he horrible confusion and suffering which prevailed at Belle Plain.

Their stay there was but brief, and in a short time they were themselves
established at Fredericksburg. There Mrs. Gibbons was requested to take
charge of a hospital, or rather a large unfurnished building, which was
to be used as one. In great haste straw was found to fill the empty
bed-sacks, which were placed upon the floor, and the means to feed the
suffering mass who were expected. The men, in all the forms of
suffering, were placed upon these beds, and cared for as well as they
could be, as fast as they arrived, and Mrs. Emerson prepared food for
them, standing unsheltered in rain or sultry heat.

For weeks they toiled thus. One day when the town was beautiful and
fragrant with the early roses, some regiments of Northern soldiers
landed and marched through the town, on their way to the front. The
patriotic women gathered there, cheered them as they marched on, and
gathered roses which they offered in a fragrant shower, with which the
men decorated caps and button-holes. They passed on; but two days later
the long train of ambulances crept down the hill, bringing back these
heroes to their pitying countrywomen, the roses withering on their
breasts, and dyed with their sacred patriot blood.

Through all the horrors of this sad campaign, Mrs. Gibbons and Mrs.
Emerson remained, doing whatever their hands could find to do. When
Fredericksburg was evacuated, they accompanied the soldiers, riding in
the open box-cars, and on the way administering to them as they could.

They were for a time at White House, where thousands of wounded required
and received their aid, and afterwards at City Point, where they
remained for several weeks in charge of the hospital of the Second
Division, being from first to last, among the most useful of the many
noble women who were engaged in this work.

After their return home, Mrs. Gibbons accepted an appointment at the
hospital in Beverly, New Jersey, where she had charge under Dr. Wagner,
the excellent surgeon she had known, and to whom she had become much
attached, at Point Lookout. As usual, Mrs. Emerson accompanied her to
this place, and lent her efforts to the great work to which both had
devoted themselves.

There were about nineteen hundred patients in this hospital, and the
duties were arduous. They boarded with the family of Dr. Wagner,
adjacent to the hospital, and after the labors of the day were mostly
f