such articles of value as the men
possessed, and then dashed off the way they came. Poor Biddy was almost
desperate, darkness coming on, and with none to help her, the wounded
men beseeching her not to leave them. Fortunately, an officer of our
army rode up to see what the matter was, and soon sent horses and
assistance to the party."
When the war ended, Bridget accompanied her regiment to Texas, from
whence she returned with them to Michigan, but the attractions of army
life were too strong to be overcome, and she has since joined one of the
regiments of the regular army stationed on the plains in the
neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains.
Mrs. Kady Brownell, the wife of an Orderly Sergeant of the First and
afterwards of the Fifth Rhode Island Infantry, who, like Madame Turchin
was born in the camp, and was the daughter of a Scottish soldier of the
British army, was another of these half-soldier heroines; adopting a
semi-military dress, and practicing daily with the sword and rifle, she
became as skillful a shot and as expert a swordsman as any of the
company of sharp-shooters to which she was attached. Of this company she
was the chosen color-bearer, and asking no indulgence, she marched with
the men, carrying the flag and participating in the battle as bravely
as any of her comrades. In the first battle of Bull Run, she stood by
her colors and maintained her position till all her regiment and several
others had retreated, and came very near falling into the hands of the
enemy. She was in the expedition of General Burnside to Roanoke Island
and Newbern and by her coolness and intrepidity saved the Fifth Rhode
Island from being fired upon by our own troops by mistake. Her husband
was severely wounded in the engagement at Newbern, and she rescued him
from his position of danger and having made him as comfortable as
possible attempted to rescue others of the wounded, both rebel and Union
troops. By some of the rebels, both men and women, she was grossly
insulted, but she persevered in her efforts to help the wounded, though
not without some heart-burnings for their taunts. Her husband recovering
very slowly, and being finally pronounced unfit for service, she
returned to Rhode Island with him after nursing him carefully for
eighteen months or more, and received her discharge from the army.
There were very, probably, many others of this class of heroines who
deserve a place in our record; but there is great difficulty
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