Woman's Work in the Civil War Part 44

In an address delivered at a meeting of ladies in Brooklyn, New York, in March, 1865, Mrs. Hoge thus spoke of her work and that of the women, who like her, had given themselves to the duty of endeavoring to provide for the sick and suffering soldier:

"The women of the land, with swelling hearts and uplifted eyes asked 'Lord, what wilt thou have us to do?' The marvellous organization of the United States Sanitary Commission, with its various modes of heavenly activity, pointed out the way, saying 'The men must fight, the women must work, this is the way, follow me.' In accepting this call, there has been no reservation. Duty has been taken up, in whatever shape presented, nothing refused that would soothe a sorrow, staunch a wound, or heal the sickness of the humblest soldier in the ranks. Some have drifted into positions entirely new and heretofore avoided. They have gone forth from the bosom of their families, to visit hospitals, camps, and battle-fields; some even to appear as we do before you to-day, to plead for aid for our sick and wounded soldiers suffering and dying that we may live. The memory of their heroism is inspiring--the recollection of their patience and long-suffering is overwhelming. They form the most striking human exemplification of divine meekness and submission, the world has ever seen, and bring to mind continually the pa.s.sage, 'He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.'"

During the continuance of her labors, Mrs. Hoge was frequently the recipient of costly and elegant gifts, as testimonials of the respect and grat.i.tude with which her exertions were viewed.

After a visit to the Ladies' Aid Society, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, she was presented by them with a testimonial, beautifully engrossed upon parchment, surmounted by an exquisitely painted Union flag.

The managers of the Philadelphia Fair, believing Mrs. Hoge to have had an important connection with that fair, presented to her a beautiful gift, in token of their appreciation of her services.

The Women's Relief a.s.sociation, of Brooklyn, New York, presented her an elegant silver vase.

During the second Sanitary Fair in Chicago, a few friends presented her with a beautiful silver cup, bearing a suitable inscription in Latin, and during the same fair, she received as a gift a Roman bell of green bronze, or verd antique, of rare workmans.h.i.+p, and value, as an object of art.

Mrs. Hoge made three expeditions to the Army of the Southwest, and personally visited and ministered to more than one hundred thousand men in hospitals. Few among the many efficient workers, which the war called from the ease and retirement of home, can submit to the public a record of labors as efficient, varied, and long-continued, as hers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE Eng^d. by A.H. Ritchie.]

MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE.

Few of the busy and active laborers in the broad field of woman's effort during the war, have been more widely or favorably known than Mrs.

Livermore. Her labors, with her pen, commenced with the commencement of the war; and in various spheres of effort, were faithfully and energetically given to the cause of the soldier and humanity, until a hard-won peace had once more "perched upon our banners," and the need of them, at least in that specific direction, no longer existed.

Mrs. Livermore is a native of Boston, where her childhood and girlhood were pa.s.sed. At fourteen years of age she was a medal scholar of the "Hanc.o.c.k School," of that city, and three years later, she graduated from the "Charlestown (Ma.s.s.), Female Seminary," when she became connected with its Board of Instruction, as Teacher of Latin, French and Italian. With the exception of two years spent in the south of Virginia,--whence she returned an uncompromising anti-slavery woman--her home was in Boston until her marriage, to Rev. D. P. Livermore, after which she resided in its near vicinity, until twelve years ago, when with her husband and children she removed West. For the last ten years she has been a resident of Chicago. Her husband is now editor of the _New Covenant_, a paper published in Chicago, Illinois, in advocacy of Universalist sentiments, and, at the same time, of those measures of reform, which tend to elevate and purify erring and sinful human nature. Of this paper Mrs. Livermore is a.s.sociate editor.

Mrs. Livermore is a woman of remarkable talent, and in certain directions even of genius, as the history of her labors in connection with the war amply evinces. Her energy is great, and her executive ability far beyond the average. She is an able writer, striking and picturesque in description, and strong and touching in appeal. She has a fine command of language, and in her conversation or her addresses to a.s.semblies of ladies, one may at once detect the tone and ease of manner of a woman trained to pencraft. She is the author of several books, mostly poems, essays or stories, and is recognized as a member of the literary guild. The columns of her husband's paper furnished her the opportunity she desired of addressing her patriotic appeals to the community, and her vigorous pen was ever at work both in its columns, and those of the other papers that were open to her. During the whole war, even in the busiest times, not a week was pa.s.sed that she did not publish _somewhere_ two or three columns at the least. Letters, incidents, appeals, editorial correspondence,--always something useful, interesting--head and hands were always busy, and the small implement, "mightier than the sword" was never allowed to rust unused in the ink-stand.

