The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1898-08-13
MAJOR BELLE REYNOLDS
THE ONLY WOMAN WHO HELDbCOM
MISSION IN THE CIVIL WAR.

LILO Oil WOudu OHlCef OF JQ6 CIVIL |
war was commissioned by Richard
Yates when he was Governor of Hi
nois. The document was registered
in the Illinois State House and re-
mains there. It is dated April 16,
1862, and says that Mrs. Belle Rey-
nolds was appointed "to the honorary
position of Daughter Of the Regiment
for meritorious conduct in the camp
and in the field of Pittsburg Landing,
with the rank of Major" In two
places in the "Official Record of the
Army of Illinois" General Sherman
mentions Major Reynolds in a compli-
mentary way.
Major Belle Reynolds, as she is
known in the army, lives in Santa Bar
bara, CAL, and IS President of the
Woman's Parliament of Southern Cali
fornia. Before marriage she was Ara
bella Macomber. She is q native of
Shelbourne Falls, Mass. She went
West with her people, remained in
Iowa for while, returned East, COM
pleted her education, went back West
and had charge of the first school in
Cass county, Iowa. She married
John G. Reynolds in 1860 and went
to Peoria, Ill.
Her husband enlisted in the Seven
teenth Illinois Infantry, which went
at once to the front. While the regi-
ment was in Missouri Mrs. Reynolds,
in the face Of opposition by her
friends, joined her husband in camp.
She was nineteen-tall, handsome and
vivacious. The whole camp was de-
lighted to have her there. The off,
GERS begged her to accept better and
different fare than theirs, but she de-
clined, preferring to acceptthe lot Of her
husband and to be where she might
do the most good in the cause for
which her husband and the other SOL
der boys had enlisted. She ate the
same food as did the soldiers. slept on
the ground for days at time, drank
from pools and brooks, as did the
poorest private, and never murmured
at forty and fifty mile forced marches.
She was busy all day long with her
needle and thread for the soldiers and
passed many nights with the sick and
wounded soldiers. Her letters to
newspapers at the North did good in
informing the Union women what
they might do in alternating tue hard
ships and suffering of the boys at the
front.
Mrs. Reynolds saw her first battle
at Frederickstown, Mo. She re-
NAMED in the rear, but she heard all
and saw many Of the wounded. Twice
during the engagement she heard tina
her husband was mortally wounded
But she never finched. She said she
was prepared to hear of his death
Her courage and unselfshness on tha
occasion commended her to the ad
miration of the regiment. When thu
battle was over she went Oh the field
ministering to the needs of the sicl
and dying. She was the first woman
on the field, and the good she dit
there is inexpressible. The officia
war dispatches to Washington all toll
of her labors for the wounded an'
dying. For three days and night
she worked with the wounded and dy
ing. She made no distinction be
tween the blue and gray.
She was at Fort Henry on the Ten
nessee River when Commodore Foot
shelled the enemy while, Grant mad
the advance by land. The weathe
was severely cold. Mrs. Reynold
worked for O week with little lseel
and without removing her clothln
among the hundreds of soldiers tina
crowded the hospitals. She on her ow
responsibility organized q cerps {
young people, whose duty was to chez
the last hours of the dying.
Three weeks before Shiloh wa
fought Mrs. Reynolds met her hui
band in camp. Colonel Reynolds ha
meanwhile been made Assistant Adjr
taut- General upon McClernand's stat
Here in camp, insuficiently fed, throue
chill and frost and rain, the TROOP
slept on the ground, and Mrs. Reynolo
shared the common lot.
On Sunday, the morning OF the 6t
of April, she procured can of peach'
and some -four from the sutler and b.
gan to prepare feast. For weeks
desultory firing had been kept up !, b.
tween the two armies, and when tn
firing increased no attention was pa
to the circumstance until an order
dash into camp beinging informatlf
that the enemy had made an attack
: force and conveying orders for tt
Seventeenth to fall in and move TO
!, ward. The camp was instantly e
cited. Mrs. Reynolds emptled IL
contents of her frying pan into b
= husbands haversack as he came out