with a friend, Miss L. C. on
the flag-of-truce boat to City Point, witness the exchange, and render
such aid as was possible to our men on their return passage.

There were five hundred Confederate prisoners on board, who, as her
journal records, "sang our National airs, and seemed to be a jolly and
happy healthy company."

Our men were in a very different condition--"sick and weary," and
needing the Sanitary Commission supplies, which had been brought for
them, yet shouting with feeble voices their gladness at being once more
under the old flag, and in freedom. Mrs. Parrish fed and comforted
these poor men as best she could, till the steamer anchored off Old
Point again.

It had been intended to continue the exchange much further, but a
dispute arising concerning the treatment of negro prisoners, the
operations of the cartel were arrested, and the exchange suspended. She
found, therefore, no further need of her services in this direction, and
so returned home.

For many months to come, as one of the managers of the women's branch of
the United States Sanitary Commission, she found ample employment in
preparation for the great Philadelphia Fair, in which arduous service
she continued until its close, in July, 1864. The exhausting labors of
these months, and the heat of the weather during the continuance of the
Fair, made it necessary for her to have a respite for the remainder of
the summer.

It was in the early winter of this year that she accompanied her husband
on a tour of inspection to the hospitals of Annapolis, and became so
interested in the condition of the returned prisoners, who needed so
much done for them in the way of personal care, that she gladly
consented, at the solicitation of the medical officers and agent of the
Commission, to serve there for a season.

Of the usefulness of her work among the prisoners, testimony is
abundant. What she saw, and what she did, is most touchingly set forth
in the following letters from her pen, extracted from the Bulletin of
the United States Sanitary Commission:

ANNAPOLIS, _December 1, 1864_.

"The steamer _Constitution_ arrived this morning with seven hundred
and six men, one hundred and twenty-five of whom were sent
immediately to hospitals, being too ill to enjoy more than the
sight of their 'promised land.' Many indeed, were in a dying
condition. Some had died a short time before the arrival of the
boat. Those who