time with her friend, Miss Anna Lowell, at Armory
Square Hospital, Washington. Miss Louise M. Alcott, daughter of A. B.
Alcott, of Concord, Mass., and herself the author of a little book on
"Hospital Scenes," as well as other works, was for some time an
efficient nurse in one of the Washington hospitals.

Among the leaders in the organization of Soldiers' Aid Societies in the
smaller cities and towns, those ladies who gave the impulse which during
the whole war vibrated through the souls of those who came within the
sphere of their influence, there are very many eminently deserving of a
place in our record. A few we must name. Mrs. Heyle, Mrs. Ide and Miss
Swayne, daughter of Judge Swayne of the United States Supreme Court, all
of Columbus, Ohio, did an excellent work there. The Soldiers' Home of
that city, founded and sustained by their efforts, was one of the best
in the country. Mrs. T. W. Seward, of Utica, was indefatigable in her
efforts for maintaining in its highest condition of activity the Aid
Society of that city. Mrs. Sarah J. Cowen was similarly efficient in
Hartford, Conn. Miss Long, at Rochester, N. Y., was the soul of the
efforts for the soldier there, and her labors were warmly seconded by
many ladies of high standing and earnest patriotism. In Norwalk, Ohio,
Mrs. Lizzie H. Farr was one of the most zealous coadjutors of those
ladies who managed with such wonderful ability the affairs of the
Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern Ohio, at Cleveland. To her is due the
origination of the Alert Clubs, associations of young girls for the
purpose of working for the soldiers and their families, which rapidly
spread thence over the country. Never flagging in her efforts for the
soldiers, Mrs. Farr exerted a powerful and almost electric influence
over the region of which Norwalk is the centre.

Equally efficient, and perhaps exerting a wider influence, was the
Secretary of the Soldiers' Aid Society at Peoria, Ill., Miss Mary E.
Bartlett, a lady of superior culture and refinement, and indefatigable
in her exertions for raising supplies for the soldiers, from the
beginning to the close of the war. The Western Sanitary Commission had
no more active auxiliary out of St. Louis, than the Soldiers' Aid
Society of Peoria.

Among the ladies who labored for the relief of the Freedmen, Miss Sophia
Knight of South Reading, Mass., deserves a place. After spending five or
six months in Benton Barracks Hospital (May to October, 1