Table Of ContentWoman's Work in the Civil War, by 1
PART I. SUPERINTENDENT OF NURSES.
PART II. LADIES WHO MINISTERED TO THE SICK AND WOUNDED IN CAMP, FIELD
PART III. LADIES WHO ORGANIZED AID SOCIETIES, RECEIVED AND FORWARDED
PART IV. LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR SERVICES AMONG THE FREEDMEN AND
PART V. LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR SERVICES IN SOLDIERS' HOMES, VOLUNTEER
PART VI. LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR OTHER SERVICES IN THE NATIONAL CAUSE.
PART I.
PART II.
PART III.
PART IV.
PART V.
PART VI.
Part II.
Woman's Work in the Civil War, by
Linus Pierpont Brockett and Mary C. Vaughan This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
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Woman's Work in the Civil War, by 2
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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
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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: The spelling and punctuation in the original is inconsistent. No changes have been
made except where noted. A complete list is at the end of the text.
[Illustration: MISS CLARA H. BARTON. Eng. by John Sartain.]
[Illustration: WOMAN'S WORK IN THE CIVIL WAR
"'SHOOT, IF YOU MUST, THIS OLD GRAY HEAD. BUT SPARE YOUR COUNTRY'S FLAG,' SHE
SAID." Barbara Frietchie.
H. L. Stephens, Del. Samuel Sartain, Sc.]
WOMAN'S WORK IN THE CIVIL WAR:
A RECORD OF HEROISM, PATRIOTISM AND PATIENCE
BY
L. P. BROCKETT, M.D.,
AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR," "PHILANTHROPIC RESULTS OF THE WAR," "OUR
GREAT CAPTAINS," "LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN," "THE CAMP, THE BATTLE FIELD, AND THE
HOSPITAL," &C., &C.
AND
MRS. MARY C. VAUGHAN.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY HENRY W. BELLOWS, D.D.,
President U. S. Sanitary Commission.
Woman's Work in the Civil War, by 3
ILLUSTRATED WITH SIXTEEN STEEL ENGRAVINGS.
ZEIGLER, McCURDY & CO., PHILADELPHIA, PA.; CHICAGO, ILL.; CINCINNATI, OHIO; ST.
LOUIS, MO.
R. H. CURRAN, 48 WINTER STREET, BOSTON, MASS.
1867.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by
L. P. BROCKETT,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of New York.
KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, 607 Sansom Street, Philadelphia.
WESTCOTT & THOMSON, Stereotypers.
TO
THE LOYAL WOMEN OF AMERICA,
WHOSE PATRIOTIC CONTRIBUTIONS, TOILS AND SACRIFICES, ENABLED THEIR SISTERS,
WHOSE HISTORY IS HERE RECORDED, TO MINISTER RELIEF AND CONSOLATION TO OUR
WOUNDED AND SUFFERING HEROES;
AND WHO BY THEIR DEVOTION, THEIR LABORS, AND THEIR PATIENT ENDURANCE OF
PRIVATION AND DISTRESS OF BODY AND SPIRIT, WHEN CALLED TO GIVE UP THEIR
BELOVED ONES FOR THE
NATION'S DEFENSE,
HAVE WON FOR THEMSELVES ETERNAL HONOR, AND THE UNDYING REMEMBRANCE OF
THE PATRIOTS OF ALL TIME,
WE DEDICATE THIS VOLUME.
PREFACE.
The preparation of this work, or rather the collection of material for it, was commenced in the autumn of
1863. While engaged in the compilation of a little book on "The Philanthropic Results of the War" for
circulation abroad, in the summer of that year, the writer became so deeply impressed with the extraordinary
sacrifices and devotion of loyal women, in the national cause, that he determined to make a record of them for
the honor of his country. A voluminous correspondence then commenced and continued to the present time,
soon demonstrated how general were the acts of patriotic devotion, and an extensive tour, undertaken the
following summer, to obtain by personal observation and intercourse with these heroic women, a more clear
and comprehensive idea of what they had done and were doing, only served to increase his admiration for
their zeal, patience, and self-denying effort.
