GENERAL AID SOCIETY FOR THE ARMY, BUFFALO.
his Society, a Branch of the Sanitary Commission, was organized in the summer of 1862, and became one of the Branches of the Commission in the autumn of 1862, had eventually for its field of operations, the Western Counties of New York, a few counties in Pennsylvania and Michigan, and received also occasional supplies from one or two of the border counties in Ohio, and from individuals in Canada West.
Its first President was Mrs. Joseph E. Follett, a lady of great tact and executive ability, who in 1862, resigned, in consequence of the removal of her husband to Minnesota. Mrs. Horatio Seymour, the wife of a prominent business man of Buffalo, was chosen to succeed Mrs. Follett, and developed in the performance of her duties, abilities as a manager, of the highest order. Through her efforts, ably seconded as they were by Miss Babcock and Miss Bird, the Secretaries of the Society, the whole field was thoroughly organized, and brought up to its highest condition of efficiency, and kept there through the whole period of the war.
A friendly rivalry was maintained between this branch and the Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern Ohio, and the perfect system and order with which both were conducted, the eloquent appeals and the stirring addresses by which both kept their auxiliaries up to their work, and the grand and noble results accomplished by each, are worthy of all praise. In this, as in the Cleveland Society, the only paid officer was the porter. All the rest served, the President and Secretaries daily, the cutters, packers, and others, on alternate days, or at times semi-weekly, without fee or compensation. Arduous as their duties were, and far as they were from any romantic idea of heroism, or of notable personal service to the cause, these noble, patient, and really heroic women, rejoiced in the thought that by their labors they were indirectly accomplishing a good work in furnishing the means of comfort and healing to thousands of the soldiers, who, but for their labors would have perished from sickness or wounds, but through their care and the supplies they provided, were restored again to the ranks, and enabled to render excellent service in putting down the Rebellion.
In her closing report, Mrs. Seymour says:
"We have sent nearly three thousand packages to Louisville, and six hundred and twenty-five to New York. We have cut and provided materials at our rooms, for over twenty thousand suits, and other articles for the army, amounting in all to more than two hundred thousand pieces. Little children, mostly girls under twelve years of age, have given us over twenty-five hundred dollars."
Like all the earnest workers of this class, Mrs. Seymour expresses the highest admiration for what was done by those nameless heroines, "the patriot workers in quiet country homes, who with self-sacrifice rarely equalled, gave their best spare-room linen and blankets, their choicest dried fruits, wines and pickles,—and in all seasons met to sew for the soldiers, or went about from house to house to collect the supplies to fill the box which came regularly once a month." Almost every woman who toiled thus, had a family whose sole care depended upon her, and many of them had dairies or other farm-work to occupy their attention, yet they rarely or never failed to have the monthly box filled and forwarded promptly. We agree with Mrs. Seymour in our estimate of the nobleness and self-sacrificing spirit manifested by these women; but the patriotic and self-denying heroines of the war were not in country villages, rural hamlets, and isolated farms alone; those ladies who for their love to the national cause, left their homes daily and toiled steadily and patiently through the long years of the war, in summer's heat and winter's cold, voluntarily secluding themselves from the society and social position they were so well fitted to adorn, and in which they had been the bright particular stars, these too, for the great love they bore to their country should receive its honors and its heartfelt thanks.