Before us, as we write, lies an article published in the New Covenant of May 18th, 1861, and as we see written scarcely a month after the downfall of Fort Sumter. It is ent.i.tled "Woman and the War," and shows how, even at that early day, the patriotism of American women was bearing fruit, and how keenly and sensitively the writer appreciated our peril.

"But no less have we been surprised and moved to admiration by the regeneration of the women of our land. A month ago, and we saw a large cla.s.s, aspiring only to be 'leaders of fas.h.i.+on,' and belles of the ball-room, their deepest anxiety cl.u.s.tering about the fear that the gored skirts, and bell-shaped hoops of the spring mode might not be becoming, and their highest happiness being found in shopping, polking, and the schottisch--pretty, petted, useless, expensive b.u.t.terflies, whose future husbands and children were to be pitied and prayed for. But to-day, we find them lopping off superfluities, retrenching expenditures, deaf to the calls of pleasure, or the mandates of fas.h.i.+on, swept by the incoming patriotism of the time to the loftiest height of womanhood, willing to do, to bear, or to suffer for the beloved country.

The riven fetters of caste and conventionality have dropped at their feet, and they sit together, patrician and plebeian, Catholic and Protestant, and make garments for the poorly-clad soldiery. An order came to Boston for five thousand s.h.i.+rts for the Ma.s.sachusetts troops at the South. Every church in the city sent a delegation of needle-women to 'Union Hall,' a former aristocratic ball-room of Boston; the Catholic priest detailed five hundred sewing-girls to the pious work; suburban towns rang the bell to muster the seamstresses; the patrician Protestant of Beacon Street ran the sewing-machine, while the plebeian Irish Catholic of Broad Street basted--and the s.h.i.+rts were done at the rate of a thousand a day. On Thursday, Miss Dix sent an order for five hundred s.h.i.+rts for the hospital at Was.h.i.+ngton--on Friday they were ready. And this is but one instance, in one city, similar events transpiring in every other large city.

"But the patriotism of the Northern women has been developed in a n.o.bler and more touching manner. We can easily understand how men, catching the contagion of war, fired with enthusiasm, led on by the inspiriting trains of martial music, and feeling their quarrel to be just, can march to the cannon's mouth, where the iron hail rains thickest, and the ranks are mowed down like grain in harvest. But for women to send forth their husbands, sons and brothers to the horrid chances of war, bidding them go with many a tearful 'good-by' and 'G.o.d bless you,' to see them, perhaps, no more--this calls for another sort of heroism. Only women can understand the fierce struggle, and exquisite suffering this sacrifice involves--and which has already been made by thousands."

The inception of that n.o.ble work, and n.o.ble monument of American patriotism, the United States Sanitary Commission, had its date in the early days of the war. We find in all the editorial writings of Mrs.

Livermore, for the year 1861, constant warm allusions to this organization and its work, which show how strongly it commended itself to her judgment, how deeply she was interested in its workings, and how her heart was stirred by an almost uncontrollable impulse to become actively engaged with all her powers in the work.

In the New Covenant for December 18, 1861, we find over the signature of Mrs. Livermore, an earnest appeal to the women of the Northwest for aid, in furnis.h.i.+ng Hospital supplies for the army. A "Sanitary Committee,"

had been formed in Chicago, to co-operate with the United States Sanitary Commission, which had opened an office, and was prepared to receive and forward supplies. These were designed to be sent, almost exclusively, to Western hospitals, and a Soldiers' Festival was at that time being held for the purpose of collecting aid, and raising funds for this Committee, to use in its charitable work.

This Committee did not long preserve a separate existence. About the beginning of the year 1862, the Northwestern branch of the United States Sanitary Commission was organized at Chicago, composed of some of the leading and most influential citizens of that city, and others in the Northwestern States. It at once became a power in the land, an instrument of almost incalculable good.

