St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-03-18
A NOBLE WOMAN.

A NOBLE WOMAN.
The Late Mrs. HawIey.-Her Devotion
to the Country and Its Defenders-Sac-
The Hartford Courant contains a
full and appreciative review of the life
of noble woman, Harriet Ward FOOte,
the wife of Senator Joseph r. Hawley.
| The lives of fewer women have ever
been richer in service, or marked by
greater self sacrifice, or dignified more
fully by all high wOmanly qualities.
Says the COurrnt:
Mrs. Hawley was of Puritan stock,
born in GuilfOrd, daughter of Col.
George FOOte and on the maternal side
connected with the Wards and Beech
ers. She was of slight frame and deli
cate organization, the intellectual ele-
ment predeminating over the physical,
and making her apparently untitled to
endure hardships. But she always
took a keen interest in public affairs
from the days of the freesoil struggle
until the war. Her patriotism was in
tense, and while her husband was in
the field (going with her blessing in
the first volunteer regiment from the
state for the three months campaIgn)
she was earnestly labOring with other
noble ladies of the state to help the
soldiers in the field and to relieve the
sick and wounded. But she could not
be contented with home life while her
imagination pictured the need of wO-
mans ministratiOn on the field, and IN
the fall of 1862 she Joined her husband,
then Col. Hawley of the 9TH regiment,
at Beaufort, S. c.. From this time to
| Il. - Il, S1,a in
active service as hospital visitor.
Many a soldier now living will forever
bless her memory, and the last hours
of many were consoled by her sweet
ministratOns. She devoted such time
as her health would permit to the
work at Fernandina, ST. Helena, Hill
ton Head, and finally in charge of a
ward in ArmOry Square hospital in
Washing on, position to try the
nerve and exhaust the vitality of the
strongest nature. Mrs. Hawley reach
ed this hospital the morning after the
wounded began to arrive from the bat
ties of the Wilderness. Her ward was
one of the largest, containing at one
time 81 patients, and to add to it's hOr-
rOr there was no separate operating
room. In one day during that terrible
April AZ patients died. The hospital
which was designed for 900 patients
was at this time compelled to receive
and care for 400.
/, Surrounded by such scenes, Mrs.
Hawley lived in the hospital in charge
of the ward assigned her for four long
months months of the severest labor,
taxing her utmost strength and draw
ing upon her deepest sympathles. In
September her health failed and she
was obliged to relinquish the charge,
returning, however, i'll November aud
remaining until March, 1865. The
simple story of her work needs ne
comment to tell of her character.
After the capture of Wilmington, n.
c., Gen. Hawley was assigned to the
command of department with head
quarters at that city. Here Mrs. Haw-
lev Joined him, and here she had a
new experience of the horrors of war,
i'm the reception of 5000 Union prison.
ers from AndersOnville and Florence.
The city was in filthy condition, fe-
yer broke out, prostrating hundreds,
and the deaths were by the score. The
chief of the medical staff died of five
professional lady nurses from the
North, three sickened and two died {;
and among the detailed soldier nurses
the fatality was worse than in Il battle.
Mrs. Hawley exerted herself to the ut
most to afford relief. She organized
the women who volunteered to help,
superintendent the making of garments,
visited the hospitals, and Stunned no
danger, not even the smallpox.
In MOOre's "Women of the War" a
chapter is given to the work of Mrs.
Hawley, in which extracts are made
from private letters written at the
time to friends in the North. Written
with no thought of publication, they
were the most vivid picture of the
dreadful realities of the war. We
make single quotation from letter
from Washington in April, 1865:
"Mere than 40 men, whose feet, or
portions of them, had rOtted off, left
on the steamer yesterday. L do not
know how many more such cases there
had been among them but these men
| saw. Think of it feet so rOtted
away that the surgeon cut them off
with scissors above the ankle ! Has
God any retributiOn for those who in
ficted such suffering Has their cOun
try any rewards for the men who suf-
fered thus, month after month, rather
| than turn traitOr-rather than deny
the old flag?
Today we have been firing salutes
and ringing the bells for the capture of
Richmond. You should have heard
the hoarse voices of the boys in the
hospitals as they tried to cheer when
they heard the bells this noon. / stood
still in the street and cried like u child
when | heard them and it all rushed
over my mind at once how much it
meant to them ~
In July, 1865, Mrs. Hawley accom-
panied her husband to Richmond.
where Gen. Hawley had been appoint
ed chief of staff to Major Gen. Terry.
Their home was in the house deserted
by Jefferson Davis, after Appomattox.
Here she enjoyed a restful summer and
anticipated speedy return to peace
and home. But in October, while re-
turning from the battle field of Five
Forks, (where she had gone with an
uncle to find the grave of a sony the
ambulance in which she rode was over
turned and she received injuries to
head and spine which made her an in
valid for many years, and from which
she never fully recovered. Her suffer
ings for years were intense, but were
borne with a patient, accomplishing
herOism, characteristic of the noble |
life now ended.
In her Hartford life since the war,
Mrs. Hawley has been known as TAX
ing lively interest, so far as her i'm
paired health would permit, in all So
cial, literary and charitable work.
With aesthetic tastes and keen arts
tic sense she did much to assist i'm the |
organization and success of the decOra-
tive art society. When the battle flags