Read Ebook: Woman's Work in the Civil War: A Record of Heroism Patriotism and Patience by Brockett L P Linus Pierpont Vaughan Mary C Bellows Henry W Henry Whitney Commentator

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DEDICATION. 19

PREFACE. 21

TABLE OF . 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--Paeans 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 cantini?res, vivandi?res, 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 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

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

CLARA HARLOWE BARTON.

Early life--Teaching--The Bordentown school--Obtains a situation in the Patent Office--Her readiness to help others--Her native genius for nursing--Removed from office in 1857--Return to Washington in 1861-- Nursing and providing for Massachusetts soldiers at the Capitol in April, 1861--Hospital and sanitary work in 1861--Death of her father-- Washington hospitals again--Going to the front--Cedar Mountain--The second Bull Run battle--Chantilly--Heroic labors at Antietam--Soft bread--Three barrels of flour and a bag of salt--Thirty lanterns for that night of gloom--The race for Fredericksburg--Miss Barton as a general purveyor for the sick and wounded--The battle of Fredericksburg-- Under fire--The rebel officer's appeal--The "confiscated" carpet--After the battle--In the department of the South--The sands of Morris Island-- The horrors of the siege of Forts Wagner and Sumter--The reason why she went thither--Return to the North--Preparations for the great campaign-- Her labors at Belle Plain, Fredericksburg, White House, and City Point-- Return to Washington--Appointed "General correspondent for the friends of paroled prisoners"--Her residence at Annapolis--Obstacles--The Annapolis plan abandoned--She establishes at Washington a "Bureau of records of missing men in the armies of the United States"--The plan of operations of this Bureau--Her visit to Andersonville--The case of Dorrance Atwater--The Bureau of missing men an institution indispensable to the Government and to friends of the soldiers--Her sacrifices in maintaining it--The grant from Congress--Personal appearance of Miss Barton. 111-132

HELEN LOUISE GILSON.

Early history--Her first work for the soldiers--Collecting supplies-- The clothing contract--Providing for soldiers' wives and daughters-- Application to Miss Dix for an appointment as nurse--She is rejected as too young--Associated with Hon. Frank B. Fay in the Auxiliary Relief Service--Her labors on the Hospital Transports--Her manner of working-- Her extraordinary personal influence--Her work at Gettysburg--Influence over the men--Carrying a sick comrade to the hospital--Her system and self-possession--Pleading the cause of the soldier with the people-- Her services in Grant's protracted campaign--The hospitals at Fredericksburg--Singing to the soldiers--Her visit to the barge of "contrabands"--Her address to the negroes--Singing to them--The hospital for colored soldiers--Miss Gilson re-organizes and re-models it, making it the best hospital at City Point--Her labors for the spiritual good of the men in her hospital--Her care for the negro washerwomen and their families--Completion of her work--Personal appearance of Miss Gilson. 133-148

MRS. JOHN HARRIS.

Previous history--Secretary Ladies' Aid Society--Her decision to go to the "front"--Early experiences--On the Hospital Transports--Harrison's Landing--Her garments soaked in human gore--Antietam--French's Division Hospital--Smoketown General Hospital--Return to the "front"-- Fredericksburg--Falmouth--She almost despairs of the success of our arms--Chancellorsville--Gettysburg--Following the troops--Warrenton-- Insolence of the rebels--Illness--Goes to the West--Chattanooga--Serious illness--Return to Nashville--Labors for the refugees--Called home to watch over a dying mother--The returned prisoners from Andersonville and Salisbury. 149-160

MRS. ELIZA C. PORTER.

Mrs. Porter's social position--Her patriotism--Labors in the hospitals at Cairo--She takes charge of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission Rooms at Chicago--Her determination to go, with a corps of nurses, to the front--Cairo and Paducah--Visit to Pittsburg Landing after the battle-- She brings nurses and supplies for the hospitals from Chicago--At Corinth--At Memphis--Work among the freedmen at Memphis and elsewhere-- Efforts for the establishment of hospitals for the sick and wounded in the Northwest--Co-operation with Mrs. Harvey and Mrs. Howe--The Harvey Hospital--At Natchez and Vicksburg--Other appeals for Northern hospitals--At Huntsville with Mrs. Bickerdyke--At Chattanooga-- Experiences in a field hospital in the woods--Following Sherman's army from Chattanooga to Atlanta--"This seems like having mother about"-- Constant labors--The distribution of supplies to the soldiers of Sherman's army near Washington--A patriotic family. 161-171

MRS. MARY A. BICKERDYKE.

