THE LADIES OF RICHMOND
The editor of the Lynchburg Republican, writing to his paper in June, 1862, says:
The ladies of Richmond, as of Lynchburg, and indeed of the whole country, are making for themselves a fame which will live in all future history, and brilliantly illuminate the brightest pages of the Republic’s history.
Discarding all false ceremony and giving full vent to those feelings and sentiments of devotion which make her the noblest part of God’s creation and the fondest object of man’s existence, the ladies of this city from all ranks have gone into the hospitals and are hourly engaged in ministering to the wants and relieving the sufferings of their countrymen.
Mothers and sisters could not be more unremitting in their attention to their own blood than these women are to those whom they have never seen before, and may never see again. They feed them, nurse them, and by their presence and sympathy cheer and encourage them. “Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless millions mourn,” but woman’s sympathy would heal every wound and make glad every heart.