Meantime the war still continued, and the collisions between Grant and Lee, in the East, and Sherman and
Johnston, in the South, the fierce campaign between Thomas and Hood in Tennessee, Sheridan's annihilating
Woman's Work in the Civil War, by 4
defeats of Early in the valley of the Shenandoah, and Wilson's magnificent expedition in Mississippi,
Alabama, and Georgia, as well as the mixed naval and military victories at Mobile and Wilmington, were
fruitful in wounds, sickness, and death. Never had the gentle and patient ministrations of woman been so
needful as in the last year of the war; and never had they been so abundantly bestowed, and with such zeal and
self-forgetfulness.
From Andersonville, and Millen, from Charleston, and Florence, from Salisbury, and Wilmington, from Belle
Isle, and Libby Prison, came also, in these later months of the war, thousands of our bravest and noblest
heroes, captured by the rebels, the feeble remnant of the tens of thousands imprisoned there, a majority of
whom had perished of cold, nakedness, starvation, and disease, in those charnel houses, victims of the
fiendish malignity of the rebel leaders. These poor fellows, starved to the last degree of emaciation, crippled
and dying from frost and gangrene, many of them idiotic from their sufferings, or with the fierce fever of
typhus, more deadly than sword or minié bullet, raging in their veins, were brought to Annapolis and to
Wilmington, and unmindful of the deadly infection, gentle and tender women ministered to them as faithfully
and lovingly, as if they were their own brothers. Ever and anon, in these works of mercy, one of these fair
ministrants died a martyr to her faithfulness, asking, often only, to be buried beside her "boys," but the work
never ceased while there was a soldier to be nursed. Nor were these the only fields in which noble service was
rendered to humanity by the women of our time. In the larger associations of our cities, day after day, and
year after year, women served in summer's heat and winter's cold, at their desks, corresponding with auxiliary
aid societies, taking account of goods received for sanitary supplies, re-packing and shipping them to the
points where they were needed, inditing and sending out circulars appealing for aid, in work more prosaic but
equally needful and patriotic with that performed in the hospitals; and throughout every village and hamlet in
the country, women were toiling, contriving, submitting to privation, performing unusual and severe labors,
all for the soldiers. In the general hospitals of the cities and larger towns, the labors of the special diet kitchen,
and of the hospital nurse were performed steadily, faithfully, and uncomplainingly, though there also, ever
and anon, some fair toiler laid down her life in the service. There were many too in still other fields of labor,
who showed their love for their country; the faithful women who, in the Philadelphia Refreshment Saloons,
fed the hungry soldier on his way to or from the battle-field, till in the aggregate, they had dispensed nearly
eight hundred thousand meals, and had cared for thousands of sick and wounded; the matrons of the Soldiers'
Homes, Lodges, and Rests; the heroic souls who devoted themselves to the noble work of raising a nation of
bondmen to intelligence and freedom; those who attempted the still more hopeless task of rousing the blunted
intellect and cultivating the moral nature of the degraded and abject poor whites; and those who in
circumstances of the greatest peril, manifested their fearless and undying attachment to their country and its
flag; all these were entitled to a place in such a record. What wonder, then, that, pursuing his self-appointed
task assiduously, the writer found it growing upon him; till the question came, not, who should be inscribed in
this roll, but who could be omitted, since it was evident no single volume could do justice to all.
In the autumn of 1865, Mrs. Mary C. Vaughan, a skilful and practiced writer, whose tastes and sympathies led
her to take an interest in the work, became associated with the writer in its preparation, and to her zeal in
collecting, and skill in arranging the materials obtained, many of the interesting sketches of the volume are
due. We have in the prosecution of our work been constantly embarrassed, by the reluctance of some who
deserved a prominent place, to suffer anything to be communicated concerning their labors; by the promises,
often repeated but never fulfilled, of others to furnish facts and incidents which they alone could supply, and
by the forwardness of a few, whose services were of the least moment, in presenting their claims.
