SAINT LOUIS LADIES' UNION AID SOCIETY.

President: Mrs. Alfred Clapp; Vice Presidents, Mrs. Samuel C. Davis, Mrs. T. M. Post, Mrs. Robert Anderson; Recording Secretary, Miss H. A. Adams; Treasurer, Mrs. S. B. Kellogg; Corresponding Secretary, Miss Belle Holmes; afterwards, Miss Anna M. Debenham. An Executive Committee was also appointed, several of the members of which, and among the number, Mrs. C. R. Springer, Mrs. S. Palmer, Mrs. Joseph Crawshaw, Mrs. Washington King, Mrs. Charles L. Ely, Mrs. F. F. Maltby, Mrs. C. N. Barker, Miss Susan J. Bell, Miss Eliza S. Glover, and Miss Eliza Page, were indefatigable in their labors for the soldiers.

This Society was from the beginning, active and efficient. It conducted its business with great ability and system, and in every direction made itself felt as a power for good throughout the Mississippi Valley. Its officers visited for a considerable period, fourteen hospitals in the city and vicinity, and were known in the streets by the baskets they carried. Of one of these baskets the recording Secretary, Miss Adams, gives us an interesting inventory in one of her reports: "Within was a bottle of cream, a home-made loaf, fresh eggs, fruit and oysters; stowed away in a corner was a flannel shirt, a sling, a pair of spectacles, a flask of cologne; a convalescent had asked for a lively book, and the lively book was in the basket; there was a dressing-gown for one, and a white muslin handkerchief for another; and paper, envelopes and stamps for all."

The Christian Commission made the ladies of the Society their agents for the distribution of religious reading, and they scattered among the men one hundred and twenty-five thousand pages of tracts, and twenty thousand books and papers.

The Ladies' Union Aid Society, sent delegates to all the earlier battle-fields, as well as to the camps and trenches about Vicksburg, and these ladies returned upon the hospital steamers, pursuing their heroic work, toiling early and late, imperilling in many cases their health, and even their lives, in the midst of the trying and terrible scenes which surrounded them. During the fall and winter of 1862-3, the Society's rooms were open day and evening, for the purpose of bandage-rolling, so great was the demand for supplies of this kind.

Amid their other labors, they were not unmindful of the distress which the families of the soldiers were suffering. So great was the demand for hospital clothing, that they could not supply it alone, and they expended five thousand five hundred dollars received for the purpose from the Western Sanitary Commission, in paying for the labor on seventy-five thousand garments for the hospitals. The Medical Purveyor, learning of their success, offered the Aid Society a large contract for army work. They accepted it, and prepared the work at their rooms, and gave out one hundred and twenty-eight thousand articles to be made, paying out over six thousand dollars for labor. Several other contracts followed, particularly one for two hundred and sixty-one thousand yards of bandages, for the rolling of which six hundred and fifty-two dollars were paid. By these means and a judicious liberality, the Society prevented a great amount of suffering in the families of soldiers. The Benton Barracks Hospital, one of the largest in the West, to which reference has been frequently made in this volume, had for its surgeon-in-charge, that able surgeon and earnest philanthropist, Dr. Ira Russell. Ever anxious to do all in his power for his patients, and satisfied that more skilfully prepared special diet, and in greater variety than the government supplies permitted would be beneficial to them, he requested the ladies of the Union Aid Society, to occupy a reception-room, storeroom, and kitchen at the hospital, in supplying this necessity. Donations intended for the soldiers could be left at these rooms for distribution; fruit, vegetables, and other offerings could here be prepared and issued as required. Thus all outside bounty could be systematized, and the surgeon could regulate the diet of the entire hospital. Miss Bettie Broadhead, was the first superintendent of these rooms which were subsequently enlarged and multiplied. Bills of fare were distributed in each ward every morning; the soldiers wrote their names and numbers opposite the special dishes they desired; the surgeon examined the bills of fare, and if he approved, endorsed them. At the appointed time the dishes distinctly labelled, arrived at their destination in charge of an orderly. Nearly forty-eight thousand dishes were issued in one year.

In the fall of 1863, the Society established a branch at Nashville, Tennessee, Mrs. Barker and Miss H. A. Adams, going thither with five hundred dollars and seventy-two boxes of stores. Miss Adams, though surrounded with difficulties, and finding the surgeons indifferent if not hostile, succeeded in establishing a special diet kitchen, like that at Benton Barracks' Hospital. This subsequently became a very important institution, sixty-two thousand dishes being issued in the single month of August, 1864. The supplies for this kitchen, were mostly furnished by the Pittsburg Subsistence Committee, and Miss Ellen Murdoch, the daughter of the elocutionist to whom we have already referred, in the account of the Pittsburg Branch, prepared the supplies with her own hands, for three months. During this period, no reasonable wish of an invalid ever went ungratified.

This Society also did a considerable work for the freedmen—and the white refugees, in connection with the Western Sanitary Commission. On the formation of the Freedmen's Relief Society, this part of their work was transferred to them.

We have no means of giving definitely the aggregate receipts and disbursements of this efficient Association. They were so involved with those of the Western Sanitary Commission, that it would be a difficult task to separate them. The receipts of the Commission were seven hundred and seventy-one thousand dollars in money, and about three millions five hundred thousand dollars in supplies. Of this sum we believe we are not in the wrong in attributing nearly two hundred thousand dollars in cash, and one million dollars in supplies to the Ladies' Union Aid Society, either directly or indirectly.

Believing that the exertions of the efficient officers of the Society deserve commemoration, we have obtained the following brief sketches of Mrs. Clapp, Miss Adams, (now Mrs. Collins), Mrs. Springer, and Mrs. Palmer.

Among the earnest and noble women of St. Louis, who devoted themselves to the cause of their country and its heroic defenders at the beginning of the great Rebellion, and whose labors and sacrifices were maintained throughout the struggle for national unity and liberty, none are more worthy of honorable mention, in a work of this character, than Mrs. Anna L. Clapp.

She was distinguished among those ladies whose labors for the Charities of the war, and whose presence in the Hospitals, cheered and comforted the soldiers of the Union, and either prepared them for a tranquil and happy deliverance from their sufferings, or sent them back to the field of battle to continue the heroic contest until success should crown the victorious arms of the nation, and give peace and liberty to their beloved country.

The maiden name of Mrs. Clapp was Wendell, and her paternal ancestors originally emigrated from Holland. She was born in Cambridge, Washington county, New York, and was educated at Albany.

For three years she was a teacher in the celebrated school of Rev. Nathaniel Prime, at Newburgh, New York. In the year 1838, she was married to Alfred Clapp, Esq., an enterprising merchant, and lived for several years in New York City, and Brooklyn, where she became an active member of various benevolent associations, and performed the duties of Treasurer of the Industrial School Association.

Just previous to the Rebellion, she emigrated with her husband and family to St. Louis, and after the war had commenced, and the early battles in the West had begun to fill every vacant public building in that city with sick and wounded men, she, with many other noble women of like heroic temperament, found a new sphere for their activity and usefulness. In the month of August, 1861, the Ladies' Union Aid Society, of St. Louis, was organized for the purpose of ministering to the wants of the sick and wounded soldiers, providing Hospital garments and Sanitary stores, in connection with similar labors by the Western Sanitary Commission, assisting soldiers' families, and visiting the Hospitals, to give religious counsel, and minister consolation to the sick and dying, in a city where only a few of the clergy of the various denominations who were distinguished for their patriotism and loyalty, attended to this duty; the majority, both Protestant and Catholic, being either indifferent to the consequences of the rebellion, or in sympathy with the treason which was at that time threatening the Union and liberties of the country with disruption and overthrow.

Of this Association of noble and philanthropic women, which continued its useful labors during the war, Mrs. Clapp was made President in the fall of 1861, holding that office during the existence of the organization, giving nearly all her time and energies to this great work of helping and comforting her country's defenders.

After the great battles of Shiloh and Vicksburg, and Arkansas Post, she, with other ladies of the Association, repaired on Hospital Steamers to the scene of conflict, taking boxes of Sanitary stores, Hospital garments and lint for the wounded, and ministered to them with her own hands on the return trips to the Hospitals of St. Louis.

As President of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, her labors were arduous and unremitting. The work of this association was always very great, consisting in part of the manufacture of hospital garments, by contract with the medical purveyor, which work was given out to the wives of soldiers, to enable them the better to support themselves and children, during the absence of their husbands in the army. The work of cutting out these garments, giving them out, keeping an account with each soldier's wife, paying the price of the labor, etc., was no small undertaking, requiring much labor from the members of the society. It was an interesting sight, on Thursday of each week, to see hundreds of poor women filling the large rooms of the association on Chestnut Street, from morning to night, receiving work and pay, and to witness the untiring industry of the President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Committees, waiting upon them.

