Womans Work in the Civil War | Page 4

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.
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 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--