The National tribune., 1901-12-19

reach, right In the teeth of the angry of
ticer. IL her aids were afraid she took
the AK and did the business herself
Milk was so cents quart in Memphis,
and poor stuff, while the hens were all
hiding out. Mother Bickerdyke took a
furlough of 20 days. and going back to
Chicago she got 100 cows and several
hundred hens from the loyal friends, and
free of charge for her. Gen. Hurlbut
gave her Presidents Island for herding
| ground and hennery, and her boys had
milk, eggs and chicken broth until the
| hospitals in Memphis were abandoned
1t is impossible 10 follow this intrepid
war woman through all her campaigns
She became the right arm, as it were, OF
Gems. Grant, Sherman and Logan, and
/ carried on her person orders from each
that would admit her every where, pass
her through every line and gave her ac-
cess TO ali supplies she wanted. Before
/ Ficksburg, at Chattanooga, Resaca-it
was the same everywhere. on down to
Atlanta; then Sherman ordered Sfrs.
| BicSerdyke and her charges. as well as
| all the other women, back North.
she went North to remain until 'Sher-
man marched down to the sea- and bore
| in her pocket his order TO meet him
when he reached the Atlantic Coast and
to bring to his troops all the supplies that
could be gathered, and gave her orders
for transportation, on his account, to any
| desired extent"
! In the North she attended churches,
fairs and social gatherings, where they
/ longed to liOniZe her, but she brusquely,
almost roughly, declined all honors for
herself, giving her whole thought to the
gathering of sanitary supplies for the
hour Of awful need she saw coming.
| CARING FOR THE PRISONERS.
! At Savannah Gen Sherman sent for
! ha nh
deiphia and filled it to the water-line with
the immense store provided by phiian-
thropic people of the North and started
South. At Wilmington, \. c., the first
of the emaciated men from Andersonviile
and Florence claimed her attention.
Sherman can watt she said, and he
did. When Sherman took Beaufort, ".
! O., in February, 1865, she went there,
her work at Wilmington done. In May
Gen. Logan wired her: department OF
! Tennessee-On way to Washington. Short
of rations. Meager z9rnly there. Go up.
/ Logan"
| Two hours later she had her remaining
supplies, few enough, and her worst cases
| aboard the boat for Washington. There
she visited Gen. Eaton, Quartermaster-
| in-Chief, who told her the Government
supplies were exhausted. The Sanitary
Commission cupboards were also swept
and Sarnished. Almost discouraged, she
wired DR.. Bellows, New York City;
Gen. Logan coming with 10000 hungry
men and not cracker in the city; send
supplies"
Six hoGrs later-and it was Sunday
Dr. Beliowss congregation, 90 whom he
read the telegram, had filed five cars to
their limit and started them to Washing
ton, where they arrived ar 10 o'clock that
night, to find the tired, hungry army
biyouacking in Alexandria, unfed.
Under protests Of the officers, Mother
Bickerdyke and the Sanitary Commission
agent unloaded the supplies and issued a
small ration to each of the famished men.
After that they called her Elijah"
AT THE GRAND REVIEW.
Mother Bickerdyke established her
tents and ambulances at | street and
Pennsylvania avenue, and gave her
They'll die in the middle of all that
flummery, if somebody don't do something
for them," she declared.
Hastily and imperfectly, the writer has
tried to tell few of the important war
incidents in this remarkable wOman's life.
To the tender, motherly side of this
| blessed wOmans heart, as she cared per-
soBally for hundreds of shOt-tO-pieces sol
dierS, and those far gone in wasting dis
ease, while she washed and cooked for
whole armies in the general hospitals, dis
| penseG thousands of dollars worth of hos
|
| of negro servants, no notice can be given.
In letters of gold these tender touches
| about her are printed on page after page
| of every history of the war ever written.
Even in those huge tones, Records Of
the Rebellion" she has her official place.
NOT a MONEY MAKER. ..e-
Strange to say, this woman, to whom
a 500 bill had as little significance as
copper penny, in her own bank account,
and whose own pOcket-bOOk was always
| fiat as q founder, had the books, receipts
and vouchers to show that of the hum
dreds of thousands Of dollars that passed
through her hands in supplies and money
| from different sources, not single penny
was unaccOuntei for when her service
as an Army Nurse closed at Camp But
Ter in 1866. She ended her heroic service
with the clothes on her back to her ac-
count, end, excepting her two little boys,
cared for in boarding-school she had
nothing else on earth save the relics and
| little mementoes naturally accumulated.
In 1867 Mother Bckerdyke took her
two bright young sons and went to Kan
sas, settling at Salina. During the grass
hopper raids, Indian outbreaks and cy-
ciOnic devastation, she was again tower
Of strength to the people of the State.
Mother Bickerdyke could not make
money for herself, and failed. Her house
was Il veritable Home for the Friend
| less, ana she was often imposed upon.
Then came the Chicago IRE, and the
Fitch & Gould Railroad placed i'll her
hands to be used at her discretion $4,000
for relief of the Michigan forest and Chi
cago fire sufferers. This woman, who
could not be trusted to spend 10 cents
Of her own money judiciously. was con-
stantly entrusted with magnificent sums
for charitable work, for which she ac-
counted to a quarter cent.
| In 1874 her boys, grown to manhOOds
| estate, begged her to come and make them
Il home, now that their school days were
ended. and she went. That year the
! blacliness of utter deSOlation followed in
the wake of 4 grasshoppcr plague. Mother
| Bckcrlyke, then living at Great Bend,
Kan, again took up her work. Its re-
suit: The angels can tell that best. The
| Kansas Legislature thanked her specially,
and a fine portrait of her in oils hangs
| in the State Capitol alongside of other
distinguished KansanS
At the end of that awful Summer,
when famine Stalicd the prairies of Kan
sas, Mother Bickerdyke, Tor the first time
in her life, gave up. She folded her
hands and said pathetically, Il am weary.
| Let me rest. -
Out in California We're hundreds of her
boys with their families, and they sent
! for her to visit the Golden State. Two
happy years she journeyed among them;
then, through Gen. Logan, she was given
IL place in the Mint in San Francisco, and