We have endeavored to exercise a wise and careful discrimination both in avoiding the introduction of any
name unworthy of a place in such a record, and in giving the due meed of honor to those who have wrought
most earnestly and acceptably. We cannot hope that we have been completely successful; the letters even
now, daily received, render it probable that there are some, as faithful and self-sacrificing as any of those
whose services we have recorded, of whom we have failed to obtain information; and that some of those who
entered upon their work of mercy in the closing campaigns of the war, by their zeal and earnestness, have won
the right to a place. We have not, knowingly, however, omitted the name of any faithful worker, of whom we
Woman's Work in the Civil War, by 5
could obtain information, and we feel assured that our record is far more full and complete, than any other
which has been, or is likely to be prepared, and that the number of prominent and active laborers in the
national cause who have escaped our notice is comparatively small.
We take pleasure in acknowledging our obligations to Rev. Dr. Bellows, President of the United States
Sanitary Commission, for many services and much valuable information; to Honorable James E. Yeatman, the
President of the Western Sanitary Commission, to Rev. J. G. Forman, late Secretary of that Commission, and
now Secretary of the Unitarian Association, and his accomplished wife, both of whom were indefatigable in
their efforts to obtain facts relative to western ladies; to Rev. N. M. Mann, now of Kenosha, Wisconsin, but
formerly Chaplain and Agent of the Western Sanitary Commission, at Vicksburg; to Professor J. S. Newberry,
now of Columbia College, but through the war the able Secretary of the Western Department of the United
States Sanitary Commission; to Mrs. M. A. Livermore, of Chicago, one of the managers of the Northwestern
Sanitary Commission; to Rev. G. S. F. Savage, Secretary of the Western Department of the American Tract
Society, Boston; Rev. William De Loss Love, of Milwaukee, author of a work on "Wisconsin in the War,"
Samuel B. Fales, Esq., of Philadelphia, so long and nobly identified with the Volunteer Refreshment Saloon,
Dr. A. N. Read, of Norwalk, Ohio, late one of the Medical Inspectors of the Sanitary Commission, Dr. Joseph
Parrish, of Philadelphia, also a Medical Inspector of the Commission, Mrs. M. M. Husband, of Philadelphia,
one of the most faithful workers in field hospitals during the war, Miss Katherine P. Wormeley, of Newport,
Rhode Island, the accomplished historian of the Sanitary Commission, Mrs. W. H. Holstein, of Bridgeport,
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Miss Maria M. C. Hall, of Washington, District of Columbia, and Miss
Louise Titcomb, of Portland, Maine. From many of these we have received information indispensable to the
completeness and success of our work; information too, often afforded at great inconvenience and labor. We
commit our book, then, to the loyal women of our country, as an earnest and conscientious effort to portray
some phases of a heroism which will make American women famous in all the future ages of history; and
with the full conviction that thousands more only lacked the opportunity, not the will or endurance, to do, in
the same spirit of self-sacrifice, what these have done.
