t her post, and constant and
unremitting in her labors. Soldiers' families had also to be assisted;
widows and orphans to be visited and cared for; rents, fuel, clothing,
and employment to be provided, and the destitute relieved, of whom there
were thousands whose husbands, and sons, and brothers, were absent
fighting the battles of the Union.

Missouri was, during the first year of the war, a battle-ground. St.
Louis and its environs were crowded with troops; the Hospitals were
large and numerous; during the winter of 1861-2, there were twenty
thousand sick and wounded soldiers in them; and the concurrent labors of
the Ladies' Union Aid Society, and the Western Sanitary Commission, were
in constant requisition. The visiting of the sick, ministering to them
at their couches of pain, reading to them, cheerful conversation with
them, were duties which engaged many of the ladies of the Society; and
numerous interesting and affecting incidents were preserved by Miss
Adams, and embodied in the Reports of the Association. She also did her
share in this work of visiting; and during the winter of 1863-4, she
went to Nashville, Tennessee, and established there a special diet
kitchen, upon which the surgeons in charge of the hospitals, could make
requisitions for the nicer and more delicate preparations of food for
the very sick. She remained all winter in Nashville, in charge of a
branch of the St. Louis Aid Society, and, by her influence, secured the
opening of the hospitals to female nurses, who had hitherto not been
employed in Nashville. Knowing, as she did, the superior gentleness of
women as nurses, their more abundant kindness and sympathy, and their
greater skill in the preparation of food for the sick; knowing also the
success that had attended the experiment of introducing women nurses in
the Military Hospitals in other cities, she determined to overcome the
prejudices of such of the army surgeons as stood in the way, and secure
to her sick and wounded brothers in the hospitals at Nashville, the
benefit of womanly kindness, and nursing, and care. In this endeavor she
was entirely successful, and by her persuasive manners, her womanly
grace and refinement, and her good sense, she recommended her views to
the medical authorities, and accomplished her wishes.

Returning to St. Louis in the spring of 1864, she continued to perform
the duties of Secretary of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, till the end
of the year, when, in