en accustomed at home, never murmuring,
always cheerful and kind, preserving in the midst of a military camp
such gentleness, strength and purity of character that all rudeness of
speech ceased in her presence, and as she went from room to room she was
received with silent benedictions, or an audible 'God bless you, dear
lady,' from some poor sufferer's heart."

The last time I saw Miss Maertz, while engaged in her hospital work, was
at the grave of a soldier, who was buried at Helena in the spring of
1863. He was one of the persecuted Union men of Arkansas, who had
enlisted in the Union army on the march of General Curtis through
Arkansas, and had fallen sick at Helena. For several weeks Miss Maertz
had nursed and cared for him with all a woman's tenderness and delicacy,
and perceiving that he must die had succeeded in sending a message to
his wife, who lived sixty miles in the interior of Arkansas, within the
enemy's lines. On the afternoon of his death and but a few hours before
it she arrived, having walked the whole distance on foot with great
difficulty, because she was partially blind; but had the satisfaction of
receiving the parting words of her husband and attending his burial.
Miss Maertz sent word to me, asking me to perform the burial service,
and the next day I met her leading the half-blind widow, in her poverty
and sorrow, to the grave. Some months later this poor soldier's widow
came to the Refugee Home, at St. Louis, and was cared for, and being
recognized and the scene of the lonely burial referred to, she related
with tears of gratitude the kindness she received from the good lady,
who nursed her husband in his last illness at Helena.

At a later period in the service, Miss Maertz was transferred to the
hospitals at Vicksburg, where she continued her work of benevolence till
she was obliged to return home to restore her own exhausted energies. At
this time her parents urged her to go with them to Europe, wishing to
take her away from scenes of suffering, and prostrating disease, but she
declined to go, and, on regaining a measure of health, entered the
service again and continued in it at New Orleans to the end of the war.

In real devotion to the welfare of the soldiers of the Union; in high
religious and patriotic motives; in the self-sacrificing spirit with
which she performed her labors; in the heroism with which she endured
hardship for the sake of doing good; in the readiness with which she
g