L. P. B.
BROOKLYN, N. Y., February, 1867.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
DEDICATION. 19
PREFACE. 21
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 25-51
INTRODUCTION BY HENRY W. BELLOWS, D. D. 55
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
Patriotism in some form, an attribute of woman in all nations and climes--Its modes of manifestation--Pæans
for victory--Lamentations for the death of a heroic leader--Personal leadership by women--The assassination
of tyrants--The care of the sick and wounded of national armies--The hospitals established by the Empress
Helena--The Beguines and their successors--The cantiniéres, vivandiéres, etc.--Other modes in which women
manifested their patriotism--Florence Nightingale and her labors--The results--The awakening of patriotic zeal
among American women at the opening of the war--The organization of philanthropic effort--Hospital
nurses--Miss Dix's rejection of great numbers of applicants on account of youth--Hired nurses--Their services
PART I. SUPERINTENDENT OF NURSES. 6
generally prompted by patriotism rather than pay--The State relief agents (ladies) at Washington--The hospital
transport system of the Sanitary Commission--Mrs. Harris's, Miss Barton's, Mrs. Fales', Miss Gilson's, and
other ladles' services at the front during the battles of 1862-- Services of other ladies at Chancellorsville, at
Gettysburg--The Field Relief of the Sanitary Commission, and services of ladies in the later
battles--Voluntary services of women in the armies in the field at the West--Services in the hospitals of
garrisons and fortified towns-- Soldiers' homes and lodges, and their matrons--Homes for Refugees--
Instruction of the Freedmen--Refreshment Saloons at Philadelphia-- Regular visiting of hospitals in the large
cities--The Soldiers' Aid Societies, and their mode of operation--The extraordinary labors of the managers of
the Branch Societies--Government clothing contracts--Mrs. Springer, Miss Wormeley and Miss Gilson--The
managers of the local Soldiers' Aid Societies--The sacrifices made by the poor to contribute
supplies--Examples--The labors of the young and the old--Inscriptions on articles--The poor seamstress--Five
hundred bushels of wheat--The five dollar gold piece--The army of martyrs--The effect of this female
patriotism in stimulating the courage of the soldiers--Lack of persistence in this work among the Women of
the South--Present and future--Effect of patriotism and self-sacrifice in elevating and ennobling the female
character. 65-94
PART I. SUPERINTENDENT OF NURSES.
MISS DOROTHEA L. DIX.
Early history--Becomes interested in the condition of prison convicts-- Visit to Europe--Returns in 1837, and
devotes herself to improving the condition of paupers, lunatics and prisoners--Her efforts for the
establishment of Insane Asylums--Second visit to Europe--Her first work in the war the nursing of
Massachusetts soldiers in Baltimore-- Appointment as superintendent of nurses--Her selections--Difficulties
in her position--Her other duties--Mrs. Livermore's account of her labors-- The adjutant-general's order--Dr.
Bellows' estimate of her work--Her kindness to her nurses--Her publications--Her manners and address--
Labors for the insane poor since the war. 97-108
PART II. LADIES WHO MINISTERED TO THE SICK AND
WOUNDED IN CAMP, FIELD
AND GENERAL HOSPITALS.
CLARA HARLOWE BARTON.
Early life--Teaching--The Bordentown school--Obtains a situation in the Patent Office--Her readiness to help
others--Her native genius for nursing--Removed from office in 1857--Return to Washington in 1861--
Nursing and providing for Massachusetts soldiers at the Capitol in April, 1861--Hospital and sanitary work in
1861--Death of her father-- Washington hospitals again--Going to the front--Cedar Mountain--The second
Bull Run battle--Chantilly--Heroic labors at Antietam--Soft bread--Three barrels of flour and a bag of
salt--Thirty lanterns for that night of gloom--The race for Fredericksburg--Miss Barton as a general purveyor
for the sick and wounded--The battle of Fredericksburg-- Under fire--The rebel officer's appeal--The
"confiscated" carpet--After the battle--In the department of the South--The sands of Morris Island-- The
horrors of the siege of Forts Wagner and Sumter--The reason why she went thither--Return to the
North--Preparations for the great campaign-- Her labors at Belle Plain, Fredericksburg, White House, and City
Point-- Return to Washington--Appointed "General correspondent for the friends of paroled prisoners"--Her
residence at Annapolis--Obstacles--The Annapolis plan abandoned--She establishes at Washington a "Bureau
of records of missing men in the armies of the United States"--The plan of operations of this Bureau--Her visit
to Andersonville--The case of Dorrance Atwater--The Bureau of missing men an institution indispensable to
PART II. LADIES WHO MINISTERED TO THE SICK ANDWOUNDED IN CAMP, FIELD 7
the Government and to friends of the soldiers--Her sacrifices in maintaining it--The grant from
Congress--Personal appearance of Miss Barton. 111-132
HELEN LOUISE GILSON.
