The Washington times., 1919-01-23

tition after petition went to Congress
to grant her a pension in recognition
of her services. but none was ever
granted. The white Angel" never
complained. She never regretted the
money she spent NOR the years she
worked
A girl of twenty three, but already
a wife and a mother, with a fortune
of $1,000 princely sum nifty years
ago-she was living the life, OF a cul-
tured Southern aristocrat at her home
in Winchester, Tenn, when the South
ern States seeded from the Union.
Fired with enthusiasm for the cause
of the South, in which she thoroughly
believed, she loaded a freight car win
hospital supplies and went to Bowl
ing Green, where, just behind the fr-
ing line. she began her, work of succcr
and relief. She found the dead and
dying huddled together in barns and
on the bare ground.
Nur.ed for Four Years.
l. was impossible to walk through
the rows of stricken men, so she
crawled on her hands and knees to
reach those to whom aid had not come
too late. That was the beginning of
four years OF nursing wounded and
supplying hospitals>for the Confeder-
ate army. She earned her title of
white Angel because she seemed
almost superhuman to the men under
her care. She never seemed to know
fatigue and the men came to weave
superstitious legends around her, be-
lieving her power came from above
and beyond.
Those were the days before. the
telephone and telegraph and, this
great-hearted woman. who was an ex-
pert horsewoman, acted many time
as dispatch rider for the Copfederaey
and carried safe in her bosom secrets
the Union officers would have given a
kings ransom to hase known. Again
and again she narrowly escaped cap
ture. Every soldier who saw action
around Bowling Green, Nashville,
Memphis, Chattanooga, Corinth. and
Atlanta had reason to remember and
bless Mrs. Newsome, for she literally
followed the army wherever the tide
and turn of battle went.
Born Ella King, the daughter OF
Baptist clergyman, in Brandon. Miss,
she married Dr. frank Newsom,
wealthy SOutherne He died after a
few years and left her a fortune. 1t
was this money she devoted to the
South. After the war she married a
gallant Confederate officer, Col. W.
II. Trader. He lived but a few years,
and at his death Mrs. Trader was
practically destitute. She came to
Washington and obtained work in
the Pension Office.
Follows Retreating Army.
Quite the most monumental of her
evil war work was at Nashville, Tenp.,
where she organized the Howard High
school into a hospital for the sick and
wounded from Forts Donaldson and
Henry. When those strongholds fell
she showed remarkable executive abil-
ity in moving the. wounded to Win
chester Tenn. She then proceeded to
turn churches and schools into hos
pitals and so wonderful was her work
that the place was known as sol.
diers' Paradise"
She retreated with the army to Cor
inth and cared for the thousands who
were carried from the bloody field
of Shiloh on April 9 and In '62. She
was the close and trusted friend of
all the great Confederate generals
from that day on.
At the services today at the home
1913 y street northwest, representa-
tivcs of all the Confederate societies
paid homage to a memory that will be
treasured as long as Southern blood
flows. in Southern veins, and TO her
grave in Rock Creek Cemetery. the
grandchildren of the men she served
will Journey as pilgrims to a shrine
"a shrine of the glory of Southern