-hills
forming the sea-board of the Island. No tree, shrub, or weed grew there;
and the only shelter was light tents without floors. The light sand that
yielded to the tread, the walker sinking to the ankles at almost every
step, glistened in the sun, and burned the feet like particles of fire,
and as the ocean winds swept it, it darkened the air and filled the eyes
and nostrils. There was no defense against it, and every wound speedily
became covered with a concrete of gore and sand. Tent pins would not
hold in the treacherous sand, every vigorous blast from the sea,
overturned the tents, leaving the occupants exposed to the storm or the
torrid sun. It was here, under the fire of the heaviest of the rebel
batteries, that Miss Barton spent the most trying part of the summer.
Her employment was, with three or four men detailed to assist her, to
boil water in the lee of a sand-hill, to wash the wounds of the men who
were daily struck by rebel shot, to prepare tea and coffee, and various
dishes made from dried fruits, farina, and desiccated milk and eggs. On
the 19th of July, when the great night assault was made on Wagner, and
everybody expected to find rest and refreshments within the rebel
fortress, she alone, so far as I can learn, kept up her fires and
preparations. She alone had anything suitable to offer the wounded and
exhausted men who streamed back from the repulse, and covered the
sand-hills like a flight of locusts.

Through all the long bombardment that followed; until Sumter was
reduced, and Wagner and Gregg was ours, amid the scorching sun and the
prevalence of prostrating diseases, though herself more than once struck
down with illness, she remained at her post, a most fearless and
efficient co-worker with the indefatigable agent of the Sanitary
Commission, Dr. M. M. Marsh, in saving the lives and promoting the
health of the soldiers of the Union army. "How could you," said a friend
to her subsequently, "how could you expose your life and health to that
deadly heat?" "Why," she answered, evidently without a thought of the
heroism of the answer, "the other ladies thought they could not endure
the climate, and as I knew somebody must take care of the soldiers, I
went."

In January, 1864, Miss Barton returned to the North, and after spending
four or five weeks in visiting her friends and recruiting her wasted
strength, again took up her position at Washington, and commenced making
preparations for the coming