Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-02
WORK OF THE WOMEN.
What the Ladies Are Doing for the
Grand Army Organization.
BUILDING HOMES FOR SOLDIERS,
And Providing for the Widows and Orphans
of Dead Veterans.
OBJECTS EXPLAINED BY MRS. WALLACE

The Grand Army veterans will start for
Detroit this morning. Some are going oy
rail and water and others prefer the rail-
road throughout. Post 12S, of Allegheny,
will leave the Ft Wayne depot at o'clock,
and number of posts will board the trains
at the Union station. Post 8 has split and
delegation will go over the Lake Erie
road.
. In the shuttle the women are not forgot
ten, and representatives of the 100, 900 mem-
bers of the Woman's Relief Corps will at
tend. As the objects of this auxiliary to
the G. A. r. are not generally understood,
Mrs. j. X. Wallace, Corresponding Secre-
tary of the Woman's Corps in Pittsburg, In
an interview said:
OBJECTS OF THE ORGANIZATION.
'In every city, town and hamlet, during
the war, women were found working for
the relief of the sick and wounded soldier.
Christian and sanitary commissions and
other relief societies were organized. They
were found, too, in the hospitals and on
the battlefelds, ministering to the stricken
soldier, upholding him and comforting him
in his hour of trial and discouragement
When the angel of peace scared from Apo
mattox and spread his white wings over the
nation, this relief corps of women was not
mustered out. From camp to home, from
soldier to citizen, was long leap. Many
fell by the wayside, the years of war telling
upon them, while others who never
knew defeat ON the field Of battle
were not so successful in the struggle of life.
These, with the widows and orphans of our
nations dead, left almost helpless by wars
cruel fate, appealed loudly to the hearts of
all true patriots. All over the land ladies'
leagues, loyal ladies and relief corps were
established to assist in aiding these unfortu-
mates, in true fraternity gathering from re-
luctant lips the wants of those who to care
for is the glorious mission of the Grand
Army of the Republic.
THE FIRST IN THE FIELD.
t'The societies in Massachusetts, in 1879
were the first to organize State Woman's
Relief Corps, those of New Hampshire
uniting with them in the following year.
The first official action of the Grand Army
looking to National organization of women
was taken at the fifteenth National encamp-
ment held in Indianapolis in 1881, when the
following resolutions were adopted:
Resolved, That We approve the project of
organizing National Woman's Relle1
Corps.
Resolved, That such woman's Relief Corps
may use under such title the words "Au4il-
iary to the G. A. R." by special Endorsement
of the G. A. r.
"Paul Van Dervoort, Commander in Chief
of the G. A. r. in his general orders con-
vening the encampment at Denver in 1888,
requested all lady societies working for the
soldiers to send representatives to Denver.
Twenty-six different societies responded and
the Woman's Relief Corps auxiliary to
the G. A. R. was organized. The ques-
ton as to whether all loyal women should
mediate relatives of soldiers, was left |
over until the next convention in
order to give the delegates time to con-
fer with the societies they represented, and
the result was, at the second National Con-
vention at Minneapolis, 1884, the vote stood
76 to in favor of loyal women, thus taking
for its foundation patriotism and loyalty,
and no woman who ever gave aid or COM
fort to the Rebellion can become men,
her -