She became an active worker in hospitals, and when 105 nothing more could be done in Memphis she went through the lines and rendered substantial aid and comfort to the soldiers in the field. Her services, if fully recorded, would make a book. She was so recognized that upon one occasion General Joseph E. Johnston had 30,000 of his bronzed and tattered soldiers to pass in review in her honor at Dalton. Such a distinction was, perhaps, never accorded to any other woman in the South—not even Mrs. Jefferson Davis or the wives of great generals. Yet, so earnest and sincere in her work was she that she commanded the respect and reverence of men wherever she was known. After the war she strove to comfort the vanquished and encourage the down-hearted, and continued in her way to do much good work.
“THE GREAT EASTERN”
[In Christ in Camp, pages 94-98; J. William Jones, D. D.]
Here is another sketch of a soldier’s friend who labored in some of our largest hospitals.
“She is a character,” writes a soldier. “A Napoleon of her department, with the firmness and courage of Andrew, she possesses all the energy and independence of Stonewall Jackson. The officials hate her; the soldiers adore her. The former name her ‘The Great Eastern,’ and steer wide of her track, the latter go to her in all their wants and troubles, and know her by the name of ‘Miss Sally.’ She joined the army in one of the regiments from Alabama, about the time of the battle of Manassas, and never shrunk from the stern privations of the soldier’s life from the moment of leaving camp to follow her wounded and sick Alabamians to the hospitals of Richmond. Her services are not confined, however, to the sick and wounded from Alabama. Every sick soldier has now a claim on her sympathy. Why, but yesterday, my system having succumbed to the prevailing malaria of the hospital, she came to my room, though a stranger, with my ward nurse, and in the kindest manner offered me her 106 pillow of feathers, with case as tidy as the driven snow. The very sight of it was soothing to an aching brow, and I blessed her from heart and lips as well. I must not omit to tell why ‘Miss Sally’ is so disliked by many of the officials. Like all women of energy, she has eyes whose penetration few things escape, and a sagacity fearful or admirable, as the case may be, to all interested. If any abuse is pending, or in progress in the hospital, she is quickly on the track, and if not abated, off ‘The Great Eastern’ sails to headquarters. A few days ago one of the officials of the division sent a soldier to inform her that she must vacate her room instantly. ‘Who sent you with that message to me?’ she asked him, turning suddenly around. ‘Dr. ——,’ the soldier answered. ‘Pish!’ she replied, and swept on in ineffable contempt to the bedside, perhaps, of some sick soldier.”
CORDIAL FOR THE BRAVE
[Eggleston’s Recollections, pages 70-71.]
The ingenuity with which these good ladies discovered or manufactured onerous duties for themselves was surprising, and having discovered or imagined some new duty they straightway proceeded to do it at any cost.