The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-29
MOTHER BICKERDYKE.
James A. Lemcke Recalls Her First
Venture as an Army Nurse.

To the Editor of the indianapolis Journal:
Late papers say that this eminent woman
is yet living, and has just celebrated her
eighty-first birthday. May the weight of
old age rest lightly on one who so richly
deserves the blessings of her fellow-men
and may the good Lord preserve her in
peace and contentment to the end. AS
"Reminiscences, 1 copy the following from my
diary kept during the early days of the
civil war:
The next day after the surrender of
Fort Donelson, which occurred on Feb. 10,
1862 1 was, with my steamer, the Fanny
Bullitt, ordered to the Landing and loaded
with two hundred of our wounded. with
command to report to General Sherman at
Paducah. AS soon as we got under way 1T
developed that we were without doctors
Excepting Surgeon B., of Cincinnati, ac-
companied by three raw students who had
come aboard as volunteers, we had not
single medical man on the boat. Doctor B.
was a man of extensive reputation for surg
ical SKILL but in this case turned out to
be engrossed by heartless anxiety to hunt
for and find certain wounds only, upon
which he could scientifically experiment, ut
terly neglecting in the meantime the groans
and lamentations of the poor fellows whose
life was oozng out of deadly wounds, lying
all about the boat on blood-stained straw,
oakum and whatever could be procured
that was softer than the deck planks. OF
nurses we had none, except one woman
She had come aboard, no one knew how or
where Instead of reporting to me, the
commanding officer. she had as soon as we
were under way, rolled up the sleeves of
her dress and gone to work where help was
most needed. After having procured from
the engineers buckets, which she filled with
hot water she went foraging fors clean rags
and odd bedclothes, the latter of which had
pretty thoroughly been consumed and de-
stroyed as was to have been expected on
a troop ship. For help she pressed into her
service a deckhand or two, some firemen
''off WATCH and a stray scullion from the
cookhouse. My attention was soon attracted
to this unknown ministering angel, dressed
in calico like any other unpretentious house
wife. She had an earnest but kind and
motherly face, with determination indicated
by the square. firm jaw. She had little to
say but, like General Grant whatever she
did say, requested or demanded came in
such a way that obedience never failed to
result. She was woman of robust frame
and l judged her then to have been some
what over forty years of age. All the long,
dreary night she moved about among that
dOlOrOuS mass of pain-racked humanity,
binding up wounds, washing CRIME and gore
from the MANNED, and soothing the last mo-
ments and gently closing the eyes Of the
dying. When, on that dark February night,
under black and lowering sky, in a river
turbulent and swift, everywhere out of its
banks and full of floating timber, my
drunken pilot Che only one to be had, for
pilots in that day were scarce and in de-
mand) would with an oath refuse to ring
the ''slowbell' while rushing around a short
bend at railroad speed, or through mar
row part of the river, crooked a dogs
leg, almost craZed with anxiety | would
in despair leave the hurricane deck and go
below there the sight of that serene woman
never failed to restore me to myself and
help to steady my badly shaken nerve.
This was Mother Bickerdyke and this
was the beginning of her eminently useful
career during that long and destructive
war. General Grant appreciated her great
executive ability to such degree that, al
though possessed of no rank or official au-
thorfty from Washington she was soon in
possession of unrestricted passport
through all the lines of his army, and he
Internationally honored all her acquisitions
for means and supplies needed for the
amelioration of the condition of the sick
and wounded soldiers. 1t is a well authenti-
Gated fact that at one time she suddenly
disappeared from Memphis where she had
busted herself among the extensive army
hospitals, and had become the revered and
beloved of all the boys, both sick and well.
When after a time she returned she did so
with several hundrded mich cows and al
most boatload of chickens, which she had
procured with the proceeds of voluntary
contributions obtained in the North She
landed and cared for them on Presidents
island, in the Mississippi river just below
Memphis, and from that time on she sup
piled all the sick soldiers in and about Mem
phis with milk, eggs and chickens in abund-
ance at absolutely no expense to the gov
eminent, and those of our boys not dead
bless Mother Bickerdyke for that and many
other benefactions to- this day.
Indianapolis, July 28 j. A. LEAICKE