Early history--Her first work for the soldiers--Collecting supplies-- The clothing contract--Providing for
soldiers' wives and daughters-- Application to Miss Dix for an appointment as nurse--She is rejected as too
young--Associated with Hon. Frank B. Fay in the Auxiliary Relief Service--Her labors on the Hospital
Transports--Her manner of working-- Her extraordinary personal influence--Her work at
Gettysburg--Influence over the men--Carrying a sick comrade to the hospital--Her system and
self-possession--Pleading the cause of the soldier with the people-- Her services in Grant's protracted
campaign--The hospitals at Fredericksburg--Singing to the soldiers--Her visit to the barge of
"contrabands"--Her address to the negroes--Singing to them--The hospital for colored soldiers--Miss Gilson
re-organizes and re-models it, making it the best hospital at City Point--Her labors for the spiritual good of the
men in her hospital--Her care for the negro washerwomen and their families--Completion of her
work--Personal appearance of Miss Gilson. 133-148
MRS. JOHN HARRIS.
Previous history--Secretary Ladies' Aid Society--Her decision to go to the "front"--Early experiences--On the
Hospital Transports--Harrison's Landing--Her garments soaked in human gore--Antietam--French's Division
Hospital--Smoketown General Hospital--Return to the "front"-- Fredericksburg--Falmouth--She almost
despairs of the success of our arms--Chancellorsville--Gettysburg--Following the troops--Warrenton--
Insolence of the rebels--Illness--Goes to the West--Chattanooga--Serious illness--Return to Nashville--Labors
for the refugees--Called home to watch over a dying mother--The returned prisoners from Andersonville and
Salisbury. 149-160
MRS. ELIZA C. PORTER.
Mrs. Porter's social position--Her patriotism--Labors in the hospitals at Cairo--She takes charge of the
Northwestern Sanitary Commission Rooms at Chicago--Her determination to go, with a corps of nurses, to the
front--Cairo and Paducah--Visit to Pittsburg Landing after the battle-- She brings nurses and supplies for the
hospitals from Chicago--At Corinth--At Memphis--Work among the freedmen at Memphis and elsewhere--
Efforts for the establishment of hospitals for the sick and wounded in the Northwest--Co-operation with Mrs.
Harvey and Mrs. Howe--The Harvey Hospital--At Natchez and Vicksburg--Other appeals for Northern
hospitals--At Huntsville with Mrs. Bickerdyke--At Chattanooga-- Experiences in a field hospital in the
woods--Following Sherman's army from Chattanooga to Atlanta--"This seems like having mother about"--
Constant labors--The distribution of supplies to the soldiers of Sherman's army near Washington--A patriotic
family. 161-171
MRS. MARY A. BICKERDYKE.
Previous history of Mrs. Bickerdyke--Her regard for the private soldiers--"Mother Bickerdyke and her
boys"--Her work at Savannah after the battle of Shiloh--What she accomplished at Perryville--The Gayoso
Hospital at Memphis--Colored nurses and attendants--A model hospital-- The delinquent
assistant-surgeon--Mrs. Bickerdyke's philippic--She procures his dismissal--His interview with General
Sherman--"She ranks me"--The commanding generals appreciate her--Convalescent soldiers vs. colored
nurses--The Medical Director's order--Mrs. Bickerdyke's triumph--A dairy and hennery for the hospitals--Two
hundred cows and a thousand hens--Her first visit to the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce--"Go over to
Canada--This country has no place for such creatures"--At Vicksburg--In field hospitals--The dresses riddled
with sparks--The box of clothing for herself--Trading for butter and eggs for the soldiers-- The two
lace-trimmed night-dresses--A new style of hospital clothing for wounded soldiers--A second visit to
PART II. LADIES WHO MINISTERED TO THE SICK ANDWOUNDED IN CAMP, FIELD 8
Milwaukee--Mrs. Bickerdyke's speech--"Set your standard higher yet"--In the Huntsville Hospital--At
Chattanooga at the close of the battle--The only woman on the ground for four weeks--Cooking under
difficulties--Her interview with General Grant--Complaints of the neglect of the men by some of the
surgeons-- "Go around to the hospitals and see for yourself"--Visits Huntsville, Pulaski, etc.--With Sherman
from Chattanooga to Atlanta--Making dishes for the sick out of hard tack and the ordinary rations--At
Nashville and Franklin--Through the Carolinas with Sherman--Distribution of supplies near
Washington--"The Freedmen's Home and Refuge" at Chicago. 172-186
MARGARET ELIZABETH BRECKINRIDGE. By Mrs. J. G. Forman.
