Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1867-10-10
WOMAN'S WORK Nv THE CITIL
IVlR

WAR.
From the linden sndens New York;
A Record of heroism, patriotism and pa
thence. BY l.. p. Brockett. NJ d., author
OF History of the Civil War" sour Great
Captains Life OF Abraham Lincoln !"
THE Camp. the Battle field and the Hos
pital," etc, etc ;and Mrs Mary G.. Vaughan.
With an introduction by Rev. DIR. Bellows,
President of the United States Sanitary
Commission. Sold by subscription through
canvassing agents. Zriglsr, McCurdy &
Co, Publishers, Philadelphia, Pa; Cincin.
natl. Ohio; Chicago, ILL.,, and St. Louis, Mo.
| If it yet too soon to write the story of
the Great War; if the grandeur and tho
wonder, and the bitterness, and tho blum
ders are too near us 10 be understood; IL
we have made our history too fas! for any
pen TO keep pace with il, and set down an
adequate record; it is not vet too early. AS
il Can never be too late, to tell those briefcr
tales OF personal heroism, of divine patience.
Of greatness so simple rs not 10 know itself
for greatness, which arc the corollaries of
the great unststed proposition.
| The touching but careless paragraphs OF
the newspapers, magazine sketch or two,
and some earlier volumes--too crude, too
hssty, and too indiscriminating to DO Of
permanent valuc-afs the history we have
thus far had Of womans part in our civil
war.
Thi. book, which comes to Gil! a want.
and deserves TO meet welcome, unfolds
| the secrets Of so many consecrated lives
that the womanlinsss Of America seems to
have sought speech and action 10 the deeds
of the two or three hundred wonsn to tell
the story of whose goodness there are not
leaves enough. Familiar names are here !:
names that were known before the war in
letters, in art, in society Eamcs of wives
glOriiied by heroic husbands: names of
daughters whose fathers the nation delight
ed to honor. But the roll Of the unknown
is far larger. OF quiet women, who left
farm-houses and factories, home and chill
lren, labor the hardest, of drcamful ease,
for the terrible toll ofthe hospital the aw-
full charity of the battlefield, the grim
kindness of the surgeon tent and out post
sick-room. They slep. on the ground who
had never left the home roof They wore
coarse garments, and ate scanty and coarse
food. and faced every form of loathsome
disease and horrid death. who had Jared
daintily all their lives. Young women to
whom life was blos.oming counted no ease
\ nor luxury so fair as service to their suffer
ing brothers Women who had worked
for weary years at tho hard toll which the
poor mothers of large families are doomed
10 undergo, reckoned no rcst so precious Us
the i'll paid, wearing, endless work Of the
| hospital. Mothers who had given their
sons to the field and the.rdaughters to the
Aid Society, the Sanitary Commission. the
Freedmen, added the last Gift of their own
strength, and time, and health 10 the costly
offering. Women OF wealth gave up lux
uries which habit had made necessities
! Women who had mover had a penny To
spare from their needs to their desires
stesdfastly starved their needs that the
lungrier needs of the soldiers might be
fed. Factory girls and ssamstresses went
for years without tea. without butter, with
out sugar, without small finerics, which
had answered their aesthetic sense, and
been Of mighty value to them.
1t is impossible TO estimate the small SAC
rifices which filled the Golfers of the sol
diers' aid socicie. during the war No
remoiest hamlet or the North, no busiest,
greediest, whirling city, that had not its or
ganized band of tireless women. working
with brain and hands for the troops. The
great fairs which kept alive the Sanitary
Commissions were born of woman's wit
and nursed in her warm heart, and for the
most part reared successfully through her
strong sense. The good which this noble
work did to the workers themselves was
incalculable. Feeling that they were sus
tanning their part of the mighty struggle,
they bore in patience. they exalted into
triumph the terror and pain of the separa-
ton from those dearest TO them.
Such a record as this does this volume OF
Wv oman's Work in the Civil War reveal.
Ono cannot read it without those tears that
make the heart better: who bsars IN her
bosom such daughters as these.
OF al these nurses, says DIR. Bellows in
his delighted Introductory Letter." 'No
one woman succeeded in rendering years
Of hospital service who wss not an sxcep-
tional person, 3 woman of larger heart,
clearer head. finer enthusiasm, and more
mingled tact, courage, hrnness, and holy
will than one IL a thousand Z. DER sex.
grandsr collection OF women, Wheeler con-
sidercd in their intellectual or theiT mora.
qualities, their heads or their hearts, Ihare
not had the happines: ofknowing than the
women l saw in the hospitals. They were
the flower OF their sex. Great as were the
labors OF those who superintendent the OBJ
erations at home-of collecting and prepar-
Ing supplies for the hospitals and the field
II cannot but think that the woman who
lived in the hospitals, or among the SOL
diers, required a force Of character and q
glow OF devotion and sclfsacrifce of a
rarer kind. They were really rcroines
or scarcely less service TO themselves
than to their brothers was this magnificent
offering of womanly gifts during the war.
For it proved that in the largencss OF con-
ception, In power OF grssping details, in
ability to overcome the temptations of the
senses and the plssdings of the nerves. in
patient toll day AFTER day, in organizing
immense subordiats departments, in capac-
ity to master the driest business formulas.
in ingenuity, in economy of forces. and
adaptation of means to ends, women are
not inferior 10 men. The history of "Wo-
mans Work in the Civil War" presents un-
answerable arguments OF fact, not Of sp-
peal, to the disbelievers In Woman S
Rights.
The book is we'll printed, the pictures
are much less bad than is usual in volumes
OF this class, the paper isgood. Ofthe ed
itorial work it is enough to say that il has
been careful, conscientious, and generally
discriminating The difficulties TO be over
come were very great, and they have been
overcome. We wish this book might 90
into every farm house, aud log cabin, and
palace in the land 1t is ono OF those
tracts for the times which are better than
doctrine or exhortation.
The opinion is generally enter