Commission, in the organizing of Diet Kitchens, and similar
labors, until the close of the war, and the disbanding of that
organization, when she returned to her home in Keokuk, to resume the
quiet life she had abandoned, and to gain needed repose, after her four
years' effort in behalf of our suffering defenders.

MISS MELCENIA ELLIOTT.

Among the heroic and devoted women who have labored for the soldiers of
the Union in the late war, and endured all the dangers and privations of
hospital life, is Miss Melcenia Elliott, of Iowa. Born in Indiana, and
reared in the Northern part of Iowa, she grew to womanhood amid the
scenes and associations of country life, with an artless, impulsive and
generous nature, superior physical health, and a heart warm with the
love of country and humanity. Her father is a prosperous farmer, and
gave three of his sons to the struggle for the Union, who served
honorably to the end of their enlistment, and one of them re-enlisted as
a veteran, performing oftentimes the perilous duties of a spy, that he
might obtain valuable information to guide the movements of our forces.
The daughter, at the breaking out of the war, was pursuing her studies
at Washington College, in Iowa, an institution open to both sexes, and
under the patronage of the United Presbyterian Church. But the sound of
fife and drum, the organization of regiments composed of her friends and
neighbors, and the enlistment of her brothers in the grand army of the
Union fired her ardent soul with patriotism, and an intense desire to
help on the cause in which the soldiers had taken up the implements of
warfare.

For many months her thoughts were far more with the soldiers in the
field than on the course of study in the college, and as soon as there
began to be a demand for female nurses in the hospitals, she was prompt
to offer her services and was accepted.

The summer and autumn of 1862, found her in the hospitals in Tennessee,
ready on all occasions for the most difficult posts of service,
ministering at the bed-side of the sick and desponding, cheering them
with her warm words of encouragement and sympathy, and her pleasant
smile and ready mirthfulness, the very best antidote to the depression
of spirits and home-sickness of the worn and tired soldier. In all
hospital work, in the offices of nursing and watching, and giving of
medicines, in the preparation of special diet, in the care and attention
necessary to have th