The visitation of these families by committees, and their reports, to say nothing of the general sanitary and hospital work performed by the society, required a large amount of labor; and in addition to this the aid rendered to destitute families of Union refugees, and the part taken by Mrs. Clapp in organizing a Refugee Home, and House of Industry, would each of itself make quite a chapter of the history of the association.

In all these labors Mrs. Clapp showed great executive and administrative ability, and must be reckoned by all who know her, among the truly patriotic women of the land. And in all the relations of life her character stands equally high, adorning, as she does, her Christian profession by works of piety, and patriotism, and love, and commanding the highest confidence and admiration of the community in which she lives.

The devoted labors of Miss H. A. Adams, in the service of the soldiers of the Union and their families, from the beginning of the war, till near its close, entitle her to a place in the records of this volume. She was born in Fitz William, New Hampshire, at the foot of Mount Monadnock, and grew to maturity amid the beautiful scenery, and the pure influences of her New England home. Her father, Mr. J. S. Adams, was a surveyor, a man of character and influence, and gave to his daughter an excellent education. At fifteen years of age she became a teacher, and in 1856 came West for the benefit of her health, having a predisposition to pulmonary consumption, and fearing the effect of the east winds and the trying climate of the Eastern States.

Having connections in St. Louis she came to that city, and, for a year and a half, was employed as a teacher in the public schools. In this, her chosen profession, she soon acquired an honorable position, which she retained till the commencement of the war. At this time, however, the management of the schools was directed by a Board of Education, the members of which were mostly secessionists, the school fund was diverted from its proper uses by the disloyal State government, under Claib. Jackson, and all the teachers, who were from New England, were dismissed from their situations, at the close of the term in 1861. Miss Adams, of course, was included in this number, and the unjust proscription only excited more intensely the love of her country and its noble defenders, who were already rallying to the standard of the Union, and laying down their lives on the altars of justice and liberty.

In August, 1861, the Ladies' Union Aid Society, of St. Louis, was organized. Miss Adams was present at its first meeting and assisted in its formation. She was chosen as its first secretary, which office she filled with untiring industry, and to the satisfaction of all its members, for more than three years.

In the autumn of 1863, her only brother died in the military service of the United States. With true womanly heroism, she went to the hospital at Mound City, Illinois, where he had been under surgical treatment, hoping to nurse and care for him, and see him restored to health, but before she reached the place he had died and was buried. From this time her interest in the welfare of our brave troops was increased and intensified, and there was no sacrifice she was not willing to undertake for their benefit. Moved by the grief of her own personal bereavement, her sympathy for the sick and wounded of the army of the Union, was manifested by renewed diligence in the work of sending them all possible aid and comfort from the ample stores of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, and the Western Sanitary Commission, and by labors for the hospitals far and near.

The duties of Miss Adams, as Secretary of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, were very arduous.

The Society comprised several hundred of the most noble, efficient and patriotic women of St. Louis. The rooms were open every day, from morning to night. Sanitary stores and Hospital garments were prepared and manufactured by the members, and received by donation from citizens and from abroad, and had to be stored and arranged, and given out again to the Hospitals, and to the sick in regimental camps, in and around St. Louis, and also other points in Missouri, as they were needed. Letters of acknowledgement had to be written, applications answered, accounts kept, proceedings recorded, information and advice given, reports written and published, all of which devolved upon the faithful and devoted Secretary, who was ever at her post, and constant and unremitting in her labors. Soldiers' families had also to be assisted; widows and orphans to be visited and cared for; rents, fuel, clothing, and employment to be provided, and the destitute relieved, of whom there were thousands whose husbands, and sons, and brothers, were absent fighting the battles of the Union.

