The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-14

human sympathy was dead, there came
through the reaking gate a procession of
.long-veiled, pale-faced women, with their
Bibles and little baskets of medicines and
food for the sick-(GOod bless them. every
onel-and they continued their visits daily
until we were emoved to Columbi I will
also be pardoned the mention of another in
cldent OF which l was one Of the benefi-
Charles. Where two young women, without
request or hope of material reward, after
the hour of midnight, walked, unattended,
Tour miles and back over a wild mountain
path, in quest of some guides for four
young federal soldiers whom they had
undertaken to assist and whom they had
never Known or seen before that day ana
who were bound TO them by no stronger
tie than that which binds TO the Creator
all the human family. That these latter IN
cldents were by women of the South makes
no difference. The opportunity was 10
them and not TO their sisters of the North.
L have in my knowledge young women or
refinement, whose husbands and brothers
had gone to the war, who uncomplainlngly
quit their parlors and music and went 10
the fields, with teams of horses, plOWS ana
machinery, and did the common drudgery
of the farm. There is nothing they would
not dare TO sustain the army. An indiScfeet
wearing as a neckpin a section of a butter
nut typifying the color of the uniform
worn by the Confederate soldiers. Marga-
ret White, a young lady in her teens, Whcn
the benediction was pronounced, turned IN
her seat and furiously snatched off the pin
with disastrous effect to the girls wearing
apparel and precipitated a fight that came
near producing q riot in the church. Miss
White was arrested for assault and bat
terry and promptly acquitted by a Hen
bricks county jury. L could ndennlteiy
multiply these instances as furtner nus,
trating the strenuous zeal OF the women
in support of the war. And L feel J~ustlned
in saying that 1t was their enthusiasm
their overwhelming faith in the army,
their irresistible vigilance and energy,
more than any other cause, that kept sub
dued the spirit of disloyaIty that existed in
some parts of the North.
WOMEN CHIEF SUFFERERS
"I have said that the women were the
chief sufferers of the war-not in a ma
terial, but sentimental, sense-especially
the wives and mothers. At the front we
had sunshine as well as shadow. The bad
weather didn't last long. The hard marches
were infrequent. The rations were gener-
ally good. The battles were soon over, and
the balance of the time we were truly a
jolly contented set of fellows. Once in the
field and away from home and sympathy
and cured of homesickness and our bodies
toughened to the march and beds on the
ground, there grew from the spirit of COM
radeShip and association a condition OF
contentment and real happiness seldom
surpassed in civil life. The vigor we felt
from our simple but substantial ration;
the ease with which we performed the ordi-
nary march; the pleasantries enjoyed on
the way; the fascinating adventures OF
foraging; the friendly contentious over the
choice places at the bivouac; the rally for
rails; the rythmical crackle of our camp
fires; the jOcund simmer of the coffee; the
appetizing odor of the sizzling, squirming
doubling slice of bacon at the end of a
stick; the keen relish with which we ate
our nutritious, satisfying supper; the after
supper pipe; the stories; the songs, the
"reminiscences of home; the night of peace
full. restful sleep upon our blankets spread
under the ethereal blue-apsolutely no care,
no headache, no reproving conscience, made
up a season of our lives. if we could again
be young we would not hesitate to live
over. Besides companions, the acme OF
human happiness, that supremest point of
human ecstasy that comes to the soldier
after the victorious battle, and duty well
performed, is never known or felt outside
the army. While the smoke of the battle
is still in the nostrils and the burnt powder
of the conflict still upon the blackened
hands and face, to feel for a single hour
that you have done something heroic for
country and humanity is compensation
strong for a multitude of trials.
lit was not so with wife and mother.
Not a ray of sunshine fell upon her life
till the absentee returned. Hunger, thirst,
hardship, suffering, battles, bleeding, dy-
ing, were with her every hour. In her
waking her tears flowed for what might
be so. In her dreams she moaned and
sighed for what seemed TO be so. 1t was
to her a night of sorrowing heart that had
mo, companions, your lOtS may nave
been hard-you may have tramped with
Sherman TO the sea-; you may have been
with Grant when the sound of hostile gun
never ceased for thirty days; you may have
been at Gettysburg when the storm of
battle broke on those rugged hills and
swept away the lives of 5000 men; you may
nave been wounded and left helpless on
the battlefield; you may have languished
in a Southern prison, felt the pangs of
hunger and the hopelessness of escape,
but if any and all of these your lot was
not the saddest.
THAT character of anguish which sprang
from anxious love, intensified by the manly
act of lighting for that flag, took possession
of the heart, the life, the soul; that granted
no respite; that lived amid doubts and
fears; that relentlessly intruded into the
presence of every comfort and pleasure,
was shared only by those noble. patriotic
women what watched and waited at the
gate"
The applause that greeted the closing
remarks by Judge Hadley had hardly died
out when Admiral Brown introduced Miss
Bertha Stilwell Stimson. who gave a war
recitation. Following Miss Stimson was a
song by ]. Russell Powell and then the ad-
dress by Meredith Nicholson, what the
Monument Means to U.S." He spoke as
follows: