 | MRS. STEPHEN BARKER. Women of the war : |  |
MRS. STEPHEN BARKER.
SAYS an old Greek thinker, "War is the father of
all things." For it is only in the strife of strong
passions, and amid the sudden and pressing demands which
arise in a state of war, that fine qualities and superior
abilities find a theatre for their action, and come to the light
of day and the admiration of men. In all former wars
opportunity was given to man only. He could distinguish
himself. He could assert his manhood, prove his courage,
and win his laurels.
For woman it only remained to sit in solitary and anxious
sadness, to follow her hero in thoughts and dreams, and to
await the conflict that should bring him back, shattered and
bleeding, to receive the ministries of domestic kindness.
Our war has changed all this. The history of our
armies, and especially of our hospitals; the great number
of those who recovered from fearful wounds and went back
to their regiments; the still greater number of those who
rose from the beds where they had languished with lingering
and painful diseases, — all show that a wonderful advance
has been made in the sanitary condition of armies in active
service. And this advance is due mainly to the efficiency,
the warmth of devotion, and the systematized sanitary and
hospital labor of unsalaried lady superintendents and lady
day of national trial and disaster, there is scope and verge
for every style of female character; there is employment
for every sort of feminine skill; there is good to be done,
pain to be soothed, life to be saved, and armies to be kept
up in numbers and in morale, by every class of talent,
by every gift and grace which decorate the character of
the sex.
As, among the men, some can organize an army, but cannot
plan a campaign; some can lead a gallant charge, who
could not restore a broken line; some can animate the flagging
courage of a brigade, who could not take the same
brigade across a rapid river, or over a rugged mountain, —
so, among the women, one was found exactly adapted to the
management of a large diet kitchen; another could do
most good by sitting beside the cots of the sufferers, and
speaking pleasant words of cheer and sympathy, or singing
old songs in a low tone, or suggesting divine consolations
to those who were passing beyond the reach of all human
medicine.
Others, again, were found to possess a genius for organization.
They could select agents and committees with
unerring sagacity and insight. They knew whom to send on
this errand, and who could not discharge this or that office
with success.
Others again — and this number was not large — were found
specially useful as superintendents and occasional visitors,
who should see that no neglect or abuse sprang up amid the
general profusion of fine qualities and generous acts; that
kindness should not be wasted on the unworthy, or charities
the machinery of beneficence should not be employed to
serve base or unworthy ends; that funds raised for the
benefit of the soldier should redound only to his good; that
luxuries should not be consumed by nurses and ward-masters;
and that the gifts of the people should not supersede,
but only make more complete and effective, the
provision that government makes for her suffering sons.
It is in this latter class, of the kind, wise, and judicious
hospital superintendents, that Mrs. Barker belongs.
The period of her active service was the whole time of
the duration of hostilities. She began her work in the
summer of 1861, and did not cease her labors for the
soldier till the armies were disbanded, and the hospitals
dismantled, in the summer of 1865.
Her husband was appointed chaplain of the fourteenth
Massachusetts infantry — afterwards the first heavy artillery
— in July, 1861; and Mrs. Barker, having resolved to
share the fortunes of this regiment, in the service of its
sick and wounded, went to Washington in August, and
commenced at once her hospital labors.
Few of the army workers seem to have brought to their
self-imposed tasks such an earnest desire to ascertain the
precise line of duty and the sphere of greatest usefulness
for a nurse in a military hospital.
In speaking on this subject, Mrs. Barker uses the following
language, whose clear good sense at once recommends
itself to those who may desire to learn the best manner of
making themselves effective among soldiers: —
"Of course no useful work can be accomplished without
deserved and won only by strict and honorable obedience to
orders. The first duty is to learn what government supplies
can properly be expected in a hospital; next, to be
sure that when they are wanting they are not withheld
through the ignorance or carelessness of sub-officials; and
lastly, that the soldier is sincere and reliable in the statement
of his wants.
"The discretionary powers granted by the surgeons was
more than I had even hoped for, and the generous confidence
shown by the officers of the Sanitary Commission, in
furnishing the supplies I asked for, soon gave me all the
facilities I needed for an engrossing and useful work."
Mrs. Barker was a general though constant hospital
visitor in Washington during the winter of 1861 and
1862.
In March, 1862, and from that time on for two years,
till the spring of 1864, she was located at Fort Albany,
one of the defences of the capital, where the first heavy
artillery was stationed. Here she was mainly occupied as
special nurse of the sick and wounded of this regiment.
She depended on the Sanitary Commission for most of her
hospital supplies, and became thoroughly identified with
the regiment, so that she was frequently asked, in jest,
what were her rank and pay. On Sundays, while the chaplain
was about his regular duties, she read aloud in the
hospital, generally a sermon of Henry Ward Beecher, to
which she always found a ready and attentive audience.
The hospital tents were very near the quarters occupied by
Chaplain Barker and his wife, and they visited the patients
lay suffering there were constantly on her mind. `Even
when absent from them," she says, "and engaged in other
duties, I still gave to them the warmest offerings of my
heart."
Early in 1864, the United States Sanitary Commission
had determined to employ "hospital visitors," in order to
secure a more thorough and faithful distribution of articles
intended for soldiers, and Mrs. Barker was the first lady
detailed to this special and important branch of service.
The plan upon which she proceeded was to make daily
an inspection tour, visit each bedside, note the wants of
each individual, inquire into any cases of neglect, omission,
or inattention on the part of ward-masters or hired nurses,
provide reading matter, stationery, and other needed comforts.
She found a surprising misconception in the minds of a
great number of the men as to the real source of their
comforts. Many supposed it was simply good Uncle Sam
who was looking so closely and so kindly after the wants of
his wounded boys. Others, again, were lavish, and even
touching, in their thanks to her, as though this profusion,
of which she was the only appointed almoner, came from
her own supplies, or was purchased with her private
purse.
"In all this I found," she writes, "a wider range of
action, more varied calls for sympathy, greater demands for
aid to both mind and body, all of which were enough to
keep one on the keenest strain of active life, so that there
was no gift, or knowledge, or graceful accomplishment,
woman's work in hospitals."
The hospitals assigned to her for this kind of visitation
were the Harewood, the Engineers' Corps, the East Capitol,
the Sherburn and Clifton Barracks, the Circle, Camp
Barry, and the Deserters' Hospital.
Harewood contained as many as all the other six, and
she regularly began at the first ward of Harewood every
Monday morning, doing all she thought needful as she
went along, going through as many wards as possible
before dinner at two o'clock. After dinner she took some
one of the smaller hospitals, devoting the entire afternoon
to its wards.
Next morning she began among the Harewood patients
where she left off, proceeding as before till dinner time,
and in the afternoon took another small hospital. Thus,
by constant and systematic labor, she made the round of all
the patients who were in this general way assigned to her
supervision. It was not possible that she should visit and
talk with every patient in so many thousands. But her
powers and duties were soon well understood. She was
known as "the hospital visitor," and every marked or peculiar
case, instance of neglect, privation, or uncommon
suffering or destitution, was at once called to her attention.
An attendant accompanied her, who was loaded with
a great variety of articles. He spoke most of the common
German dialects, so that she could thus understand the
wants of those who spoke poor or broken English, and particularly
many from the interior counties of Pennsylvania.
Meantime the first heavy artillery had gone out with
bloody battles, which were the hard conditions on which
alone the stubborn rebel chief was forced back to the
lines before Richmond. Every few days she would
find one of her boys coming back, in bandages and
bloody uniform, from Spottsylvania, or Cold Harbor, or
Petersburg.
Certainly the partiality was venial if she lingered a little
longer by their cots, or ordered a special disbursement from
the supply basket, or gave an extra word of direction to
the ward-master and the special nurse. In addition to this
regular and daily round of visitation, her leisure moments
and the evenings were almost wholly engrossed with the
labors of a steadily increasing correspondence.
Sceptical as the soldier had become of army agents and
post-office clerks, he felt certain that any matter intrusted
to her care would be thoroughly and promptly attended to.
Thus she became a special forwarding agent for the soldiers
of money, and various mementos and keepsakes, sent from
the front to her, to be forwarded to their friends in Massachusetts,
and other northern states. A letter was mailed at
the same time the package was expressed. Thus, within a
few weeks, several thousand dollars passed through her
hands in small sums, and all safely reached their proper
destination.
These labors continued till the latter part of the year
1864, when the New York Woman's Central Relief Association
sent for Mr. and Mrs. Barker to engage in a special
home service. Its president, Louisa Lee Schuyler, — than
more admirable among all the daughters of America, — had
planned a tour and marked out a programme for them.
They were to go to the various aid societies in New York,
Brooklyn, Astoria, Harlem, Hastings, Irvington, Rhinebeck,
Albany, Troy, Syracuse, Auburn, and Buffalo; and,
while he gave one or more public lectures, she mingled
socially with the various members, talked of her hospital
life, and narrated many scenes and incidents; thus assuring
them that their labors were not underrated, misconceived,
or lightly valued in the army, and that by far the
greater part of their supplies was faithfully applied to
promoting the soldier's comfort, and hastening his convalescence.
This service continued till the spring of 1865, when she
returned to the hospitals. At the time of Lee's surrender
there was a call for a special relief system, in preparing the
armies of war-worn veterans, who had suffered so much and
accomplished so much for the nation, to return home in
clothes less ragged and soiled than those in which they had
chased Lee. Many too, poor fellows! notwithstanding the
universal joy of the hour, were sick and worn down with
protracted fatigues, and needed peculiar, and deserved the
most grateful, attention from the citizens of the republic
which they had saved. Mrs. Barker was engaged directing
and aiding in a rapid, generous, and thorough distribution
of sanitary supplies for the benefit of these noble
fellows. Hospital work was for a time suspended, and the
whole sanitary force was applied to this field of labor,
even the scattered men on detached duty were all visited,
and their wants supplied.
With this service culminated the hospital labors of
Mrs. Barker. Now she sought again home and its sacred
privacy, carrying with her the abundant consolation of
having passed four years of laborious usefulness in the
most active and wisely directed beneficence.
| MRS. STEPHEN BARKER. Women of the war : | |