Missouri was, during the first year of the war, a battle-ground. St. Louis and its environs were crowded with troops; the Hospitals were large and numerous; during the winter of 1861-2, there were twenty thousand sick and wounded soldiers in them; and the concurrent labors of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, and the Western Sanitary Commission, were in constant requisition. The visiting of the sick, ministering to them at their couches of pain, reading to them, cheerful conversation with them, were duties which engaged many of the ladies of the Society; and numerous interesting and affecting incidents were preserved by Miss Adams, and embodied in the Reports of the Association. She also did her share in this work of visiting; and during the winter of 1863-4, she went to Nashville, Tennessee, and established there a special diet kitchen, upon which the surgeons in charge of the hospitals, could make requisitions for the nicer and more delicate preparations of food for the very sick. She remained all winter in Nashville, in charge of a branch of the St. Louis Aid Society, and, by her influence, secured the opening of the hospitals to female nurses, who had hitherto not been employed in Nashville. Knowing, as she did, the superior gentleness of women as nurses, their more abundant kindness and sympathy, and their greater skill in the preparation of food for the sick; knowing also the success that had attended the experiment of introducing women nurses in the Military Hospitals in other cities, she determined to overcome the prejudices of such of the army surgeons as stood in the way, and secure to her sick and wounded brothers in the hospitals at Nashville, the benefit of womanly kindness, and nursing, and care. In this endeavor she was entirely successful, and by her persuasive manners, her womanly grace and refinement, and her good sense, she recommended her views to the medical authorities, and accomplished her wishes.

Returning to St. Louis in the spring of 1864, she continued to perform the duties of Secretary of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, till the end of the year, when, in consequence of a contemplated change in her life, she resigned her position, and retired from it with the friendship and warm appreciation of her co-workers in the useful labors of the society. In the month of June, 1865, she was married to Morris Collins, Esq., a citizen of St. Louis.

Mrs. C. R. Springer, who has labored so indefatigably at St. Louis, for the soldiers of the Union and their families during the war, was born in Parsonsfield, Maine. Her maiden name was Lord. Previous to her marriage to Mr. Springer, a respectable merchant of St. Louis, she was a teacher in New Hampshire. On the event of her marriage, she came to reside at St. Louis, about ten years ago, and on the breaking out of the war, espoused with patriotic ardor the cause of her country in its struggle with the great slaveholding rebellion. To do this in St. Louis, at that period, when wealth and fashion, and church influence were so largely on the side of the rebellion, and every social circle was more or less infected with treason, required a high degree of moral courage and heroism.

From the first opening of the hospitals in St. Louis, in the autumn of 1861, Mrs. Springer became a most untiring, devoted and judicious visiter, and by her kind and gracious manners, her words of sympathy and encouragement, and her religious consolation, she imparted hope and comfort to many a poor, sick, and wounded soldier, stretched upon the bed of languishing.

Besides her useful labors in the hospitals, Mrs. Springer was an active member of the Ladies' Union Aid Society in St. Louis, from the date of its organization in August, 1861, to its final disbanding—October, 1865—in the deliberations of which her counsel always had great weight and influence. During the four years of its varied and useful labors for the soldiers and their families, she has been among its most diligent workers. In the winter of 1862, the Society took charge of the labor of making up hospital garments, given out by the Medical Purveyor of the department, and she superintended the whole of this important work during that winter, in which one hundred and twenty-seven thousand five hundred garments were made.

Mrs. Springer is a highly educated woman, of great moral worth, devoted to the welfare of the soldier, inspired by sincere love of country, and a high sense of Christian duty. No one will be more gratefully remembered by thousands of soldiers and their families, to whom she has manifested kindness, and a warm interest in their welfare. These services have been gratuitously rendered, and she has given up customary recreations, and sacrificed ease and social pleasure to attend to these duties of humanity. Her reward will be found in the consciousness of having done good to the defenders of her native land, and in the blessing of those who were ready to perish, to whom her kind services, and words of good cheer came as a healing balm in the hour of despondency, and strengthened them for a renewal of their efforts in the cause of country and liberty.

Among the devoted women who have made themselves martyrs to the work of helping our patriotic soldiers and their families in St. Louis, was the late Mrs. Mary E. Palmer. She was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, June 28th, 1827, and her maiden name was Locker. She was married in February, 1847, to Mr. Samuel Palmer. In 1855 she removed to Kansas, and in 1857 returned as far eastward as St. Louis, where she resided until her death.

In the beginning of the war, when battles began to be fought, and the sick and wounded were brought to our hospitals to be treated and cared for, Mrs. Palmer with true patriotic devotion and womanly sympathy offered her services to this good cause, and after a variety of hospital work in the fall of 1863, she entered into the service of the Ladies' Union Aid Society of St. Louis as a regular visiter among the soldiers' families, many of whom needed aid and work, during the absence of their natural protectors in the army. It was a field of great labor and usefulness; for in so large a city there were thousands of poor women, whose husbands often went months without pay, or the means of sending it home to their families, who were obliged to appeal for assistance in taking care of themselves and children. To prevent imposition it was necessary that they should be visited, the requisite aid rendered, and sewing or other work provided by which they could earn a part of their own support, a proper discrimination being made between the worthy and unworthy, the really suffering, and those who would impose on the charity of the society under the plea of necessity.

