flanders, Miss Florence, <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Fogg, Mrs. Mary R., <a href="#Page_715">715</a>.</li> + +<li>Fogg, Mrs. Isabella, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>, <a href="#Page_506">506-510</a>.</li> + +<li>Follett, Mrs. Joseph E., <a href="#Page_590">590</a>.</li> + +<li>Foote, Miss Kate, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li> + +<li>Ford, Miss Charlotte, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_788">788</a>.</li> + +<li>Fox, Miss Harriet, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li> + +<li>Francis, Miss Abby, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> + +<li>Frederick, Mrs. M. L., <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Freeman, Mrs. Olive, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Fremont, Mrs. Jessie B., <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Frietchie, Barbara, <a href="#Page_522">522</a>, <a href="#Page_761">761-763</a>, <a href="#Page_767">767</a></li> + +<li>Furness, Mrs. W. H., <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Gage, Mrs. Frances Dana, <a href="#Page_683">683-690</a>.</li> + +<li>Gardiner, Miss M., <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_732">732</a>.</li> + +<li>George, Mrs. E. E., <a href="#Page_511">511-513</a>.</li> + +<li>Gibbons, Mrs. A. H., <a href="#Page_467">467-476</a>, <a href="#Page_788">788</a>.</li> + +<li>Gibbons, Miss Sarah H., <a href="#Page_467">467-476</a>.</li> + +<li>Gibson, Mrs. E. O., <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Gibson, Mrs. Peter, <a href="#Page_792">792</a>.</li> + +<li>Gillespie, Mrs. E. D., <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Gillis, Miss Agnes, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_787">787</a>.</li> + +<li>Gilson, Miss Helen L., <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133-148</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_713">713</a>, <a href="#Page_732">732</a>.</li> + +<li>Glover, Miss Eliza S., <a href="#Page_630">630</a>.</li> + +<li>Gove, Miss Emily, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_788">788</a>.</li> + +<li>Graff, Mrs. C, <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Gray, Mrs. Caroline E., <a href="#Page_789">789</a>.</li> + +<li>Greble, Mrs. Edwin, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>, <a href="#Page_504">504</a>.</li> + +<li>Green, Mrs., <a href="#Page_736">736</a>.</li> + +<li>Grier, Mrs. Maria C., <a href="#Page_597">597-599</a>, <a href="#Page_600">600</a>, <a href="#Page_601">601</a>, <a href="#Page_779">779</a>.</li> + +<li>Griffin, Mrs. Josephine R., <a href="#Page_707">707-709</a>.</li> + +<li>Griffin, Mrs. William Preston, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>, <a href="#Page_534">534</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_797" id="Page_797">[797]</a></span></li> + +<li>Grover, Mrs. Mary, <a href="#Page_736">736</a>.</li> + +<li>Grover, Mrs. Priscilla, <a href="#Page_736">736</a>.</li> + +<li>Grover, Miss, <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Guest, Mrs., <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_787">787</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Hagar, Mrs. C. C., <a href="#Page_704">704</a>, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Hagar, Miss Sarah J., <a href="#Page_704">704</a>, <a href="#Page_706">706</a>.</li> + +<li>Haines, Mrs. Hannah A., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Hall, Miss Maria M. C., <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448-454</a>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>, <a href="#Page_644">644</a>.</li> + +<li>Hall, Miss Susan E., <a href="#Page_431">431-439</a>.</li> + +<li>Halbert, Mrs. M. E., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Hallowell, Mrs. M. M., <a href="#Page_710">710-712</a>.</li> + +<li>Hancock, Miss Cornelia, <a href="#Page_284">284-286</a>, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>, <a href="#Page_644">644</a>.</li> + +<li>Harlan, Mrs. James, <a href="#Page_676">676</a>, <a href="#Page_678">678</a>.</li> + +<li>Harmon, Miss Amelia, <a href="#Page_777">777</a>, <a href="#Page_778">778</a>.</li> + +<li>Harris, Mrs. John, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149-160</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>, <a href="#Page_596">596</a>, <a href="#Page_643">643</a>, <a href="#Page_644">644</a>, <a href="#Page_645">645</a>, <a href="#Page_713">713</a>.</li> + +<li>Harris, Miss W. F., <a href="#Page_742">742</a>, <a href="#Page_743">743</a>.