Soon afterward, Mrs. Livermore, and Mrs. A. H. Hoge, one of the most earnest, able and indefatigable of the women working in connection with the Sanitary Commission, and a resident of Chicago, were appointed agents of the Northwestern Commission, and immediately commenced their labors.

The writer is not aware that a complete and separate sketch of either the joint or individual labors of these ladies exists. For the outline of those of Mrs. Livermore, dependence is mostly made upon her communications to the New Covenant, and other Journals--upon articles not written with the design of furnis.h.i.+ng information of personal effort, so much, as to give such statements of the soldier's need, and of the various efforts in that direction, as together with appeals, and exhortations to renewed benevolence and sacrifice, might best keep the public mind constantly stimulated and excited to fresh endeavor.

Running through these papers, we find everywhere evidences of the intense loyalty of this gifted woman, and also of the deep and equally outspoken scorn with which she regarded every evidence of treasonable opinion, or of sympathy with secession, on the part of army leaders, or the civil authorities. The reader will remember the repulse experienced in the winter of 1861-2, by the Hutchinsons, those sweet singers, whose "voices have ever been heard chanting the songs of Freedom--always lifted in harmonious accord in support of every good and n.o.ble cause."

Mrs. Livermore's spirit was stirred by the story of their wrongs, and thus in keenest sarcasm, she gave utterance to her scorn of this weak and foolish deed of military tyrants encamping a winter through, before empty forts and Quaker guns, while they ventured only to make war upon girls: "While the whole country has been waiting in breathless suspense for six months, each one of which has seemed an eternity to the loyal people of the North, for the 'grand forward movement' of the army, which is to cut the Gordian knot of the rebellion, and perform unspeakable prodigies, not lawful for man to utter, a backward movement has been executed on the banks of the Potomac, by the valiant commanders there stationed, for which none of us were prepared. No person, even though his imagination possessed a seven-leagued-boot-power of travel, could have antic.i.p.ated the last great exploit of our generals, whose energies thus far, have been devoted to the achieving of a 'masterly inactivity.'

The 'forward movement' has receded and receded, like the cup of Tantalus, but the backward movement came suddenly upon us, like a thief in the night."

"The Hutchinson family, than whom no sweeter songsters gladden this sorrow-darkened world, have been singing in Was.h.i.+ngton, to the President, and to immense audiences, everywhere giving unmixed delight.

Week before last they obtained a pa.s.s to the camps the other side of the Potomac, with the laudable purpose of spending a month among them, cheering the hearts of the soldiers, and enlivening the monotonous and barren camp life with their sweet melody. But they ventured to sing a patriotic song--a beautiful song of Whittier's, which gave offense to a few semi-secessionists among the officers of the army, for which they were severely reprimanded by Generals Franklin and Kearny, their pa.s.s revoked by General McClellan, and they driven back to Was.h.i.+ngton. A backward movement was ordered instanter, and no sooner ordered, than executed. Brave Franklin! heroic Kearny! victorious McClellan! why did ye not order a Te Deum on the occasion of this great victory over a band of Vermont minstrels, half of whom were--girls! How must the hearts of the ill.u.s.trious West-Pointers have pit-a-patted with joy, and dilated with triumph, as they saw the Hutchinson troupe--Asa B., and Lizzie C., little Dennett and Freddy, _naive_ Viola, melodeon and all--scampering back through the mud, bowed beneath the weight of their military displeasure! Per contra to this expulsion, be it remembered that it occurred within sight of the residence of a family, in which there are some five or six young ladies, who, it is alleged, have been promised "pa.s.ses" to go South whenever they are disposed to do so,--carrying, of course, all the information they can for the enemy. The bands of the regiments are also sent to serenade them, and on these occasions orders are given _to suppress the national airs_, as being offensive to these traitors in crinoline."

During the year 1862, Mrs. Livermore, besides the constant flow of communications from her pen, visited the army at various points, and in company with her friend, Mrs. Hoge, travelled over the Northwestern states, organizing numerous Aid Societies among the women of those states, who were found everywhere anxious for the privilege of working for the soldiers, and only desirous of knowing how best to accomplish this purpose, and through what channel they might best forward their benefactions.

