Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1867-10-23
Woman's Work in the Civil War,

w oman w 0TK III the civil var
A Record Of HeroiSn, Patriotism aud Pa
thence. By L. P. Brockett, u. D. (Author of
History Of the OWL War" sPhii&nthropic
Results of the War )" sour Great Captains"
''Life Of Abraham Lincol y ssThe Camp, the
Battlefield, and the Hospital" etc., etc y
and Mrs Mary Q. Vaughan. With an intro
ducton by Rev. DR.. Bellows, President of the
United States Sanitary Commission. Sold by
eanvassing agents. Zeigler, McGurdy & Co.,
Publishers Philadelphia, Pa. Cincinnati,
Ohio; Chicago, Ill, and St. Louis, No.
II 1t is yet too soon to write the story of the
are-t war; II the grandeur, and the wonder,
and the bitterness, and the blunders are too
near us 10 De understood; if we have made our
history TOO last for any pen to keep pace with
1t, ana set down an adequate record; it is not
yet too early, as it can lever be tootate to tell
those oI1efer tales of personal heroism of d.
vine patience, of greatness SO simple as not to
know Itself for greatness, which are the corol-
laFleS OF the great unstated proposition. ~
Ihls book, which comes 10 fill a want, and
deserves to meet welcome unfolds the secrets
| OF so many conseerated lives that the woman
Hness OF America seems to have sought speech
and action III the deeds of the two or three
hundred women to tell the story of whose
goodness there are not leaves enough. Famil-
| lar names are here names that were known
before the war in letters. in art in society I;
names of wives glorifed by heroic husbands .
| names of daughters whose fathers the nation
has delighted to honor. But the roll of the
| unknown is far larger. OF quiet women, who
lett tarm-bouses and factories home and chill
dren, labor of the hardest, or dreamtul ease for
the terrible toll OF the hospital the awful char
lty OF the battlefield, the grim kindness of the
| surgeons tent and out post sick room They
| slept 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 borrid death,
who had Jared daintiy all their lives. Young
women to-whom lito was Dlossomng counted
no ease nor luxury so fair as service to their
suffering brothers. Women who had worked
! Tor weary years at the hard toll which the
poor mothers of large families are doomed to
undergo, reckoned no rest so precious as t e
/ lll-pald, wearing, endless work of the hospital
| Mothers who had given their sons to the field,
1 ana their daughters to the Aid Society the
Sanitary Commission, the Freedmen. added the
last gilt OF their own strength and time, and
/ health to the costly Offering Women of
/ wealth gave up luxuries which habit had made
necessities. Women who had never had a
/ penny to spare from their needs to their desires
| otooulaoIiy starved Inelf needs that the hun
grier needs of the soldiers might be ed Fac
| tory girls and seamstresses went for wears
without tea, without butter, without sugar,
without small fneres, which had answered
/ their aesthetic sense, and been of mighty value
| to them.
| tbs Impossible to estimate the small sacri.
/ tlces which filled the Golfers Of the soldiers aid
| societies during the war. No remotest hamlet
| OF the North, no busiest greediest Whirlino
city; that had not its organized band of trelesS
| women, working with brain 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 thu
most part reared successfully through her ST. ong
sens. The good which til S noble work did t.
the workers themselves was incalculable
feeIlng that they were sustaining their part 0
the mighty struggle, they bore in patience
they exalted into triumph the terror and pjar
OF the separation from those dearest to them
Such q record as this does this volume O
! "Womans Work in the Civil War; reveal
One cannot read it without those tears tina
make the heart better; without sublime con
hdence in the futur of America, who bears il
her bosom such daughters as these. ....-.
The book is well printed, the pictures ar
much less bad than is usual in volumes of thi
class, the paper is good. Of the editorial worE
1t is enough to say that it has bhen careful
I conscientious, and generally discriminating
/ Inc dl1hcultles to be overcome were very great
and they have been overcome We wish lhi
book might go into every farm house. aud log
cabin, and palace in the land. 1t is one o
those tracts for the times which are better thai
/ doctrine or exhortation.