</li> + +<li>Hart, Miss E. A., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Hartshorne, Miss Isabella M., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Harvey, Mrs. Cordelia A. P., <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260-268</a>, <a href="#Page_729">729</a>.</li> + +<li>Harwood, Miss C. A., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Hawley, Miss E. P., <a href="#Page_600">600</a>.</li> + +<li>Hawley, Mrs. Harriet Foote, <a href="#Page_416">416-419</a>, <a href="#Page_513">513</a>, <a href="#Page_713">713</a>.</li> + +<li>Hazard, Mrs., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Helmbold, Mrs. Eliza, <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Heyle, Mrs., <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Hickox, Mrs. J. E., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Hicks, Mrs., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Hoadley, Mrs. George, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> + +<li>Hoes, Mrs. H. F., <a href="#Page_713">713</a>.</li> + +<li>Hodge, Mrs., <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Hoge, Mrs. A. H., <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_561">561</a>, <a href="#Page_562">562-576</a>, <a href="#Page_580">580</a>, <a href="#Page_583">583</a>, <a href="#Page_585">585</a>, <a href="#Page_589">589</a>, <a href="#Page_610">610</a>.</li> + +<li>Holden, Mrs. F. A., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Holland, Miss Sarah, <a href="#Page_736">736</a>.</li> + +<li>Holmes, Mrs. Amelia L., <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Holmes, Miss Belle, <a href="#Page_630">630</a>.</li> + +<li>Holstein, Mrs. William H., <a href="#Page_251">251-259</a>.</li> + +<li>Home, Miss Jessie, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>.</li> + +<li>Hooper, Mrs. Lucy H., <a href="#Page_764">764</a>.</li> + +<li>Horton, Mrs. Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Hosmer, Mrs. O. E., <a href="#Page_719">719-724</a>.</li> + +<li>Houghton, Mrs., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Howe, Miss Abbie J., <a href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.</li> + +<li>Howe, Mrs. Charles, <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Howe, Mrs. T. O., <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.</li> + +<li>Howell, Mrs., <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Howland, Mrs. Eliza W., <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324-326</a>.</li> + +<li>Howland, Mrs. Robert S., <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li> + +<li>Humphrey, Miss, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.</li> + +<li>Husband, Mrs. Mary Morris, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287-298</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>, <a href="#Page_596">596</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Ide, Mrs., <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Ives, Mrs. John, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Jackson, Mrs. Margaret A., <a href="#Page_607">607</a>.</li> + +<li>Jessup, Mrs. A. D., <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Johnson, Miss Addie E., <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li> + +<li>Johnson, Miss Ida, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Johnson, Mrs. J. Warner, <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Johnson, Mrs., <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> + +<li>Johnston, Mrs. Sarah R., <a href="#Page_269">269-272</a>, <a href="#Page_779">779</a>.</li> + +<li>Jones, Mrs. Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Jones, Miss Hetty A., <a href="#Page_783">783</a>, <a href="#Page_786">786</a>.</li> + +<li>Jones, Mrs. Joel, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_643">643</a>.</li> + +<li>Josslyn, Miss Maria, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_787">787</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Kellogg, Mrs. S. B., <a href="#Page_630">630</a>.</li> + +<li>King, Miss E. M., <a href="#Page_789">789</a>.</li> + +<li>King, Mrs. Washington, <a href="#Page_630">630</a>, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>King, Mrs. Wyllys, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Kirchner, Mrs. Dr., <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Kirkland, Mrs. Caroline M., <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>.</li> + +<li>Knight, Miss A. M., <a href="#Page_705">705</a>.</li> + +<li>Knight, Miss Sophia, <a href="#Page_794">794</a>.