sons of
noble sires"--young men, and middle-aged, and boys, sprang to arms. Its
regiments were among the first to answer the call of the country and to
offer themselves for its defense. Let Ball's Bluff and the Wilderness,
the Chickahominy, and the deadly swamps and bayous of the Southwest,
tell to the listening world the story of their bravery, their endurance
and their sacrifices.

But these men who went forth to fight left behind them, in their homes,
hearts as brave and strong as their own. If Berkshire has a proud record
of the battle-field, not less proud is that which might be written of
her home work. Its women first gave their best beloved to the defense of
the country, and then, in their desolate homes, all through the slow
length of those horrible, sometimes hopeless years, by labor and
sacrifice, by thought and care, they gave themselves to the more silent
but not less noble work of supplying the needs and ministering to the
comforts of the sick and wounded soldiery.

Foremost among these noble women, as the almoner of their bounty, and
the organizer of their efforts, stands the subject of this sketch, Mrs.
C. T. Fenn, of Pittsfield, whose devotion to the work during the entire
war was unintermitted and untiring.

Mrs. Fenn, whose maiden name was Dickinson, was born in Pittsfield just
before the close of the last century, and with the exception of a brief
residence in Boston, has passed her entire life there. Her husband,
Deacon Curtis T. Fenn, an excellent citizen, and enterprising man of
business, in his "haste to be rich," was at one time tempted to venture
largely, and became bound for others. The result was a failure, and a
removal to Boston with the idea of retrieving his fortunes in new
scenes. Here his only son, a promising young man of twenty-two years,
fell ill, and with the hope of arresting his disease, and if possible
saving his precious life, his parents returned to his native place,
giving up their flattering prospects in the metropolis. It was in vain,
however--in a few months the insidious disease, always so fatal in New
England, claimed its victim, and they were bereaved in their dearest
hopes.

This affliction did not change, but perhaps intensified, the character
of Mrs. Fenn. She was now called to endure labor, and to make many
sacrifices, while her husband was slowly winning his way back to
competence. But ever full of kindness and sympathy, she devoted her time
more unsparingly t