The San Francisco call., 1896-05-31
A Patriotic Woman.
Renaissance of Relief Work Done
During the War.

DuI Ing lQ6 w ar
The following reference to the work done
by Mrs. Adeline .Couz ins, the mother OF
Miss Phoebe Couzins, during the war is re-
published from the st. Louis Globe Demo-
crat OF April 26, 1867:
WASHINGTON, D. c., April 26 The House
will probably take favorable action next Fri
day night on the Senate bill to give Mrs. Ade-
line Couzins OF st. Louis, widow of the late
United States Marshal, pension. The report
which accompanies the bill contains letters
from Charles Gibson, James o. Broadhead,
John B. Henderson, James z. Yeatman, Car
los Greeley, DR.. S. Polak, S. NJ. Breckinridge
and others, telling of the distinguished SER
vices rendered his country by Major Couzins
during the war, and also of the relief work OF
Mrs. Couzins.
When General Fremont made his midwinter
expedition to southwest Missouri in 1861 he
left sick and disabled soldiers all along the
route. Rumors of the sufferings reached st.
Louis, and the Ladies' Union Aid called for
volunteers TO go to the relief The mercury
was below zero and the snow was deep on the
ground. Mrs. Couzins and Miss Arethusa L.
Forbes were the volunteers Mrs. Couzins had
her nose and feet frozen, and Miss Forbes was
so severely disabled that she never entirely
recovered her health. But they found the
suffering soldiers in cabins, in stables ana
tents and on their reports hospital trains were
sent out and the patients were removed to the
post hospitals of st. Louis
This only one of Mrs Couzins' expert
euces nurse. Miss Forbes has written a
letter, which is now before the House Com
mittee, and will be embraced in the report.
She writes to Miss Phoebe Couzins as follows:
'Did your mother keep that petticoat in
which the rebels made a bullet-hole firing at
her from their fort? Mr.. YeatmGn was in
company with them; he, if alive, can help you
to remember. Edward Bates, Attorney Gen
eral of Lincoln's administration, has passed
away, has he not? 1 never should forget that
interview; how delighted he looked; how his
eyes sparkled as he read the paper in which
your mother petitions 70 become head of the
st. Louis Postoffice lit was at the time the Gov
ernment first proposed giving Office to those
who had done the most toward putting down
the rebellion). AS he finished the paper he
read with so much animation and pleasure he
| said, Yes, yes, Mrs. Couzins, you should have
that office; no one in our country de-
| and l know you will do the Office JUS
tlce.' You felt his earnestness all the
| more because OF his husky, asthma tic voice.
and he told how much fun was made of him
because he would have ladies in different de-
| partments; how heads of departments would
send him nighrcaps, call him grannie and
many other opprobrious names, etc. you
1 cannot insult an American man greater than
| to compare him 10 a woman, but Bates did not
] seem 10 care III lle leASt.l Is MIS-. Bates StllI
| alive? She might RENE mber his talking about
/ il, or his sons or daughters. But that pc It'll
coat, with the rebel bullet hole and the bent
| hoop-skirt Il begged hers TO keep them for her
| descendants). ought TO speak loudly for q pen
| sion. YodRnow was only ON one appoint
ment with your mother to Sedalia and
! Georgetown, but OH what terrible. hor-
| Tible experience that was, ard a great part
| made by inexperience and mistakes You
| know your mother went down the Mississippi
| with the sanitary boats, and your mother
| some times was head doctor when the boats re-
| turned crowde0-hoors, staterooms every
| place that q human form could be laid, with
| the wounded, dying and dead the regular
| male doctors lay drunk In their cabins on
! liquors furnished by theLadies' Union Aid for
| the wounded soldiers. Your mother washes
the coagulated blood from their wounds.
| sewed them, or when possible closed them
! with sticking-plasters. Each time boat went
| down TO bring back the wounded several
| ladies from the Union Aid went with it. and
| all worked hard; but your mother had the
quiet temperament aud greater courage to
perform the hardest parts Il say, God blesslthat
woman). Phoebe, from my very soul believe
/ your mother saved the lives of more soldiers
| than any half dozen surgeons in the army ind
country; showing no parhality between the
rebel and the Union soldier, and there were
| hundreds on the boats and in our st. Louis hos
! pitals. All, every one, Jared the same, and the
Ladies Aid on their part fur rnished the best of
! all things and cooked in the most approved
manner. Phoebe, if your mother does not
deserve pension from her country, then, in
from the rebel Government, too, for have no
doubt but many poor, sad, sick rebel soldier
remembers with gratitude her kind and heart
felt care of them"