The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-03-31


we shrink a little from the word. There
were even women who won military hon.
ors and who received titles for their serv'
ice.
Should BE Lieutenant.
DR.. Mary Walker has q right to be
called lieutenant. having received COM
mission from the President for gallantry
and being eligible to companionship In the
Commandery Of the Loyal Legion. but
she has never pressed that claim, although
she has been so insistent upon many Of
the privileges denied to her sex. includ-
| ing the right to appear In the garb that
men wear. In later years the public mas
laughed at the eccentricities Of DR.. Mary
Walker. but II was much beholden to her
| for the services that she rendered In the
dark days of the war.
| Mrs. Turchine, whose husband was q
colonel in the Union army accompanied
I her husband to the war as hospital
nurse, a regimental nurse. and when her
husband was taken Ill his wife led his
troops into action; when he was well
again she resumed nursing. Her HUSBAND
later got into trouble and was ordered to
be court-martialed. Again his plucky
wife went to the rescue. arriving in court
just as he was being pronounced guilty.
bearing his pardon in one hand and a
brigadier's commission in the other.
She Tsrned the Tables.
There is the romantic story of Mrs.
Henderson, whose speciality was foraging
for food in the enemy's country. To be
sure, she usually paid for what she took.
but she was nevertheless unwelcome to
the Southerners. Once, when on one OF
these expeditions, she encountered q
Southern woman. who pointed a pistol At
her Mrs. Henderson was an accomplished
horsewoman, and at the moment Of dan
ger swung underneath her horse. and
coming up covered her opponent with her
pistol in turn. She afterward adopted a
lieutenant's uniform, reporting regularly
at headquarters, and did much spy work.
Frances Miller. an orphan, enlisted In
the Nineteenth Illinois regiment and saw
service of very serious sort. Her
brother was killed and she was captured
at Pittsburg Landing. Jefferson Davis.
hearing of her bravery, offered her a
lieutenant's commission. but she retorted
that she would rather serve as a private
under the Stars and Stripes than as an
officer under the Confederate flag. She
was exchanged, but not pardoned. and
DIR. Mary Walker urged her appointment
as lieutenant, asserting that there was
no sex I'm patriotism.
Recently the story was told in the Her
aid of Kady Brownell. the only woman
member of the G. A. R., who served side
by side with her husband for three years
during the war, was wounded and per-
formed several acts Of conspicuous brav-
cry. The daughter OF Col. lie Gall, Of
the New York Fifty-fifth, was the
vivandiere of, that regiment, and there
was also one in the Indiana regiment
commanded by Gen. Lew Wallace.
Shared Husbands Prison.
Few women went through greater perils
of war for their husbands than Mrs.
Fanny Ricketts,, who, hearing that her
husband, a captain. was wounded, pushed
on over what would have seemed to most
persons insurmountable obstacles until
she came to where he lay. There she
took charge of him and did everything
that lay in human power to improve the
conditions in which she found him. When
he was transferred to prison she went
with him there, shared his deprivations
and endeavored to alleviate them. When
she heard that he was one Of several
who had been selected as hostages under
circumstances that meant almost certain
death she used every means OF setting
influences at work on his behalf among
persons she had previously known. finally
with success, and lived to see him re-
stored to some measure OF health and
honored for his services.
Two girls from Washington. Miss
Graves and Miss Wilson. enlisted in the
Twenty-fourth New Jersey Volunteers,
but Miss Wilson being wounded her sex
was discovered. She was determined to
be a soldier, however. and. going to
Cairo, enlisted in the Third Illinois cav
airy. Miss Etheridge, OF the Third
Michigan, served for three years in every
battle in which her regiment was en-
gagged.
There was the well-known and we'll
liked Irish "Biddy,'' of whom the story
is told that when she was supporting her
wounded husband on the field at Fair
Oaks she saw the blue coats wavering
and shouted, Arab, go in, byes, and
bate the spalpeens and revinge me hus-
band, and God be wild We" The Dyes"
answering with a shout, did 60 In and
win.
Spy Praised by Grant.
The character Of the work that Miss
Elizabeth Van Lew, Of Richmond. Va,
did as a spy may be Judged by the re-
mark that Gen. Grant made to her: You
have sent me the most valuable informa-
ton received from Richmond during the
war" She established nve secret sta
tons for forwarding her cipher dis
paches, the Richmond end of the chain
being the old Van Lew mansion, in Rich
mond. There she received secret agents
and harbored escaped Union prisoners
from Castle Thunder. Libby, and Belle
Isle.
Libby Prison, which stood almost at
her door, was her special care, and
through her ministrations to the prison.
ers there she got much valuable infor-
nation. Miss Van Lew even got one of
her erstwhile slaves, whom she had sent
North In he edJcated. into the ho1aa Of
President Davis as a household servant,
and she was thus able to pick up many
things which she was able to turn to
account. Naturally she Nas deeply hated
by the people of Richmond. and her last
days were spent In poverty, except for
the money sent her from Boston. When
she died in 1900 there was no neighbor
to mark her grave, but her friends from
Massachusetts, sent a bowlder. on which
are inscribed words testifying that she
risked health, friends, and money that
the Union might be preserved and slav-
cry abolished.
Another spy was Miss Emma E. Ed
monds. who was also q nurse, and has
written a book about her thrilling ex-
ploits.
Some idea Of the enthusiasm with which
the women Of the North responded to the
demand for nurses may be had from the
fact that within thirty days Of the Lin
coin call for 5000 men the Women's
Central Association Of New York had
chosen from hundreds Of candidates 100
women to be trained as nurses
In the army hospitals by the physicians
and surgeons Of New York.
s'PIainness" a. b Requisite.
Miss Dorothea Dix Was appointed SUI
perintendent of the female nurses by the
a. yx,S. ~