Sketch of her personal appearance--Her gentle, tender, winning ways-- The American Florence
Nightingale--What if I do die?--The Breckinridge family--Margaret's childhood and youth--Her emancipation
of her slaves-- Working for the soldiers early in the war--Not one of the Home Guards-- Her earnest desire to
labor in the hospitals--Hospital service at Baltimore--At Lexington, Kentucky--Morgan's first raid--Her visit
to the wounded soldiers--"Every one of you bring a regiment with you"--Visiting the St. Louis hospitals--On
the hospital boats on the Mississippi-- Perils of the voyage--Severe and incessant labor--The contrabands at
Helena--Touching incidents of the wounded on the hospital boats--"The service pays"--In the hospitals at St.
Louis--Impaired health--She goes eastward for rest and recovery--A year of weakness and weariness--In the
hospital at Philadelphia--A ministering angel--Colonel Porter her brother-in-law killed at Cold Harbor--She
goes to Baltimore to meet the body--Is seized with typhoid fever and dies after five weeks illness. 187-199
MRS. STEPHEN BARKER.
Family of Mrs. Barker--Her husband Chaplain of First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery--She accompanies him
to Washington--Devotes herself to the work of visiting the hospitals--Thanksgiving dinner in the hospital--She
removes to Fort Albany and takes charge as Matron of the Regimental Hospital--Pleasant
experiences--Reading to the soldiers--Two years of labor--Return to Washington in January, 1864--She
becomes one of the hospital visitors of the Sanitary Commission--Ten hospitals a week-- Remitting the
soldiers' money and valuables to their families--The service of Mr. and Mrs. Barker as lecturers and
missionaries of the Sanitary Commission to the Aid Societies in the smaller cities and villages--The
distribution of supplies to the disbanding armies--Her report. 200-211
AMY M. BRADLEY.
Childhood of Miss Bradley--Her experiences as a teacher--Residence in Charleston, South Carolina--Two
years of illness--Goes to Costa Rica-- Three years of teaching in Central America--Return to the United
States--Becomes corresponding clerk and translator in a large glass manufactory--Beginning of the war--She
determines to go as a nurse-- Writes to Dr. Palmer--His quaint reply--Her first experience as nurse in a
regimental hospital--Skill and tact in managing it--Promoted by General Slocum to the charge of the Brigade
Hospital--Hospital Transport Service--Over-exertion and need of rest--The organization of the Soldiers' Home
at Washington--Visiting hospitals at her leisure--Camp Misery--Wretched condition of the men--The
rendezvous of distribution-- Miss Bradley goes thither as Sanitary Commission Agent--Her zealous and
multifarious labors--Bringing in the discharged men for their papers-- Procuring the correction of their papers,
and the reinstatement of the men--"The Soldiers' Journal"--Miss Bradley's object in its establishment--Its
success--Presents to Miss Bradley--Personal appearance. 212-224
MRS. ARABELLA GRIFFITH BARLOW.