</li> + +<li>Krider, Miss, <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Lane, Miss Adeline A., <a href="#Page_789">789</a>.</li> + +<li>Lane, Mrs. David, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>.</li> + +<li>Latham, Mrs. P. C., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Lathrop, Mrs. L. E., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Lathrop, Mrs., <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Leach, Mrs. Lydia, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Ledergerber, Miss Charlotte, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Lee, Miss Amanda, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>, <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Lee, Mrs. Mary W., <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_480">480-488</a>, <a href="#Page_596">596</a>, <a href="#Page_644">644</a>, <a href="#Page_647">647</a>, <a href="#Page_733">733</a>, <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Little, Miss Anna P., <a href="#Page_647">647</a>.</li> + +<li>Livermore, Mrs. Mary A., <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_561">561</a>, <a href="#Page_566">566</a>, <a href="#Page_569">569</a>, <a href="#Page_577">577-589</a>, <a href="#Page_610">610</a>.</li> + +<li>Long, Miss, <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Loring, Miss Ira E., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>, <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Lovejoy, Miss Sarah E. M., <a href="#Page_714">714</a>.</li> + +<li>Lovell, Miss S. R., <a href="#Page_788">788</a>.</li> + +<li>Lowell, Miss Anna, <a href="#Page_792">792</a>, <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Lowell, Mrs., <a href="#Page_792">792</a>.</li> + +<li>Lowry, Mrs. Ellen J., <a href="#Page_736">736</a>.</li> + +<li>Ludlow, Mrs. Mary, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>McCabe, Miss, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>McClintock, Miss Clara, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>McClintock, Miss Marian, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>McCracken, Miss Sarah F., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>McEwen, Mrs. Hetty M., <a href="#Page_764">764-766</a>, <a href="#Page_767">767</a>.</li> + +<li>McFadden, Miss Rachel W., <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_616">616</a>.</li> + +<li>McKay, Mrs. Charlotte E., <a href="#Page_514">514-516</a>.</li> + +<li>McMeens, Mrs. Anna C., <a href="#Page_491">491</a>, <a href="#Page_492">492</a>.</li> + +<li>McMillan, Mrs., <a href="#Page_616">616</a>.</li> + +<li>McNair, Miss Carrie C., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Maertz, Miss Louisa, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390-394</a>.</li> + +<li>Maltby, Mrs. F. F., <a href="#Page_630">630</a>.</li> + +<li>Mann, Miss Maria R., <a href="#Page_697">697-703</a>.</li> + +<li>Marsh, Mrs. M. M., <a href="#Page_534">534</a>, <a href="#Page_621">621-629</a>.</li> + +<li>Marshall, Miss Fanny, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Mason, Mrs. Emily, <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>May, Miss Abby W., <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_554">554-557</a>.</li> + +<li>Mayhew, Mrs. Ruth S., <a href="#Page_463">463</a>, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>.</li> + +<li>Melvin, Mrs. S. H., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Mendenhall, Mrs. Elizabeth S., <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>, <a href="#Page_617">617-620</a>.</li> + +<li>Menefee, Mrs., <a href="#Page_792">792</a>.</li> + +<li>Merrill, Mrs. Eunice D., <a href="#Page_457">457</a>, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_798" id="Page_798">[798]</a></span></li> + +<li>Merritt, Mrs., <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li> + +<li>Mills, Mrs., <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Mitchell, Miss Ellen E., <a href="#Page_420">420-426</a>.</li> + +<li>Molineux, Miss, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Moore, Mrs. Clara J., <a href="#Page_597">597</a>, <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Moore, Mrs., (of Knoxville, Tenn.), <a href="#Page_767">767</a>, <a href="#Page_768">768</a>.</li> + +<li>Morris, Mrs. E. J., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Morris, Miss, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>.</li> + +<li>Morris, Miss Rachel W., <a href="#Page_600">600</a>.</li> + +<li>Moss, Miss M. J., <a href="#Page_600">600</a>.</li> + +<li>Munsell, Mrs. Jane R., <a href="#Page_522">522</a>, <a href="#Page_523">523</a>.