CHAPTER XXV.

THRILLING INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF MOTHER BICKERDYKE-HER HOSPITAL EXPERIENCES-HER FIRST FURLOUGH-RETURN TO THE FRONT- FIGHTING THE DOCTORS-A COW-AND-HEN EXPEDITION.

She is much worn down - Extremely Perilous to remain longer without Rest - Her Health demands a Respite from her Labors for a Time - Comes to my House on her Furlough-Attends a Wedding-"Have enjoyed your Wedding as if it were a Prayer-Meeting!". Calls Meetings to raise Supplies-Returns to the Front, organizes and regenerates Hospitals-Re-organizes her Laundries in Memphis - Quarrels with the Medical Director-Outgenerals him-"One of us two goes to the Wall, and 'taint never me!"-The Storm finally ends in Sunshine - They become Friends He sends her North on a Cow-and-Hen Expedition-Returns with a hundred Cows, and a thousand Hens-Improved Condition of the Hospitals-Confided in everywhere - Impatient of Red Tape Cared little for Sect, but much for the Comfort of the Soldiers.

N November, 1862, Mrs. Bickerdyke was compelled, for the first time, to take a furlough. She was thoroughly worn out, although she would not admit it, and was as

indomitable in will, and as Herculean in energy, as at the first. But the medical director and the surgeons under whose immediate direction she was then working, and who were noble men and her personal friends, saw that she had reached a point of nervous exhaustion when it was extremely perilous for her to remain longer at her post. They compelled her to take a furlough. She came direct to Chicago, and, as I had requested, to

500 "VERY MANY ALL SHOT TO PIECES."

my house. I was not at home when she arrived, but returned that evening. "Norwegian Martha," who had presided in my kitchen for years, and who had never before seen Mother Bickerdyke, informed me of the new arrival in characteristic style.

"Another one more of them nurse woman have come with some carpet-bag," Martha said. (The nurses sent by the Commission into the service had made my house a sort of headquarters as they passed through the city, a proceeding greatly disapproved by Martha.) "This one have no afraid to do anything, and have make herself to take a bath, and have put herself to bed till supper time. She say she have very many hundred miles rode, and very many allshot-up"-shot to pieces. "soldiers to take care of, and she be got awful tired, and, poor woman, she look seek (sick). But she have make me to think of my poor mother, what make herself to die in Norway with so much work too hard, before to this country I come. I like this nurse woman what have come more than the rest that stayed away." The influence of Mother Bickerdyke's great maternal heart was felt everywhere.

After tea, I accompanied my family to the wedding of a friend, which was solemnized in a church near by. Wearied as Mother Bickerdyke was, she insisted on making one of the company. She believed it would rest her to see the inside of a meeting-house; it was a sight that had not blessed her eyes for eighteen months, she said. It was an intensely tedious ceremony; for the old clergyman who officiated at the marriage added to a very long prayer, a Scripture reading and a full half-hour's exhortation to good living, with directions for accomplishing it, which he

"ENJOYED YOUR WEDDING VERY MUCH." 501

counted off, firstly, secondly, thirdly, and so on. It was a sermon, in fact. After the marriage, the newly wedded halted for a few moments in the church parlor, to take leave of their friends, as they were to proceed directly to the train, en route for the distant city of their future residence. Mother Bickerdyke was introduced, at her request; for she had learned that the young husband held the rank of major in one of the Illinois regiments.

"My dear," said our motherly heroine in a naïve way to the bride, "I have enjoyed your wedding very much; it has done me as much good as a prayermeeting. I am very much refreshed by it." (She had slept through the interminable service.) "I am sure you will make your husband a good wife, for you have got the face of a good girl; and I hope you and he will live together a good many years. If he gets wounded in battle, and falls into my hands, I will try to take good care of him for you."

"Why, Mother Bickerdyke! God bless you! I am glad to see you!" burst out the bridegroom, with a mighty welcome. "You have already taken care of me. After the battle of Donelson I was brought up on one of the boats filled with wounded men, and you took care of me, as you did of the rest, like a mother. Don't you remember a lieutenant who had a minie-ball in his leg; and the doctors wanted to amputate the leg, and he fought against their doing it, and how you helped him keep it? I am the man. Here's the old leg, good as new. I have been promoted since." But she could not recall his case among the thousands more seriously wounded whom she had since carefully nursed.

This one wedding, attended on the first evening of

502

INCREASE OF SUPPLIES SECURED.

her arrival, was the only recreation of her furlough. The very next morning she set herself to work to stimulate the increase of supplies, which were called for now in greater quantities than ever. A meeting of the ladies of the city was called in Bryan Hall, and to them the earnest woman made so eloquent an appeal, backed by such thrilling statements, that they consecrated themselves anew to the work of relieving our brave men. She pursued the same course at Milwaukee, Springfield, Galesburg, Aurora, and many other cities. With many of the leading men of these cities she held interviews, when her devotion, common sense, pathos, pluck, and energy, so secured their confidence, and aroused their sympathy, that they made large donations to the Sanitary Commission, to be repeated quarterly while the war continued.

Rested and recuperated, and having placed her two sons at boarding-school where she could feel easy about them, she reported to the medical director at Memphis, as she had been ordered, in January, 1863. Immense hospitals were being organized in that city, which was also being made a base of military and medical supplies. She was first set to organizing the Adams Block Hospital, and, that completed, she was sent to Fort Pickering to re-organize the "Small-pox Hospital." There had been great neglect here; and the loathsome place had been left uncared for until it was fouler and more noisome than an Augean stable. But Mother Bickerdyke was just the Hurcules to cleanse it. She raised such a hurricane about the ears of the officials whose neglect had caused its terrible condition, as took the heads from some of them, and sent back to their

IMPROVED CONDITION OF HOSPITALS.

503

regiments several private soldiers who had been detailed as nurses.

The storm she raised left the atmosphere and premises sweeter than she found them. The walls were whitewashed, the kitchens regenerated, so that the patients could have the diet necessary to them, and both they and their beds were supplied with fresh clothing. Disinfectants were used with a lavish hand, and then, leaving a matron in charge who was an abridged edition of herself, she went to the Gayoso Hospital, to organize and take charge of that.

In the meantime she organized anew her huge laundries, in which was performed all the washing of the Memphis hospitals, even when there were eight and ten thousand patients in them. Washingmachines, wringers, caldrons, mangles, and any other needed laundry machinery, were sent her by the Sanitary Commission. Her old apparatus had been destroyed at Holly Springs, Miss., when that point was captured by the enemy, through the incompetence of Colonel Murphy, of the Eighth Wisconsin. About one million dollars' worth of ordnance, subsistence, and quartermasters' stores belonging to Grant's army was destroyed at Holly Springs at the time of its capture; and so also was a splendidly furnished depot of sanitary stores.

It was some time before the medical authorities at Memphis were able to understand Mother Bickerdyke. There was perfect harmony between the military authorities and herself; and she readily obtained from them any co-operation she desired. As her work increased, she asked for details of more and more contrabands, and rations for them, until, when I went down to Memphis, in the spring of 1863, there