l and clerkly withal, giving receipts for every article
received.

Those present at Dr. Bellows' Church in May, will never forget the first
thrilling call for nurses on board the hospital transports. The duty was
imperative, was untried and therefore startling. It was like a sudden
plunge into unknown waters, yet many brave women enrolled their names.
From the Woman's Central went forth Mrs. Griffin accompanied by Mrs.
David Lane. They left at once in the "Wilson Small," and went up the
York and Pamunkey rivers, and to White House, thus tasting the first
horrors of war. This experience would form a brilliant chapter in the
history of the Woman's Central.

In June, 1861, the association met with a great loss in the departure
of Mrs. d'Oremieulx, for Europe. Of her Dr. Bellows said: "It would be
ungrateful not to acknowledge the zeal, devotion and ability of one of
the ladies of this committee, Mrs. d'Oremieulx, now absent from the
country, who labored incessantly in the earlier months of the
organization, and gave a most vital start to the life of this
committee." This lady resumed her duties after a year's absence, and
continued her characteristic force and persistency up to the close.

At this time, Mr. S. W. Bridgham put his broad shoulders to the wheel.
He had been a member of the board from the beginning, but not a
"day-laborer" until now. And not this alone, for he was a night-laborer
also. At midnight, and in the still "darker hours which precede the
dawn," Mr. Bridgham and his faithful ally, Roberts, often left their
beds to meet sudden emergencies, and to ship comforts to distant points.
On Sundays too, he and his patriotic wife might be easily detected
creeping under the half-opened door of Number 10, to gather up for a
sudden requisition, and then to beg of the small city expresses,
transportation to ship or railroad. This was often his Sunday worship.
His heart and soul were given to the work.

In November, 1862, a council of representatives from the principal
aid-societies, now numbering fourteen hundred and sixty-two, was held in
Washington. The chief object was to obtain supplies more steadily.
Immediately after a battle, but too late for the exigency, there was an
influx, then a lull. The Woman's Central therefore urged its auxiliaries
to send a monthly box. It also urged the _Federal principle_, that is,
the bestowment of all supplies on United States troops, and not on
individuals or regiments, and