</li> + +<li>Murdoch, Miss Ellen E., <a href="#Page_616">616</a>, <a href="#Page_633">633</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Nash, Miss C., <a href="#Page_537">537</a>.</li> + +<li>Nelson, Mrs. H. A., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Newhall, Miss Susan, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>.</li> + +<li>Nichols, Mrs. Elizabeth A., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Noye, Miss Helen M., <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>.</li> + +<li>Nutt, Mrs. J., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Ogden, Mrs. Dorothea, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Oliver, Mrs., <a href="#Page_664">664</a>.</li> + +<li>Ostram, Miss N. L., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Otis, Miss Louisa, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Otis, Mrs. Mary, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Page, Miss Eliza, <a href="#Page_631">631</a>.</li> + +<li>Page, Mrs. E. J., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Painter, Mrs. Hetty K., <a href="#Page_644">644</a>, <a href="#Page_647">647</a>.</li> + +<li>Palmer, Mrs. Mary E., <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_630">630</a>, <a href="#Page_640">640-642</a>.</li> + +<li>Palmer, Mrs. John, <a href="#Page_594">594</a>.</li> + +<li>Pancoast, Mrs., <a href="#Page_656">656</a>.</li> + +<li>Parrish, Mrs. Lydia G., <a href="#Page_362">362-373</a>, <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Parsons, Miss Emily E., <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273-278</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>, <a href="#Page_788">788</a>.</li> + +<li>Partridge, Mrs. George, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Patrick, Miss Jane, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Peabody, Miss Harriet, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Peabody, Mrs., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Penfield, Miss, <a href="#Page_792">792</a>.</li> + +<li>Pettes, Miss Mary Dwight, <a href="#Page_385">385-389</a>.</li> + +<li>Phelps, Mrs. John S., <a href="#Page_520">520</a>, <a href="#Page_521">521</a>, <a href="#Page_713">713</a>, <a href="#Page_779">779</a>.</li> + +<li>Pierson, Miss Mary, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.</li> + +<li>Phillips, Miss Harriet N., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Pinkham, Miss, <a href="#Page_644">644</a>.</li> + +<li>Plummer, Mrs. Eliza G., <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_735">735</a>.</li> + +<li>Plummer, Mrs. S. A., <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li> + +<li>Pomeroy, Mrs. Lucy G., <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_691">691-696</a>.</li> + +<li>Pomeroy, Mrs. Robert, <a href="#Page_664">664</a>.</li> + +<li>Porter, Mrs. Eliza C., <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161-171</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>.</li> + +<li>Porter, Miss Elizabeth L., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Post, Miss A., <a href="#Page_537">537</a>.</li> + +<li>Post, Mrs. T. M., <a href="#Page_630">630</a>, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Preble, Mrs. William, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Quimby, Miss Almira, <a href="#Page_456">456-462</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Reese, Mrs. A., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Reid, Mrs. H. A., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Reifsnyder, Miss Hattie S., <a href="#Page_742">742</a>.</li> + +<li>Reynolds, Mrs. J. P., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Rexford, Misses, <a href="#Page_792">792</a>.</li> + +<li>Rich, Miss, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li>Richardson, Mrs., <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Ricketts, Mrs. Fanny L., <a href="#Page_480">480</a>, <a href="#Page_517">517-519</a>.</li> + +<li>Robinson, Miss Belle, <a href="#Page_742">742</a>.</li> + +<li>Rogers, Mrs. William B., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>, <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Ross, Miss Anna Maria, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343-351</a>, <a href="#Page_644">644</a>, <a href="#Page_733">733</a>.</li> + +<li>Rouse, Mrs. B., <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_544">544</a>, <a href="#Page_545">545</a>.</li> + +<li>Royce, Miss Alice F., <a href="#Page_713">713</a>.</li> + +<li>Russell, Mrs. E. A., <a href="#Page_679">679</a>.</li> + +<li>Russell, Mrs. E. J., <a href="#Page_477">477-479</a>.