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336 Philadelphia, where her husband was very ill. As soon as he recovered sufficiently he was ordered to Washington, where with his wife he prepared the food for the invalid corps camp. They stayed there sixteen months, when her husband was honorably discharged from the army, and they went home to live in well-earned peace.

Perhaps among all who labored for the soldiers "during the Civil War no name is better known than that of Mrs. A. H. Hoge. She dedicated to the service of her country all that she had to bestow, and became widely known as one of the most faithful and tireless workers; wise in counsel, strong in judgment, earnest in action. She was born in Philadelphia, and was the daughter of George B. Blaikie, Esq., an East India shipping merchant — "a man of spotless character and exalted reputation, whose name is held in reverence by many still living there." Mrs. Hoge was educated at the celebrated seminary of John Brewer, A. M. In her twentieth year she was married to Mr. Hoge a merchant in Pittsburgh, where she lived fourteen years. At the end of that period she moved to Chicago, where she became identified with Mrs. Livermore in her work for the soldiers. Two of her sons entered the army at the very beginning of the war, and she at once began her unwearied personal services for the sick and the wounded. At first she entered only into that work of supply in which so large a portion of the loyal women of the North labored continuously all through the war. The first public act of her life as a sanitary agent was to visit at the request of the Chicago Branch of the United States Sanitary Commission, the hospitals at Cairo, Mound City and St. Louis. The object of these visits was to examine such hospitals as were under the immediate supervision of this branch and report their conditions. This report was made and acted upon and was the means of introducing decided and much-needed reforms into similar institutions.

The value of Mrs. Hoge's counsel and the fruits of her great experience of life were immediately acknowledged. In several councils of women held in Washington she took a prominent part and was always listened to with the greatest respect and attention. When she attended the Woman's Council there in 1862, she was accompanied by her friend and fellow laborer, Mrs. Livermore, and after their return to Chicago they immediately began the organization of the Northwest for sanitary labor, being appointed agents of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission. They devoted their entire time to this work opening a correspondence with the leading women in all the cities and prominent towns of the Northwest. They prepared and distributed great numbers of circulars relating to the necessity of a concentrated effort of the aid societies, and they visited in person many towns and large villages, calling together audiences of women and telling them of the hardships, sufferings and heroism of the soldiers, which they had themselves witnessed, and of the pressing needs of these men, which could only be met by the supplies and work contributed by loyal women of the North. Thus they stimulated the enthusiasm of the women to the highest point, greatly increased the number of aid societies, and taught them how, by