Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-29
SURVIVING CIVIL WAR NURSES ARE HERE
FOR PROBABLY THEIR LAST ENCAMPMENT
Like the G. A. H. the National Association Is One That Cannot
Be Recruited and Soon Must Die Out-Wear Beauti-
full Badges Designed Especially for Them.
the Gift of the Grand Army Members

| lowing February. On the Gettysburg
field she was given medal for her eff
Gent services by the Sd Division. and
| when she went to get a pass to Brandy
station. where she knew her services
| We're needed, she had but to show this
medal, and the Secretary of War grant
| ed it at once.
| At Brandy station the men built her
a log house. and she remained and
nursed the wounded until April, when
she went to Philadelphia.
| Heroic Work at Belle Plain.
| May, 1864. marked the beginning of
| terrible battles. and Miss Hancock
Iasked to be sent to the front, but every
official approached said it was not the
place for women, but she, with wom-
ans persistence, knowing that she was
needed, and after members of Congress
had been refused in their applications
for her, made application to go as an
assistant to one of the surgeons. This
| was granted, and she proceeded TO
Belle Plain, arriving there May 10. 1854.
| She found several thousand men lying
| in ravines, on hillsides, and in the open ;
some wounded, many sick. most or
whom were Union soldiers. although
! some were from the enemy.s ranks.
After the wants Of all were at
tended to and she could get away. she
went where there was more insistent
call and was the first northern woman
| to enter Fredericksburg. Here she
worked night and day for fortnight,
| not only nursing and being sur
geon's assistant in every way, but max
! ing soup for the sick and wounded and
| furnishing any other thing In the eat
! ing line which they needed.
! After the men had been sent to wash
he o.
companied by another nurse. and gave
aid all along the line of march. She
was successfully at White House Land
| Ing, at City Point, in Richmond after
andria, where she remained for some
time in the hospital established there.
Little Matron's Experiences.
Mrs. Addie L. Ballou is known as ''the
| little matron," and Is of revolutionary
ancestry. While yet child her
family removed still farther to the
| west, settling in northern Wisconsin
while it was but a wilderness. where,
left early motherless, the premature
care of motherless children and other
domestic labors left small opportunity
for the study Of books, and schools
frontier life disposed of all thought of
home culture and left nothing for the
ethical
At the call for troops she attached
herself to the hospital department OF
the 32d Wisconsin Infantry. serving
them in the camp at Oshkosh, where
her valuable services were recognized
and she was prevailed upon to accom-
pany them south, from which time she
became identified with and was duly
sworn in as a part of the regiment, an
adjunct almost unheard of in the mill
tary at that time. For her services
with the regiment she is now an hon
ored penSiOner of Uncle sam py special
act of Congress.
Mrs. Ballou has long been factor of
no small influence in politics. She was
the organizer and has been for several
years the president Of the Woman's Re
fornia and was twice sent by the vot-
ers of her congressional district as a
delegate to the National Republican
League, the only woman ever so rec
ognized in that state.
Saw Shooting Of Gen. Nelson.
Mrc. Joanna Melton. past national
president of the Army Nurses Associ-
alton. lives in Salt Lake City. Utah.
in which city Mrs. Mary e. Lacey. an
other past national president of the
army nurses, also lives.
At the beginning Of the civil war
Mrs. Melton was Mrs. James Jameson.
a young English matron. with little
children. and she babe goodbye to
her husband when he enlisted in the
10th Indiana Battery with a heavy
heart, but still feeling that he was
doing right. After he was gone. q
captain. whose wife was an invalid.
asked Mrs Jameson to take her in her
a good thing for Mrs. Jameson. for
she was a nurse, and when there was
a call for help in the hospital in her
city she could leave her children and
she was sent to Louisville and while
there was an eyewitness to the shoot
ing Of Gen. Nelson. 1t was while there
that she was told that her husband
was a prisoner.
Gov. Morton let her return home and
she did all in her power to have her
husband exchanged. He was finally
exchanged and sent to hospital in
Indianapolis. as he was i'll. His wife
waited upon him until he was able to
go home. After hts recovery she was
sent to camp outside the city, where
sick southern prisoners were confined
and she nursed them night and day for
several months.
She was in camp or hospital with
many prominent people. among them
being Clara Barton and Julia Ward
Howe. She worked at intervals from
1851 until the close Of the war in 1858.
DuL QOtS not TeCtlSe pension. hdF.
Jameson died three months after the
close OF the war. Some time later she
married Mr.. Melton.
Served in Hospitals Here.
Mrs Mary Ophelia Stevens Of Pea
body. Mass. press correspondent Of the
Army Nurses Association. IL expected
to attend the meetings Of that organ
ization here during the present q. A.
R. encampment.
During the SOS Miss Thompson VOL
unteered for work in hospital At
that time, 1864, the Theological Sem
mary. near Alexandria. Va. was being
used as a general hospital. and she was
sent there. She afterward served in
the Armory Square and Columbia Hos
pitfalls in Washington.
Mrs. Margaret Hamilton was born in
Rochester. N. Y, and developed early
a bent for one of the orderR of the
Roman Catholic Church. Finally her
wish was gratified. when her father
consented to her going In training for
| a sisterhood.
When she had acquired the habit
| of the order she was sent to Albany,
civil war began, and then II was that
/, she wanted to nurse the sick and
wounded, but for time II seemed that
her desires would not be granted. In
1852, however, there came an order
from the mother house for her and
three other sisters to go to Philadel-
| phia to Satterlee Hospital to nurse the
| many men from the front who were
being packed into that hospital. The