from Cairo to New Orleans. She had the satisfaction of raising about
five thousand dollars in money for the fair, besides obtaining a variety
and large amount of valuable articles for sale. She also had the
pleasure of causing supplies to be sent, at that time, to points where
they were much needed.
She was at Vicksburg when five thousand emaciated wrecks of manhood from
the prisons of Andersonville and Catawba, were brought thither to be
exchanged, and often visited their camp and aided in distributing the
supplies so greatly needed.
Many a time her kind heart was bursting with pain and sympathy for these
suffering men, many of whom had been tortured and starved till already
beyond the reach of help. But she was to see still greater horrors,
when, as the culmination of their fate, the steamer Sultana, on which
their homeward passage was taken, exploded, and, she, being near, beheld
hundreds who had escaped the sufferings of the prison pens, drawn from
the water, dying or dead, drowned or scalded, in that awful accident.
As she says, herself, her heart was nearly broken by this dreadful
sight.
Mrs. Hosmer returned to Chicago, and did not cease her labors until the
Soldiers' Rest was closed, and the war ended. For about four years she
gave untiring devotion to the cause, and few have accomplished more
real, earnest and persistent service. Since the close of the war, Mrs.
Hosmer has become a resident of New York, though she is, at this present
writing, established at St. Paul, Minnesota, in charge of a sick son,
who seeks the recovery of his health in that bracing climate.
MISS HATTIE WISWALL.
Miss Hattie Wiswall entered the service as Hospital Nurse, May 1, 1863.
For the first five or six months she was employed in the Benton Barracks
Hospital at St. Louis. At that time the suffering of our boys in
Missouri was very great, and all through that summer the hospitals of
St. Louis were crowded to overflowing. From one thousand to fifteen
hundred were lying in Benton Barracks alone. Men, wounded in every
conceivable manner, were frequently arriving from the battle-fields, and
our friend went through the same experience to which so many brave
women, fresh from the quiet and happy scenes of their peaceful homes,
have been willing to subject themselves for the sake of humanity.
Sensitive and delicate though she was, she acquired here, by constant
attention to her duties, a coolness in the presence of appalling
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