And when the oaks their banners wave,
Dream of the battle and an unmarked grave!
Frank L. Stanton.
If all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of women were applied to the women of America, it would not do them justice, for their conduct during the war. God bless the women of America. A. Lincoln.
I feel how weak and fruitless would be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming; but I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
A. Lincoln (in his letter to Mrs. Bixby).
Mothers—wives—and maidens, would there were some testimonials grand enough for you—some tablet that could show to the world the sacrifice of American womanhood and American motherhood in the Civil War! Sacrifices so nobly and so firmly—but so gently and so beautifully,—made. Clara Barton.
In the crowded yards of every prison ground, in the dark ravines of the tangled forests, in the miry, poison swamps, where the slimy serpent crawls by day and the will-o’-the-wisp dances vigil at night, in the beds of the mighty rivers, under the waves of the salt sea, in the drifting sands of the desert islands, on the lonely picket line, and by the roadside, where the weary soldier laid down with his knapsack and his gun, and his march of life was ended; there in their strange beds they sleep till the morning of the great reveille.
Clara Barton.
To show the sentiment then existing among the people, and the appreciation of the services rendered,—of the thousands of letters received by Miss Barton are appended the following: