514

GOOD CHEER OF HER VISIT.

highest stage of water. Contrabands were detailed to take charge of them; and as long as Mrs. Bickerdyke remained in Memphis there was an abundance of milk and eggs for the use of the hospitals.

Mrs. Bickerdyke remained at Memphis till after the fall of Vicksburg. During the siege of that defiant stronghold, she went again and again to the hospitals, - a little beyond the reach of the guns, -taking lemons, ice, condensed milk, and portable lemonade. She always left the heroic sufferers more cheerful and comfortable, in their stifling little coops of temporary hospitals, for the good cheer of her visit. After the fall of Vicksburg, she remained at that point, and at Jackson, Miss., until the hospitals were nearly emptied of their severely wounded or sick men. No one ever worked more heroically, unselfishly and untiringly, than did this large-hearted woman for the welfare of sick and suffering soldiers.

CHAPTER XXVI.

MOTHER BICKERDYKE AND GENERAL SHERMAN-A NIGHT OF HORROR - HEROIC EFFORTS TO SAVE THE WOUNDED FROM FREEZING-HEART-RENDING SCENES AND TERRIBLE SUFFERING.

Mother Bickerdyke's Idolatry of General Sherman-She becomes an Attachée of his Corps - Comes to Chicago and does good Work for Soldiers' Families-Goes to Chattanooga after the Battle, and establishes a Hospital - Incredible Exertion to save her Patients from Freezing Orders Breastworks torn down for Fuel-"All right, Major, I'm arrested! Only don't meddle with me till the Weather moderates!"- General Burnside beleaguered in Knoxville, Tenn. - Sherman marches to his Relief-Fearful Suffering from Cold and short Rations - Horrors of the Return Route to Chattanooga - Railroad from Nashville completed at last-Joyful Welcome of the first Train-All Night in the icy Gale - She ran from Tent to Tent-She encouraged the shivering Soldiers Her Name mentioned only with Tears.

PENERAL SHERMAN was the beau idéal
of Mother Bickerdyke.
man and great soldier.

He was her great
She would always

defend General Grant like a tigress if he were assailed; but it was clear to every one

that General Sherman was the special object of her idolatry. And to-day I think she would find it easy to give her life for Sherman, if the sacrifice were necessary. She would count it a small thing to die for him. She rates him higher than Grant, higher than Lincoln, and altogether superior as a soldier to Washington or Wellington; and woe to the luckless wight who would dare lower her ideal!

516

AN ENVIABLE NOTORIETY.

General Sherman on his side fully appreciated Mother Bickerdyke; and when he was curt and repellant to all agents, nurses, and employés of the Sanitary, Christian, and State Commissions, she had the entrée to his headquarters, and obtained any favor she chose to ask. There was something in her character akin to his own. Both were restless, impetuous, fiery, hard working, and indomitable. After the fall of Vicksburg, Mother Bickerdyke became a special attachée of his corps, the Fifteenth. Ever after, during the war, she considered herself in a special sense under Sherman's direction; and the soldiers of the Fifteenth Corps have always claimed exclusive ownership of her.

When Sherman went to re-enforce Grant at Chattanooga, she came North, by Sherman's direction, and hastened to the same destination by way of Louisville; but, as Sherman's army was to march from the Big Black, across the enemy's country, to Chattanooga, and she was to go round by railroad and steamboat, she had a few days to spare, and came again to Chicago for a brief visit. Her exploits in supplying Memphis with milk and eggs, as well as the grand accounts of her famous nursing, brought home by furloughed soldiers who were scattered through every town in the Northwest, had given her an enviable notoriety. Everybody wanted to see the good woman, and to aid her personally, or assist in her work. Her arrival in Chicago was announced in the papers, when she was overwhelmed with attentions, which she put aside with the utmost indifference. Invitations to visit towns, cities, and societies, poured in upon her like a flood. Receptions were tendered her, ladies offered to make par

NO TIME NOW TO FROLIC.

517

ties for her, and the invitations to lunch came by dozens. But she declined all, with the stereotyped rebuke "that the country had a big war on its hands, and that this was no time for visiting or frolicking." She made several visits to the families of soldiers whom she had left in hospital, resident in the vicinity of Chicago, always carrying aid and comfort with her.

She found one of these families in great distress and poverty. The husband and father had been in positions for ten months that removed him beyond reach of the paymaster; and his family were in great need of the money which he failed to receive. They were owing six months' house rent; and the landlord, a hard man, had served a writ of ejectment upon them, and was preparing to put them summarily into the street. Mother Bickerdyke paid him a visit at his office, and sought to turn him from his purpose with all the peculiar eloquence of which she was mistress. He could not be moved, but scorned her and ordered her from his premises. She rose to go, and, taking a Bible from the shelf, which was never used except to give legality to oaths, she opened to the sixteenth chapter of Luke, and, straining to her full height, with a solemn and almost terrible face, she read these words before an audience of a dozen or more men,

"And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried, and in hell· in HELL in HELL,'"-increasing the emphasis each time -"he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.' You see what you are coming to,

518

HER WORK AT CHATTANOOGA.

sir," she added, "and the time may not be far off. May God have mercy on your mean soul! Goodbye." Then the resolute woman sought another house for the soldier's family, and rested not in her humane work until she had raised the money to pay the rent six months in advance.

Her visits always stirred us up at the North. Whenever she needed an extra quantity of sanitary stores, she would write us word to "stir up the aid societies as with a big spoon." And this work was effectually accomplished by one of her visits. Her detailed account of the work done in ministering to our sick and wounded men, the methods employed, together with a recital of events in which she had participated, would quicken our flagging spirits, and incite us all to new labor and sacrifice.

Hardly was the battle of Chattanooga fought, when Mother Bickerdyke was established at the base of Mission Ridge, in a field hospital. Here she was the only woman at work for nearly six weeks. In the very midst of the din and smoke of the carnage, she began to receive the wounded and exhausted, until very nearly two thousand of the worst cases were assigned to her nursing. Never did she render more valuable service. The Sanitary Commission had pushed through from Louisville, with immense trains of wagons, heavily loaded with supplies, and had bountifully provided Mother Bickerdyke with the stores most needed after the battle. The railroad running from Nashville, badly built, with poor material, and for light travel, had been used up long before. But as Chattanooga was to be the base of the army for some time, another road was necessary for heavy army use, and this was now