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Association which is named above, was one of the most efficient and
untiring in its labors. It had gathered into its management, a large
body of the most gifted and intellectual women of Boston, and its
vicinity, women who knew how to work as well as to plan, direct and
think. These were seconded in their efforts by a still larger number of
intelligent and accomplished women in every part of New England, who, as
managers and directors of the auxiliaries of the Association, roused and
stimulated by their own example and their eloquent appeals, the hearts
of their countrywomen to earnest and constant endeavour to benefit the
soldiers of our National armies. The geographical peculiarities and
connections of the New England States, were such that after the first
year Connecticut and Rhode Island could send their supplies more readily
to the field through New York than through Boston, and hence the
Association from that time, had for its field of operations, only Maine,
New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. In these four States,
however, it had one thousand and fifty auxiliaries, and during its
existence, collected nearly three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars
in money, and fully one million, two hundred thousand dollars in stores
and supplies for the work of the Sanitary Commission. In December, 1863,
it held a Sanitary Fair in Boston, the net proceeds of which were
nearly one hundred and forty-six thousand dollars.

The first Chairman of the Executive Committee, was Mrs. D. Buck, and on
her resignation early in 1864, Miss Abby W. May, an active and efficient
member of the Executive Committee from the first was chosen Chairman.
The rare executive ability displayed by Miss May in this position, and
her extraordinary gifts and influence render a brief sketch of her
desirable, though her own modest and retiring disposition would lead her
to depreciate her own merits, and to declare that she had done no more
than the other members of the Association. In that coterie of gifted
women, it is not impossible that there may have been others who could
have done as well, but none could have done better than Miss May; just
as in our great armies, it is not impossible that there may have been
Major-Generals, and perhaps even Brigadier-Generals, who, had they been
placed in command of the armies, might have accomplished as much as
those who did lead them to victory. The possibilities of success, in an
untried leader, may or ma