Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1867-12-07
WOman,s work ia thc Civil
WAR.


Rev. Dr.. Bellows. President Of lie United
Sites Sanitary Commission. Sold 10y sub
scription through Canvassing Agents. lei
gler McCurdy d Co, publishers, Philadei-
phia. Pa; Cincinnati, Ohio; Chicago, H.;
ard ST. Louis. Mo.
II it is vet too soou TO write the story Of the
Great War; if the grandeur. and the wonder
and he bi tcruess. aud the bluniers are too
near us 10 bc understood if we have made
our history too fast for any pen TO keep pace
with it, and set down an adequate record
it is not yet too early, as it never can be too
late. TO tell those bricfer tales Of personal
heroism, Of divine patience, Of greatness so
simple as not TO know itself for greatness
which are the corollarics OF the great unstat-
ed prop osition.
The touching but careless paragraphs Of
the newspapers, n magazine sketch or two,
and some earlier yOlumes-tOO crude, too
hasty. and too Understanding to be of per-
mament value-are the history we have thus
far mad Of wonans pant in our civil war
This book, which comes To fill Il want, and
deserves to meet welcome, unfOids the Sc
crets of so many consccrated lives that the
vomanlness of America seems 10 have
sought speech aud action in the deeds Of the
two or three bundled women to tell the story
Of whose goodness there are not leaves
enough. Familiar names are here; names
that were known before the var in letters, in
art, in society names of wives gloriied bv
heroic husbands; names of daughters whose
f,tneTs the nation has delighted 10 honor -
But the roll of the unknown is far larger
OF quiet women. whu left farm houses aud
factories. home and children. labor OF the
hardest, or Greanfal ease, for The terrible loil
Of the Hospital, The awful charity of the bat
tie fed, the grim kindness of the surgeons
tent and out-post sickroom. They Wore
coarse garments. end ME scanty and coarse
food, aud faced every form Of loatlsorac dis
ease and horrid death, who had iared daiutily
all their lives. Young women in vhom life
was biossoninc cog:l:cd no ease nor luxury
so fair as service t. their suffering brothers.
Women who bad worked for weary years 1t
tie hard toll which the poor mothers Of large
fam lies are doomed to undergo. locl,oncd 10
rest So precious as the ill-paid, wearing, end
less worl; Of the hospital Mothers who had
given their sons To- the field aud their dauglt-
eys 20 the Aid Society, tie Sanitary Commits
sion the Freedmen, added the last gin Of
tleir own streng h. and time. and health 10
he costly offering Wamcn of wealth gave
up luxuries which habit hal made necessities.
Women who had never hal penny to spare
from their needs to their desires steadily
starved their needs that the htngricr needs Of
tn. soldiers might be fed. Factory girls and
s'amestrcsscs went for years without tea,
without batter, without sugar, without small
fineries, which had answered their aesthetic
sense. and been Of mighty valre to them.
1t is impossible to estimate the small sscri-
.6c,s Which filled the Golfers of tie soldiers
aid societies during the var. No rcmetest
hamlet of the North. no busiest. grccdicst.
whirling city, that had not its organized band
Of tircless women, working with brains and
hands for the troops The great fairs which
kept alive the Sanitary Commission were
born of woman's wit and nursed in her warm
Heart. and for the most part reared success
fully through her s'r9ng sense. The good
which this noble work did TO the workers
themselves was incalculable. Feeling That
they were sustaining their part Of the mighty
struggle, they bore in patience, they exalted
into triumph the terror and pain of the sep
araii ~ ftom those dearest to them.
Such record as ;his does this volume If
.sWoman's Work in the Civil War " reveal
One cannot read it without those tears that
make the heart better without sublime
confidence in the future of America, who
bears in her bosom suth dan. as these.
y CT all these nurses. says DR.. Bellows. in his
delightful "Iutroductionary Letter" mo
one woman succeeded in rendering years of
hospital service who was not an exceptional
pei son. Il woman of larger heart. clcarer
head. finer enthusiasm, and more m;ngl d
tact. courage frmness. and holy wiz than one
in a thousand of her sex. a grander colec-
ton Of women. whether considered in their
intellectual or their moral qualities. their
h ais or their hearts. have not had the hap
pincss of knowing than the women / saw in
the hospitals They were the flower Of their
sex. Great rs were the labors Of those who
superintendent the operations Mt home-of col
lecting and preparing supplies for the hospi-
tails aud the field Cannot but think that The
women who lived ia the hospitals. or among
the soldiers, required force Of character and
glow of devotion and self sacrifice OF a
rarer kind They were really herones.
of scarcely less service to themselves than
10 their brothers was his magnificent Offering
of womanly gifts during the war. For it
proved that in largeness of conception. in
power Of g,asping details, in ability 10 over
come the temptations of the seuses and the
pleadings of the nerves, in patient toll day
after day, IN organizing immense subordinate
departments, in capacity to master the driest
business formulas in ingenuity. in economy
of forces. and adoption Of means to ends,
women are not inferior to men. The history
Of .Woman's Work in the Civil War presents
unanswerable arguments Of fact. not nG an
neal To tea disbelevcrs in WOman's Riahis
The book is well printed, the pictures are
mueh less hal than is usual IN volumes of
this class. the paper is good. OF the editorial
work it is enough TO say that it has been
careful conscientious. and generally discrim-
n,tlug The difficulties 10 be overcome
were very great. and ihey have been over
como. We wish this book might go into
every farmhouse, and log-cabin. and palace
in II land. It's one OF those Tracts for the