nati, from the siege of Fort Donelson, and ere these were fairly convalescent, still greater numbers came from Shiloh; and from that time forward, till the close of the war, the hospitals were almost constantly filled with sick or wounded soldiers. To these suffering heroes Mrs. Mendenhall devoted herself with the utmost assiduity. For two and a half years from the reception of the first wounded from Fort Donelson, she spent half of every day, and frequently the whole day, in personal ministrations to the sick and wounded in any capacity that could add to their comfort. She procured necessaries and luxuries for the sick, waited upon them, wrote letters for them, consoled the dying, gave information to their friends of their condition, and attended to the necessary preparations for the burial of the dead. During the four years of the war she was not absent from the city for pleasure but six days, and during the whole period there were not more than ten days in which she did not perform some labor for the soldiers' comfort.

Her field of labor was in the four general hospitals in the city, but principally in the Washington Park Hospital, over which Dr. J. B. Smith, who subsequently fell a martyr to his devotion to the soldiers, presided, who gave her ample opportunities for doing all for the patients which her philanthropic spirit prompted. During all this time she was actively engaged in the promotion of the objects of the Women's Soldiers' Aid Society, of which, she was at this time, president, having been from the first an officer. The enthusiasm manifested in the northwest in behalf of the Sanitary Fair at Chicago, led Mrs. Mendenhall to believe that a similar enterprise would be feasible in Cincinnati, which should draw its supplies and patrons from all portions of the Ohio valley. With her a generous and noble thought was sure to be followed by action equally generous and praiseworthy. She commenced at once the agitation of the subject in the daily papers of the city, her first article appearing in the Times, of October 31, 1863, and being followed by others from her pen in the other loyal papers

of the city. The idea was received with favor, and on the 7th of November an editorial appeared in the Cincinnati Gazette, entitled "Who speaks for Cincinnati?" This resulted in a call the next day for a meeting of gentlemen to consider the subject. Committees were appointed, an organization effected and circulars issued on the 13th of November. On the 19th, the ladies met, and Mrs. Mendenhall was unanimously chosen President of the ladies' committee, and subsequently second Vice-President of the General Fair organization, General Rosecrans being President, and the Mayor of the city, first Vice-President. To the furtherance of this work, Mrs. Mendenhall devoted all her energies. Eloquent appeals from her facile pen were addressed to loyal and patriotic men and women all over the country, and a special circular and appeal to the patriotic young ladies of Cincinnati and the Ohio valley for their hearty co-operation in the good work. The correspondence and supervision of that portion of the fair which necessarily came under the direction of the ladies, required all her time and strength, but the results were highly satisfactory. Of the two hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars which was the net product of this Sanitary Fair, a very liberal proportion was called forth by her indefatigable exertions and her extraordinary executive ability.

The aggregate results of the labors of the Women's Aid Society, before and after the fair, are known to have realized about four hundred thousand dollars in money, and nearly one million five hundred thousand in hospital stores and supplies.

The Soldiers' Home of Cincinnati, one of the best managed of these institutions, was also established by the energy of Mrs. Mendenhall, and her associates. Up to the close of 1864, eighty thousand soldiers had been entertained in this "Home," and three hundred and seventy-two thousand meals dispensed. They also obtained by their exertions, a burial place for Ohio soldiers, dying in Cincinnati, at the Spring Grove Cemetery, the Trustees

of the Cemetery giving one lot, and the Legislature purchasing two more at a small price.

The fair closed, she resumed her hospital work and her duties as President of the Women's Soldiers' Aid Society, and continued to perform them to the close of the war. Near the close of 1864, she exerted her energies in behalf of a Fair for soldiers' families, in which fifty thousand dollars were raised for this deserving object. The testimonies of her associates to the admirable manner in which her hospital work was performed are emphatic, and the thousands of soldiers who were the recipients of her gentle ministries, give equally earnest testimonies to her kindness and tenderness of heart.

The freedmen and refugees have also shared her kindly ministrations and her open-handed liberality, and since the close of the war her self-sacrificing spirit has found ample employment in endeavoring to lift the fallen of her own sex out of the depths of degradation, to the sure and safe paths of virtue and rectitude.

With the modesty characteristic of a patriotic spirit, Mrs. Mendenhall depreciates her own labors and sacrifices. "What," she says in a letter to a friend, "are my humble efforts for the soldiers, compared with the sacrifice made by the wife or mother of the humblest private who ever shouldered a musket?"

DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH.

D

R. M. M. MARSH was Medical Inspector of the Department of the Gulf and South, his charge comprising the States of Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. He held his appointment in the capacity mentioned from the Sanitary Commission, and from Government, the latter conferring upon him great authority over hospitals and health matters in general throughout his district.

It was in the early part of the year 1863 that Mrs. Marsh left her home in Vermont and joined her husband at Beaufort.

The object of Mrs. Marsh in going thither, was to establish a home with its comforts amidst the unfamiliar scenes and habitudes of the South.

Everything was strange, unnatural, unreal. Beaufort was in conquered territory occupied by its conquerors The former inhabitants had fled, leaving lands, houses and negroes-all that refused to go with them, or could not be removed. Military rule prevailed, and the new population were Northern soldiers, and a few adventurous women. Besides these were blacks, men, women and children, many of them far from the homes they had known, and strange alike to freedom and a life made independent by their own efforts. From order to chaos, that was the transition a Northern woman underwent in coming to this place and state of society.

Mrs. Marsh had no sooner arrived than she found there was work to do and duties to perform in her new home on which she

had not calculated. Her husband was frequently absent, sometimes for long periods. To his charge came the immense stores of supplies constantly forwarded by the Sanitary Commission, which were to be received, accounted for, unpacked, dealt out to the parties for whom they were intended. All this must be done by an intelligent person or persons, and by the same, reports of the condition of the hospitals must be made, together with the needful requisitions.

It

Here was business enough to employ the time, exhaust the strength, and occupy the thoughts of any single individual. was a "man's work," as Mrs. Marsh often declares. Be that as may, it was accomplished by a woman, and in the most admirable manner. The Sanitary Commission feels both proud and grateful, whenever the name of Mrs. Marsh is mentioned.

it

Her services were not of a nature to elicit great applause, or to attract much attention. They were quietly performed, and at a point quite aside from battle-fields, or any great center where thousands of spectators had the opportunity to become cognizant of them. But they were not, on account of these facts, less beneficent or useful.

Mrs. Marsh often visited the hospitals and made the acquaintance of the sick and wounded, becoming frequently, deeply interested in individuals. This was a feeling entirely different from that general interest in the welfare of every Union soldier which arose as much from the instincts of a patriotic heart, as from philanthropy.

She never became a hospital nurse, however, for she was fully occupied in other ways, and her husband, Dr. Marsh did not cordially approve, save in a few particular instances, of the introduction of women to the hospitals in that capacity. But living in the immediate vicinity of the hospitals, her benevolent face was often seen there, and welcomed with grateful smiles from many a bed of suffering.

A young officer from one of the Northern States and regiments,