Woman's Work in the Civil War: A Record of Heroism, Patriotism, and Patience

PART IV. LADIES DISTINGUISHED FOR SERVICES AMONG THE FREEDMEN AND

Chapter 4746 wordsPublic domain

REFUGEES.

MRS. FRANCES DANA GAGE.

Childhood and youth of Mrs. Gage--Anti-slavery views inculcated by her parents and grand-parents--Her marriage--Her husband an earnest reformer--Her connection with the press--Ostracism on account of her opposition to slavery--Propositions made to her husband to swerve from principle and thereby attain office--"Dare to stand alone"--Removal to St. Louis--A contributor to the Missouri Republican--The noble stand of Colonel Chambers--His death--She contributes to the Missouri Democrat, but is finally excluded from its columns--Personal peril--Her advocacy of the cause of Kansas--Editor of an Agricultural paper in Columbus, Ohio--Her labors among the freedmen in the department of the South for thirteen months, (1862-3)--Helps the soldiers also--Her four sons in the army--Return Northward in the Autumn of 1863--Becomes a lecturer-- Advocating the Emancipation Act and the Constitutional Amendment, prohibiting slavery--Labors for the Freedmen and Refugees in 1864-- Is injured by the overturning of a carriage at Galesburg, Ill., in September, 1864--Lecturing again on her partial recovery--Summary of her character. 683-690

MRS. LUCY GAYLORD POMEROY.

Birth and early education--Half-sister of the poets Lewis and Willis Gaylord Clark--Educates herself for a Missionary--A Sunday-school teacher--Sorrow--Is married to S. C. Pomeroy (afterward United States Senator from Kansas)--Residence in Southampton, Mass.--Ill health-- Removal to Kansas--The Kansas Struggle and Border Ruffian War--Mrs. Pomeroy a firm friend to the escaping slaves--The famine year of 1860-- Her house an office of distribution for supplies to the starving-- Accompanies her husband to Washington in 1861--Her labors and contributions for the soldiers--In Washington and at Atchison, Kansas-- Return to Washington--Founding an asylum for colored orphans and destitute aged colored women--The building obtained and furnished--Her failing health--She comes north, but dies on the passage. 691-696

MARIA R. MANN.

Miss Mann a near relative of the late Hon. Horace Mann--Her career as a teacher--Her loyalty--Comes to St. Louis--Becomes a nurse in the Fifth St. Hospital--Condition of the Freedmen at St. Helena, Ark.--The Western Sanitary Commission becomes interested in endeavoring to help them--They propose to Miss Mann to go thither and establish a hospital, distribute clothing and supplies to them, and instruct them as far as possible--She consents--Perilous voyage--Her great and beneficent labors at Helena--Extraordinary improvement in the condition of the freedmen-- She remains till August, 1863--Her heroism--Gratitude of the freedmen-- "You's light as a fedder, anyhow"--Return to St. Louis--Becomes the teacher and manager of a colored asylum at Washington, D. C.--Her school for colored children at Georgetown--Its superior character--It is, in intention, a normal school--Miss Mann's sacrifices in continuing in that position. 697-703

SARAH J. HAGAR.

A native of Illinois--Serves in the St. Louis Hospitals till August, 1863--Is sent to Vicksburg in the autumn of 1863, by the Western Sanitary Commission, as teacher for the Freedmen's children--Her great and successful labors--Is attacked in April, 1864, with malarial fever, and dies May 3--Tribute to her character and work, from Mr. Marsh, superintendent of Freedmen at Vicksburg. 704-706

MRS. JOSEPHINE R. GRIFFIN.

Her noble efforts--Her position at the commencement of the war--Her interest in the condition of the Freedmen--Her attempts to overcome their faults--Her success--Organization of schools--Finding employment for them--Influx of Freedmen into the District of Columbia--Their helpless condition--Mrs. Griffin attempts to find situations for them at the North--Extensive correspondence--Her expeditions with companies of them to the Northern cities--Necessities of the freedmen remaining in the District in the Autumn of 1866--Mrs. Griffin's circular--The denial of its truth by the Freedmen's Bureau--Their subsequent retraction--The Congressional appropriation--Should have been put in Mrs. Griffin's hands--She continues her labors. 707-709

MRS. M. M. HALLOWELL.

Condition of the loyal whites of the mountainous district of the South. Their sufferings and persecutions--Cruelty of the Rebels--Contributions for their aid in the north--Boston, New York, Philadelphia--Mrs. Hallowell's efforts--She and her associates visit Nashville, Knoxville, Huntsville and Chattanooga and distribute supplies to the families of refugees--Peril of their journey--Repeated visits of Mrs. Hallowell--The Home for Refugees, near Nashville--Gratitude of the Refugees for this aid--Colonel Taylor's letter. 710-712

OTHER FRIENDS OF THE FREEDMEN AND REFUGEES.

Mrs. Harris' labors--Miss Tyson and Mrs. Beck--Miss Jane Stuart Woolsey--Mrs. Governor Hawley--Miss Gilson--Mrs. Lucy S. Starr--Mrs. Clinton B. Fisk--Mrs. H. F. Hoes and Miss Alice F. Royce--Mrs. John S. Phelps--Mrs. Mary A. Whitaker--Fort Leavenworth--Mrs. Nettie C. Constant--Miss G. D. Chapman--Miss Sarah E. M. Lovejoy, daughter of Hon. Owen Lovejoy--Miss Mary E. Sheffield--Her labors at Vicksburg--Her death--Helena--Mrs. Sarah Coombs--Nashville--Mrs. Mary R. Fogg--St. Louis Refugee and Freedmen's Home--Mrs. H. M. Weed--The supervision of this Home by Mrs. Alfred Clapp, Mrs. Joseph Crawshaw, Mrs. Lucien Eaton and Mrs. N. Stevens. 733-716