In this work Mrs. Palmer was most faithful and constant, going from day to day through a period of nearly two years, in summer and winter, in sunshine and storm, to the abodes of these people, to find out their real necessities, to report to the society and to secure for them the needed relief.

Her labors also extended to many destitute families of refugees, who had found their way to St. Louis from the impoverished regions of Southern Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and who would have died of actual want, but for the charity of the Government and the ministering aid of the Western Sanitary Commission and the Ladies' Union Aid Society. In her visits and her dispensations of charity Mrs. Palmer was always wise, judicious, and humane, and enjoyed the fullest confidence of the society in whose service she was engaged. In the performance of her duties she was always thoroughly conscientious, and actuated by a high sense of religious duty. From an early period of her life she had been a consistent member of the Baptist Church, and her Christian character was adorned by a thorough consecration to works of kindness and humanity which were performed in the spirit of Him, who, during his earthly ministry, "went about doing good."

By her arduous labors, which were greater than her physical constitution could permanently endure, Mrs. Palmer's health became undermined, and in the summer of 1865 she passed into a fatal decline, and on the 2d of August ended a life of usefulness on earth to enter upon the enjoyments of a beatified spirit in heaven.

LADIES' AID SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA

It was early determined to allow Mrs. Harris to follow the promptings of her benevolent heart and go to the field, while her colleagues should attend to the work of raising supplies and money at home, and furnishing her with the stores she required for her own distribution and that of the zealous workers who were associated with her. The members of the society were connected with twenty different churches of several denominations, and while all had reference to the spiritual as well as physical welfare of the soldier, yet there was nothing sectarian or denominational in its work. From the fact that its meetings were held and its goods packed in the basement and vestry of Dr. Boardman's Church, it was sometimes called the Presbyterian Ladies' Aid Society, but the name, if intended to imply that its character was denominational, was unjust. As early as October, 1861, the pastors of twelve churches in Philadelphia united in an appeal to all into whose hands the circular might fall, to contribute to this society and to form auxiliaries to it, on the ground of its efficiency, its economical management, and its unsectarian character.

The society, with but moderate receipts as compared with those of the great organizations, accomplished a great amount of good. Not a few of the most earnest and noble workers in the field were at one time or another the distributors of its supplies, and thus in some sense, its agents. Among these we may name besides Mrs. Harris, Mrs. M. M. Husband, Mrs. Mary W. Lee, Miss M. M. C. Hall, Miss Cornelia Hancock, Miss Anna M. Ross, Miss Nellie Chase, of Nashville, Miss Hetty K. Painter, Mrs. Z. Denham, Miss Pinkham, Miss Biddle, Mrs. Sampson, Mrs. Waterman, and others. The work intended by the society, and which its agents attempted to perform was a religious as well as a physical one; hospital supplies were to be dispensed, and the sick and dying soldier carefully nursed; but it was also a part of its duty to point the sinner to Christ, to warn and reprove the erring, and to bring religious consolation and support to the sick and dying; the Bible, the Testament, and the tract were as truly a part of its supplies as the clothing it distributed so liberally, or the delicacies it provided to tempt the appetite of the sick. Mrs. Harris established prayer-meetings wherever it was possible in the camps or at the field hospitals, and several of the other ladies followed her example.

In her first report, Mrs. Harris said:—"In addition to the dispensing of hospital supplies, the sick of two hundred and three regiments have been personally visited. Hundreds of letters, bearing last messages of love to dear ones at home, have been written for sick and dying soldiers. We have thrown something of home light and love around the rude couches of at least five hundred of our noble citizen soldiers, who sleep their last sleep along the Potomac.

"We have been permitted to take the place of mothers and sisters, wiping the chill dew of death from the noble brow, and breathing words of Jesus into the ear upon which all other sounds fell unheeded. The gentle pressure of the hand has carried the dying one to the old homestead, and, as it often happened, by a merciful illusion, the dying soldier has thought the face upon which his last look rested, was that of a precious mother, sister, or other cherished one. One, a German, in broken accents, whispered: 'How good you have come, Eliza; Jesus is always near me;' then, wrestling with that mysterious power, death, slept in Jesus. Again, a gentle lad of seventeen summers, wistfully then joyfully exclaimed: 'I knew she would come to her boy,' went down comforted into the dark valley. Others, many others still, have thrown a lifetime of trustful love into the last look, sighing out life with 'Mother, dear mother!'

