“‘What did you say?’ all chuckling.
“‘Why, when I went in I told the Colonel that I heerd there was a woman there to do sewing for the boys, and as my blouse needed mendin’ and buttons sewed on, I had come to git it done. He kind of smiled, and turned to the woman settin’ there and asked her if she could fix the blouse for me, and she said she could as well as not, as she had nothing special on hand. So I took it off and left it, the Colonel tellin’ me to call ‘round this afternoon and git it. You all seem to laugh, but I don’t see anything funny. If she is here to do the sewing, why not do mine?’
“This was too much. The boys all broke out into a loud chorus of laughter, and as soon as it subsided, one of them said:
“‘Jim, don’t you know that that woman is the Colonel’s wife?’
“‘I don’t care; she’s a lady anyhow,’ as though that didn’t follow, ‘and I am goin’ to git my blouse, just as she told me to.’
“And he did go, and was again received in that manner which made him forget himself and his awkwardness, and she restored his blouse to him in perfect repair.
“This little incident was all that was needed to fix the affections of all the boys upon the Colonel’s wife, and whenever she appeared again in camp, she was certain to receive the warmest welcome.
“Poor Jim died in a Southern hospital, and his name may now be seen upon the monument standing in the village square at Mesopotamia, Trumbull county, Ohio, and we have often wondered if the President and his wife ever think of mending his blouse, rather than be parties to a sell upon an innocent soldier boy.”
At the battle of South Mountain Colonel Hayes was severely wounded, and his wife learning of his condition hastened to Washington, where she expected to find him in some one of the hospitals. Failing to get tidings of him she went on to Frederick, accompanied by a relative, Mr. Platt. At last in the village of Middletown, Maryland, she found him, cared for by her brothers, one of whom was surgeon of the regiment. She was a welcome addition to the Colonel’s corps of nurses, and as soon as she was established beside him his improvement began. The family in whose house the wounded Colonel lay, Captain Rudy’s, said of her long afterwards: “The moment she crossed our threshold we knew she was a good woman and natural lady. She made herself easily at home, and next morning after she came she was down in the kitchen early and asked leave to cook the Colonel’s favorite dish.”
As soon as he was able to walk about the house she spent a portion of every day in the hospitals, visiting Union and Confederate wounded alike, and carrying them grapes and other delicacies. She read to those who were well enough to be interested, and made herself a welcome presence to the sick and the dying. Her mild manners and unaffected kindly ways won her friends everywhere, and when she left the place to return to Cincinnati with her husband, her departure was sincerely regretted. They had been well cared for by the family with whom they had stayed, and when Colonel Hayes became Governor of Ohio, Mrs. Hayes sent for one of the young ladies of the household, and entertained her most hospitably. Long afterward, when Governor Hayes had become President, he heard of the death of Captain Rudy, and wrote a letter of sympathy, in which he reverted kindly to the time when he was disabled and found a home with them. Leaving the field as a Brigadier-General to take his seat in the Thirty-ninth Congress, Cincinnati people saw little of Mr. Hayes for several years, for he was re-elected to Congress, and resided, until nominated for Governor, at the capital.