th. In this heroic
undertaking they periled their lives, more certainly, than those who
took part in the fierce charge of Balaclava. Some fell victims to their
untiring zeal; others, and Miss Nightingale among the number, were
rendered hopeless invalids for life, by their exertions.

Fifty years of peace had rendered our nation more entirely unacquainted
with the arts of war, than was Great Britain, when, at the close of
forty years of quiet, she again marshalled her troops in battle array.
But though the transition was sudden from the arts of peace to the din
and tumult of war, and the blunders, both from inexperience and dogged
adherence to routine, were innumerable, the hearts of the people, and
especially the hearts of the gentler sex, were resolutely set upon one
thing; that the citizen soldiers of the nation should be cared for, in
sickness or in health, as the soldiers of no nation had ever been
before. Soldiers' Aid Societies, Sewing Circles for the soldiers, and
Societies for Relief, sprang up simultaneously with the organization of
regiments, in every village, town, and city throughout the North.
Individual benevolence kept pace with organized charity, and the
managers of the freight trains and expresses, running toward Washington,
were in despair at the fearful accumulation of freight for the soldiers,
demanding instant transportation. It was inevitable that there should be
waste and loss in this lavish outpouring; but it was a manifestation of
the patriotic feeling which throbbed in the hearts of the people, and
which, through four years of war, never ceased or diminished aught of
its zeal, or its abundant liberality. It was felt instinctively, that
there would soon be a demand for nurses for the sick and wounded, and
fired by the noble example of Florence Nightingale, though too often
without her practical training, thousands of young, fair, and highly
educated women offered themselves for the work, and strove for
opportunities for their gentle ministry, as in other days they might
have striven for the prizes of fortune.

Soon order emerged from the chaos of benevolent impulse; the Sanitary
Commission and its affiliated Societies organized and wisely directed
much of the philanthropic effort, which would otherwise have failed of
accomplishing its intended work through misdirection; while other
Commissions, Associations, and skillfully managed personal labors,
supplemented what was lacking in its earlier mo