SARAH J. HAGAR.

T is due to the memory of this noble young woman that she should be included in the record of those sainted heroines who fearlessly went into the midst of danger and death that they might minister to the poor and suffering freedmen, whom our victorious arms had emancipated from their rebel masters, and yet had left for a time without means or opportunity to fit themselves for the new life that opened before them. To this humane service she freely devoted herself and became a victim to the climate of the lower Mississippi, while engaged in the arduous work of ministering to the physical wants and the education of the freed people, who in the winter and spring of 1864, had gathered in camps around Vicksburg, and along the Louisiana shore.

Miss Hagar was the eldest daughter of Mrs. C. C. Hagar, who also was one of the army of heroic nurses who served in the hospitals of St. Louis during the greater part of the war. For many months they had served together in the same hospital, and by their faithfulness and careful ministrations to the sick and wounded soldier had won the highest confidence of the Western Sanitary Commission, by whose President they were appointed.

During the fall of 1863 the National Freedmen's Aid Commission of New York, under the presidency of Hon. Francis G. Shaw, sent two agents, Messrs. William L. Marsh and H. R. Foster, to Vicksburg, to establish an agency there, and at Natchez, for the aid of the freed people, in furnishing supplies of food and

clothing to the destitute, and establishing schools for the children of the freedmen, and for such adults as could attend, and to help them in all possible ways to enter upon the new and better civilization that awaited them. In this work the Western Sanitary Commission co-operated, and Messrs. Marsh and Foster wrote to the writer of this sketch, then acting as Secretary of the above. Commission, to send them several teachers and assistants in their work. Among those who volunteered for the service was Miss Hagar, who was wanted in another situation in St. Louis, but preferred this more arduous work for the freedmen.

The reasons she gave for her choice were, that she was well and strong, and felt a real interest in the welfare of the freed people; that she had no prejudices against them, and that while there were enough who were willing to fill the office of nurse to the white soldiers, it was more difficult to get those who would render equal kindness and justice to the black troops, and to the freed people, and therefore she felt it her duty and pleasure to go. She was accordingly commissioned, and with Miss A. M. Knight, of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, (another worthy laborer in the same cause) went down the river to Vicksburg, in the winter of 1864.

For several months she labored there with untiring devotion to the interests and welfare of the colored people, under the direction of Messrs. Marsh and Foster. No task was too difficult for her to undertake that promised good results, and in danger of all kinds, whether from disease, or from the assaults of the enemy, she never lost her presence of mind, nor was wanting in the requisite courage for that emergency. In person she was above the medium height, and had a face beaming with kindness, and pleasant to look upon. Her mind had received a good degree of culture, and her natural intelligence was of a high order. And better than all within her earthly form dwelt a noble and heroic scul.

Late in April of that year, she had an attack of malarial fever, which prostrated her very suddenly, and just in the proportion

that she had been strong and apparently well fortified against disease, it took a deep hold of her vital powers, and on the 3d of May, she yielded to the fell destroyer, and breathed no more.

The following tribute to her character, is taken from the letter of Mr. Marsh, in which he communicated the sad tidings of her death.

"In her death the National Freedmen's Aid Association, has lost a most earnest, devoted, Christian laborer. She entered upon her duties at a time of great suffering and destitution among the Freedmen at Vicksburg, and when we were much in need of aid. The fidelity with which she performed her labors, and the deep interest she manifested in them soon endeared her to us all. We shall miss her sorely; but the noble example she has left us wili encourage us to greater efforts, and more patient toil. She seemed also to realize the magnitude and importance of this work upon which she had entered, and the need of Divine assistance in its performance. She seemed also to realize what sacrifice might be demanded of one engaged in a work like this, and the summons, although sudden, did not find her unprepared to meet it. She has done a noble work, and done it well.

"The sacrifice she made is the greatest one that can be made for any cause, the sacrifice of life. 'Greater love than this hath no man, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' She has gone to receive her reward."

Her remains were brought to her native town in Illinois, and deposited there, where the blessed memory she has left among her friends and kindred, is cherished with heartfelt reverence and affection.

MRS. JOSEPHINE R. GRIFFIN.

I

F the most thoroughly unselfish devotion of an earnest and gifted woman to the interests and welfare of

a despised and down-trodden race, to the manifest injury and detriment of her own comfort, ease, or pecuniary prospects, and without any hope or desire of reward other than the consciousness of having been their benefactor, constitutes a woman a heroine, then is Mrs. Griffin one of the most remarkable heroines of our times.

Of her early history we know little. She was a woman of refinement and culture, has always been remarkable for her energy and resolution, as well as for her philanthropic zeal for the poor and oppressed. The beginning of the war found her a widow, with, we believe, three children, all daughters, in Washington, D. C. Of these daughters, the eldest has a position in the Treasury Department, a second has for some time assisted her mother in her labors, and the youngest is in school. Mrs. Griffin was too benevolent ever to be rich, and when the freedmen and their families began to concentrate in the District of Columbia, and on Arlington Heights, across the Potomac, she sought them out, and made the effort to ameliorate their condition. At that time they hardly knew whether they were to be permanently free or not, and massed together as they were, their old slave habits of recklessness, disorder, and over-crowding soon gained the predominance, and showed their evil effect in producing a fearful amount of sickness and death. They were not, with

comparatively few exceptions, indolent; but they had naturally lapsed into the easy, slovenly methods, or rather want of method of the old slave life, and a few were doing the greater part of what was done. They were mere children in capacity, will and perseverance. Mrs. Griffin, with her intensely energetic nature, soon effected a change. Order took the place of disorder, under her direction; new cabins were built, neatness and system maintained, till their good effects were so apparent, that the freedmen voluntarily pursued the course advised by their teacher and friend; all who were able to do any work were provided as far as possible with employment, and schools for the children in the day time, and for adults in the evening, were established. In this good work she received material assistance from that devoted young Christian now gone to his rest, the late Cornelius M. Welles. After awhile, the able-bodied men were enlisted in the army, and the stronger and healthier women provided with situations in many instances at the North, and the children, and feeble, decrepit men and women, could not perform work enough for their maintenance. Mrs. Griffin began to solicit aid for them, and carried them through one winter by the assistance she was able to collect, and by what she gave from her own not over-full purse. Some land was now allotted to them, and by the utmost diligence they were enabled to provide almost entirely for themselves, till autumn; but meantime the Act of Emancipation in the District of Columbia had drawn thither some thousands of people of color from the adjacent states of Maryland and Virginia. All looked up to Mrs. Griffin as their special Providence. She was satisfied that it was better for them, as far as possible, to find places and work in the Northern States, than to remain there, where employment was precarious, and where the excessive number of workers had reduced the wages of such as could find employment. She accordingly commenced an extensive correspondence, to obtain from persons at the North in want of servants, orders for such as could be supplied from the colored