ss and purity of character were so
strongly marked that she was respected and beloved not only by all her
own regiment, but by the brigade division and corps to which that
regiment belonged, and so fully convinced were the officers from the
corps commander down, of her usefulness and faithfulness in the care of
the wounded, that at a time when a peremptory order was issued from the
headquarters of the army that all women, whatever their position or
services should leave the camp, all the principal field officers of the
corps to which her regiment was attached united in a petition to the
general-in-chief, that an exception might be made in her favor.

The greater part of Annie Etheridge's childhood was passed in Wisconsin.
Her father was a man of considerable property, and her girlhood was
passed in ease and luxury; but as she drew near the age of womanhood, he
met with misfortunes by which he lost nearly all he had possessed, and
returned to her former home in Michigan. Annie remained in Wisconsin,
where she had married, but was on a visit to her father in Detroit at
the outbreak of the war, and joined the Second Michigan Regiment when
they departed for the seat of war, to fulfil the office of a daughter
of the regiment, in attending to its sick and wounded. When that
regiment was sent to Tennessee she went to the Third Regiment in which
she had many friends, and was with them in every battle in which they
were engaged. When their three years' service was completed, she with
the re-enlisted veterans joined the Fifth Michigan. Through this whole
period of more than four years' service she conducted herself with such
modesty and propriety, and was at the same time so full of patriotism
and courage, that she was a universal favorite with the soldiers as well
as officers.

She was in the skirmish of Blackburn's Ford, and subsequently in the
first battle of Bull Run, where she manifested the same courage and
presence of mind which characterized her in all her subsequent career in
the army. She never carried a musket, though she had a pair of pistols
in her holsters, but seldom or never used them. She was for a time
during the winter following engaged in hospital service, and when the
Army of the Potomac went to the Peninsula, during the Chickahominy
campaign she was on a hospital transport with Miss Amy M. Bradley, and
rendered excellent service there. She was a very tender and careful
nurse, and seemed to know instinctivel