</li> + +<li>Russell, Mrs. C. E., <a href="#Page_792">792</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Safford, Miss Mary J., <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357-361</a>.</li> + +<li>Sager, Mrs., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Salomon, Mrs. Eliza, <a href="#Page_613">613</a>, <a href="#Page_614">614</a>.</li> + +<li>Salter, Mrs. J. D. B., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Sampson, Mrs., <a href="#Page_644">644</a>.</li> + +<li>Schaums, Mrs., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Schuyler, Mrs. G. L., <a href="#Page_528">528</a>.</li> + +<li>Schuyler, Miss Louisa Lee, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_532">532</a>, <a href="#Page_534">534</a>, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>.</li> + +<li>Selby, Mrs. Paul, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Seward, Mrs. T. W., <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Seymour, Mrs. Horatio, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_590">590-592</a>.</li> + +<li>Sharpless, Miss Hattie R., <a href="#Page_741">741-743</a>.</li> + +<li>Shattuck, Mrs. Anna M., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Shaw, the Misses, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>.</li> + +<li>Shaw, Mrs. G. H., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>, <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Sheffield, Miss Mary E., <a href="#Page_714">714</a>.</li> + +<li>Sheads, Miss Carrie, <a href="#Page_776">776</a>, <a href="#Page_777">777</a>.</li> + +<li>Shepard, Miss N. A., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Sibley, Miss S. A., <a href="#Page_594">594</a>.</li> + +<li>Small, Mrs. Jerusha C., <a href="#Page_493">493</a>, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>.</li> + +<li>Smith, Mrs. Aubrey H., <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Smith, Mrs. Hannah, <a href="#Page_736">736</a>.</li> + +<li>Smith, Mrs., <a href="#Page_792">792</a>.</li> + +<li>Smith, Mrs. Eliza J., <a href="#Page_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Smith, Mrs. Rebecca S., <a href="#Page_789">789</a>.</li> + +<li>Snell, Mrs. L., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Spaulding Miss Jennie Tileston, <a href="#Page_789">789</a>.</li> + +<li>Spencer, Mrs. R. H., <a href="#Page_404">404-415</a>.</li> + +<li>Springer, Mrs. C. R., <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_630">630</a>, <a href="#Page_639">639</a>, <a href="#Page_640">640</a>.</li> + +<li>Starr, Mrs. Lucy E., <a href="#Page_713">713</a>, <a href="#Page_728">728-730</a>.</li> + +<li>Starbuck, Mrs. C. W., <a href="#Page_792">792</a>.</li> + +<li>Stearns, Mrs. S. Burger, <a href="#Page_760">760</a>.</li> + +<li>Steel, Mrs., <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> + +<li>Sterling, Mrs. Florence P., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Stetler, Mrs. M. A., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Stevens, Miss Gertrude, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>.</li> + +<li>Stevens, Miss Melvina, <a href="#Page_782">782</a>.</li> + +<li>Stevens, Mrs. N., <a href="#Page_715">715</a>.</li> + +<li>Stevenson, Miss Hannah E., <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.</li> + +<li>Steward, Miss Ella, <a href="#Page_616">616</a>.</li> + +<li>Stillé, Mrs. Charles J., <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Stone, Mrs. R. H., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Stoneberger, Mrs., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Stranahan, Mrs. Mariamne F., <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>, <a href="#Page_651">651-658</a>.</li> + +<li>Streeter, Mrs. Elizabeth M., <a href="#Page_655">655-659</a>.</li> + +<li>Strong, Mrs. George T., <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> + +<li>Swett, Mrs. J. A., <a href="#Page_528">528</a>.</li> + +<li>Swayne, Miss, <a href="#Page_793">793</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_799" id="Page_799">[799]</a></span><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Tannehill, Mrs. Arabella, <a href="#Page_789">789</a>.</li> + +<li>Taylor, Miss Alice, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_768">768</a>, <a href="#Page_769">769</a>.</li> + +<li>Taylor, Mrs. Nellie Maria, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_779">779</a>, <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Terry, Miss Ellen F., <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_543">543</a>, <a href="#Page_546">546</a>, <a href="#Page_547">547</a>.