University of Virginia Library

MRS. ELIZABETH MENDENHALL,
AND OTHER WORKERS AT CINCINNATI.

IN most of the important cities near the border there
were a large number of those who became, during the
war, regular hospital visitors, devoting a part, and often the
whole, of each day to the sick and wounded whom they
found in the wards of the various military hospitals. In
Cincinnati, where there were suffering soldiers from the
summer of 1861 till the conclusion of the war in 1865,
among the most active and constant in these labors was
Mrs. Mendenhall. Though reared in Richmond, she was
one of those southern women whose natural kindness of
heart and sympathy with suffering prevented her from ever
defending or sustaining the social institutions of that portion
of the country; and when the rebellion broke out,
though her relatives were citizens of the South, a war for
the perpetuation of slavery seemed to her so utterly unjust
and iniquitous, that all her sympathies were enlisted on the
side of the Union and its defenders. At the first call to
arms she was active in suggesting and regulating the
industry of those sewing circles which were organized in all
loyal communities, and which were so useful in perfecting
and renewing the wardrobe of our volunteers.

Early in the year 1862 Cincinnati began to be a hospital

centre for the army operating under General Grant, and in
a few weeks was filled with the blood-stained heroes of
Fort Donelson and Pittsburg Landing. For the two years
and a half that followed, Mrs. Mendenhall was a constant
hospital visitor and nurse. She always spent half, but
more frequently the whole, of each day among the sick and
wounded, working in any capacity that she could to increase
their comfort. As her excellence in judgment and
skill as a nurse became known, the surgeons in charge gave
her great facilities and such needful authority to regulate
the affairs of each ward as she thought best. She enjoyed,
also, the entire confidence of the United States Sanitary
Commission, and had an understanding with its agents, by
virtue of which she could go to their rooms and take supplies
of anything she found on hand suitable for her
patients.

On the recurrence of the national holidays, as Thanksgiving
and Independence, she was specially active in
securing, from a generous public, a bountiful supply of
provisions, to enable the wounded and convalescent soldiers
to forget the grim necessity that separated them from their
own homes.

Labors and charities of this character occupied her
time until the fall of 1863, when her activity took a
larger range, and was exhibited on a more conspicuous
theatre.

It was the pen of Mrs. Mendenhall that first stirred the
citizens of Cincinnati to emulate the splendid enterprise
of her sister and rival city, Chicago, in the inauguration of
the Great Western Sanitary Fair. In that noble work she

took among the lady managers the position of leader, as
well by her natural force of charaeter, as by the excellent
spirit which prompted her labors.

She prepared and sent abroad among the communities of
the great North-West an appeal to all classes and ages,
every trade and occupation, and all the professions, to
contribute whatever they could to make the Fair a magnificent
success, and give it the scope of a national enterprise.

Another and special appeal was also made by her to
"Patriotic Young Ladies of the North-West, and of Cincinnati
in particular, interested in the welfare of the
soldiers," asking them that, "instead of laboring to make
valuable presents, on the approaching holidays, to those
who did not stand in need of comforts, that they make
such articles and donate them to the Fair, for the benefit
of those brave men who had sacrificed home, friends, and
all that was dear to them, to defend their homes."

During the months of November, December, and January,
Mrs. Mendenhall was wholly engrossed with the business
of the Great Fair, and she and all her co-laborers were
abundantly paid for their exertions in the unequalled success
with which those splendid works were crowned. The
princely sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
was realized, and paid over to the United States Sanitary
Commission, as the result of the Great Western Sanitary
Fair of Cincinnati.

After the excitement and labors of the Fair were ended,
Mrs. Mendenhall resumed her customary round of hospital
visits. This course of life continued till the war ended,

and the military hospitals of Cincinnati were disorganized.
While the war lasted, during four years, she had not been
absent from the city, or failed of her customary hospital
visits, for five days. Among the very great number of
different soldiers whom she saw in her visits, many interested
her very much by the patience with which they bore
their sufferings, and by the spirit of unquestioning and unbounded
loyalty which animated their breast, and inspired
their actions.

