Womans Work in the Civil War | Page 8

and thirty-six thousand dollars worth of goods and supplies in about two years and a-half--She aids in the establishment of the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home--Her plan of special diet kitchens--The Christian Commission appoint her their agent for carrying out this plan--Her labors in their establishment in connection with large hospitals--Special order of the War Department-- The estimate of her services by the Christian Commission. 373-378
MELCENIA ELLIOTT. By Rev. J. G. Forman.
Previous pursuits--In the hospitals in Tennessee in the summer and autumn of 1862--A remarkably skilful nurse--Services at Memphis--The Iowa soldier--She scales the fence to watch over him and minister to his needs, and at his death conveys his body to his friends, overcoming all difficulties to do so--In the Benton Barracks Hospital--Volunteers to nurse the patients in the erysipelas ward--Matron of the Refugee Home at St. Louis--"The poor white trash"--Matron of Soldiers' Orphans' Home at Farmington, Iowa. 379-383
MARY DWIGHT PETTES. By Rev. J. G. Forman.
A native of Boston--Came to St. Louis in 1861, and entered upon hospital work in January, 1862--Her faithful earnest work--Labors for the spiritual as well as physical welfare of the soldiers, reading the Scriptures to them, singing to them, etc.--Attachment of the soldiers to her--She is seized with typhoid fever contracted in her care for her patients, and dies after five weeks' illness--Dr. Eliot's impressions of her character. 384-388
LOUISA MAERTZ. By Rev. J. G. Forman.
Her birth and parentage--Her residence in Germany and Switzerland--Her fondness for study--Her extraordinary sympathy and benevolence--She commences visiting the hospitals in her native city, Quincy, Illinois, in the autumn of 1861--She takes some of the wounded home to her father's house and ministers to them there--She goes to St. Louis--Is commissioned as a nurse--Sent to Helena, then full of wounded from the battles in Arkansas--Her severe labors here--Almost the only woman nurse in the hospitals there--"God bless you, dear lady"--The Arkansas Union soldier--The half-blind widow--Miss Maertz at Vicksburg--At New Orleans. 390-394
MRS. HARRIET R. COLFAX.
Early life--A widow and fatherless--Her first labors in the hospitals in St. Louis--Her sympathies never blunted--The sudden death of a soldier-- Her religious labors among the patients--Dr. Paddock's testimony--The wounded from Fort Donelson--On the hospital boat--In the battle at Island No. Ten--Bringing back the wounded--Mrs. Colfax's care of them-- Trips to Pittsburg Landing, before and after the battle of Shiloh--Heavy and protracted labor for the nurses--Return to St. Louis--At the Fifth Street Hospital--At Jefferson Barracks--Her associates--Obliged to retire from the service on account of her health in 1864. 395-399
CLARA DAVIS.
Miss Davis not a native of this country--Her services at the Broad and Cherry Street Hospital, Philadelphia--One of the Hospital Transport corps--The steamer "John Brooks"--Mile Creek Hospital--Mrs. Husband's account of her--At Frederick City, Harper's Ferry, and Antietam--Agent of the Sanitary Commission at Camp Parole, Annapolis, Maryland--Is seized with typhoid fever here--When partially recovered, she resumes her labors, but is again attacked and compelled to withdraw from her work--Her other labors for the soldiers, both sick and well--Obtaining furloughs--Sending home the bodies of dead soldiers--Providing head-boards for the soldiers' graves. 400-403
MRS. R. H. SPENCER.
Her home in Oswego, New York--Teaching--An anti-war Democrat is convinced of his duty to become a soldier, though too old for the draft--Husband and wife go together--At the Soldiers' Rest in Washington--Her first work--Matron of the hospital--At Wind-Mill Point--Matron in the First Corps Hospital--Foraging for the sick and wounded--The march toward Gettysburg--A heavily laden horse--Giving up her last blanket--Chivalric instincts of American soldiers--Labors during the battle of Gettysburg--Under fire--Field Hospital of the Eleventh Corps--The hospital at White Church--Incessant labors--Saving a soldier's life--"Can you go without food for a week?"--The basin of broth--Mrs. Spencer appointed agent of the State of New York for the care of the sick and wounded soldiers in the field--At Brandy Station--At Rappahannock Station and Belle Plain after the battle of the Wilderness--Virginia mud--Working alone--Heavy rain and no shelter--Working on at Belle Plain--"Nothing to wear"--Port Royal--White House--Feeding the wounded--Arrives at City Point--The hospitals and the Government kitchen--At the front--Carrying supplies to the men in the rifle pits--Fired at by a sharpshooter--Shelled by the enemy--The great explosion at City Point--Her narrow escape--Remains at City Point till the hospitals are broken up--The gifts received from grateful soldiers. 404-415
MRS. HARRIET FOOTE HAWLEY. By Mrs. H. B. Stowe.
Mrs. Hawley accompanies her husband, Colonel Hawley, to South Carolina--Teaching the freedmen--Visiting the hospitals at Beaufort, Fernandina and St. Augustine--After Olustee--At the Armory Square Hospital, Washington--The surgical operations performed in the ward--"Reaching the hospital only in time to die"--At Wilmington-- Frightful condition of Union prisoners--Typhus fever raging--The dangers greater than those of the battle-field--Four thousand sick-- Mrs. Hawley's heroism, and incessant labors--At Richmond--Injured by the upsetting of an ambulance--Labors among the freedmen--Colonel Higginson's speech. 416-419
ELLEN E. MITCHELL.
Her family--Motives in entering on the work of ministering to the soldiers--Receives instructions at Bellevue Hospital--Receives a nurse's pay and gives it to the suffering soldiers--At