Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/340

Rh Behind the bluff and unceremonious manner she was all love and tenderness in her great mother heart. An unworthy employee of the hospital corps appeared before her one day fully dressed in the clothing of the Sanitary Commission, of which she was in charge. She said nothing, but stepped up to him, unbuttoned the collar, lifted the garments one by one over his head, until he had nothing but the trousers. She then said : "You can, for decency's sake, keep them on until you can run to your tent, take them off, put on your own and send these to me ; do you hear me?" A crowd of soldiers stood near her to protect her. Their shouts and jeers were punishment enough for the unhappy culprit. She rarely had occasion to administer rebukes to offenders more than once, as they soon discovered there was no way of escaping her vigilance.

At the head of the women nurses she followed General Logan's command through all the campaigns from Cairo to the grand review in Washington at the close of the war, and was one of the most conspicuous figures in that review. She took charge of the female nurses who from time to time joined her in her heaven-born work of ministering to the soldiers in camp, in the hospitals and on the battlefield. She had her hospital tents and supplies and quartermasters' wagons, which she pushed to the rear of the lines. She paid no more attention to whistling bullets or booming cannon than did the gallant commanders and dauntless army. She nursed thousands and thousands of officers and men, all of whom have called her blessed.

We have included the biographies of all the patriotic, self-sacrificing women of whom we could obtain any data. We regret that it was not possible to include the name of every woman who laid on the altar of her country her best endeavors for the relief of the sufferers from the inevitable calamities of war.