108 THE SOUTH WILD WITH SUCCESS. But if the North was sobered by this disaster, and nerved to a firmer grapple with her foes, the South was intoxicated with her easy success. Her forces were strengthened and consolidated by this victory. She had little doubt but the independence of the Southern confederacy was now achieved. Whoever throughout the South had hesitated to swear allegiance to the cause of secession delayed no longer. Tennessee now voted to leave the Union. A great army of rebels suddenly made their appearance in Missouri, which was now rent with the ravages of civil war. And Fort Fillmore, in New Mexico, with seven hundred men, surrendered to a body of Texans without firing a gun. And now at last matters had sharply defined themselves; the lines were drawn between the States that were loyal and disloyal, and the millions of the United States were ranged on one side or the other of a long and desperate struggle. Meantime, what did the women of the North? CHAPTER II. LOYAL WOMEN OF THE NORTH-THEIR PATRIOTISM AND DEVOTION HEROINES OF THE BATTLE-FIELD HOMERELIEF SOCIETIES-SCRAPING LINT AND ROLLING BANDAGES. WORK AND The Patriotism of Men paralleled by that of Women- Notable Examples Testimony of President Lincoln-Blunders of Inexperience - The Havelock Mania - A Woman Soldier in the Nineteenth Illinois-Sent out of Camp, she attempts Suicide- Is rescued and joins her Husband Madame Turchin, Wife of the Colonel - Her Bravery and military Skill - Her Ability as a Nurse-She defeats a Court-Martial - Other military Heroines-Annie Etheridge of the Third Michigan-Bridget Devens of the First Michigan Cavalry- Kady Brownell of the Fifth Rhode Island -Georgianna Peterman, the Wisconsin Drummer-Girl-Army Stories of military Women - Bandage and Lint Craze-Local Relief Societies Queer Assortment of Supplies -Cars flooded with fermenting Goodies -Great Waste and Loss-Liberality of the People continues - Wiser Methods are devised. HE great uprising among men, who ignored party and politics, and forgot sect and trade, in the fervor of their quickened love of country, was paralleled by a similar uprising among women. The patriotic speech and song, which fired the blood of men, and led them to enter the lists as soldiers, nourished the self-sacrifice of women, and stimulated them to the collection of hospital supplies, and to brave the horrors and hardships of hospital life. If men responded to the call of the country when it demanded soldiers by the hundred thousand, women planned money-making enterprises, whose 110 UPRISING OF WOMEN. vastness of conception, and good business management, yielded millions of dollars to be expended in the interest of sick and wounded soldiers. If men faltered not, and went gayly to death, that slavery might be exterminated, and that the United States might remain intact and undivided, women strengthened them by accepting the policy of the government uncomplainingly. When the telegraph recorded for the country, "defeat" instead of "victory," and for their beloved, "death" instead of "life," women continued to give the government their faith, and patiently worked and waited. It is easy to understand how men catch the contagion of war, especially when they feel their quarrel to be just. One can comprehend how, fired with enthusiasm, and inspired by martial music, they march to the cannon's mouth, where the iron hail rains heaviest, and the ranks are mowed down like grain in harvest. But for women to send forth their husbands, sons, brothers and lovers to the fearful chances of the battle-field, knowing well the risks they run,- this involves exquisite suffering, and calls for another kind of heroism. This women did throughout the country, forcing their white lips to utter a cheerful "good-bye," when their hearts were nigh breaking with the fierce struggle. The transition of the country from peace to the tumult and waste of war, was appalling and swift — but the regeneration of its women kept pace with it. They lopped off superfluities, retrenched in expenditures, became deaf to the calls of pleasure, and heeded not the mandates of fashion. The incoming patriotism of the hour swept them to the loftiest height of devotion, and they were eager to do, to CASTE AND SECT FORGOTTEN. 111 bear, or to suffer, for the beloved country. The fetters of caste and conventionalism dropped at their feet, and they sat together, patrician and plebeian, Protestant and Catholic, and scraped lint, and rolled bandages, or made garments for the poorly clad soldiery. An order was sent to Boston for five thousand shirts for the Massachusetts troops at the South. Every church in the city sent a delegation of needlewomen to "Union Hall," heretofore used as a ballroom. The Catholic priests detailed five hundred sewing-girls to the pious work. Suburban towns rang the bells of the town hall to muster the seamstresses. The plebeian Irish Catholic of South Boston ran the sewing-machine, while the patrician Protestant of Beacon Street basted, and the shirts were made at the rate of a thousand a day. On Thursday, Dorothea Dix sent an order for five hundred shirts for her hospital in Washington. On Friday, they were cut, made, and packed - and were sent on their way that night. Similar events were of constant occurrence in every other city. The zeal and devotion of women no more flagged through the war than did that of the army in the field. They rose to the height of every emergency, and through all discouragements and reverses maintained a sympathetic unity between the soldiers and themselves, that gave to the former a marvellous heroism. At a meeting in Washington during the war, called in the interest of the Sanitary Commission, President Lincoln said: "I am not accustomed to use the language of eulogy. I have never studied the art of paying compliments to women. But I must say that 112 Lincoln << if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of women, was applied to the women of America, it would not do them justice for their conduct during this war. I will close by saying, God bless the women of America!" Entirely unacquainted with the requirements of war and the needs of soldiers, it was inevitable that the first movements of women for army relief should be misdirected. They could not manifest more ignorance, however, nor blunder more absurdly, than did the government in its early attempts to build up an effective and disciplined army. Both learned by blundering. It was summer; and the army was to move southward, to be exposed to the torrid heats of the season and climate. A newspaper reminiscence of the good service rendered British troops in India by General Havelock set the ball in motion. He had devised a white linen head-dress to be worn over the caps of his men, which defended them from sunstroke, and in his honor it was named the "Havelock." Our men must, of course, be equipped with this protection, and forthwith inexperienced women, and equally inexperienced men in the army, gave orders for the manufacture of Havelocks. What a furor there was over them! Women who could not attend the "sewing-meeting" where the "Havelocks" were being manufactured, ordered the work sent to their homes, and ran the sewing-machines day and night till the nondescript headgear was completed. "Havelocks" were turned out by thousands, of all patterns and sizes, and of every conceivable material. In the early inexperience of that time, whenever |