emed to her to need her personal
services in the hospital, and in ministrations to the wounded or sick,
and when the call came for nurses, she waited upon Miss Dix, was
accepted, and sent first to the Regimental Hospital of the Twentieth New
York Militia, National Guard, then stationed at Annapolis Junction. On
arriving there she found that the regiment consisted of men from her own
county, her former neighbors and acquaintances. The regiment was soon
after ordered to Baltimore, and being in the three months' service, was
mustered out soon after, and Mrs. Russell was assigned by Miss Dix to
Columbia College Hospital, Washington. Here she remained in the quiet
discharge of her duties, until June, 1864, not without many trials and
discomforts, for the position of the hired nurse in these hospitals
about Washington, was often rendered very uncomfortable by the
discourtesy of the young assistant surgeons. Her devotion to her duties
had been so intense that her health was seriously impaired, and she
resigned, but after a short period of rest, her strength was
sufficiently recruited for her to resume her labors, and she reported
for duty at West Building Hospital, Baltimore, where she remained until
after Lee's surrender. She was in the service altogether four years,
lacking eighteen days. During this time nine hundred and eighty-five men
were under her care, for varying periods from a few days to thirteen
months; of these ninety died, and she closed the eyes of seventy-six of
them. Her service in Baltimore was in part among our returned prisoners,
from Belle Isle, Libby and other prisons, and in part among the wounded
rebel prisoners.

Many of the incidents which Mrs. Russell relates of the wounded who
passed under her care are very touching. Many of her earlier patients
were in the delirium of typhoid fever, and her ears and heart were often
pained in hearing their piteous calls for their loved ones to come to
them,--to forgive them--or to help them. Often had she occasion to offer
the consolations of religion to those who were evidently nearing the
river of death, and sometimes she was made happy in finding that those
who were suffering terribly from racking pain, or the agony of wounds,
were comforted and cheered by her efforts to bring them to think of the
Saviour. One of these, suffering from an intense fever, as she seated
herself by the side of his cot, and asked him in her quiet gentle way,
if he loved Jesus as his S