Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-03-21

| she could know they were dead, instead
| OF living in torture. and that other wo-
man, her neighbor in the tiny town, who
came home from church one Sunday
noon to find three collins at her front
! door Yet no woman stopped WORKING;
for somebody else's boys Women still
living who remember-rather. who can
not forget-those days say that all wo-
men worked for the soldiers, regardless
of whether they were in favor of the war
| or not, and all worked together regard
| less of social position or wealth or creed
or previous condition of family feuds.
To Boston one Thursday Dorothea Dix
! sent an order for five hundred shirts for
her hospital in Washington. On Friday
| women of Beacon street and of the slums
of the South End cut, made and packed
| those five hundred shirts and sent them
on their way that very night.
Supplies that were sent to the front
nearly always bore messages to the SOL
diers like these:
"These socks are the 191st pair knit for
our brave boys by Mrs. Abner Bartlett,
of Medford, Mass, now aged IS years
'Dear Soldiers: The little girls of --
1900 Of you are sick and have been
wounded In battle. They are very sorry
and want to do something for you. They
cannot do much, for they are all small;
but they have bought with their own
money and made what is in here"
And this exhumed from box contain
ing bushel of cookies tied in a pillow
case.
These cookies are expressly for the
sick soldiers. and IL anybody else eats
them ] hope they will choke him.
one woman in her zeal tore up for
bandages some linen tabiecloths nearly
two hundred years old, which she said
no money could have purchased. An
other, so poor she had nothing to give.
tramped on foot and through the snow
until she had begged 800 bushels of
wheat which she sold, sending the
money to the aid society, of her town.
The organization of women's work in
the war was as remarkable as its devo-
ton. Eleven days after the fall of Fort
Sumpter in New York City the ''Woman's
Central Relief Association was formed.
with Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler as presi-
dent. In Chicago was the Northwestern
Sanitary Commission" headed by Mrs.
more. whose "reminiscences. MY Story of
the War; is one of the important books
that have been written on the women of
the war. The others being "Women's
Work in the Civil War by L. P. Brock
EFT and Mary c. Vaughan. and Women
of the War" by Frank Moore written
soon after the close of the rebellion. So
great has been public interest in this
side of the war;
These women's relief societies all over
the country were soon merged in the ia
nous sanitary commission which was un-
der government control and had full
charge of the welfare work for the SOL
ders, being reckoned by Mr.. Moore to
have saved more than $4,000 lives.
A series of great sanitary fairs was
held all over the country To the Chica-
go one President Lincoln donated the
original manuscript of the Emancipation
Proclamation. though he wanted it him.
self. The woman's Relief Association of
Brooklyn and Long Island raised $4,000
at their fair. due to the enormous execu-
tive ability of their president. Mrs. Mari
anne f. Stranahan
The bravery of the women who stayed
at home and sent their loved ones into
equalled by another class of women
whom the nation is to honor-after %
years-tllose who went into the battles
and the camps themselves TO nurse the
soldiers. Delicate, high-born young girls
many of them were-a thousand were
sent home Dorothea Dix was first on
the front. nursing the wounded after the
Baltimore mob In June, 1861. she was
L
without salary. and upon her rested
the responsibility of choosing the women
who had strength and courage necessary
for the task. Part of her wisdom was In
choosing homely ones.
Most picturesque perhaps, of all the
army nurses, though columns should be
written about EACH was Mother Bicker-
dyke" She made the private soldiers
her care. saying they were dear to some
body and she would be a mother to them
That homely figure. clad in calico
wrapped in a shawl and surmounted with
a shaker bonnet, is more to this army
than the Madonna to a Catholic" one OF
the officers said. She was of humble
birth and of rough speech. careless of
her personal appearance: her calico dress
was always catching on fire and she
WOULD De put out Dy one Oh Hef boys
and go on with her work in, her scorched
dress She was a genius in executive
ability and indomitable in will she
would berate unfaithfu stewards with a
terrible vehemence. One morning ne
surgeon was drunk and the men In tine
hospital had had no breakfast.
Here these men,, any one OF them
worth a thousand of YOU. are suffered to
starve and die" she shouted at him. ''all
because you want to be off upon drunk.
Pull off your shoulder straps. for you
shall not stay in the army week
longer"
The man was discharged and he APP
pealed to General Sherman.
oh" said the general. TITS Mother
Bickerdyke? Then 1 can do nothing .or
you. She outranks me-"
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SPARKS FROM MAINE WIRES.