"After breakfast, in the morning, when the wounds were all dressed, I had the pleasure of carrying into one car a pitcher of delicious blackberry wine that came from the Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern Ohio, and with the advice of Dr. Yates, the assistant surgeon, giving it to the men. The car into which I went had only one tier of berths, supported like the others on rubber bands. Several times during the day I had an opportunity of giving some little assistance in taking care of wounded men, and it was very pleasant. My journey lasted a night and a day, and I think I can never again pass another twenty-four hours so fraught with sweet and sad memories as are connected with my second and last experience on a hospital train."
NEW ENGLAND WOMEN'S AUXILIARY ASSOCIATION.
mong the branches of the United States Sanitary Commission, the Association which is named above, was one of the most efficient and untiring in its labors. It had gathered into its management, a large body of the most gifted and intellectual women of Boston, and its vicinity, women who knew how to work as well as to plan, direct and think. These were seconded in their efforts by a still larger number of intelligent and accomplished women in every part of New England, who, as managers and directors of the auxiliaries of the Association, roused and stimulated by their own example and their eloquent appeals, the hearts of their countrywomen to earnest and constant endeavour to benefit the soldiers of our National armies. The geographical peculiarities and connections of the New England States, were such that after the first year Connecticut and Rhode Island could send their supplies more readily to the field through New York than through Boston, and hence the Association from that time, had for its field of operations, only Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. In these four States, however, it had one thousand and fifty auxiliaries, and during its existence, collected nearly three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars in money, and fully one million, two hundred thousand dollars in stores and supplies for the work of the Sanitary Commission. In December, 1863, it held a Sanitary Fair in Boston, the net proceeds of which were nearly one hundred and forty-six thousand dollars.
The first Chairman of the Executive Committee, was Mrs. D. Buck, and on her resignation early in 1864, Miss Abby W. May, an active and efficient member of the Executive Committee from the first was chosen Chairman. The rare executive ability displayed by Miss May in this position, and her extraordinary gifts and influence render a brief sketch of her desirable, though her own modest and retiring disposition would lead her to depreciate her own merits, and to declare that she had done no more than the other members of the Association. In that coterie of gifted women, it is not impossible that there may have been others who could have done as well, but none could have done better than Miss May; just as in our great armies, it is not impossible that there may have been Major-Generals, and perhaps even Brigadier-Generals, who, had they been placed in command of the armies, might have accomplished as much as those who did lead them to victory. The possibilities of success, in an untried leader, may or may not be great; but those who actually occupy a prominent position, must pay the penalty of their prominence, in the publicity which follows it.
Miss May is a native of Boston, born in 1829, and educated in the best schools of her natal city. She early gave indications of the possession of a vigorous intellect, which was thoroughly trained and cultivated. Her clear and quick understanding, her strong good sense, active benevolence, and fearlessness in avowing and advocating whatever she believed to be true and right, have given her a powerful influence in the wide circle of her acquaintance. She embarked heart and soul in the Anti-slavery movement while yet quite young, and has rendered valuable services to that cause.
At the very commencement of the war, she gave herself most heartily to the work of relieving the sufferings of the soldiers from sickness or wounds; laboring with great efficiency in the organization and extension of the New England Women's Auxiliary Association, and in the spring and summer of 1862, going into the Hospital Transport Service of the Sanitary Commission, where her labors were arduous, but accomplished great good. After her return, she was prevailed upon to take the Chairmanship of the Executive Committee of the Association, and represented it at Washington, at the meeting of the delegates from the Branches of the Sanitary Commission. Her executive ability was signally manifested in her management of the affairs of the Association, in her rapid and accurate dispatch of business, her prompt and unerring judgment on all difficult questions, her great practical talent, and her earnest and eloquent appeals to the auxiliaries. Yet fearless and daring as she has ever been in her denunciation of wrong, and her advocacy of right, and extraordinary as are the abilities she has displayed in the management of an enterprise for which few men would have been competent, the greatest charm of her character is her unaffected modesty, and disposition to esteem others better than herself. To her friends she declared that she had made no sacrifices in the work, none really worthy of the name—while there were abundance of women who had, but who were and must remain nameless and unknown. What she had done had been done from inclination and a desire to serve and be useful in her day, and in the great struggle, and had been a recreation and enjoyment.
To a lady friend who sought to win from her some incidents of her labors for publication, she wrote: