The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-12-16

she concluded:
"Whg, this woman is more deserving of
a commission than half of the men who
have them"
'Why not give her commission then ?"
asked DR.. CnDurn.
Governor Yates called for blank COM
mission and for pen and ink. Of this
document which is registered in the Iili-
nois State House, l have been permitted
to see photograph copy. 1t reads:
ILLINOIS STATE MILITIA
HEADQUARTERS,
SPRINGFIELD, ILL.,, April Is, 1862.
To all TO whom these presents shall come,
greeting: Know ye, that Mrs. Belle Reynolds,
having been duly appointed to the honorary
position Of Daughter of the Regiment" for
merltorious conducI in camp and on the bloody
field OF ''PlttSburg Landing"
l, Richard Yates, Governor of the State of
Illinois, and commander.in-cniefO of the Illinois
S 80, Militia, for and on behalf of the people of
saiu State, do commission her to take rank as
major, from the 7th day OF April. 1862.
She is. therefore, carefully ana diligently TO
discharge the duties of said office, by dong and
performing all manner of things thereuntO be-
longing; and | do strictly require all officers
and soldiers under her command to be Obedient
10 her orders; and she is 70 obey all such orders
and directions as she shall receive from time o
lime from her eommander.In-chief or superior
officer.
liz testimony whereof, have hereunto set
my hand, and caused the great seal OF State TO
be affixed.
Done at Pttsburg Landing this 18th day of
eight hundred and sixtY-two. and OF the Inde-
peDdence OF the United States the eighiy-slxth.
BY the Governor, RICHARD YATES,
Commander-in-Chief, Illinois Militia.
G. M. HATCH, Secretary OF State.
ALLEN &. FULLER,
Adjutant General, /. S. NJ.
Attest: JOHN MOSES, A. ID. G.
Registered in ITldeJ Book No. 2, Il. g. o.
Two weeks later, rested but far from
recruited, she returned to the corps.
When she showed the commission 10 the
BOYS, did they gather about her and
politely congratulate her? Did they pass
resolutions of compliment? They did
what she appreciated much more. They
threw up their hats aud cried:
Bully for your
She was their comrade. their friend and
fellow-soldier. and they stood on no cere-
mony with her, although she was major.
Yet she eXerted the strongest and most
salutary influence upon them because of
this very feeling of cOmradeship. For
many years she did not recover from the
shock of that seven days exposure and
overstrain at Shiloh. She remained in the
army three years, but for the last two
years she was an invalid. There were
many times during this period when she
came very near yielding to her friends
entreaties and going back to civilization.
When she thus waYered, the words of
Colonel L. F. Ross. one OF the Doblest and
most cOurtly officers Of the volunteer ser
vice. decided her.
ST wish you would stay. if you possibly
can. Mrs. REYNOLDS" he said. Your in
hnence is so good upon the boys"
Beautiful Major Belle! How they used
to cheer her as she rode down the lines on
the handsome black horse Governor Yates
presented to her after cOnfrrrng her COM
mission. How they cheer her now when
she visits, as she occasionally finds oppor-
tunity to do. national or State encamp-
ments of the G. A. r. She is woman
who has since shOne in society, who has
Travelled all over the world and paid many
visits to Europe, everywhere TeaDing praise
and esteem for her mental accomplish
ments and personal graces as well, but no
ties Of later years can ever be so dear. no
tribute so sweet as that of her soldier
boys" aged and infrm, white-haired and
decrepit, as the majority of them are be-
coming as the years go by.
She was for thirteen years an invalid by
reason of her army experience. When she
bad fully recovered her health she took up
the study of medicine with DR.. Ludlam of
Chicago, one of that clty's most famous
physicians, a graduate of both the alo-
pathic and homeopathic schools. She
was associated with him in practice
and was his cO-edltOr in treatise unou
Diseases of Women" book which is a
standard authority among the monographs
of the Northwest. She is mem Der of the
Clinical Society of Habnemann College Of
Chicago, An honorary member of the Con-
necticut River Valley Medical Society of
Massachusetts, and was for many years
the resident physician of the Home for the
Friendless in Chicago. She has often been
called hundreds of miles away for con-
sultation in critical surgical cases. Last
wear she went to Pomeroy, Iowa, as Clara
Barton's representative, after the terrible
cyclone that devastated that place, and
her experiences while ministprIng 10 the
injured and dying form chapter only less
tragical than her war experience.
She has now settled in Santa Barbara
with the intention of here taking up her
permanent home. She comes OF family
of physicians, there being seven doctors in
her family in two generations. Her aged
father, who is now visiting her brother,
DR.. Macomber, in Pasadena. Will soon bs
with her. and she hopes that he will de-
eide to exchange The SHOWS and cyclones
of 10 wa for home with her beneath Cali
fornia's sunny skies.
There are many old veterans on this
coast who will like 10 look upon portrait
of the Queenly woman who once shared
their hardships and their marches. The
only photograph That your correspondent
has been aop to obtain shows her in even
ing dress instead of the habit Of military
blue, familiar TO their eyes.
FLORA HAINES LoUGHEAD.