Sketch of her personal appearance--Her gentle, tender, winning ways-- The American Florence Nightingale--What if I do die?--The Breckinridge family--Margaret's childhood and youth--Her emancipation of her slaves-- Working for the soldiers early in the war--Not one of the Home Guards-- Her earnest desire to labor in the hospitals--Hospital service at Baltimore--At Lexington, Kentucky--Morgan's first raid--Her visit to the wounded soldiers--"Every one of you bring a regiment with you"--Visiting the St. Louis hospitals--On the hospital boats on the Mississippi-- Perils of the voyage--Severe and incessant labor--The contrabands at Helena--Touching incidents of the wounded on the hospital boats--"The service pays"--In the hospitals at St. Louis--Impaired health--She goes eastward for rest and recovery--A year of weakness and weariness--In the hospital at Philadelphia--A ministering angel--Colonel Porter her brother-in-law killed at Cold Harbor--She goes to Baltimore to meet the body--Is seized with typhoid fever and dies after five weeks illness. 187-199

MRS. STEPHEN BARKER.

Family of Mrs. Barker--Her husband Chaplain of First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery--She accompanies him to Washington--Devotes herself to the work of visiting the hospitals--Thanksgiving dinner in the hospital--She removes to Fort Albany and takes charge as Matron of the Regimental Hospital--Pleasant experiences--Reading to the soldiers--Two years of labor--Return to Washington in January, 1864--She becomes one of the hospital visitors of the Sanitary Commission--Ten hospitals a week-- Remitting the soldiers' money and valuables to their families--The service of Mr. and Mrs. Barker as lecturers and missionaries of the Sanitary Commission to the Aid Societies in the smaller cities and villages--The distribution of supplies to the disbanding armies--Her report. 200-211

AMY M. BRADLEY.

Childhood of Miss Bradley--Her experiences as a teacher--Residence in Charleston, South Carolina--Two years of illness--Goes to Costa Rica-- Three years of teaching in Central America--Return to the United States--Becomes corresponding clerk and translator in a large glass manufactory--Beginning of the war--She determines to go as a nurse-- Writes to Dr. Palmer--His quaint reply--Her first experience as nurse in a regimental hospital--Skill and tact in managing it--Promoted by General Slocum to the charge of the Brigade Hospital--Hospital Transport Service--Over-exertion and need of rest--The organization of the Soldiers' Home at Washington--Visiting hospitals at her leisure--Camp Misery--Wretched condition of the men--The rendezvous of distribution-- Miss Bradley goes thither as Sanitary Commission Agent--Her zealous and multifarious labors--Bringing in the discharged men for their papers-- Procuring the correction of their papers, and the reinstatement of the men--"The Soldiers' Journal"--Miss Bradley's object in its establishment--Its success--Presents to Miss Bradley--Personal appearance. 212-224

MRS. ARABELLA GRIFFITH BARLOW.

Birth and education of Mrs. Griffith--Her marriage at the beginning of the war--She accompanies her husband to the camp, and wherever it is possible ministers to the wounded or sick soldiers--Joins the Sanitary Commission in July, 1862, and labors among the sick and wounded at Harrison's Landing till late in August--Colonel Barlow severely wounded at Antietam--Mrs. Barlow nurses him with great tenderness, and at the same time ministers to the wounded of Sedgwick Hospital--At Chancellorsville and Gettysburg--General Barlow again wounded, and in the enemy's lines--She removes him and succors the wounded in the intervals of her care of him--In May, 1864, she was actively engaged at Belle Plain, Fredericksburg, Port Royal, White House, and City Point-- Her incessant labor brought on fever and caused her death July 27, 1864--Tribute of the Sanitary Commission Bulletin, Dr. Lieber and others, to her memory. 225-233

MRS. NELLIE MARIA TAYLOR.