</li> + +<li>Tevis, Mrs. J., <a href="#Page_599">599</a>.</li> + +<li>Thomas, Mrs. E., <a href="#Page_496">496</a>.</li> + +<li>Thomas, Mrs. (of New Orleans), <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Thompson, Miss Kate P., <a href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a href="#Page_788">788</a>.</li> + +<li>Ticknor, Miss Anna, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li> + +<li>Ticknor, Mrs. George, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li> + +<li>Tileston, Miss Jennie, <a href="#Page_789">789</a>.</li> + +<li>Tilton, Miss Catherine, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Tilton, Mrs. Lucretia Jane, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Tinkham, Mrs. Smith, <a href="#Page_720">720</a>, <a href="#Page_722">722</a>.</li> + +<li>Titcomb, Miss Louise, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li> + +<li>Titlow, Mrs. Effie, <a href="#Page_522">522</a>, <a href="#Page_767">767</a>.</li> + +<li>Tompkins, Miss Cornelia M., <a href="#Page_489">489</a>, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>.</li> + +<li>Trotter, Mrs. Laura, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> + +<li>Turchin, Madame, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>, <a href="#Page_770">770</a>, <a href="#Page_771">771</a>.</li> + +<li>Tyler, Mrs. Adaline, <a href="#Page_241">241-250</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>.</li> + +<li>Tyson, Miss, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>, <a href="#Page_713">713</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Usher, Miss Rebecca R., <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Vance, Miss Mary, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</li> + +<li>Vanderkieft, Mrs. Dr., <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Wade, Mrs. Jennie, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_775">775</a>, <a href="#Page_776">776</a>.</li> + +<li>Wade, Mrs. Mary B., <a href="#Page_736">736</a>.</li> + +<li>Walker, Miss Adeline, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.</li> + +<li>Wallace, Miss, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> + +<li>Wallace, Mrs. Martha A., <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li> + +<li>Ward, Mrs. Anne, <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Ward, Mrs. S. R., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Waterbury, Miss Kate E., <a href="#Page_651">651</a>, <a href="#Page_658">658</a>.</li> + +<li>Waterman, Mrs., <a href="#Page_644">644</a>.</li> + +<li>Webber, Mrs. E. M., <a href="#Page_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Weed, Mrs. H. M., <a href="#Page_715">715</a>.</li> + +<li>Wells, Mrs. Shepard, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>, <a href="#Page_779">779</a>.</li> + +<li>Whetten, Miss Harriet Douglas, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li> + +<li>Whitaker, Miss Mary A., <a href="#Page_714">714</a>.</li> + +<li>Wibrey, Mrs., <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Willets, Miss Georgiana, <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Williams, Miss, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> + +<li>Wiswall, Miss Hattie, <a href="#Page_725">725-727</a>.</li> + +<li>Witherell, Mrs. E. C., <a href="#Page_499">499-501</a>.</li> + +<li>Wittenmeyer, Mrs. Annie, <a href="#Page_374">374-379</a>, <a href="#Page_509">509</a>.</li> + +<li>Wolcott, Miss Ella, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_788">788</a>.</li> + +<li>Wolfley, Mrs., <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Wolfley, Miss Carrie, <a href="#Page_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Wood, Mrs. Lucretia P., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Woods, Mrs. William, <a href="#Page_792">792</a>.</li> + +<li>Woolsey, Miss Georgiana M., <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327-342</a>, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.</li> + +<li>Woolsey, Miss Jane Stuart, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>, <a href="#Page_713">713</a>.</li> + +<li>Woolsey, Miss Sarah C., <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + +<li>Woolsey, Mrs., <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li> + +<li>Wormeley, Miss Katharine P., <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318-323</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>.