Woman's Work in the Civil War Part 2

MRS. HARRIET R. COLFAX.

Early life--A widow and fatherless--Her first labors in the hospitals in St. Louis--Her sympathies never blunted--The sudden death of a soldier-- Her religious labors among the patients--Dr. Paddock's testimony--The wounded from Fort Donelson--On the hospital boat--In the battle at Island No. Ten--Bringing back the wounded--Mrs. Colfax's care of them-- Trips to Pittsburg Landing, before and after the battle of s.h.i.+loh--Heavy and protracted labor for the nurses--Return to St. Louis--At the Fifth Street Hospital--At Jefferson Barracks--Her a.s.sociates--Obliged to retire from the service on account of her health in 1864.

CLARA DAVIS.

Miss Davis not a native of this country--Her services at the Broad and Cherry Street Hospital, Philadelphia--One of the Hospital Transport corps--The steamer "John Brooks"--Mile Creek Hospital--Mrs. Husband's account of her--At Frederick City, Harper's Ferry, and Antietam--Agent of the Sanitary Commission at Camp Parole, Annapolis, Maryland--Is seized with typhoid fever here--When partially recovered, she resumes her labors, but is again attacked and compelled to withdraw from her work--Her other labors for the soldiers, both sick and well--Obtaining furloughs--Sending home the bodies of dead soldiers--Providing head-boards for the soldiers' graves.

MRS. R. H. SPENCER.

Her home in Oswego, New York--Teaching--An anti-war Democrat is convinced of his duty to become a soldier, though too old for the draft--Husband and wife go together--At the Soldiers' Rest in Was.h.i.+ngton--Her first work--Matron of the hospital--At Wind-Mill Point--Matron in the First Corps Hospital--Foraging for the sick and wounded--The march toward Gettysburg--A heavily laden horse--Giving up her last blanket--Chivalric instincts of American soldiers--Labors during the battle of Gettysburg--Under fire--Field Hospital of the Eleventh Corps--The hospital at White Church--Incessant labors--Saving a soldier's life--"Can you go without food for a week?"--The basin of broth--Mrs. Spencer appointed agent of the State of New York for the care of the sick and wounded soldiers in the field--At Brandy Station--At Rappahannock Station and Belle Plain after the battle of the Wilderness--Virginia mud--Working alone--Heavy rain and no shelter--Working on at Belle Plain--"Nothing to wear"--Port Royal--White House--Feeding the wounded--Arrives at City Point--The hospitals and the Government kitchen--At the front--Carrying supplies to the men in the rifle pits--Fired at by a sharpshooter--Sh.e.l.led 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.

MRS. HARRIET FOOTE HAWLEY. _By Mrs. H. B. Stowe._

Mrs. Hawley accompanies her husband, Colonel Hawley, to South Carolina--Teaching the freedmen--Visiting the hospitals at Beaufort, Fernandina and St. Augustine--After Ol.u.s.tee--At the Armory Square Hospital, Was.h.i.+ngton--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.

ELLEN E. MITCh.e.l.l.

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--Grat.i.tude of the soldiers--Trials--St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Was.h.i.+ngton--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, Was.h.i.+ngton--Abundant labor, but equally abundant happiness-- Her feelings in the review of her work.

JESSIE HOME.

A Scotch maiden, but devotedly attached to the Union--Abandons a pleasant and lucrative pursuit to become a hospital nurse--Her earnestness and zeal--Her incessant labors--Sickness and death--Cared for by Miss Bergen of Brooklyn, New York.

MISS VANCE AND MISS BLACKMAR. _By Mrs. M. M. Husband._

Miss Vance a missionary teacher before the war--Appointed by Miss Dix to a Baltimore hospital--At Was.h.i.+ngton, 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.

H. A. DADA AND S. E. HALL.

Missionary teachers before the war--Attending lectures to prepare for nursing--After the first battle of Bull Run--At Alexandria--The wounded from the battle-field--Incessant work--Ordered to Winchester, Virginia-- The Court-House Hospital--At Strasburg--General Banks' retreat-- Remaining among the enemy to care for the wounded--At Armory Square Hospital--The second Bull Run--Rapid but skilful care of the wounded-- Painful cases--Harper's Ferry--Twelfth Army Corps Hospital--The mother in search of her son--After Chancellorsville--The battle of Gettysburg-- Labors in the First and Twelfth Corps Hospitals--Sent to Murfreesboro', Tennessee--Rudeness of the Medical Director--Discomfort of their situation--Discourtesy of the Medical Director and some of the surgeons-- "We have no ladies here--There are some women here, who are cooks!"-- Removal to Chattanooga--Are courteously and kindly received--Wounded of Sherman's campaign--"You are the _G.o.d-blessedest_ woman I ever saw"-- Service to the close of the war and beyond--Lookout Mountain.

MRS. SARAH P. EDSON.