One, in particular, who died in the hospital, seemed to
her the most profoundly patriotic of all whose death she
had witnessed.

His name was William Starr, a man in humble life, and
a private in one of the Ohio regiments. He was brought
in from the front very dangerously injured by the kick of
a vicious horse. The blow had fallen upon the breast, and
he had frequent and dangerous hemorrhages from the lungs.
It did not seem possible that he could live many hours, and
his sufferings were very acute. Mrs. Mendenhall, and
other ladies in the hospital, paid him special attention, and
soon had the satisfaction of seeing him much better, and
able to walk slowly around the room. He improved
gradually, and left the hospital, returning to service, so
that his kind benefactor lost sight of him for three years.
But the wound never fully healed, and his lungs at length
commenced to bleed worse than at first. He was brought
to the same hospital, and hearing the name of Mrs.
Mendenhall mentioned by a lady who was standing over
him, sent for her, at the same time speaking in the warmest
terms of her former kindness. The tears started down his

fine face, stamped with the noblest traits of manhood, but
now fearfully pallid, as he grasped her hand, and prayed
God to reward her in this life and the next for her kindness
to him and other suffering soldiers. He lived a number of
days, and every one, as long as he could lift his hands,
wished to see the papers, that he might know how the
battles were going. The only earnest wish that he expressed
was, that he might live long enough to hear of the
capture of Richmond.

One April morning the glorious news was proclaimed
through the hospital wards that Richmond was evacuated,
and Lee, with his army, in full retreat. "Now," said the
dying soldier, "now I am ready to go." He had but one request
to make — that, when he was stiff in death, he might
have the American flag laid over his body, and then be
buried in Spring Grove Cemetery on the soldiers' lot. Just
before he drew his last painful breath, a little son of Mrs.
Mendenhall went to bid him farewell, and carried in his
hand a little flag, with which he was playing.

As the glazing eye of the patriot caught sight of the
colors, he stretched out his hand, and taking the little
banner from the boy, waved it several times, his eye meantime
lighting up with the ardor of a soldier and the flush of
victory. This was his last act; and when his tall figure
was prepared for the grave, Mrs. Mendenhall went with a
friend, and succeeded in finding a very handsome silk flag,
which they laid over him till his coffin received the form of
the dead soldier.

Associated with Mrs. Mendenhall in these voluntary
and unsalaried labors for the soldier were other ladies of

Cincinnati, many of whom were as praiseworthy, though
less prominent than herself.

Miss Elizabeth Morris, and her married sister, Mrs.
Ellen Thomas, commenced their hospital visits as soon as
there was any call for such work, and gave themselves
wholly to these charities, refusing all offers of pay from the
medical department, until, in 1864, a rule was passed excluding
all unpaid nurses. Under these circumstances, they for
some months drew a nurse's pay, half of which they gave
to the hospital fund, and applied the other half towards
furnishing substantial and palatable food for the private
soldiers' table. They continued this Christian work and
charity till the hospitals were emptied and dismantled by
the culminating successes of the spring and summer of
1865.

The wife of Colonel C. I. Wright, of Cincinnati, was
also among the first to assist largely in the hospitals,
spending the greater part of her time in alleviating the
sufferings and discomforts of the soldiers.

Her labors were not confined to the hospitals, as she was
very efficient and untiring in preparing and distributing
comforts in various ways to the soldiers of her husband's
regiment in the field.

Mrs. C. W. Starbuck, Mrs. Peter Gibson, and Mrs.
Jonas, all residing in the city, gave much of their time to
the hospitals, and were extremely liberal in furnishing
large supplies of various comforts and delicacies for the
wounded.

Mrs. William Woods, Mrs. Cadwell, and Miss Eckstein
were also frequent visitors. Miss E. C. Smith was a

frequent, and, much of the time, a constant hospital
visitor while the war lasted; and Mrs. Kendrick, a sister
of General Anderson, proved herself worthy the name
of that Christian patriot and soldier, by a devotion to the
sufferers, that was equal to his fidelity to the flag in farfamed
Sumter, where the war began.