The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-03-20
MRS. JOSEPH R. HAwLKY.

The COHraHf, in an obituary of the wife of Senator Hawley, says:
 Mrs. Hawley was of Puritan stock, born
 in Guilford, daughter of Colonel C eorge
 Foote, and on the maternal side connected
 with the Wards and BsecherS She was of slight frame and delicate organz ltion, the intellectual element predomin atiDg over the physical, and making her appar- ently united to endure hardships. But she always took keen interest m public affairs from the days of the free-sril struggle until the war. In the fall of 1862 she joined her husband, then Colonel
 Hawiey of the Seventh regiment, at Beau fort, s. C. From this time to the close of the war sAe rem ained ID active service as hospital visitor. Many a soldier now living wal forever bless her memory. and the last hours of many were consoled oy her sweet ninistrations She devoted such time as her health would permit to the work at Fernandina, St Helena, Hil- ton Head, and finally in charge of ward in Armory Square hospital, in Washing ton, a position to try the nerve and ex. haust the vitality of the strongest nature. Mrs. Hawley reached this hospital the morning after the wounded began to ar- rive from the battles of the Wilderness. Her ward was one of the largest, consain- ing at one time ninety seven patieats, and to add to its horror there was no separ ate operating room. h one day during that terrible April forty. eight patients died. The hospital, which was designed for nine hundred patients, was at this time compelled to receive and cace for fourteen hundred.
 Surrounded by such scenes, Mrs. Haw- ley 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 drawing apon her deepest s7mpathies. ln September her health failed, and she was ooliged to relinquish the charge, returning, how ever, h November and remaining, until March, 1865, The simple story of her work needs no comment to tell of her character.
 After the capture of Wilmington, N c. General Hawley was assigned to the com mand of department with headquarters at that city. Here Mrs. Hawley joined him, and here she had new experience ofthe horrors of war, in the reception of nine thousand Union prisoners from Au dersonville and Florence. The city was in filthy condition, fever 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 sick ened and two died and among the de- tailed soldier nurses the fatality was worse than that in battle. Mrs. Haw- ley exerted herself to the utmost to afford relief. She organized the women who volunteered to help, superintended the making of garments, visited the hospitals, and stunned no danger, not even the smallpox.
 In July, 1865, Mrs. Hawley accompan. jed her husband to Richmond, where General Hawley had been appointed chief of staff to Mai or. General Terry Their home was in the house deserted by Jefferson Davis after Appom attox. Here she enjoyed restful summer and antici. pated a speedy return to home and peace But in October, while returning from the battle field of Five Forks (~here she had gone with an uncle to find the grave of his son) the ambulance in which she rode was overturned, 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 sufferings for years were intense, but were borne with patient, accomplishing heroism characteristic of the noble life BOW ended.
 In her Hartford life since the war. Mrs Hawley has been known as taking a lively interest, so far as her impaired health would permit, in all social, liter. ary, and charitable work With aesthetic tastes and keen artistic sense, she did much to assist in the organization and success of the Decorative Art Society.
 Why are printers the most merciful of