The National tribune., 1897-06-17
HER BOYS REMEMBER

| sOoOA ooAiO 4Aeoui1OOV AAVOAy AA
terest in Mother Bicker
dyke Day.
Clara Barton's Efforts for Greece-Praise
for W.R.C.'s Patriotic Teaching-Progress
of the Order All Along the Line.
Kansas is setting noble example to the
country generally by ordaining that one day
| shall be set apart to celebrate the deeds of a
noble and heroic woman patriot, as recently
noted. The day is July 10. and the woman
| thus honored is the beloved Mother Bick.
erdyks. idol of the sick and wounded soldiers
| of the Union army, and much interest is mani
tested in the event outside of Is well as in the
State.
Did ever anyone see in the heroic and placid
face of Mother Bickerdyke a resemblance to
George Washington7 Mother Bickerdyke
was one OF the Ohio Balls of the Virginia line,
and George Washington's mother was Q Vir-
ginia Ball, the beautiful. golden-haired, high
strung maiden from whom Washington receiv we'd
his leading characteristics.
Who knows but that Mother Bickerdyke
may be able to prove herself one of the heirs to
delphia2 Some of it is going to the Ohio Balls
If they can furnish the necessary proof.
What is to be called Mother Bickerdy ke
Day is the S0th birthday of this grand woman,
she having been born near Mount Vernon. o.
July 10, 1877, the daughter of Hiram and
Anna Ball. Tho latter was the daughter of a
soldier of the Revolution-one of the Rogers
family, among the Plymouth Rock Pilgrims
Little Mary Balls education was limited.
hon ifo noho iaA huf N q
few years Mr.. Bickerdyke died, leaving her
with helpless little ones to rear.
She became nurse and when the war broke
out offered her services, carrying to her work
patriotic zeal and large experience. She was
early identified with the Sanitary Commission,
and when the supplies to the army were sent
from Galesburg to Cairo she went as delegate.
After the battle of Belmont she was assigned
to field hospital. At Fort Doneson she had
her first sight of q battle and was for the first
time under fire. an experience that was more
snd more frequent rs the terrible years wore
on.
Before there WAS a Christian and Sanitary
Commission to collect supplies and stimulate
National interest," Mother Bickerdyke went
from place to place in the North, addressing
audiences, experimenting fairs and extending
her Cow and hen mission" which furnished
hundreds of cows and thousands of hens to
provide suitable food for the wounded soldiers
She helped to establish the Adams Block Hos
pita!, Memphis. which accommodate 5000 men,
and was Matron of Gayoso Hospital. when 700
wounded men were brought in from Arkansas
Post. She took charge of smallpox hospital
in Memphis and renovated it with her own
hands, when nine men lay dead of the scourgc.
WORKING AMIDST SHOT AND SHELL.
Through the battles of vicksburg, Lookout
Mountain, Missionary Ridge aud Chattanooga,
Mother Bckerdy Ike nursed friend and foe alike.
On the fields of Resaca, Kingston, New Hope
Church. Cassville, Alatoona, Dallas and Kene.
saw Mountain, she directed the nurses or gave
personal care to 1900 wounded men. my
boys" as she called them. When Sherman cut
OF his base of supplies in the Atlanta campaign,
she went North and collected and forwarded
vast stores of supplies. She went with Sher-
mans army to the sea. and when his forces eu-
tered Savannah, sailed for Wilmington, where
she took care of the Union men liberated from
Southern prisons She performed like service
at Beaufort Averyshoro and Bentonville, and
at the request of Gen. Logan marched into
Alexandria with his army.
At the final Grand Review in Washington
Mother Bickerdyke, mounted upon saddle
hotse dressed in a calico dress and sun bonnet
her uniform throughout the war; accompanied
the troops, and no knightlier honors were ever
shOwered upon lady in the old tournament
days than her boys" showered upon her.
Her dress and bonnet were afterwards sold as
relics of the war for 500.
Many anecdotes are told of Mother Bicker-
dyke and her services in our army to illustrate
her force of character and success in making
everything bend to the amelioration of the
needs of the sick and wounded: how she ieal-
0usly guarded the delicacies sent by the de-
voted women of the North, lest they should
iud their way to the Surgeons table; how she
was ready to meet every emergency when tho
regular medical stores were slow in coming up;
how she discharged a drunken Surgeon for
negectng his trust, and how, when he appealed
to Gen. Sherman for redress of his grievances,
he received the reply: =" can do nothing for
you: Mother Bickerdyke oatranks me-"
Gen. Logan, through whose instrumcntality
Mother Bickerdyke was granted pension,
held her in the highest honor, and at Portland,
Me-, in 1885. in addressing audience Of 6,o00
people. mostly Union soldiers, in attendance
upon the National Encampment, GAR, he
said:
"Old Mother Bickerdyke; know her well.
/ have seen her helping the wounded soldiers
from the battlefield when shot and she'll were
raining around her. Why, gentlemen, the
hands of women so connected with the
hand of the Divinity that man without them
would be a barbarian"
1t was at the first grand Campfire ever held
under the auspices of the Womans Relief
Corps that Gen. Logan spoke these words and
held up Mother Bickerdyke to the women of
the land as a type of all that was patriotic,
noble and pure in American womanhood.
CLARA BARTON AND THE RED CROSS
The name of Clara Barton will ever carry a
thrill of emotion to the hearts of every lover of
humanity. She has been called the Angel of
the Battlefield" and now Senator Thurston of
Nebraska, who represented the Secretary of
the Interior at the great meeting just held in
Washington in aid of the suffering Greeks,
gives her the new and beautiful name of "The
Queen of Humanity"
The Washington meeting was the first OF
series to be held at the National Capital, with
the view of attracting public attention to the
needs of the suffering Greeks, and to the de-
plorable fact that the American branch of the
Red Cross Society is the only one of the 40
great National associations which has no fund
at its command, provided either by the Gov
eminent or by private subscription.
1t will be remembered that Miss Barton, who
went to the relief of the suffering Armenians,
was obliged to return because of lack of funds
with which to carry out her benefcent plans.
For the same cause she has not been able to
make . prompt response to tho several calls
that have been coming from the Greek women
through their chief, Queen Olga. Now her OBJ.
legations have become the more imperative,
from the fact that the International Red Cross
Society, from their Headquarters at Geneva,
have called upon all branch societies, including
Al. hw~n nt, 81 Il Il.