In December of that year, the Sanitary Commission called a council, or convention of its members and branches at Was.h.i.+ngton, desiring that every Branch Commission in the North should be represented by at least two ladies thoroughly acquainted with its workings, who had been connected with it from the first. Mrs. Hoge and Mrs. Livermore were appointed by the Chicago Branch.

They accordingly proceeded to Was.h.i.+ngton--a long and arduous journey in mid winter, but these were not women to grudge toil or sacrifice, nor to shrink from duty.

Both these ladies had laid their talents upon the altar of the cause in which they were engaged, and both felt the pressing necessity at that time of a determined effort to relieve the frightful existing need.

Sanitary supplies were decidedly on the decrease, while the demand for their increase was most piteously pressing. There was a strong call for the coming "council" of friends.

There were hindrances and delays. Delay at starting, in taking a regiment on board the cars, necessitating other delays, and waiting for trains on time through the whole distance.

The days spent in Was.h.i.+ngton were filled with good deeds, and a thousand incidents all connected in some way with the great work. Of the results of that council, the public was long since informed, and few who were interested in the work, did not learn to appreciate the more earnest labor, the greater sacrifice and self-devotion which soon spread from it through the country. Spirits, self-consecrated to so holy a work, could scarcely meet without the kindling of a flame that should spread all over the country, till every tender woman's heart, in all the land, had been touched by it, to the accomplishment of greater and brighter deeds.

While in Was.h.i.+ngton, Mrs. Livermore spent a day at the camp near Alexandria, set apart for convalescents from the hospitals, and known as "Camp Misery." The suffering there, as we have already stated in the sketch of Miss Amy M. Bradley's labors, was terrible from insufficient food, clothing and fuel, from want of drainage, and many other causes, any one of which might well have proved fatal to the feeble sufferers there crowded together. The pen of Mrs. Livermore carried the story of these wrongs all around the land. While she was in Was.h.i.+ngton, eighteen half sick soldiers died at the camp in one night, from cold and starvation. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," and the blood of these soaking into the soil where dwelt patriotic, warm-souled men and women, presently produced a n.o.ble growth and fruitage of charity, and sacrifice, and blessed deeds.

Mrs. Livermore has given her impressions of the President, gained from a visit made to the White House during this stay. She was one capable fully of appreciating the n.o.ble, simple, yet lofty nature of Abraham Lincoln.

Early in this year, Mrs. Livermore made a tour of the hospitals and military posts scattered along the Mississippi river. She was everywhere a messenger of good tidings. Sanitary supplies and cheering words seem to have been always about equally appreciated among the troops.

Volunteers, fresh from home, and the quiet comfort of domestic life, willing to fight, and if need be die for the glorious idea of freedom, they yet had no thought of war as a profession. It was a sad, stern incident in their lives, but not the life they longed for, or meant to follow. Anything that was like home, the sight of a woman's face, or the sound of her voice, and all the sordid hardness of their present lives, all the martial pageantry faded away, and they remembered only that they were sons, brothers, husbands and fathers. Everywhere her reception was a kind, a respectful, and even a grateful one.

There was much sickness among the troops, and the fearful ravages of scurvy and the deadly malaria of the swamps and bottom-lands along the great river were enemies far more to be dreaded than the thunder of artillery, or the hurtling sh.e.l.ls.

During this trip she found in the hospitals, at St. Louis, and elsewhere, large numbers of female nurses, and ladies who had volunteered to perform these services temporarily. The surgeons were at that time, almost without exception, opposed to their being employed in the hospitals, though their services were afterwards, as the need increased, greatly desired and warmly welcomed. For these she soon succeeded in finding opportunities for rendering the service which they desired to the sick and wounded.

Were it possible in the s.p.a.ce allowed for this sketch, to give a t.i.the of the incidents which came under the eyes of Mrs. Livermore, or even a small portion of her observations in steamer, train, or hospital, some idea of the magnitude and importance of her work might be gained. But this we cannot do, and must content ourselves with this partial allusion to her constant and indefatigable labors.

The premonitory symptoms of scurvy in the camps around Vicksburg, and its actual existence in many cases in the hospitals, so aroused the sympathies of Mrs. Livermore and Mrs. Hoge, on a second visit to these camps, that after warning General Grant of the danger which his medical directors had previously concealed from him, these two ladies hastened up the river, and by their earnest appeals and their stirring and eloquent circulars asking for onions, potatoes, and other vegetables, they soon awakened such an interest, that within three weeks, over a thousand bushels of potatoes and onions were forwarded to the army, and by their timely distribution saved it from imminent peril.