"It has been our highest aim, whilst ministering to the temporal well-being of our loved and valued soldiers, to turn their thoughts and affections heavenward. We are permitted to hope that not a few have, through the blessed influence of religious tracts, soldiers' pocket books, soldiers' Bibles, and, above all, the Holy Scriptures distributed by us, been led 'to cast anchor upon that which is within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus.'"

The society did not attempt, and wisely, to compete with the great commissions in their work. It could not supply an entire army or throw upon the shoulders of its hard-working voluntary agents the care of the sick and wounded of a great battle. Its field of operations was rather here and there a field hospital, the care of the sick and wounded of a single division, or at most of a small army corps, when not engaged in any great battles; the providing for some hundreds of refugees, the care of some of the freedmen, and the assistance of the families of the soldiers. Whatever it undertook to do it did well. Its semi-annual reports consisted largely of letters from its absent secretary, letters full of pathos and simple eloquence, and these widely circulated, produced a deep impression, and stirred the sympathies of those who read, to more abundant contributions.

As an instance of the spirit which actuated the members of this society we state the following incident of which we were personally cognizant; one of the officers of the society soon after the commencement of the war had contributed so largely to its funds that she felt that only by some self-denial could she give more. Considering for a time where the retrenchment should begin, she said to the members of her family; "these soldiers who have gone to fight our battles have been willing to hazard their lives for us, and we certainly cannot do too much for them. Now, I propose, if you all consent, to devote a daily sum to the relief of the army while the war lasts, and that we all go without some accustomed luxury to procure that sum. Suppose we dispense with our dessert during the war?" Her family consented, and the cost of the dessert was duly paid over to the society as an additional donation throughout the war.

The society received and expended during the four years ending April 30, 1865, twenty-four thousand dollars in money, beside five hundred and fifty dollars for soldiers' families, and seven hundred dollars with accumulated interest for aiding disabled soldiers to reach their homes. The supplies distributed were worth not far from one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, aside from those sent directly to Mrs. Harris from individuals and societies, which were estimated at fully two hundred thousand dollars.

In this connection it may be well to say something of two other associations of ladies in Philadelphia for aiding the soldiers, which remained independent of the Sanitary or Christian Commissions through the war, and which accomplished much good.

The Penn Relief Association was organized early in 1862, first by the Hicksite Friends, to demonstrate the falsity of the commonly received report that the "Friends," being opposed to war, would not do anything for the sick and wounded. Many of the "Orthodox Friends" afterwards joined it, as well as considerable numbers from other denominations, and it proved itself a very efficient body. Mrs. Rachel S. Evans was its President, and Miss Anna P. Little and Miss Elizabeth Newport its active and hard-working Secretaries, and Miss Little doubtless expressed the feeling which actuated all its members in a letter in which she said that "while loyal men were suffering, loyal women must work to alleviate their sufferings." The "Penn Relief" collected supplies to an amount exceeding fifty thousand dollars, which were almost wholly sent to the "front," and distributed by such judicious and skilful hands as Mrs. Husband, Mrs. Hetty K. Painter, Mrs. Mary W. Lee, and Mrs. Anna Carver.

"The Soldiers' Aid Association," was organized on the 28th of July, 1862, mainly through the efforts of Mrs. Mary A. Brady, a lady of West Philadelphia, herself a native of Ireland, but the wife of an English lawyer, who had made his home in Philadelphia, in 1849. Mrs. Brady was elected President of the Association, and the first labors of herself and her associates were expended on the Satterlee Hospital, one of those vast institutions created by the Medical Department of the Government, which had over three thousand beds, each during those dark and dreary days occupied by some poor sufferer. In this great hospital these ladies found, for a time, full employment for the hearts and hands of the Committees who, on their designated days of the week, ministered to these thousands of sick and wounded men, and from the depôt of supplies which the Association had established at the hospital, prepared and distributed fruits, food skilfully prepared, and articles of hospital clothing, of which the men were greatly in need. Those cheering ministrations, reading and singing to the men, writing letters for them, and the dressing and applying of cooling lotions to the hot and inflamed wounds were not forgotten by these tender and kind-hearted women.