Early life--Literary pursuits--In Columbia College Hospital--At Camp California--Quaker guns--Winchester, Virginia--Prevalence of gangrene-- Union Hotel Hospital--On the Peninsula--In hospital of Sumner's Corps-- Her son wounded--Transferred to Yorktown--Sufferings of the men--At White House and the front--Beef soup and coffee for starving wounded men--Is permitted to go to Harrison's Landing--Abundant labor and care-- Chaplain Fuller--At Hygeia Hospital--At Alexandria--Pope's campaign-- Attempts to go to Antietam, but is detained by sickness--Goes to Warrenton, and accompanies the army thence to Acquia Creek--Return to Was.h.i.+ngton--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' a.s.sociation" 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.

MARIA M. C. HALL.

A native of Was.h.i.+ngton 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 a.s.sistants--Four thousand patients--Writes for "The Crutch"--Her joy in the success of her work.

THE HOSPITAL CORPS AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY HOSPITAL, ANNAPOLIS.

The cruelties which had been practiced on the Union men in rebel prisons--Duties of the nurses under Miss Hall--Names and homes of these ladies--Death of Miss Adeline Walker--Miss Hall's tribute to her memory--Miss t.i.tcomb'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.

OTHER LABORS OF SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF THE ANNAPOLIS HOSPITAL CORPS.

The _Maine stay_ of the Annapolis Hospital--Miss t.i.tcomb--Miss Newhall-- Miss Usher--Other ladies from Maine--The Maine camp and Hospital a.s.sociation--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.

MRS. A. H. AND MISS S. H. GIBBONS.

Mrs. Gibbons a daughter of Isaac T. Hopper--Her zeal in the cause of reform--Work of herself and daughter in the Patent Office Hospital in 1861--Visit to Falls Church and its hospital--Sad condition of the patients--"If you do not come and take care of me I shall die"--Return to this hospital--Its condition greatly improved--Winchester and the Seminary Hospital--Severe labors here--Banks' retreat--The nurses held as prisoners--Losses of Mrs. and Miss Gibbons at this time--At Point Lookout--Exchanged prisoners from Belle Isle--A scarcity of garments-- Trowsers a luxury--Fifteen months of hospital service--Conflicts with the authorities in regard to the freedmen--The July riots in New York in 1863--Mrs. Gibbons' house sacked by the rioters--Destruction of everything valuable--Return to Point Lookout--The campaign of 1864-5-- Mrs. and Miss Gibbons at Fredericksburg--An improvised hospital--Mrs.

Gibbons takes charge--The gift of roses--The roses withered and dyed in the soldiers' blood--Riding with the wounded in box cars--At White House--Labors at Beverly Hospital, New Jersey--Mrs. Gibbons' return home--Her daughter remains till the close of the war.

MRS. E. J. RUSSELL.

Government nurses--Their trials and hards.h.i.+ps--Mrs. Russell a teacher before the war--Her patriotism--First connected with the Regimental Hospital of Twentieth New York Militia (National Guards)--a.s.signed to Columbia College Hospital, Was.h.i.+ngton--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.

MRS. MARY W. LEE.

Mrs. Lee of foreign birth, but American in feeling--Services in the Volunteer Refreshment Saloon--A n.o.ble inst.i.tution--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 Was.h.i.+ngton--At Antietam during the battle--The two water tubs--The enterprising sutler--"Take this bread and give it to that woman"--The Sedgwick Hospital--Ordering a guard--Hoffman's Farm Hospital--Smoketown Hospital--Potomac Creek--Chancellorsville--Under fire from the batteries on Fredericksburg Heights--Marching with the army--Gettysburg--The Second Corps Hospital--Camp Letterman--The Refreshment Saloon again-- Brandy Station--A stove half a yard square--The battles of the Wilderness--At Fredericksburg--A diet kitchen without furniture--Over the river after a stove--Baking, boiling, stewing, and frying simultaneously--Keeping the old stove hot--At City Point--In charge of a hospital--The last days of the Refreshment Saloon.

CORNELIA M. TOMPKINS. _By Rev. J. G. Forman._

A scion of an eminent family--At Benton Barracks Hospital--At Memphis-- Return to St. Louis--At Jefferson Barracks.

MRS. ANNA C. McMEENS. _By Mrs. E. S. Mendenhall._

A native of Maryland--The wife of a surgeon in the army--At Camp Dennison--One of the first women in Ohio to minister to the soldiers in a military hospital--At Nashville in hospital--The battle of Perryville--Death of Dr. McMeens--At home--Laboring for the Sanitary Commission--In the hospitals at Was.h.i.+ngton--Missionary work among the sailors on Lake Erie.

MRS. JERUSHA R. SMALL. _By Mrs. E. S. Mendenhall._

A native of Iowa--Accompanies her husband to the war--Ministers to the wounded from Belmont, Donelson, and s.h.i.+loh--Her husband wounded at s.h.i.+loh--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.

MRS. S. A. MARTHA CANFIELD. _By Mrs. E. S. Mendenhall._

Wife of Colonel H. Canfield--Her husband killed at s.h.i.+loh--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.

MRS. THOMAS AND MISS MORRIS.