Birth and education of Mrs. Griffith--Her marriage at the beginning of the war--She accompanies her husband
to the camp, and wherever it is possible ministers to the wounded or sick soldiers--Joins the Sanitary
Commission in July, 1862, and labors among the sick and wounded at Harrison's Landing till late in
August--Colonel Barlow severely wounded at Antietam--Mrs. Barlow nurses him with great tenderness, and
PART II. LADIES WHO MINISTERED TO THE SICK ANDWOUNDED IN CAMP, FIELD 9
at the same time ministers to the wounded of Sedgwick Hospital--At Chancellorsville and
Gettysburg--General Barlow again wounded, and in the enemy's lines--She removes him and succors the
wounded in the intervals of her care of him--In May, 1864, she was actively engaged at Belle Plain,
Fredericksburg, Port Royal, White House, and City Point-- Her incessant labor brought on fever and caused
her death July 27, 1864--Tribute of the Sanitary Commission Bulletin, Dr. Lieber and others, to her memory.
225-233
MRS. NELLIE MARIA TAYLOR.
Parentage and early history--Removal to New Orleans--Her son urged to enlist in the rebel army--He is sent
North--The rebels persecute Mrs. Taylor--Her dismissal from her position as principal of one of the city
schools--Her house mobbed--"I am for the Union, tear my house down if you choose!"--Her house searched
seven times for the flag--The Judge's son--"A piece of Southern chivalry"--Her son enlists in the rebel army to
save her from molestation--New Orleans occupied by the Union forces-- Mrs. Taylor reinstated as
teacher--She nurses the soldiers in the hospitals, during her vacations and in all the leisure hours from her
school duties, her daughter filling up the intermediate time with her services--She expends her entire salary
upon the sick and wounded-- Writes eleven hundred and seventy-four letters for them in one year-- Distributes
the supplies received from the Cincinnati Branch of Sanitary Commission in 1864, and during the summer
takes the management of the special diet of the University Hospital--Testimony of the soldiers to her
labors--Patriotism and zeal of her children--Terms on which Miss Alice Taylor would present a confederate
flag to a company. 234-240
MRS. ADALINE TYLER.
Residence in Boston--Removal to Baltimore--Becomes Superintendent of a Protestant Sisterhood in that
city--Duties of the Sisterhood--The "Church Home"--Other duties of "Sister" Tyler--The opening of the
war--The Baltimore mob--Wounding and killing members of the Sixth Massachusetts regiment--Mrs. Tyler
hears that Massachusetts men are wounded and seeks admission to them--Is refused--She persists, and
threatening an appeal to Governor Andrew is finally admitted--She takes those most severely wounded to the
"Church Home," procures surgical attendance for them, and nurses them till their recovery--Other Union
wounded nursed by her--Receives the thanks of the Massachusetts Legislature and Governor--Is appointed
Superintendent of the Camden Street Hospital, Baltimore--Resigns at the end of a year, and visits New
York--The surgeon-general urges her to take charge of the large hospital at Chester, Pennsylvania--She
remains at Chester till the hospital is broken up, when she is transferred to the First Division General Hospital,
Naval Academy, Annapolis--The returned prisoners--Their terrible condition--Mrs. Tyler procures
photographs of them--Impaired health--Resignation--She visits Europe, and spends eighteen months there,
advocating as she has opportunity the National cause--The fiendish rebel spirit--Incident relative to President
Lincoln's assassination. 241-250
MRS. WILLIAM H. HOLSTEIN.
Social position of Mr. and Mrs. Holstein--Early labors for the soldiers at home--The battle of Antietam--She
goes with her husband to care for the wounded--Her first emotions at the sight of the wounded--Three years'
devotion to the service--Mr. and Mrs. Holstein devote themselves mainly to field hospitals--Labors at
Fredericksburg, in the Second Corps Hospital--Services after the battle of Chancellorsville--The march toward
Pennsylvania in June, 1863--The Field Hospital of the Second Corps after Gettysburg--Incidents--"Wouldn't
be buried by the side of that raw recruit"--Mrs. Holstein Matron of the Second Corps Hospital-- Tour among
the Aid Societies--The campaign of 1864-5--Constant labors in the field hospitals at Fredericksburg, City
Point, and elsewhere, till November--Another tour among the Aid Societies--Labors among the returned
prisoners at Annapolis. 251-259
MRS. CORDELIA A. P. HARVEY. By Rev. N. M. Mann.