In the autumn of 1863, the great Northwestern Sanitary Fair, the first of that series of similar fairs which united the North in a bond of large and wide-spread charity, occurred. It was Mrs. Livermore who suggested and planned the first fair, which netted almost one hundred thousand dollars to the Sanitary Commission. Mrs. Hoge, had at first, no confidence in the project, but she afterward joined it, and giving it her earnest aid, helped to carry it to a successful conclusion. It was indeed a giant plan, and it may be chiefly credited, from its inception to its fortunate close, to these indefatigable and skilful workers. The writer of this sketch was present at the convention of women of the Northwest called to meet at Chicago, and consider the feasibility of the project, and was forcibly impressed with the great and real power, the concentrated moral force, contained in that meeting, and left its doors without one doubt of the complete and ultimate success of the plan discussed. Mrs. Livermore held there a commanding position. A brilliant and earnest speaker, her words seemed to sway the attentive throng. Her commanding person, added to the power of her words. Gathered upon the platform of Bryan Hall, were Mrs. Hoge, Mrs. Colt, of Milwaukee, and many more, perhaps less widely known, but bearing upon their faces and in their att.i.tudes, the impress of cultured minds, and an earnest active resolve to do, which seemed to insure success. Mrs. Livermore, seated below the platform, from time to time pa.s.sed among the crowd, and her suggestions whether quietly made to individuals, or given in her clear ringing voice, and well selected language to the convention, were everywhere received with respect and deference. As all know, this fair which was about three months in course of preparation, was on a mammoth scale, and was a great success, and this result was no doubt greatly owing to the presence of that quality, which like every born leader, Mrs. Livermore evidently possesses--that of knowing how to select judiciously, the subordinates and instruments to be employed to carry out the plans which have originated in her mind.

When this fair had been brought to a successful close, Mrs. Livermore returned to the particular work of her agency. When not traveling on the business connected with it, she spent many busy days at the rooms of the Commission in Chicago. The history of some of those days she has written--a history full of pathos and illuminated with scores of examples of n.o.ble and worthy deeds--of the sacrifices of hard-worked busy women for the soldiers--of tender self-sacrificing wives concealing poverty and sorrow, and swallowing bitter tears, and whispering no word of sorrows hard to bear, that the husband, far away fighting for his country, might never know of their sufferings; of the small but fervently offered alms of little children, of the anguish of parents waiting the arrival through this channel of tidings of their wounded or their dead; of heroic nurses going forth to their sad labors in the hospitals, with their lives in their hands, or returning in their coffins, or with broken health, the sole reward, beside the soldiers'

thanks, for all their devotion.

Journey after journey Mrs. Livermore made, during the next two years, in pursuance of her mission, till her name and person were familiar not only in the camps and hospitals of the great West, but in the a.s.semblies of patriotic women in the Eastern and Middle States. And all the time the tireless pen paused not in its blessed work.

In the spring of 1865, another fair was in contemplation. As before, Mrs. Livermore visited the Eastern cities, for the purpose of obtaining aid in her project, and as before was most successful.

In pursuance of this object, she made a flying visit to Was.h.i.+ngton, her chief purpose being to induce the President to attend the fair, and add the eclat of his presence and that of Mrs. Lincoln, to the brilliant occasion. An account of her interview with him whom she was never again to see in life, which, with her impressions of his character, we gain from her correspondence with the New Covenant, is appended.

"Our first effort was to obtain an interview with the President and Mrs. Lincoln--and this, by the way, is usually the first effort of all new comers. We were deputized to invite our Chief Magistrate to attend the great Northwestern Fair, to be held in May--and this was our errand.

With the escort of a Senator, who takes precedence of all other visitors, it is very easy to obtain an interview with the President, and as we were favored in this respect, we were ushered into the audience chamber without much delay. The President received us kindly, as he does all who approach him. He was already apprised of the fair, and spoke of it with much interest, and with a desire to attend it. He gave us a most laughable account of his visit to the Philadelphia Fair, when, as he expressed it, 'for two miles it was all people, where it wasn't houses,'