Parentage and early history--Removal to New Orleans--Her son urged to enlist in the rebel army--He is sent North--The rebels persecute Mrs. Taylor--Her dismissal from her position as principal of one of the city schools--Her house mobbed--"I am for the Union, tear my house down if you choose!"--Her house searched seven times for the flag--The Judge's son--"A piece of Southern chivalry"--Her son enlists in the rebel army to save her from molestation--New Orleans occupied by the Union forces-- Mrs. Taylor reinstated as teacher--She nurses the soldiers in the hospitals, during her vacations and in all the leisure hours from her school duties, her daughter filling up the intermediate time with her services--She expends her entire salary upon the sick and wounded-- Writes eleven hundred and seventy-four letters for them in one year-- Distributes the supplies received from the Cincinnati Branch of Sanitary Commission in 1864, and during the summer takes the management of the special diet of the University Hospital--Testimony of the soldiers to her labors--Patriotism and zeal of her children--Terms on which Miss Alice Taylor would present a confederate flag to a company. 234-240

MRS. ADALINE TYLER.

Residence in Boston--Removal to Baltimore--Becomes Superintendent of a Protestant Sisterhood in that city--Duties of the Sisterhood--The "Church Home"--Other duties of "Sister" Tyler--The opening of the war--The Baltimore mob--Wounding and killing members of the Sixth Massachusetts regiment--Mrs. Tyler hears that Massachusetts men are wounded and seeks admission to them--Is refused--She persists, and threatening an appeal to Governor Andrew is finally admitted--She takes those most severely wounded to the "Church Home," procures surgical attendance for them, and nurses them till their recovery--Other Union wounded nursed by her--Receives the thanks of the Massachusetts Legislature and Governor--Is appointed Superintendent of the Camden Street Hospital, Baltimore--Resigns at the end of a year, and visits New York--The surgeon-general urges her to take charge of the large hospital at Chester, Pennsylvania--She remains at Chester till the hospital is broken up, when she is transferred to the First Division General Hospital, Naval Academy, Annapolis--The returned prisoners--Their terrible condition--Mrs. Tyler procures photographs of them--Impaired health--Resignation--She visits Europe, and spends eighteen months there, advocating as she has opportunity the National cause--The fiendish rebel spirit--Incident relative to President Lincoln's assassination. 241-250

MRS. WILLIAM H. HOLSTEIN.

Social position of Mr. and Mrs. Holstein--Early labors for the soldiers at home--The battle of Antietam--She goes with her husband to care for the wounded--Her first emotions at the sight of the wounded--Three years' devotion to the service--Mr. and Mrs. Holstein devote themselves mainly to field hospitals--Labors at Fredericksburg, in the Second Corps Hospital--Services after the battle of Chancellorsville--The march toward Pennsylvania in June, 1863--The Field Hospital of the Second Corps after Gettysburg--Incidents--"Wouldn't be buried by the side of that raw recruit"--Mrs. Holstein Matron of the Second Corps Hospital-- Tour among the Aid Societies--The campaign of 1864-5--Constant labors in the field hospitals at Fredericksburg, City Point, and elsewhere, till November--Another tour among the Aid Societies--Labors among the returned prisoners at Annapolis. 251-259

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

Her birth and education--Her preparation for service in the hospitals-- Receives instruction in the care of the sick, dressing wounds, preparation of diet, etc.--Service at Fort Schuyler Hospital--Mrs. General Fremont secures her services for St. Louis--Condition of St. Louis and the other river cities at this time--First assigned to the Lawson Hospital--Next to Hospital steamer "City of Alton"--The voyage from Vicksburg to Memphis--Return to St. Louis--Illness--Appointed Superintendent of Nurses to the large Benton Barracks Hospital--Her duties--The admirable management of the hospital--Visit to the East-- Return to her work--Illness and return to the East--Collects and forwards supplies to Western Sanitary Commission and Northwestern Sanitary Commission--The Chicago Fair--The Charity Hospital at Cambridge established by her--Her cheerfulness and skill in her hospital work. 273-278

MRS. ALMIRA FALES.

