dead, drowned or scalded, in that awful accident. As she says, herself, her heart was nearly broken by this dreadful sight.

Mrs. Hosmer returned to Chicago, and did not cease her labors unul the Soldiers' Rest was closed, and the war ended. For about four years she gave untiring devotion to the cause, and few have accomplished more real, earnest and persistent service. Since the close of the war, Mrs. Hosmer has become a resident of New York, though she is, at this present writing, established at St. Paul, Minnesota, in charge of a sick son, who seeks the recovery of his health in that bracing climate.

M

ISS HATTIE WISWALL entered the service as
Hospital Nurse, May 1, 1863. For the first five or

six months she was employed in the Benton Barracks Hospital at St. Louis. At that time the suffering of our boys in Missouri was very great, and all through that summer the hospitals of St. Louis were crowded to overflowing. From one thousand to fifteen hundred were lying in Benton Barracks alone. Men, wounded in every conceivable manner, were frequently arriving from the battle-fields, and our friend went through the same experience to which so many brave women, fresh from the quiet and happy scenes of their peaceful homes, have been willing to subject themselves for the sake of humanity. Sensitive and delicate though she was, she acquired here, by constant attention to her duties, a coolness in the presence of appalling sights that we have rarely seen equaled even in the stronger sex, and which, when united with a tender sympathy, as in her case, makes the model nurse. The feeling of horror which shrinks from the sight of agony and vents itself in vapid exclamations, she rightly deemed had no place in the character of one who proposes to do anything. So putting this aside she learned to be happy in the hospital, and consequently made others happy. Never in our observation has this first condition of success in nursing been so completely met. It became so intense a satisfaction to her to lessen, in ever so slight a degree, the misery of a sick or wounded soldier that the horror of the case seemed never

to occur to her. It was often remarked that "Miss Hattie was never quite so happy as when administering medicine or dressing a wound."

From Benton Barracks she was ordered in the autumn of 1863 to Nashville, Tennessee, where she remained a short time and was then ordered to Vicksburg, Mississippi, to assist in conducting a Soldiers' Home. Here she remained until the close of the war. How faithfully she discharged her duties, first as assistant and then as principal Matron, the one hundred and fifteen thousand guests who were entertained there during her stay know, and the living can testify. Her position for much of the time was an extremely responsible and laborious one, the capacities of the Home being sometimes extended to the accommodation of six hundred men, and averaging, for nearly the whole period of her stay, two hundred daily. The multiplicity of duties in the charge of the household affairs of such an institution, with the uncertain assistance to be found in such a place, may be better imagined than told. Under her satisfactory management the Vicksburg Home acquired an enviable reputation, and was the favorite stopping-place on the river. The great difficulty in conducting a Soldiers' Home in time of war, as every one knows who has been connected with one, is to keep it neat and clean, to have the floors, the tables, the beds sufficiently respectable to remind the soldier of the home he has left. Nothing but ceaseless vigilance could do this at Vicksburg, as men were constantly arriving from filthy camps, and still filthier prisons, covered not with greenbacks but with what was known there as the rebel "currency." But on any one of the hundreds of beds that filled the dormitories of this Home our most fastidious reader could have slept in peace and safety; and, but for the fact that the bill of fare was mostly limited to the army ration, could have set down at any of the tables and enjoyed a meal.

The good work of Miss Wiswall in Vicksburg was not confined to the Soldiers' Home. She did not forget the freedmen,

but was true to tne teachings of her uncles, the great and good Lovejoys. Of the sufferings of these poor people she had opportunity to see much, and often did her sympathies lead her beyond the sphere of her ordinary duties, to carry food and clothing and medicine to such as were ready to perish.

In these charities, which were extended also to the white refugees, Miss Wiswall did not lose sight of the direct line of her duty, the work she had set out to do. The needs of the loyal soldier took precedence in her mind of all others. No service so delighted her as this, and to none was she so well fitted.

We remember after the calamitous Red River expedition, boatload after boat-load of the wounded were sent up to Vicksburg. As soon as they touched the shore, our friend and her companions met the poor fellows stretched upon the decks and scattered through the cabins and around the engines, with words of womanly cheer, and brought the delicacies and refreshments prepared by thoughtful hands at home. Many a brave man will remember to his dying day how he shed tears of joy at sight of the first true Northern woman's face that met him after that toilsome, disastrous march.

At length a boat-load of the severely wounded were about to be sent up the river to Northern hospitals, or on furlough to go to their homes. The surgeon in charge desired the aid of a competent lady assistant; and Miss Wiswall obtained temporary leave of absence to accompany him and help take care of the sufferers. Her influence, we were told, was inspiriting to all on board. She was once more in hospital and entirely at home. At Cairo, where a portion of the wounded were discharged, she took charge of an officer, whose limb had been amputated, and saw him safely to his home in Elgin, Illinois. Making her friends in Chicago a brief visit, she returned to her duties at Vicksburg, where she remained until, with the close of the war, the Soldiers' Home was discontinued about the 1st of June, 1865.

MRS. LUCY E. STARR.

N an early period of the civil war this heroic woman left her home at Griggsville, Illinois, came to St. Louis and offered her services to the Western Sanitary Com

mission as a nurse in the hospitals. She was already known as a person of excellent Christian character, of education and refinement, of real practical ability, the widow of a deceased clergyman, and full of the spirit of kindness and patriotic sympathy towards our brave soldiers in the field. Her services were gladly accepted, and she entered at once upon her duties as a nurse in the Fifth Street Hospital at St. Louis, which was in charge of the excellent Dr. John T. Hodgen, an eminent surgeon of that city.

In

For nearly two years Mrs. Starr served as nurse in this hospital, having charge of one of the special diet kitchens, and ministering with her own hands to the sick and wounded inmates. these services the great kindness of her manners, the cheerful and hopeful spirit that animated her, the words of sympathy and encouragement she gave her patients, and the efficiency and excellence of everything she did won for her a large measure of esteem and confidence, and made her a favorite nurse with the authorities of the hospital, and with the sick and wounded, who received her ministrations and care. Small in stature, it was wonderful how much labor she was able to accomplish, and how she was sustained by a soul full of noble purposes and undoubting faith, In the autumn of 1863 Mrs. Starr was needed by the Western