But Mrs. Brady looked forward to work in other fields, and the exertion of a wider influence, and though for months, she and her associates felt that the present duty must first be done, she desired to go to the front, and there minister to the wounded before they had endured all the agony of the long journey to the hospital in the city. The patients of the Satterlee Hospital were provided with an ample dinner on the day of the National Thanksgiving, by the Association, and as they were now diminishing in numbers, and the Auxiliary Societies, which had sprung up throughout the State, had poured in abundant supplies, Mrs. Brady felt that the time had come when she could consistently enter upon the work nearest her heart. In the winter of 1863, she visited Washington, and the hospitals and camps which were scattered around the city, at distances of from five to twenty miles. Here she found multitudes of sick and wounded, all suffering from cold, from hunger, or from inattention. "Camp Misery," with its twelve thousand convalescents, in a condition of intense wretchedness moved her sympathies, and led her to do what she could for them. She returned home at the beginning of April, and her preparations for another journey were hardly made, before the battles of Chancellorsville and its vicinity occurred. Here at the great field hospital of Sedgwick's (Sixth) Corps, she commenced in earnest her labors in the care of the wounded directly from the field. For five weeks she worked with an energy and zeal which were the admiration of all who saw her, and then as Lee advanced toward Pennsylvania, she returned home for a few days of rest.

Then came Gettysburg, with its three days of terrible slaughter, and Mrs. Brady was again at her work day and night, furnishing soft food to the severely wounded, cooling drinks to the thirsty and fever-stricken, soothing pain, encouraging the men to heroic endurance of their sufferings, everywhere an angel of comfort, a blessed and healing presence. More than a month was spent in these labors, and at their close Mrs. Brady returned to her work in the Hospitals at Philadelphia, and to preparation for the autumn and winter campaigns. When early in January, General Meade made his Mine Run Campaign, Mrs. Brady had again gone to the front, and was exposed to great vicissitudes of weather, and was for a considerable time in peril from the enemy's fire. Her exertions and exposures at this time brought on disease of the heart, and her physician forbade her going to the front again. She however made all the preparations she could for the coming campaign, and hoped, though vainly, that she might be permitted again to enter upon the work she loved. When the great battles of May, 1864, were fought, the dreadful slaughter which accompanied them, so disquieted her, that it aggravated her disease, and on the 27th of May, she died, greatly mourned by all who knew her worth, and her devotion to the national cause.

The Association continued its work till the close of the war. The amount of its disbursements, we have not been able to ascertain.

WOMEN'S RELIEF ASSOCIATION OF BROOKLYN AND LONG ISLAND.

The city of Brooklyn, Long Island, and the Island of which it forms the Western extremity, were from the commencement of the war intensely patriotic. Regiment after regiment was raised in the city, and its quota filled from the young men of the city, and the towns of the island, till it seemed as every man of military age, and most of the youth between fifteen and eighteen had been drawn into the army. An enthusiastic zeal for the national cause had taken as complete possession of the women as of the men. Everywhere were seen the badges of loyalty, and there was no lack of patient labor or of liberal giving for the soldiers on the part of those who had either money or labor to bestow. The news of the first battle was the signal for an outpouring of clothing, hospital stores, cordials, and supplies of all sorts, which were promptly forwarded to the field. After each successive engagement, this was repeated, and at first, the Young Men's Christian Association of the city, a most efficient organization, undertook to be the almoners of a part of the bounty of the citizens. Distant as was the field of Shiloh, a delegation from the Association went thither, bearing a large amount of hospital stores, and rendered valuable assistance to the great numbers of wounded. Other organizations sprang up, having in view the care of the wounded and sick of the army, and many contributors entrusted to the earnest workers at Washington, the stores they were anxious to bestow upon the suffering. After the great battles of the summer and autumn of 1862, large numbers of the sick and wounded were brought to Brooklyn, for care and treatment filling at one time three hospitals. They came often in need of all things, and the benevolent women of the city formed themselves into Committees, to visit these hospitals in turn, and prepare and provide suitable dishes, delicacies, and special diet for the invalid soldiers, to furnish such clothing as was needed, to read to them, write letters for them, and bestow upon them such acts of kindness as should cause them to feel that their services in defense of the nation were fully appreciated and honored.

