Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-02-16

and health by casting aside every motive
except duty when they once saw the terri
BILE necessity for their ministrations. a
drop of cordial n cool bandage, "A cup of
hot broth, is n tri1e for II man of arms to
long for, but the getting of it from woman
thrills the faltering heart with warrior
blood, and many "a life was saved on the
field because woman was around.
At Gettysburg Mrs. Il. II. Spencer, II
New York soldiers wife, found fellow
townsman shot through the throat so that
he could swallow nothing, liquids even
draining out through the orifice made by
the ball. The surgeons said that there was
no hope, and the luckless boy begged Mrs
Spencer to come to his aid. DO as / tell
you and you shall not die" said She Can
you bear to go without food for n week."
yes" the weak head nodded. An almost
constant application of cold water reduced
the Inflammation so that at the end of n week
the fGmshed man could plunge his head
into basin Of broth and sup down enough
to noursh life None but n woman would
have hit upon an eXpedient like that or had
patience to apply it.
Then there were the women who gave up
everything in life to embrace martyrdom
in the service of the soldiers. The very
first woman who went into the camp hos
pitfalls in the west, and perhaps in the coun-
try, was Miss Mary J. Stafford Il native of
Vermont, but living in Illinois when the
war broke out. She organized the system
at Cairo in 1861 and went to the field of
Shiloh, where the men knew her as the
Cairo angel" Afterward she Travelled on
the Mississippi hospital boats, cooking for
the soldiers, dressing their wounds, sing
ing to them and praying with them" She
was a frail, petite figure, unused to hard
ships and scenes of distress, and after
eighteen months service broke down and
went to Europe a confirmed invalid.
Death amid the sound of cannon and
in the embattled camps was the fate
of many. Margaret +. Breckenridge, of
the celebrated Kentucky family, who was
called the American Florence Nightingale,
emanCipated her slaves and went to work
in the Union camps early in the war. She
Abored in the west and in Baltimore and
Philadelphia. and died Of typhoid con
tracted In the service, in 1864. Anna Maria
Ross, OF Philadelphia, served in the hospi
tails there and personally canvassed the
city to raise funds for soldiers home
Paralysis from ovcreXerton caused hel
death in 1863.
Mary Dwight Pettes of Massachusetts,
contracted typhoid fever and died in 1868
Miss Adeline Walker, of Maine, contracted
fever in the paroled Prisoners hospital,
Annapolis, and died there in 1865, after two
years service. Miss NJ. a. b. Young, OF
New York, followed soldier brother to the
front, labored in the smallpox hospital and
Annapolis and died there Of typhus in 1865.
Miss Rose NJ Billing, of Washington,
was another tVOOuS MARTYR at ANNAPOLIS
where she ldborod two years and saved
scores of soldier lives. Mrs, Jerusha II.
Small, of Iowa, went to the field with her
husband in the Twelfth regiment, attended
the wounded under fire at Shiloh and died
from the result of exposure and fatigue,
Mrs. +. c. Wetherell, of Louisville, died
Of fever contracted on the hospital boat
Empress, of the Mississippi squadron. Miss
Phobe Allen, of Iowa, was u fever victim
at the Benton barracks, st. Louis.
Mrs. f. Il. George, of Indiana, labored in
the field hospitals at Nicksburg, Atlanta
campaign, the march to the sea and in the
Carolinas, and contracted the fatal fever
while attending Union prisoners from tho
Salisbury stockade. Mrs. Jane r.. Mum
sci, Of Maryland, served her country with
less picturesqucness than Barbara Frietch
lie, perhaps, but she died victim to excess
i've labors inCaring for the sick and wound
ed at Antietam and Gettysburg.
Add to this the army of nameless and
unknown heroiues of the Union camps and
then say whether the American woman's
only proper badge Of calling is the distaif
Isn't there II flag in the picture, even
though sword and cannon are wanting?
GEORGE l.. kILMER.