The first woman to work for the soldiers--She commenced in December, 1860--Her continuous service--Amount of stores distributed by her-- Variety and severity of her work--Hospital Transport Service-- Harrison's Landing--Her work in Pope's campaign--Death of her son--Her sorrowful toil at Fredericksburg and Falmouth--Her peculiarities and humor. 279-283

CORNELIA HANCOCK.

Early labors for the soldiers--Mr. Vassar's testimony--Gettysburg--The campaign of 1864--Fredericksburg and City Point. 284-286

MRS. MARY MORRIS HUSBAND.

Her ancestry--Patriotic instincts of the family--Service in Philadelphia hospitals--Harrison's Landing--Nursing a sick son--Ministers to others there--Dr. Markland's testimony--At Camden Street Hospital, Baltimore-- Antietam--Smoketown Hospital--Associated with Miss M. M. C. Hall--Her admirable services as nurse there--Her personal appearance--The wonderful apron with its pockets--The battle-flag--Her heroism in contagious disease--Attachment of the soldiers for her--Her energy and activity--Her adventures after the battle of Chancellorsville--The Field Hospital near United States Ford--The forgetful surgeon--Matron of Third Division, Third Corps Hospital, Gettysburg--Camp Letterman--Illness of Mrs. Husband--Stationed at Camp Parole, Annapolis--Hospital at Brandy Station--The battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania--Overwhelming labor at Fredericksburg, Port Royal, White House, and City Point--Second Corps Hospital at City Point--Marching through Richmond--"Hurrah for mother Husband"--The visit to her "boys" at Bailey's Cross Roads-- Distribution of supplies--Mrs. Husband's labors for the pardon or commutation of the sentence of soldiers condemned by court-martial--Her museum and its treasures. 287-298

THE HOSPITAL TRANSPORT SERVICE.

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

Miss Bradley, Miss Gilson, Mrs. Husband, Miss Charlotte Bradford, Mrs. W. P. Griffin, Miss H. D. Whetten. 316, 317

KATHERINE PRESCOTT WORMELEY.

Birth and parentage--Commencement of her labors for the soldiers--The Woman's Union Aid Society of Newport--She takes a contract for army clothing to furnish employment for soldiers' families--Forwarding sanitary goods--The hundred and fifty bed sacks--Miss Wormeley's connection with the Hospital Transport Service--Her extraordinary labors--Illness--Is appointed Lady Superintendent of the Lovell General Hospital at Portsmouth Grove, Rhode Island--Her duties--Resigns in October, 1863--Her volume--"The United States Sanitary Commission"-- Other labors for the soldiers. 318-323

THE MISSES WOOLSEY.

ANNA MARIA ROSS.

Her parentage and family--Early devotion to works of charity and benevolence--Praying for success in soliciting aid for the unfortunate--The "black small-pox"--The conductor's wife--The Cooper Shop Hospital--Her incessant labors and tender care of her patients-- Her thoughtfulness for them when discharged--Her unselfish devotion to the good of others--Sending a soldier to his friends--"He must go or die"--The attachment of the soldiers to her--The home for discharged soldiers--Her efforts to provide the funds for it--Her success--The walk to South Street--Her sudden attack of paralysis and death--The monument and its inscription. 343-351

MRS. G. T. M. DAVIS.

Mrs. Davis a native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts--A patriotic family--General Bartlett--She becomes Secretary of the Park Barracks Ladies' Association--The Bedloe's Island Hospital--The controversy-- Discharge of the surgeon--Withdrawal from the Association--The hospital at David's Island--Mrs. Davis's labors there--The Soldiers' Rest on Howard Street--She becomes the Secretary of the Ladies' Association connected with it--Visits to other hospitals--Gratitude of the men to whom she has ministered--Appeals to the women of Berkshire--Her encomiums on their abundant labors. 352-356

MARY J. SAFFORD.

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