</li> + +<li>Wright, Mrs. Crafts J., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Young, Miss M. A. B., <a href="#Page_459">459</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Zimmerman, Mrs., <a href="#Page_791">791</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<p><br /></p> +<hr /> +<p><br /></p> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Typographical errors corrected in text:</p> +<p><br /></p> + +Page 25: corrected DEDICATION page number from 3 to 19<br /> + +Page 25: corrected PREFACE page number from 5 to 21<br /> + +Page 25: added page numbers for TABLE OF CONTENTS and INTRODUCTION<br /> + +Page 27: added period to "Visits Huntsville, Pulaski, etc."<br /> + +Page 30: added period to "preparation of diet, etc."<br /> + +Page 40: changed "e" to "é" in "Mrs. D'Orémieulx's departure for Europe"<br /> + +Page 41: changed "e" to "é" in "made by the employés of the Association,"<br /> + +Page 42: "Did you drop from heaven" had opening " printed as '<br /> + +Page 45: "Mr. Stranahan chosen President" corrected to "Mrs. Stranahan"<br /> + +Page 51: Removed period after Felton: Miss Felton--Louisville,<br /> + +Page 51: "Mrs. Corven, of Hartford, Conn." corrected to "Cowen"<br /> + +Page 51: Added period after Hartford, Conn. and Peoria, Ill.<br /> + +Page 53: "MRS. MARIANNE F. STRANAHAN" not corrected to MARIAMNE<br /> + +Page 66: "We need only recal" corrected to "recall"<br /> + +Page 82: Deleted quotation mark before: In that little hamlet<br /> + +Page 82: Deleted quotation mark before: "In one of the mountainous<br /> + +Page 129: "franks of some of her frinds" corrected to "friends"<br /> + +Page 137: "In all her journies Miss Gilson" corrected to "journeys"<br /> + +Page 169: Changed "most econonomical" corrected to "most economical"<br /> + +Page 191: Added close quote to: uncertainties of self-support."<br /> + +Page 210: "Companies A. B, C.," corrected to Companies "A, B, C,"<br /> + +Page 237: Added second close quote to: "Lincoln's hirelings.""<br /> + +Page 292: Added close quote to: departure in copious tears."<br /> + +Page 305: "earnest hope that yon alleviate suffering" corrected to "you"<br /> + +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.'"<br /> + +Page 353: Added period to "themselves in the service of their country."<br /> + +Page 339: "'It is the man, you know," had opening ' printed as "<br /> + +Page 375: "$115,876,93" corrected to "$115,876.93"<br /> + +Page 386: ""develope that purity" corrected to "develop"<br /> + +Page 456: "year in the hospitel." corrected to "hospital"<br /> + +Page 457: Added opening quote to paragraph beginning: Patient prayer and work<br /> + +Page 462: Added close quote to: of the deceased to their friends."<br /> + +Page 529: "physicial fatigue" corrected to "physical fatigue"<br /> + +Page 537: "MRS. MARIANNE F. STRANAHAN" not corrected to MARIAMNE<br /> + +Page 574: "wih the Branch Commissions" corrected to "with"<br /> + +Page 577: "Charlestown (Mass)., Female Seminary" corrected to "(Mass.),"<br /> + +Page 592: Opening " changed to ': 'for two miles it was all people<br /> + +Page 609: "beleagured city" corrected to "beleaguered city"<br /> + +Page 612: Added opening quote mark: "After a little, as the thought<br /> + +Page 612: Added close single-quote: proud to have helped on the cause.'<br /> + +Page 617: "This lady and Mrs. George Hoadly" corrected to "Hoadley"<br /> + +Page 686: "Thoul't find warm sympathizing hearts" corrected to "Thou'lt"<br /> + +Page 691: "destined to develope" corrected to "develop"<br /> + +Page 732: "Miss Amy M. Bradley, Mrs. Balestier," corrected to "Balustier"<br /> + +Page 739: "freely sacrified" corrected to "sacrificed"<br /> + +Page 790: "Miss Isabella M. Hartshorn" corrected to "Hatshorne"<br /> + +Page 791: "Miss Bettie Brodhead" corrected to "Broadhead"<br /> + +Page 795: "Blackman, Miss M. A., 429, 430." corrected to "Blackmar"<br /> + +Page 796: "Cassidy, Mrs. Mary A., 737." corrected to "Cassedy"<br /> + +Page 796: "Englemann, Mrs. Mary, 791." corrected to Engleman<br /> + +Page 797: Added final period to "Howe, Miss Abbie J., 458, 465, 466."<br /> + +Page 798: "Molineaux, Miss, 791." corrected to "Molineux"<br /> + +Page 798: "Royer, Miss Alice F., 713." corrected to "Royce"<br /> + +Page 798: "Shephard, Miss N. A., 790." corrected to "Shepard"<br /> + +Page 798: "Stevens, Miss Gertude, 537." corrected to "Gertrude"<br /> + +Page 799: "Zimmermann, Mrs., 791" corrected to "Zimmerman"<br /> + +</div> + +<p><br /></p> +<hr /> +<p><br /></p> + + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman's Work in the Civil War, by +Linus Pierpont Brockett and Mary C. 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