whom had been reserved the daintiest
morsels that the land could supply, and whose hands had never known a
weightier task than some dainty embroidery. The North could show no like
evidence of patient courage, not having opportunity for its display. The
one point at which the women of the two sections met on common ground
was in the hospital service; and here the Northern woman had the
advantage in efficiency, though not in tenderness. The organization of
these matters was extremely poor in both the Union and the Confederacy;
but, because of greater facilities springing from greater command of
money, the hospital organization of the North, both field and fixed, was
far better than that of the South, which indeed could hardly be said to
have a hospital organization at all. In these hospitals worked thousands
of devoted women, and their ministrations to the wounded and dying of
both sides must not be forgotten when we reckon up the sum of the work
of American womanhood. On both sides, ladies of culture and refinement
devoted themselves to this pious work, and this was the most worthy and
lasting outlet that was found for Northern feminine enthusiasm in the
cause of the Union, and the name of Dorothea Lynde Dix, the head of the
organized force of Northern hospital nurses, will always be held in
especial honor for devotion and ability in this noble cause, as well as
in the amelioration of the condition of the indigent insane, to which
latter cause her whole life was chiefly devoted.

There were few especial heroines developed by the war; heroism was so
general when there was call for it among the women that it attracted but
little notice and won no lasting fame, even in its most remarkable
displays. There has come down to us hardly a single female name as being
especially singled out during this time for any noteworthy action.
Indeed, there was such dearth of especial women heroines that one poet
was driven, when he wished to stir the blood of his people with
enthusiasm for feminine heroism, to invent one; but the present day
wisely refuses to put any faith in the hoary legend of Barbara
Frietchie, which indeed, as given by Whittier, is full of the most
absurd improbabilities. To say nothing of the unlikelihood of
"Stonewall" Jackson ordering a platoon--it could hardly have been a
regiment--to fire at a flagstaff instead of directing someone to enter
the house and remove the objectionable object,--though even this would
hav