There was, however, in these varied efforts for the soldiers a lack of concentration and efficiency which rendered them less serviceable than they otherwise might have been. The different organizations and committees working independently of each other, not unfrequently furnished over-abundant supplies to some regiments or hospitals, while others were left to lack, and many who had the disposition to give, hesitated from want of knowledge or confidence in the organizations which would disburse the funds. The churches of the city though giving freely when called upon, were not contributing systematically, or putting forth their full strength in the service. It was this conviction of the need of a more methodical and comprehensive organization to which the churches, committees, and smaller associations should become tributary, which led to the formation of the Women's Relief Association, as a branch of the United States Sanitary Commission. This Association was organized November 23d, 1862, at a meeting held by the Ladies of Brooklyn, in the Lecture Room of the Church of the Pilgrims, and Mrs. Mariamne Fitch Stranahan, was chosen President, and Miss Kate E. Waterbury, Secretary, with an Executive Committee of twelve ladies of high standing and patriotic impulses. The selection of President and Secretary was eminently a judicious one. Mrs. Stranahan was a native of Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York, and had received for the time, and the region in which her childhood and youth was passed, superior advantages of education. She was married in 1837, to Mr. James S. T. Stranahan, then a merchant of Florence, Oneida County, New York, but who removed with his family in 1840, to Newark, New Jersey, and in 1845, took up his residence in Brooklyn. Here they occupied a high social position, Mr. Stranahan having been elected a Representative to the Thirty-fourth Congress, and subsequently appointed to other positions of responsibility in the city and State. Mrs. Stranahan was active in every good work in the city of her adoption, and those who knew her felt that they could confide in her judgment, her discernment, her tact, and her unflinching integrity and principle. For eight years she was the first Directress of the "Graham Institute, for the relief of Aged and Indigent Females," a position requiring the exercise of rare abilities, and the most skilful management, to harmonize the discords, and quiet the misunderstandings, inevitable in such an institution. Her discretion, equanimity, and tact, were equal to the duties of the place, and under her administration peace and quiet reigned. It was probably from the knowledge of her executive abilities, that she was unanimously chosen to preside over the Women's Relief Association. This position was also one requiring great tact and skill in the presiding officer. About eighty churches of different denominations in Brooklyn, coöperated in the work of the Association, and it had also numerous auxiliaries scattered over the Island. These diverse elements were held together in perfect harmony, by Mrs. Stranahan's skilful management, till the occasion ceased for their labors. The Association was from first to last a perfect success, surpassing in its results most of the branches of the Commission, and surpassed in the harmony and efficiency of its action by none.

In her final report Mrs. Stranahan said: "The aggregate of our efforts including the results of our Great Fair, represents a money value of not less than half a million of dollars." Three hundred thousand dollars of this sum were paid into the treasury of the United States Sanitary Commission in cash; and hospital supplies were furnished to the amount of over two hundred thousand more. The Great Fair of Brooklyn had its origin in the Women's Relief Association. At first it was proposed that Brooklyn should unite with New York in the Metropolitan Fair; but on further deliberation it was thought that a much larger result would be attained by an independent effort on the part of Brooklyn and Long Island, and the event fully justified the opinion. The conducting of such a fair involved, however, an excessive amount of labor on the part of the managers; and notwithstanding the perfect equanimity and self-possession of Mrs. Stranahan, her health was sensibly affected by the exertions she was compelled to make to maintain the harmony and efficiency of so many and such varied interests. It is much to say, but the proof of the statement is ample, that no one of the Sanitary Fairs held from 1863 to 1865 equalled that of Brooklyn in its freedom from all friction and disturbing influences, in the earnestness of its patriotic feeling, and the complete and perfect harmony which reigned from its commencement to its close. This gratifying condition of affairs was universally attributed to the extraordinary tact and executive talent of Mrs. Stranahan.

Rev. Dr. Spear, her pastor, in a touching and eloquent memorial of her, uses the following language in regard to the success of her administration as President of the Women's Relief Association; "It is due to truth to say that this success depended very largely upon her wisdom and her efforts. She was the right woman in the right place. She gave her time to the work with a zeal and perseverance that never faltered, and with a hopefulness for her country that yielded to no discouragement or despondency. As a presiding officer she discharged her duties with a self-possession, courtesy, skill, and method, that commanded universal admiration. She had a quick and judicious insight into the various ways and means by which the meetings of the Association would be rendered interesting and attractive. The business part of the work was constantly under her eye. No woman ever labored in a sphere more honorable; and but few women could have filled her place. Her general temper of mind, her large and catholic views as a Christian, and then her excellent discretion, eminently fitted her to combine all the churches in one harmonious and patriotic effort. This was her constant study; and well did she succeed. As an evidence of the sentiments with which she had inspired her associates, the following resolution offered at the last meeting of the Association, and unanimously adopted, will speak for itself:—