PART II. LADIES WHO MINISTERED TO THE SICK ANDWOUNDED IN CAMP, FIELD 10
The death of her husband, Governor Louis P. Harvey--Her intense grief-- She resolves to devote herself to the
care of the sick and wounded soldiers--She visits St. Louis as Agent for the State of Wisconsin--Work in the
St. Louis hospitals in the autumn of 1862--Heroic labors at Cape Girardeau--Visiting hospitals along the
Mississippi--The soldiers' ideas of her influence and power--Young's Point in 1863--Illness of Mrs.
Harvey--She determines to secure the establishment of a General Hospital at Madison, Wisconsin, where from
the fine climate the chances of recovery of the sick and wounded will be increased--Her resolution and
energy--The Harvey Hospital--The removal of the patients at Fort Pickering to it--Repeated journeys down the
Mississippi--Presented with an elegant watch by the Second Wisconsin Cavalry--Her influence over the
soldiers--The Soldiers' Orphan Asylum at Madison. 260-268
MRS. SARAH R. JOHNSTON.
Loyal Southern women--Mrs. Johnston's birth and social position--Her interest in the Union prisoners--"A
Yankee sympathizer"--The young soldier--Her tender care of him, living and dead--Work for the
prisoners--Her persecution by the rebels--"Why don't you pin me to the earth as you threatened"--"Sergeant,
you can't make anything on that woman"--Copying the inscriptions on Union graves, and statistics of Union
prisoners--Her visit to the North. 269-272
EMILY E. PARSONS. By Rev. J. G. Forman.
Her birth and education--Her preparation for service in the hospitals-- Receives instruction in the care of the
sick, dressing wounds, preparation of diet, etc.--Service at Fort Schuyler Hospital--Mrs. General Fremont
secures her services for St. Louis--Condition of St. Louis and the other river cities at this time--First assigned
to the Lawson Hospital--Next to Hospital steamer "City of Alton"--The voyage from Vicksburg to
Memphis--Return to St. Louis--Illness--Appointed Superintendent of Nurses to the large Benton Barracks
Hospital--Her duties--The admirable management of the hospital--Visit to the East-- Return to her
work--Illness and return to the East--Collects and forwards supplies to Western Sanitary Commission and
Northwestern Sanitary Commission--The Chicago Fair--The Charity Hospital at Cambridge established by
her--Her cheerfulness and skill in her hospital work. 273-278
MRS. ALMIRA FALES.
The first woman to work for the soldiers--She commenced in December, 1860--Her continuous
service--Amount of stores distributed by her-- Variety and severity of her work--Hospital Transport Service--
Harrison's Landing--Her work in Pope's campaign--Death of her son--Her sorrowful toil at Fredericksburg and
Falmouth--Her peculiarities and humor. 279-283
CORNELIA HANCOCK.
Early labors for the soldiers--Mr. Vassar's testimony--Gettysburg--The campaign of 1864--Fredericksburg and
City Point. 284-286
MRS. MARY MORRIS HUSBAND.
Her ancestry--Patriotic instincts of the family--Service in Philadelphia hospitals--Harrison's Landing--Nursing
a sick son--Ministers to others there--Dr. Markland's testimony--At Camden Street Hospital, Baltimore--
Antietam--Smoketown Hospital--Associated with Miss M. M. C. Hall--Her admirable services as nurse
there--Her personal appearance--The wonderful apron with its pockets--The battle-flag--Her heroism in
contagious disease--Attachment of the soldiers for her--Her energy and activity--Her adventures after the
battle of Chancellorsville--The Field Hospital near United States Ford--The forgetful surgeon--Matron of
Third Division, Third Corps Hospital, Gettysburg--Camp Letterman--Illness of Mrs. Husband--Stationed at
Camp Parole, Annapolis--Hospital at Brandy Station--The battles of the Wilderness and