Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-03-10
WAR "REMINISCENCES.
DEATHS BITTER FOE.
A Noble Woman Nursed Union soldiers in
War Time


War Time.
AThere lives in Russell county. Kas,
Gle of the most remarkable women Of
p age. Work has always been her
Bib and although she is long past the
bl' when most of us are glad to rest
oe still feels that she should ''be up
and doing"
Mrs. Mary A. Bickerdyke, or Mother
Bickerdyke, as hundreds of thousands
of soldiers call her, probably has no
European reputation and there may
still be veterans of the east who never
heard of her. Yet she was one of the
most wonderful, unique and forcible of
women. Plain and matronly in APP
pearance, with little education, an enc
my to army authority and regulations
when they interfered with the comfort
OF her boys" she boldly opposed her
self to medical officers and command
ing generals, and by the force of good
sense she made herself valuable to the
armies of the west.
She early attached herself to Cen
Sherman and his corps, and not only
followed his army TO Atlanta accom-
plishing sanitary wonders without hos
pital appliances, but when she was so
fortunate as to be assigned to station
airy duties she Immediately set to work
to reform the administration which she
found in power As an agent, in the
field, of the Chicago branch of the sani-
tary commission she took particular
delight in tracing any neglect or ras-
callty in the distribution of supplies
Soldiers who returned home on fur
loughs often complained bitterly of the
way in which comforts and dainties
were appropriated by the nurses and
surgeons. When Mother Bickerdyke
was net cooking food and dressing
wounds upon the battlefield she was in
vestigating these things and sending
her complaints to headquarters for the
discharge of the offenders. Often she
did not wait for such authority but,
having abundant proof of the justice of
the cause, ordered surgeons of the army
to remove their straps and report to
their superiors.
One such delinquent came to Gen.
Sherman with loud story of injustice.
Who made the charger" asked Gen.
Sherman
''Why-why," stammered the man.
81 suppose it was that spiteful old
7 woman, Mrs. Bickerdyke."
20, WELL then, if it was she," re-
piled the general, 81 can't help you
Shs ranks me-"
THAT spiteful old woman" clad us
ually in calico gown and shawl, with
Shaker bonnet upon her head, had
authority, however, for all her actions,
but so sure was she of her ground that
she seldom thought it necessary to
state from whom she derived it.
When the war first opened Mother
Bickerdyke had not even an official
connection with the sanitary commits
sion. She worked in the hospitals of
Cairo, St Louis and Louisville, super
intending diet kitchens, disciplining
careless, and culpable nurses and sur
geons, and distributing supplies which
were sent to her. When the battle of
Fort Donaldson was fought she inn
mediately set out for the battle-ground.
She superintendent the loading of re-
lief boats with BEDS tea, coffee SOUP
Cruel milk punch and everything which
could be needed.
At length one night when she had
made four trips and her boat was ready
to return to the hospital on its fifth
journey Mother Bickerdyke was missed
The commanding officer also saw
light slowly Pickering over the desert
ed battlefield. He sent man to in
vestigate, and there was Mother Bick-
erdyke found, lantern in hand, rever-
emily examining the faces of the dead,
lest some poor fellow. not beyond help,
should be left upon the field comfort
less and alone. Even for such actions
she had no authority from the govern
ment of the United States or the state
of Illinois.
Then the battle of Shiloh was fought
Mother Bickerdyke arrived upon the
scene of carnage far ahead of the relief
boats of the government Her fires
were blazing, kettles up, and and she,
dressed in confederate overcoat and a
SOFT SLOUGH hat, was ladling out soup
whisky, water, tea, and coffee before a
government agent was in sight In go
ing the rounds surgeon stopped before
her booth in admiration and curiosity
Madam" he said, in an official tone
of voice, under whose authority are
you here?"
Never stopping in her labors or look
up from her work she replied: Il have
received my authority from the Lord
God Almighty. Have you anything
that ranks higher than that?" From this
time, when Mother Bickerdyke took
charge of the hospitals at Savannah,
she was one of the agents of the sani-
tary commission in the field
After the war Mother RicLerdvlye
was the housekeeper for the Chicago
Home of the Friendless, but the work
was too light for herr Neither mind or
hand was occupied. Then she opened
a small hotel in Kansas She went west
with thousands of soldiers to take up
land, but the enterprise was fnan-
cial failure. When the locusts swept
over the land and devastated the crops
and the fires of Northern Michigan and
Wisconsin devoured forests and viii
lages-then Mother Bickerdyke was in
her element. She begged seed for the