The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-06-13
THE VOLUNTEERS WIFE.
Was the Real Hero and Martyr Of
1ba Civil War.

Was the Real Hero and Martyr Of
the Civil War. ...-s-.-
1T knew by the light in his deep. dark
eye,
When he heard the roll of the muster
That he never would fold his hands and
sigh
over the evil that was to come.
knew that the blood of his patriot sire
Ran through his veins like stream Oi
fire,
So I took his hand and I bade him go;
And he never dreamed that 1t grleVeo
me sou
This verse of an old song, THE vol
unteers Wife," heard, but not under
stood, by my childish ears in the war
DAYS of the sixties, often comes back
to me when l think of those who were
the most real and suffering martyrs
of the civil war-the soldiers wives.
The soldier who marched away from
home and his dear ones had still one
thing to be thankful for. He was
"on the move" and he was where
duty called him in an hour OF su-
preme need. But to stay at home, 10
wait, in fear and anxiety, to save ana
scrimp to keep things together, as did
so many of the wives of soldiers for
long three, and sometimes four
years. that was a bitter lot.
But how bravely, for the most part
did American women bear the Our-
dens laid upon them by merciless war;.
Without the loyal devotion of Amer
ican women the war for the union
would indeed have been the failure
which many people wanted 1t to De.
The women who lived out the days
of the war have, many of them, gone
to their reward. Many of them L
knew, struggling women who, left Wld-
owed. with children to bring up and
educate, had taken up the responsible
ity and courageously carried through
the task.
I remember one little woman who
used to draw, at the Chicago pension
agency, her small pension for herself
and three children under the age or
16 years. Left with no means OF sup
port. her husband having been killed
in one of the latest battles of the war.
this woman looked around for some
way by which she could care for her
self and little ones.
1t was before many avenues OF
earning livelihood had been opened
to women. This one, being good
cook, chose to perfect herself as
maker of fine pastry. She soon Sc
cured place as pastry cook in
Chicago hotel. and in that way she
earned enough to support and edu
cate her children. One Of her boys
is now a well-established man of prop
erty and influence here in Chicago.
The widows of soldiers went int
stores as clerks, and into offices ant
factories, and soon the great woman
movement" for industrial activity,
chance to earn a living, became
recognized thing.
Nothing ever seen in the world wa
more fine and good than this maxim!
the best of a sad fate by the widow
ed thousands of the great armies 0
north and south.
In the country women managed an
worked on farms, sold and bought an
traded and made for themselves an
their children homes in the desolat
world.
hope that no one will ever forge
the womanhood of American life i
, the sixties any more than can
forgotten the splendid manhood ~hio
sprang to arms at the call of patriot
ism.
Il Let us remind ourselves sometime
of the mothers of 81 and their grea
sacrifices, urges Ada c. Sweet, in Oh
cago Journal, for they, as we'll as tn
fathers, deserved well of their couI
& try.